Newsagencies are traditional businesses, built on more than 100 years of regulation. This is why many in our community take the regulation (protection) route in making business decisions. For so many years newsagents have fought for their territory, whether territory refers to a geographic area or a product category connection. Unfortunately, some in our channel remain focused on regulation to the detriment of commercial reality. I would call these folks the traditionalists. Others chase opportunities regardless of boundaries. They put their business and its stakeholders ahead of tradition. I would call these folks the commercial realists. But I digress.
I have been wondering these past few days whether to jump into the magazine subscriptions pond. I mean really jump and offer subscriptions for just about any title. Should I use my retail newsagency to aggressively sell subscriptions?
The traditionalists will say no – why take a lesser commission when you could make full commission on the retail sales. Why take business off another newsagent. Every subscription sold is a sale lost to the newsagent channel – even if the subscription and therefore the sale are outside my territory.
To a commercial realist, business is business. Their approach would be to take what you can when you can. They would say that a lesser than retail commission for a full year on a product you would not otherwise sell to that person is good business for your business.
While I respect the traditionalist newsagents, I must say that I am drawn to the views of the commercial realists as it is in their world in which we operate today. In each of our core categories: newspapers, magazines, stationery, lotteries and greeting cards we have businesses competing with us in commercial terms. If we reject these terms and opportunities associated with them in favour of a more traditional approach then we are likely to be left behind.
So, what do I do about magazine subscriptions? I am not sure yet as I have some more research to do in order to package the best over the counter offer in a way which is easy to pitch and a dream to manage. It may be that this research results in barriers which suggest that subscriptions are not an appropriate over the counter offering.
In navigating toward thenewsagency of the future, newsagents need to decide if they are to be a traditionalist or to be a commercial realist. The former, while to be respected, will find business tougher.
In my opinion, there is room in our industry for both tradition and commercial realism, however the problem is that most people are one or the other and will not recognise both. Offering magazine subscriptions is a must for our industry to stay in the magazine link. Customers are going to get magazine subscriptions off someone why not keep newsagents at the forefront of peoples minds. Like ink and toner a few years ago we need to move into this area. I remember a lot of newsagents saying that ink and toner in newsagents would not work and look at the sales to date. If we as an industry want to hang on to the traditional lines ie newspapers, magazines then we need to give customers what they are looking for and if this means subscriptions then so be it. How many newspaper sales are we missing because the publishers are offering direct subscriptions. We need to stay in the loop or get out all together.
Anyway thats my thoughts.