Newsagents are copping flack this morning from customers about The Form which launched today. I’m in Canberra today and noticed that at three non newsagent outlets the SMH is available but no copies of The Form. Here’s what newsagents are saying:
– The marketing material from Fairfax provided to some outlets does not make it clear that a purchase of the Sydney Morning Herald or the other participating papers.
– Customers expect The Form free with their paper and are annoyed it’s separate.
– Some newsagents have insufficient stock. UPDATE: make that: many newsagents have not received sufficient stock to cope with demand.
– Fairfax received too many requests for supply from SMH subscribers to get them processed in time leaving many home delivery customers without the race guide.
– Newsagents are copping flack because of these and other issues without compensation by Fairfax.
The Form doesn’t make sense. Why separate out of the newspaper a popular section and make customers jump through hoops to get access to it? One theory is that this sets the new title up for wider free distribution. But if that were the case then the launch would have been handled differently from the outset. As it is, Fairfax has got their customers and the supply chain offside. The title has a stink about it.
Mark
You did not state whether the customer wanted to buy a copy of the current issue of InStyle – for the Hairdressing Professional magazine or a copy of an earlier issue? There is a difference. If it’s a current issue, newsagents must order it through the distributor. However, if it’s an earlier issue, many publishers provide a Back Copy service to the general public, which includes newsagents who are invoiced and can then on-sell to their customers.
In the West over here our TAB form used to be a free extra you pick up with the West and now, well at least for the last 6 years it has been a stand alone product selling for 80c on Monday and Wednesday and $1.10 on Fridays. It is also available in TAB outlets and newsagencies.
So the fairfax will probably start charging for it at some point, when they think they can get away with it.