The photo shows one of several stacks of overseas crossword titles which arrived in our newsagency today from magazine distributor NDD. We have advised NDD that we do not wish to receive overseas crossword titles from them yet they continue to supply us. Today’s supply has a retail value of $404.80. While we are early returning all of them, the magazine returns processing being what it is we are likely to be out of pocket to the tune of $303.60 for at least a month.
NDD has data which shows that these titles will not sell; sufficiently to justify what they have sent. There is no data based justification for their action. Supply can only be based on the cash-flow requirements of NDD.
If I extrapolate the cost of these dud titles from NDD today across all newsagents, I’d suggest that the cost is in the order of several hundred thousand dollars – money sucked out of newsagents under false pretences. Maybe I am wrong. I was asked about this at the end of one of my presentations at the ANF conference last week and made a similar point about overseas crosswords. The NDD representative in the audience did not challenge me.