Since my post here three days ago about life after selling my home delivery run I have been contacted by eleven newsagents close to deciding on the same path and wanting to discus the pros and cons. When I first posted here six months ago that I had sold the delivery business I received one such call.
While such statistics may be meaningless, the conversations with newsagents tell me otherwise. Each of the eleven has only started thinking about quitting the home delivery business since November. Most cited the News Ltd TDAA contract roll over as a catalyst. Listening to the comments I felt as if there was a crisis of confidence among newsagents about the viability of home delivery.
If my conversations with the eleven are anything to go by we will see many home delivery territories sold this year.
I think you are spot on, I have seriously considered going purely retail even with the reduced commissions however being from a rural city I would have to give up the delivery run not sell it, as there is no buyers for the distribution arm of the business. The reasons for the decision is the lack of respect being shown by the publishers for the hard work we are doing to sell their product. An example of this is a Fax I recieved about school deliveries. The fax was at best hostile and at worst threatening as it stated that I was not to sell the copies issued at 25% commission, that I was only to get 12.5% and if I did sell them retail I would be held in breach of the agreement. To be honest I never thought about selling the papers but I don’t like being threatened and I also don’t like delivering products at a loss to my business. A lot more newsagents who can sell deliveries will, and those of us that cannot sell will have to decide whether or not to cut our losses now or later. My business is doing it tough like others however I don’t stand over my customers demanding the unreasonable ie 7 day traing term when customer statements are 30 days.
Luke,
I agree that too often newsagents bare treated poorly.
More broadly on the home delivery issue is the push to cut costs fro the top down leaving newsagents earning less and less per deloivery to the point that the economic scale is tipped.
A good services deserves fair compensation.
Mark