I really did think Groovy Grandmas was a porn title when I first saw it. It’s not, Groovy Grandmas is a good magazine. It appears to hit its demographic. This new title is hard to locate in our vast range and difficult to find space for in an already full fixture. My bigger concern is the financial aspects of this title. NDD decided we should get 19 copies. At $9.95 each, this means we are providing $141 in funding for the launch copy. With a four month on-sale and the space requirements, there is no way we can cover our costs – expecially given that we received no marketing collateral.
NDD gets upset when I point the finger at their broken magazine scale out model. They say that they have a good relationship with the ANF and are working with them on magazine KPIs. Well, this NDD/ANF relationship is now three years old and we still get grossly oversupplied with long shelf life product. Based on Groovy Grandmas a fair assessment would be that NDD will do what NDD wants. On Groovy Grandmas, like other titles, I suspect that NDD is paid for each copy they move. Newsagents shold be on the same terms.
The scale out of this title would be a good test case for the ACCC to review as it demonstrates all that is wrong with the magazine supply model – oversupply, supply not based on sales data and a long shelf life.
Newsagents cannot be the banker for independent publishers and magazine distributors any longer.
We will promote the title for the next couple of weeks but we expect to be early returning at least half what they sent us – probably topped since I should not have to pay the freight for another NDD stuff up.
$141, then look around your shop and you’ll see a lot of money that you don’t have at a time when you need it, like at the moment with no big draws pulling customers in.
It’s really got to change. I was putting Tan magazine on the shelf the other day and was surprised to read the ANF have been really pro-active, maybe NDD are talking with the wrong ANF?????
We also though it was a porn title. Upon downloading the invoice we actually planned to send some copies to one of our subagents where adult titles do very well. Needless to say, when we looked at the magazine we reconsidered.
Huge oversupply here as well – 17 copies.
we solved our problems with NDD by telling them to shove it
I put up to everyone, Why do we have three separate distribution companies yet the magazines are delivered in the one truck? And now NDD returns have to go back to the same place as G&G?(In Qld)
I’m not being smart here either, I just want to know.
Michael,
I would rather three distribution companies than one. A single distribution company holds too much power and destroys any of the little competition that exists between the three.