We received 14 copies of this Windows Vista magazine last month. Last week we returned all 14 copies when we put the 14 copies of issue #2 on the shelf.
Is this a dog of a magazine? Well, no. The product is okay. The medium is the problem, for this title at least. The title’s target audience spends more time on their PC than with any other medium so it’s likely their interest in Vista related information will be satisfied through their PC.
We are requesting a reduction in supply through the right channels at Network services but know that this will not take effect for another issue so we’re going to be out more than $200 in cash over three months and probably longer. This is our money we’re investing in the launch of this new title. Indeed when you add up the cash drain this title is having on newsagents across the country I’d suggest we have more money in this title than anyone else in Australia.
This is why newsagents need to control what new titles have access to their channel. The current situation leaves us, the most important stakeholder, without a seat at the table.
To have a seat at the table, you have to go to the right restaurant.
Newsagents already have all the control they need over which non-major magazines they stock and getting the right quantities.
Describing newsagents as the most important stakeholder is sheer arrogance. Time to get over ignoring the “equally important stakeholder” and give them their due recognition. And then get on with it.
Newsagents have VERY real problems, but continually blogging the same old “woe is me” blues only makes your troubled colleagues feel worse. There are 2 types of entrepreneur, those who uncover a new idea and those who flog an existing idea to death. Decide which one you are and, if the former, take a fresh look at the cause of your problems.
C Stephens
C Stephens or it is M Stephens or Jim or Lee or Denise – or other names being used from the other IP address you post from …
I and others here have told you that newsagents do not have the time or access to control what we get from hundreds of publishers. Our distributors demand we go through them. These are the parties we have the commercial relationship with.
Thanks for the advice on how I should run my life. Check the facts and see what I actually do with and for newsagents before you bag me. I have personally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in assisting newsagents. For example, last year I was asked to provide data to support a parliamentary submission by one of the associations. I funded gathering and assessing the data on a particular issue and provided it to the association without cost. This was part of a projct working on building a stronger future for newsagents.
You have no idea what I have done and am doing. This blog is not my whole life. Part of my frustration comes from providing newsagents with excellent tools – the best they have – and watching as their suppliers ignore the information provided by the tools.
You say my claim abut newsagents as the most important stakeholder is sheer arrogance. Meet up with me and prove otherwise. You have no idea of the costs newsagents face in carrying stock.
better still, how about a public debate?
Give more of that which sells and is growing and less of that which does not sell and is not growing. It’s a simple business proposition.
mark Fletcher
Mark
These [the distributors] are the parties we have the commercial relationship with. You have the perfect right to view their role disproportionately if you wish, however theoretically bestowing such additional status is only achieved by theoretically robbing Peter to pay Paul.
You say my claim abut newsagents as the most important stakeholder is sheer arrogance. Meet up with me and prove otherwise. It is sheer arrogance to overlook the existence of the other important stakeholders. Proof? If there weren’t any other stakeholders publishing magazines, what titles would newsagents sell?
Give more of that which sells and is growing and less of that which does not sell and is not growing. I agree totally with RECEIVE “more of that which sells” but lean towards being ruthless with the rest. Why should any newsagent have to stock titles that don’t sell?
This place functions on a leader-slaves basis and much of its chatter is antagonistic and belligerent. By contrast, I, and many of my colleagues, thrive in a co-operative environment where meaningful discussions result in identifying improved outcomes.
I fully comprehend the horrors newsagents are facing and am in complete agreement that action is required to clean up the mess. However, I disagree with the type of action this place proposes because it is a simplistic solution to only one part of the whole problem and, if it is actioned, has the potential to create far greater problems.
The best solutions result from seeing the big picture and carefully analysing the roles of each of the players involved.
C Stephens
With the games you have played here using various names over the last week and without identifying yourself don’t expect anyone to take your comments seriously.
Maybe if publishers had a contract with newsagents there would be a basis for the fantasy world relationship of which you write.
You;re great at finger pointing. Read the whole blog and see the positive use of this place.
mark Fletcher
The only games I play are tennis and bridge plus snakes and ladders etc with my grandchildren, however watching you clutch at straws has been interesting. This is a public blog so whether people take me seriously depends on who reads it now or the archives later.
