If the data from a small group of newsagencies I have seen is accurate for the Trading Post, July and August have not been kind to the title – down 40% in some stores. It is hard to stop such a free-fall. For our part we engage in each promotion run to support the title plus we create promotional displays from time to time.
Each newspaper bay in my shopping centre based newsagency needs to deliver a return of $25.00 a week just to cover the real-estate cost. On my current numbers, Trading Post is delivering $15.00. It is loss making. The question is at what point do I ask for the title to be cut?
If consumers are turning their back on the Trading Post is my business looking less relevant for continuing to stock it?
Apart from the internet damage to the title I feel they made a major mistake going from a fortnightly to a weekly.
They doubled their costs for the fortnight and reduced their sales.People felt every week was too much.
The other mistake was not changing the colour of their masthead weekabout as they did in the past.
Customers werent able to differentiate between issues easily.
Now they have a new car magazine which I have placed on top of the T/Post as I dont sell any of them either. So why should I give it its own space.
Over a number of years I have seen sales of the T/Post go from 75/fortnight to 20/week.