Newsagents now receive T3 magazine from three magazine distributors with Gotch taking on an airfreight edition of T3. NDD distributes the UK product (non airfreight) and Network distributes the Australian product – which is essentially a reprint of the UK product.
Here is what we have on the shelf right now: T3 UK APRIL 2007 (NDD, Return M07); T3 UK JUNE 2007 (GG, Return W24); T3 AU MAY 2007 (NDC, Return W22)
Am I missing something here? Does Australia need this magazine in three versions? T3 is a troubled title in a troubled category. Smart people interested in such technology get their ‘fix’ online. The magazine is redundant except as a conveyor of advertising – I’d expect advertisers to realise this soon. That said, I’d support over version of T3 – but three? This is nuts.
The T3 mess is further evidence why Australian newsagents need a magazine czar who controls the titles which are given access to our asset. Until we have such a czar we will be abused in range and quantity by distributors who (must) focus on the profitability of their businesses above all else.
Newsagents ought to act on this. Decide which T3 you want to carry and kill the other two.
UPDATE (2pm): All is not as it seems in my newsagency and others. Gotch has taken over the importing of T3 from NDD and this is why we have three issues on the shelf at present. We don’t recall advice about this.
Nuts is a polite way of putting it! We used to receive more than one edition which lasted about 2 months. We now only carry the Australian title………saying this, after we cancelled the other edition, it still took several editions for the title to stop coming. It’s a grab for cash, pure and simple. There is no other way how best to describe it. Everyone knows the title is a dud; it is amongst many others sent to the newsagency chanel, yet we still receive them, pay for them, return them, and get a credit for them another millenium. (that’s how it seems anyway).
Magazine czar? Not sure, how would one define the range of powers that this czar would have. Who would employ the control the czar. Who’s budget would wages come from?
The idea has merit, the logistics behind it sound difficult.
Vaughan Lawrence
Beechworth Newsagency
Vaughan,
No idea about the detail for a magazine czar but how about this for a start:
Employed by newsagents but seed funds from distributors who would be each asked for $50K for the first year. Newsagents to all contribute $50 each for the first year. This provides the czar’s offic $690,000 in first year funding.
Seek ACCC authorisation or notification or some such ‘acknowledgment of control’. All newsagents sign up. The czar must approve any title which has access to the network. the czar is given KPIs for titles as set by a committee of expert, knowledgeable and compliant newsagents. Trial it for six months and we then measure how it goes.
Vaughan, the network is our asset and it is time we started managing it as such.
mark
Jast as an aside on this particular magazine you may get more sales if T3 changed it’s cover policy. When I worked in the IT industry some years ago there was a significant push by many of our industry colleagues to the magazine people (can’t remember now just who) along the lines that if they removed the redundant bikini woman from the cover we might continue to buy it. This was met with a resounding negative. It was a bit of a controversy at the time in Melbourne and Canberra where my IT work was and possibly elsewhere. There was similar (unsuccessful)push in the UK at about the same time.
It is actually a magazine I would like to buy as I still enjoy reading about all the toys but I’ll stick to my guns until the cover policy is changed.
Aub