I spent a flight from Brisbane to Melbourne early this morning pouring over data from thirty newsagencies for our benchmark project – comparing November 2007 with November 2006. I am grateful to have the opportunity to review and compare department and category level sales data from so many newsagencies.
While a more thorough analysis is a week or so away, it is clear that November was a tough month for magazines. The average fall I am seeing in unit sales year on year for November is 9%. While there is a risk in comparing sales for one month, an analysis of the magazine category performance shows that the drop is not only being driven by the weeklies – which we know are down on last year based on recent circulation data.
Another learning which appears likely to emerge from the benchmark research is the diversity in balance across newsagencies. There are some dominated by one or two departments while and there are others with excellent balance across the departments. This is important for us to consider as we deal with more disruption brought about by technology distribution changes.
On a side issue, the newsagents who have implemented the MPA magazine categories in their businesses make benchmarking easier. We are going to contact those who have not to help them achieve this standard.
Mark, is this year on year data over several years or is it just comparing the last two years?
If it’s the latter, then it’s could be the Federal election has affected sales.
In the IT services industry an election means business goes dead quiet and this election was no different with orders down 20%.
It could have been worse, the 2003 election was during the NSW school holidays so I just gave up and took the kids on holidays.
I’d be interested what the effect state and Federal elections have on Newsagents.
Paul,
Just 07 compared to 06 this time around. Yes, the election could affect sales. But since all sites are reporting for the same period it’s relative.
My IT company was not affected by the election. In my newsagencies the only impact outside of longer period year on year trends was an increase in current affairs magazines.
Mark