Magazines and 2009

Media Life has published an interview with Martin S. Walker, Chairman of Walker Communications, in which Walker is asked to predict what 2009 holds for magazines.  While it has a distinctly US focus, it is an interesting read.

Personally, I think the magazine department is in for a rough year.  How much this impacts on newsagents will be determined by publishers, magazine distributors and us newsagents.  Fair allocation should see us only carry the cost of lower sales.  Unfortunately however, I suspect we will have to carry the cost of unfairly high supply for fringe titles.  Smart retail will be about mitigating the impact of poor decisions by distributors.

I am anticipating January magazine unit sales down between 10% and 15% on last year in many newsagencies.  While this is only based on sales data for the first twelve days, I am confident that the dataset I have is indicative.  The newsagencies which will buck this trend are local holiday destinations, where there has been major development or a shop fit or where some other local factor (a loyalty program maybe?) is softening the impact.

The way to deal with this challenge is to focus more attention on magazines.  Ensure the layout is the best for your demographic, keep moving product so it looks fresh, create and maintain hot spots where you can drive impulse purchases, drive a point of difference around the category and manage supply – as if that is truly possible.

I have been fortunate to have had the time to visit thirteen newsagencies in the last week.  In each case, most of the discussion has been around opportunities for magazines and not problems.  The newsagents I have spoken with understand they can make a difference and have been prepared to engage in pursuit of that.