I received a call late last yesterday from a newsagent who is handing his newspaper home home delivery run back on Monday. He asked for a fuel subsidy (for the fourth time) and was knocked back. It was essential to him breaking even on his 300 deliveries a day – this run has some challenges. Anyway, he’s giving it back and concentrating on retail. He tried to sell it but no one was interested.
This is an issue newsagents and publishers need to get together and discuss. There are ways to fix this.
As a newsagent that handed back our delivery runs 6 months ago, I would like to say to the current newsagent that it is all good news from here for you. What you will loss in delivery profits you will make up for in retail, as you will be fresher and better able to attract new money. It must have been a huge decision to give up deliveries as it was for us but we have not looked back and enjoy our lives again even the sleep ins, even if it is only an extra 2 hours. Good luck to you
Potentially stupid question but being a non-newsagent, who delivers the papers if you hand back your delivery run? Do the deliveries stop?
Either the publisher takes over or the run is given to an adjoining newsagent gratis. I’d note that the consolidation of territories is handled much better in Victoria thanks, mainly, due to H&WT driving better commercial outcomes.
I would pay someone to take our paper run ,But was told by our Newslimited rep that if we did not want to do it we would become a subagent,is this true,how can i get rid of the paper run as we are running at a great loss
It is true that you become a subagent for another newsagency and get a reduced commission however you need to sit down and weigh up the pros and cons. We become a subagent for our fairfax and News accounts on a reduced commission but were able to keep our full APN rate. For us in a rural city this represented 70% of our sales. Newspapers are in decline in our area so we cut our losses and by concentrating on retail we have more than made up for the loss, and the extra rest has made life livable again. Good luck to all newsagents we’re going to need it in the future, our industry is on a knife edge and only the wise will survive.
Also note that when you become a subagent, you get treated like a second class citizen by Authorised Newsagencies and Publishers…..
That’s not been my experience. As a sub agent for newspapers I have a good relationship.
I am also mindful of doing 20% of effort for 2% of profit (or whatever the ratio might be for some items). It is important sometimes to look at how much cash, stress and time we put in for some parts of our businesses that are not worth the effort.
Sometimes we are so afraid of giving away $1 profit without looking at the actual costs. That is where Mark has brought up many points along these lines, including getting of our butts and promoting what we have in store already, but sometimes we don’t have the energy left because of some of the time consuming other tasks.
I say there needs to be more communication and research, as sometimes things that are historically part of the business have become dinosaurs.
Nobody wants to lose profit, but sometimes you will be better off with the new idea that comes along when you are open to giving it the time you previously spent on the low profit activity.
Good luck to any of you with your battles with a decision about getting rid of delivery. Beware of scaremongers, as their experience may be very different to yours could be.
You make good points Clem. There are distribution newsagents growing in VIC, folks who are very happy in the space. It is frustrating because I know the publishers have data which would help.