There is plenty of good news we can make about newspapers in Australia, to balance my three posts from earlier this morning. While none of the items below will ‘protect’ the whole category, combined, they make newspapers interesting for newsagents who embrace them. We have an opportunity to make business decisions in pursuit of better sales:
- Local newspapers sell. Take the Melbourne Observer. Once customers know you have it they are loyal. We can sell 100 copies a week. Customers come to us because we have it. There are plenty of local newspapers like this around the country.
- Foreign language newspapers are growing. Unit sales are up 10% year on year and even more in many newsagencies. They drive good add-on sales in various categories. The key is to display them well and offer a good range. The challenge is the restrictions applied by some distributors who will not provide direct accounts and therefore lose sales. Foreign language newspapers account for 12% of our newspaper sales at Forest Hill.
- Special interest papers sell. Newspapers about racing, motor sports, collectibles, markets – local interests. Some newsagencies feature these and have found regular customers and good growth.
- Rewarding loyalty works. With publishers placing their product in various locations – petrol, convenience, coffee – newsagents could run their own loyalty club specific to their store and thereby own the customer. The key with any loyalty program, however, is to not reward usual behaviour but reward above average behaviour. Some newsagents reward usual behaviour in other categories and it does not benefit their bottom line.
- Sell the free local newspaper. Most local newspapers are delivered free of charge. Some newsagents give them away in their shops. Since this is a service for which there is a cost, consider a charge to reflect your investment. A smart publisher will support this and thank you for promoting their brand.
- Co-locate. Putting newspapers in a second location in your shop, at the lottery counter for example, will win additional sales. The key is to change this.
While there is no doubt that newspapers are challenged, newsagents can take actions in their businesses to soften the impact of any downturn. My list is far from complete. The key is to do something rather than watch the tide come in (or the tsunami if you believe that).
I find it really strange suggesting to sell the local paper that is free.This would turn people away not encourage them.
I know I would think the newsagent was stingy and would avoid them, just my thought.
Mary, we provide a service for the local paper. Protection from the weather, nice flat stack, expensive real-estate. With the right positioning customers will understand.
mark
Each to their own but i personally wouldn’t even contemplate charging for a product that is provided to me for free. In my opinion it’d be the quickest way to alienate a customer/potential customer and i could see no end of disputes arising from them asking (and rightly so) why we’re charging for something that’s free.
Why would you pay for something when you can get it for free elsewhere? I also find that the vast majority of people who take the local also buy other things from me so i have no issue at all stocking it for free.
Fair enough raising the issue of it taking up valuable real estate in certain shops depending on where you put it, but if there’s something more profitable that can be used in that space then you’re probably better off not having the local paper anyway. Get rid of it all together and put something there that will make you more than the 50c or so to charge for it.
I don’t have that problem in my shop as where i have the paper it’s in a position that wouldn’t be feasible to sell anything else in anyway.
Why have a free paper in your shop when you are trying to sell papers?
We do not stock the free publications at all ecause in my opinion a newsagency is a business not a charity and I’m out to make money not hand out freebies.
Each to thier own but it doesn’t make sense to stock a free publication that is in competition to a paid one.
When people ask for the free paper our sales staff talk them into paying $1 for the ones we have, it isn’t that hard a sell.
if they know there is a free one available it won’t take much to guess who there new local newsagent will be .WE don’t have any free local papers in our town but being a small town i could see it happening one day
The free local paper is a destination paper, Customers actually come to the shop to pick the local up. Certainly in our case having the free local paper generates traffic. Anything that gets customers in the habit of attending newsagents is not a bad thing.
Dean,
I agree. Charging for a ‘free’ product is going to alienate customers very quickly. Mixed messages – FREE and $$$ – is going to leave the customer confused and ultimatly unhappy. They don’t care what investment you’ve made in stocking the product.
Publishers invest in the concept of ‘free’. Charging for a product damages the image and perception they have worked to create.
our local free leader newspaper has a cost of $1 inc gst on the cover of the paper!!!!! We would never charge this,however, there are some local businesses that do charge the $1
We just started charging for the Leader this week, put it up on the shelf next to The Ages with a sign saying “LEADER NOW $1”.
We’ll be hearing about it from our customers(although most people who took it never bought anything) all week!
The more traffic you generate the more sales you have, so it’s great for a newsagent to offer the local newspapers for free. I often stop off at 7-Eleven on my way home to pick up the local paper which is not delivered to my area as I know they stock it and it’s convenient. While I’m there, I get petrol and am sucked in by the magazine/newspaper covers and end up spending more than I intended to. If the bloke behind the counter made me pay for the local paper, I wouldn’t go there and they’d lose about $40 of sales each week. Perhaps I’d use the petrol dockets at Shell or Safeway petrol, but I know they don’t stock that free local paper that I like to read!