Publishers having contracts with newsagents – what a corker of an idea. Rather like Fred’s notion that publishers/distributors should go to a consignment basis of supply. Publishers and distributors both know why that doesn’t have legs – and newsagents should know it too.
I have not fingerpointed at anyone, but I did take Fingerpainting 101 in kindergarten. Are you confusing the two? Re-read my comments, with your specs on, and take your time instead of speed-reading while mentally compiling your next dig at me.
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
C Stephens or it is M Stephens or Jim or Lee or Denise, you appear to have used multiple names to try and make a point of this blog. Many of your comments are rude and personal in attack. While I’m big enough to deal with that, your attacks on others here have been unfair.
You, with your publisher hat on, you claim that newsagents ought to talk to publishers. I say they have no commercial framework through which to do this and that such discussion would cost too much time.
Newsagents have a commercial relationship with three magazine distributors. If they cannot make the magazine supply arrangement work through them then what is the point of such relationships.
Unless a magazine pays its way it has no place on my shelves. I’ll continue to work with distributors on this.
Mark Fletcher
Interesting response. Every time you’re put on the spot, you have a tendency to make silly statements.
I am C Stephens and I have not been rude to or attacked anyone. Not sure what you mean with your publisher hat on but I have collected a variety of industry hats during my career.
I say they have no commercial framework through which to do this and that such discussion would cost too much time – Yes newsagents do, it’s called a telephone and using it to phone the publisher INSTEAD of the distributor takes the same amount of time.
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
C Stephens,
You use the same email adrress as M Stephens here.
M Stephens posted last week from the same IP address as Jim, Lee and Denise. Hence my addressing responses to the five names.
For a newsagent to call a publisher as you ask they have to find it out and make the call. For them to deal with network, Gotch or NDD they send an email. With the former they need to navigate to someone interested in the publishing company to handle the request. In the distribution business they can get to the right person. Direct.
Mark
Yes newsagents do, it’s called a telephone and using it to phone the publisher INSTEAD of the distributor takes the same amount of time.
C Stephens (or M Stephens or whatever you call yourself) – do you truly believe the above? If you do then you have demonstrated that you have zero experience of the newsagency industry and a similar amount in the associated industries of publishing and distribution.
To even hint in a forum like this that newsagents have the time to phone every publisher when there is a supply problem – be it unders OR overs – borders on pomposity rapidly approaching asinine.
This place functions on a leader-slaves basis and much of its chatter is antagonistic and belligerent. By contrast, I, and many of my colleagues, thrive in a co-operative environment where meaningful discussions result in identifying improved outcomes.
Do the phrases peer-to-peer and constructive conversation mean anything to you? With your alleged 40+yrs of business experience they should but I think that whatever you and your colleagues are smoking whilst thriving in your co-operative environment is clouding your judgement.
Mark and Jim
For newsagents to email the correct distributor they have to look at something to discern which distributor, don’t they? Publisher contact details are easily found inside mags. Time cost: similar.
Next, to paraphrase newsagents email distributors direct to the right person, newsagents could email the publisher (“the boss”) but first contact should be by telephone to the boss or their PA. Time cost: slightly more than emailing distributor. Benefit Result: likelihood of solving problem forever much greater than emailing distributor and “sorting it out” once.
Newsagents currently attempt to clean up each inappropriate supply problem as it occurs with distributors, therefore ojective of both is the same. My recommended approach – and its key point – is for newsagents to get the publisher’s attention by relating to the publisher’s P&L (i.e. get ’em by the short and curlies and you’ll have their full attention) not the newsagent’s. This in no way negates the effect inappropriate supply has on newsagents, just don’t mention it, focus on the publisher’s $$$ which are considerable to them. Newsagent then early returns the inappropriate delivery to distributor of course.
Sound business principles are the foundation of every successful business. My comments here are based on knowledge of those principles and their practical application which I am freely sharing for the benefit of those who came into the newsagency business with no (or minimal) previous business management experience.
Jim: Do the acronyms B.A., B.Bus, B.Ec., CPA, MBA mean anything to you?
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
C Stephens or it is M Stephens or Jim or Lee or Denise (and any other name you use here):
Publishers have commented here before that newsagents need to liase through distributors. They have said that newsagents need to support titles from small publishers and shown no interest in the economic viability of individual titles in newsagencies.
