My bone today is with the Australian magazine subscription system. In short, it sux. While Eva Mendes is smouldering away on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in my newsagent, she is nowhere within the vicinity of my mailbox… and I refuse to buy her in duplicate on account of waste. Last month, my Harper’s Bazaar was about two weeks late. Hence why I refused to post anything about it. Poo to you, tardy one.
That is Erica Bartle writing at her Girl With a Satchel blog yesterday.
A smart publisher would work with newsagents on a subscription model which rewards the consumer for loyalty and rewards the newsagent for selling a subscription as well as providing the collection service.
The newsagent / publisher technology exists today. All that is mising is the will from the publisher side to make this happen.
As Erica shows in her blog post, consumers continue to shop at newsagencies regardless of having a subscription. Leverage that and create a welcome win win.
It is easier to manage dtstributuoin ot a retail network than it is to tens of thousands of individual homes. A good technology link can ensure that the publisher, consumer and newsagent are all communicated with professionally, consistently and with satisfaction.
When I queried with Magshop about my TV Week being constantly late and being told it was Australia Post’s fault (funny how my bills always manage to find me quickly in the mail!), I suggested why can’t it be delivered by my newsagent like other titles such as Women’s Weekly. I was told for some logistical reason, TV Week could not be delivered by my newsagent. So I’d have to wait a week for it to arrive in the mail when my newsagent could have it in my letterbox on Monday
Andy, Why dont you cancel the subscription and ask your newsagency to deliver. We deliver all weekly and monthly magazines with our papers of a morning. It has taken a bit promotion but we now deliver around 60-70 different mags a week.
The customers love it… They get the mag on the day @ 5.00am… Beats waiting a week and we have a more profitable run without any material impact on our passing trade as the majority of our delivery customers dont work around our area.
Cheers
Peter
thanks Peter I didn’t know I could do that I thought it had to go through magshop which was dumb of me really I should have just gone straight to the newsagent when magshop said they couldn’t do that way! My subscription has a few months to go but when it’s up for renewal i’ll enquire at my local newsagent. Cheers!
Better Homes and Gardens arrived today. Inside is a loose flyer promoting subscriptions up to 45 % off.
Due to a production problem, the flyer fell out of all my copies..
45% off, it might be time to subscribe for the whole order
I thought of that. When I read it a bit further, I think the only mag with 45% off was WHO. Others were around 16% to 30 odd %.
I pulled all mine out on purpose and I don’t care what the publisher thinks. They fall out any way when customers take them of the shelf and when walking to the register.
It’s not worth the hassle to pick them off the ground all day; and what if a customer slips on them on the ground? Who gets sued???
What flier?
Junk mail in BH&G.
Really? I couldn’t find one…. Oh dear.
Pick one up from the top left hand corner and watch it all fall on the floor.
I took mine out as I have to provide some duty of care to customers.
Oh, you mean the sheaf of insults that miraculously found its way to the bin at about 4:30 this morning? That’s why we couldn’t find any.
Yes duty of care is important. And all the lit states that one’s first duty of care is to oneself.
Yep, we don’t sell mail boxes, we sell magazines!
And we won’t be selling too many magazines if they’re all on subscription for 45% off!
These comments reflect misinformation. read the borchure. Better Homes and Gardens is not offered at 45% off, not even half that.
Subscriptions are an important part of the publisher mix. While some Australian publishers (including Pacific) offer subscription discounts which are too steep, this is not the norm.
I have looked at the brochure in BH&G and reckon it’s okay.
Mark,
As I stated in my comment, the discounts range from about 16 %, to 45 % for WHO ( All my flyers are in the wheelie bin, but I think these % are correct ). This is not misinformation, it is fact.
Why should we use our real estate to let the publishers take our sales?
Who will be sued if a customer slips on these flyers went they fly on to the floor ?
Max,
Talk to Pacific, do your research and understand the subscription / over the counter mix. I think you will find reasoning behind the different percentages.
I wish there weren’t any subscription offers. that said, I understand why they need them.