Here are eight of the seventeen aviation, flying titles I receive at my newsagency. The average supply quantity is 2 copies. The titles are suppliers by each of the three magazine distributors.
While there is no doubt that I am overloaded in this category, the magazine distributors would not see that. They only look at what they supply. In fact, no one looks at the whole category, all titles supplied, when determining supply and this is where newsagents are significantly disadvantaged.
Magazine distributors will look at their sales data in this category for my store and say it’s gong okay. To them, selling one copy where they have supplied two or three is a success. One copy of each of the titles supplied is not a success for me. If I ask to cancel a title some will initially refuse because of this one copy sold.
The reality is that the category could be far more efficient for my business by cutting at least one third and maybe more of the titles. For example, I don’t need three titles about modern airliners. I suspect that consumer interest would be satisfied by one title. This is the kind of category management which is crucial if my newsagency is to achieve a reasonable return on retail space.
This discussion could be about almost any other category in my newsagency – or any newsagency for that matter. Magazine distributors know about the problem yet they do nothing to help newsagents resolve it.