It’s all here in comments over the last couple of years.
You’re entitles to your view. Newsagents and others are entitled to theirs.
Your proposed approach is time inefficient but you won’t understand that unless you work in a newsagency and experience what we experience for yourself.
Mark Fletcher
Newsagents can MANAGE the problem of inappropriate supply of non-major titles and only stock the titles they want. With fewer titles stocked, newsagents can REGAIN some of their floorspace previously allocated to unwanted or poor-performing titles and can RE-ALLOCATE that space for more effective floor layouts, better displays of other lines, etc etc. Newsagents will then also have the power to ASSESS each future new title on its merit and DECIDE whether they have sufficient space to stock it.
All unwanted titles simply require a proforma email to be sent to distributors e.g. Receipt is acknowledged of the (X number) of copies of XYZ magazine you sent today, however we regret to advise we have insufficient space to stock this title. Accordingly, it is being early returned and we formally request that you cease supply of this title, effective today. We also respectfully request you inform your publisher client of our situation.
It is not necessary for newsagents to discuss demographics or title performance with distributors, in fact it is demonstrably foolish because it unwittingly elevates them to “sales experts” when clearly that accolade belongs to newsagents.
Such control can be reinforced by newsagencies which have websites by including an alphabetical list of only the titles they want to stock, for the benefit of both current customers and potential customers who surf the internet after-hours.
How many newsagents drive signwritten vehicles, e.g. name, address, telephone number, web address? This low-cost business expense provides highly visible and unrestricted advertising.
The number of titles on the market has significantly increased over the past 8 years. When life changes, people have to adapt. When business elements change, business owners/managers have to adapt. It is no longer possible to do things “the way they’ve always been done.” Many people believe there are only 2 certainties in life, death and taxes. There are actually 3: death, taxes and change, and change is by far the most important.
Newsagents will HAVE control by managing their businesses effectively and efficiently.
Having been honoured with an invitation to help my grandchildren with their Mother’s Day shopping, I’m off to do some slow walking, because this Pa always fills his socks with sweets which the children love. It also gives me an effective control method, should I need it.
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
C Stephens
Jim: Do the acronyms B.A., B.Bus, B.Ec., CPA, MBA mean anything to you?
They most certainly do – in fact I wear one of them plus two others myself – but I am not going to hide behind them or use them to mask the fact that I don’t have anywhere near as much experience as others who use this forum.
What I do have is many years of retail and corporate experience though and can recognise that, like a lot of other industries, the newsagency game has lots of industry-specific problems, not many of which can be easily resolved.
It is all too easy to throw around lines like Sound business principles are the foundation of every successful business. Most of us know that but trying to apply it at one end (newsagencies) won’t work until the other end (publishers) and the middle (distributors) play by the same rules.
Mark: … unless you work in a newsagency and experience what we experience for yourself suggests you see yourself as a newsagent first, businessman second. Wrong way round, perhaps?
Jim: Every industry has its own industry-unique difficulties, newsagents don’t have a mortgage on them. Publishers and newsagents have a symbiotic relationship which is not always easy to see. Are you really suggesting that newsagencies have a dependent relationship with distributors?
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
C Stephens or it is M Stephens or Jim or Lee or Denise (and any other name you use here):
You can twist what Jim, I and others here have written as much as you like. We have lived what what you write about. You have not. It is reasonable to suggest you get some experience with your teachings before you tell us, again, what to do.
Many newsagents believe that they have a dependent relationship with their distributors. Work in a newsagency between the 20th and the 30th of the month and watch the relationship at work. There things which happen in those ten days which will educate you.
Mark Fletcher
Nelson,
I’ve not been eager as you claim. Twice I have checked IP addresses. Once in relation to comments made from within Fairfax and once in relation to comments purporting to be from four people when in fact they were from the same person.
There are many other comments posted her which are critical of my and I’m okay with that. I’ll certainly pay more attention to comments from people who identify themselves than those from people who hide their identity.
mark
C Stephens
Every industry has its own industry-unique difficulties, newsagents don’t have a mortgage on them.
I don’t recall suggesting that we hold a mortgage on issues however I do believe that the problems facing newsagents are certainly amongst the most difficult I have encountered across a fair range of industries.
