It is interesting to see how newspapers reported the latest circulation figures. Check out: The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
The audit figures published on Friday only tell part of the changing newspaper circulation story. Based on newsagent sales benchmark data I have, newsagents lost retail sales of newspapers at more than double the reported audit numbers, three times in some cases.
We are experiencing considerable sales leakage to other retail channels such as supermarkets and petrol and convenience. This is the only explanation I can see for our channel experiencing a sales decline which is greater than the audit numbers reported by the newspaper publishers.
Why newspaper publishers would want to push this further by opening new retail outlets is beyond me if we are the retail channel they prefer as they say.
This is no surprise. Ten years ago I had the paper home delivered every day. Now I read it online except for the weekend where at least 50% of the time I buy from the supermarket because it is more convenient.
The rents that I pay in a mall are so large
that I cannot afford to pay anything more
than lip service to newspapers To be honest, it is not a huge problem to me even if I didn’t have them anymore. (I never thought I would say that as a 30 year retail and delivery newsagent) Having now sold the round and dropping from 25% to 12.5% has made me understand
that I have to ensure that more important
core product is getting my attention.
I guess I really mean that newspapers no
longer represent core product to me.
June
iam thinking about selling our run and was wondering how you put a value on it?we deliver about 600 per day and 900 weekends.thanks for your help
Andy, the old methods have changed re
valuation of a distribution round.
I believe you can set your own valuation
if it is substantiated by figures.
Give Graeme Day a ring as he is probably
the best brokerage agent in Australia for
advice on this question.