I’ve been thinking more about the deal between News Limited and Gloria Jeans to sell their newspapers in the coffee outlets. Much has been made of leveraging off the “coffee experience†in pursuit of incremental sales for News. My feeling is that News sees newsagents playing less and less of a role in the retailing of their product. News has a right to draw such a conclusion and make appropriate changes to their retail strategy. However, as a newsagent partner I’d like them to let me know because in my small business I and my team are busy chasing same store growth. We’re winning too. Our biggest competitors and the outlets News is supporting with its initiatives.
I invite News Limited to engage in open dialogue about the role they see for newsagents in the future. Not through newsagent industry associations which are likely to filter information (like the Australian Newsagents Federation did in yesterday’s Gloria Jeans announcement). No, News should to talking direct with newsagents so that newsagents are appropriately informed when making business decisions. For example, Victorian newsagents are being told to put in a newspaper stand which costs upward of $3,000. Why invest such capital in a product being pushed to more and more retail outlets?
I know from my own experience that I can get a much better sales kick from a $200 stand than I would from the $3,000 stand.
Good luck to Gloria jeans. I just wish News would work more strategically with newsagents.