Nelson –
From what I have seen newsagents hide behind closed forums be it on yahoo or members only areas of ANF websites and making untrue statements and speculate widely without in a lot of cases any facts
Whether I use my first name or full name here is a bit irrelevant – how would you know I am who I say I am? Nonetheless I am happy to use my full name if it adds credibility to my posts.
What should concern you more is the content of some of the comments which appear to be written by someone with zero hands-on in the idustry. The fact that I might agree with one or more of Mark’s blogs is because I live and work in the same industry he does and by and large experience the same problems. If you cared to look back you might find that I haven’t always agreed with what he has to say but I respect his right to say it just as I defend the right to respond any way I see fit.
Mark: Many newsagents believe that they have a dependent relationship… how very sad and unnecessary.
You have mentioned the need for newsagents to better ‘brand’ their stores. Has re-introducing ‘integrity’ been considered? I recall newsagents in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s had product integrity, largely due to fewer gambling options and magazines being available. Integrity should not be under-estimated, it positively balances gambling. Respected social historians have long lamented the disappearance of ‘standards’ in Australia and this is reinforced by the deluge of comments about it on ABC radio talkback. The opportunity exists, should it be grasped?
Nelson: Your remark I note that you don’t make the same calls against those that agree with you to identify themselves is spot on. How many people called ‘anonymous’ have been allowed to comment without harrassment? How many called ‘Jim’ and ‘Fred’ and others? Your comment suggests that Mark needs to decide whether this is truly a public blog or is one which requires people to register before participating. Mark may also care to clarify whether this is a blog for newsagents only or is one that allows those from “small business generally” to participate.
Jim O’Toole: the problems facing newsagents are certainly amongst the most difficult I have encountered across a fair range of industries. Understood. My point is, why do newsagents bestow so much power on the middleman? It’s a commercial relationship based on obtaining products, delivering products and transferring funds between two separate client streams. They have no financial interest in whether the products they deliver are profitable for either client stream, but have somehow had SALES EXPERTISE bestowed upon them. Big mistake, but key to solving problem.
Newsagents ARE the sales experts. Agreed? Newsagents KNOW what sells well in their own stores and ONLY want to stock those titles in their stores. Agreed? The next step is to consider how these can be brought to prevail with regard to non-major titles. To date, newsagents have only approached the middleman, result: lots of mumbo jumbo causing gnashing of teeth, banging of heads and no real solution. Is there another way? I believe there is.
The middleman does not dictate how much space newsagents make available to display magazines in their stores and this is directly related to newsagents needing to attract and retain more customers in their stores. “We had to do something, Your Honour, we were haemorrhaging at the bank.” How can a middleman object to the factual statement “My newsagency only has enough space to stock and display X number of magazines.” X = good performers, of course. A significant cause of the problem is the number of magazines now on the market (Title Tracker http://www.moremagazines.com.au/ states 6,000) which should have been addressed when the increase was first noticed. No matter, it can still be done. It only takes a mental gearshift plus a working bee, of lesser or greater degree, which may tie in with an existing need to refurbish.
Reasons for: Control is back where it belongs, sales are greatly improved, less time is spent on distribution problems, less space is needed for returns, fewer man hours are needed to manage magazines and there is significant improvement to newsagents’ emotional, financial and physical health.
Reasons against: possible mumbo jumbo withdrawal and…
FWIW, analysing this problem has involved considerable research, including being shown newsagents’ agreements, publishers’ contracts and reams of spreadsheets relating to both. The fact is, no matter how many mathematical gymnastics are performed by middlemen, if they don’t have a financial risk in both their client streams’ operations they are NOT sales experts. They simply have the role of delivering what’s required and transferring funds in a timely manner, which some perform better than others. One problem at a time, though. When the problem of inappropriate delivery has been solved, bank accounts will improve. Then the issue of obtaining more timely funds transfer can be addressed with singular focus.
For those who don’t play it, contract bridge (another complex game played by partners) has a wise maxim, you take care of your business, partner, and I’ll take care of mine. To paraphrase “Take care of your business, newsagents, and leave everyone else to sort out theirs.” They will, swiftly, if newsagents take action. How many times has Mark stated many titles don’t deserve to be on the market? Anyone disagree? It’s time to stop talking and start making it happen.
C Stephens
CEO, 40+yrs biz experience
Small biz-government-Fortune 500