What was once an understood commercial media landscape has been turned on its ear thanks to faster, better and lower cost mobile devices and mobile coverage; self publishing tools; and a desire for citizens to create content. There are entirely new channels (online communities, podcasts, blogs etc) attracting advertising and this is what’s behind many of the acquisitions by publishers in the last few months. Thinking abut these and, in particular, the News Corporation US$1.7b shopping spree on online businesses, I wondered what Australian newsagents should/could invest in to shore up consumer traffic and therefore revenues. Here’s my (incomplete) shopping list:
Australia Post government owned retail network. (I know the government says it’s not for sale – maybe we need lobby for it to be put on the market.) Content download business: music, films etc. from a kiosk in our store WiFi network – providing Wireless access from our shops. Internet service Providers. Online advertising business. Online news network. (We could create this based on our broad geographic spread.) Mobile device retail – create our own brand for a store within a store concept. Hair salon chain. Coffee chain. Build a ‘how to’ business – based around a selection of products we sell (or could sell) and embracing ‘community’ and ‘interaction’. Our stores could be the place people connect rather than all this impersonal online stuff. Games. Jigsaws. Painting. The next juice concept – create the retail traffic generator, it’s cheaper than buying someone else’s success.
This list is by no means complete. My point is that we need to be ‘acquiring’ customer traffic and we need to be doing that now. Our future is in our hands. None of our existing suppliers are going to make investments which support our channel unless it suits them commercially. We control our future.
DISCLOSURE: I own a business developing a new product/service which may lead to a new revenue stream for newsagents.