Folio reports that a fight in the US about magazine distribution has gone to court. Interlink is claiming that some publishers, including some major names, conspired to try and force it to sell its business to a rival publisher. This issue flared up when Interlink announced it would apply a distribution surcharge of seven cents a copy to distribute magazines. The National Ledger has another perspective on this fight.
I am mildly interested in this case because it is about the cost of access to a magazine distribution network. Magazine publishers in Australia have access to our newsagent network (if we can reasonable call it a network) for no cost imposed by us. Magazines distributors have inserted themselves between our retail outlets and magazine publishers. Thye are the gatekeepers to this asset we have, more than 4,000 retail outlets perfectly located. Indeed, they charge the publishers and they charge us.
While magazine distributors provide logistic and some other services, it is our shelf space and our placement of magazines in categories so consumers find them by interest that is a real yet undervalued benefit.
There is an opportunity for newsagents to explore alternative models based around a more direct newsagent / publisher relationship.
Interesting.. It seems the Australian model differs from US. Anyway its a different consumer market altogether.