Tough decisions for newsagents (3)

Here is the final set of challenges I covered in my presentation of the Newsagency of the Future at the ANF conference yesterday.  These are not tough decisions for newsagents as such, they are challenges which suppliers need to address.  The difficult for newsagents is whether we have the will to engage with suppliers on these issues.

Magazines: Pay on scan based sales.  This will stop us paying for theft.  It will also make publishers and distributors more accountable for what they supply.  The current model has little such accountability and small business newsagents carry a higher burden.  I appreciate that paying newsagents only for scanned sales is a challenge.  Let’s at least open a conversation and see where it takes us.

Greeting cards: Agreed pocket based KPIs.  If a design fails an appropriate KPI and back end arrangements can make the publisher responsible.

Stationery: Buying 20%+ better than today.  Newsagents need better stationery buying arrangements.  If we cannot dramatically cut our buy price of stationery then we might as well get out of the game.

Newspapers: Reward based on success.  I’d like to see publishers treat retail newsagents as business people.  Reward us for growth and initiative which supports the masthead.

Home delivery: Open pricing of our services.  Newsagents provide the service, carry the risk and carry the cost rises.  It is a joke that they are not allowed to set their own fees.  As long as the current arrangements continue publishers cannot expect newsagents to act as business people. 

Retail: Put a price on our real-estate.  We give for free across 4,000+ newsagencies what others charge for.  We need to understand the value of this asset.

Vouchers: Transparent and competitive pricing.  Newsagents have been dudded in this category previously.  We need to make sur that deals negotiated on our behalf work for us and respect the breadth of our network.

My hour long presentation covered more than I have posted here in the last three posts.  These are the points I think we need to consider around the issue of the newsagency of the future – before we actually plan for what our future looks like.

The key for me in all this is that newsagents break free from their past for it is our clinging to territories and old world practices which is stopping us from making our own future.