I was in Perth yesterday and as is my wont I visited a bunch of convenience stores to see how they are managing magazines. I saw empty pockets for one or more weeklies which came out on Monday. Woman’s Day, New Idea and even TV Week.
With direct accounts, no one is actively managing the magazine category. One store manager, when I asked why he had empty pockets, angrily responded with “they don’t pay me enough”. Another store manager said he would prefer to deal with the newsagent because he could get more when he needed it.
While this is only anecdotal evidence, I’d suggest there is an opportunity for newsagents to mount a structured research campaign with a view to making a case to win back management of convenience store accounts. I have no doubt that this would result in fewer empty pockets, happier customers and broader support for the magazine category. We (newsagents and publishers) have to decide whether we are seriouys about sub agents.
The empty pockets I saw today are a disgrace.
It is a shame that subagents arent treated seriously enough. We have spend the last few months trying some new things with subagents. Some new magazine categories and trying different newspapers, as well as some major increases in supply. There have been some interesting results. We have found trying to significantly increase supply to actually get the magazines to distibute to subagents is our biggest problem.
Some of our subagents also have erratic sales bahaviour and difficult target markets to define, so thing change each week. The only way to combat this is to monitor eahc subagent regulary and closely.
Maybe there is an opportunity for even more powerful software to assist in better managing subagents?