My Home is one of a bunch of magazines from Express Publications which are problematic for newsagents. Like other Express titles, My Home is oversupplied – not only in my newsagencies but others from what I have seen. A sell though of 30% – 40% is appalling, loss making. My Home is usually bagged with a back issue as a “free” gift. Most Express titles are bagged with “free” gifts, making them unfriendly to browsers and therefore harder to sell. The publisher may want to revisit the pitch they make for the free back copy – since they do this just about every month it is hardly special as they claim.
If it were up to me, I’d put Express Publications on notice: improve your sell through rate to above 60% or pay newsagents a financial penalty to respect the real-estate and labour investment. I would be looking for $2.00 per unsold copy per month. If they don’t like these terms then we should be able to cancel the title, permanently, from distribution.
The moew successful publishers supplying newsagents should join us in this mission because it is the cost of titles like My Home which takes our attention and capital away from their titles.