Eleven years ago when I bought my newsagency we had one and a half metres of adult magazines. Today, we barely have one column – not counting the column with Zoo Weekly, Ralph and FHM.
The photo shows the new adult section as I see it in an average newsagency.
While different demographics will require a different range, sales data I see from other newsagencies suggests that a column or less is all that is needed to service the adult category. The Internet and the establishment of petrol outlets as a viable magazine channel mean that adult is not the category it was for newsagents eleven years ago.
It is disappointing that some distributors continue to overload some newsagents in the adult category by supplying more product than can be justified by the sales data. Often, when this is brought to their attention, they fix the problem. This should not have to happen, distributors ought to scale back based on the sales data and not a complaint from a noisy bugger like me.