The masthead of THE AGE today is obscured by a post-it type ad promoting lamb for Mother’s Day stuck over the word AGE. While love a good lamb roast, I like to see brands like THE AGE treated professionally even more.
The Sydney Morning Herald masthead is covered in the same way by the same ad. I cannot understand why a respected brand allows itself to be covered up in this way. Money obvioulsy talks more with the folk at Fairfax than brand and editorial.
This is not the way to treat a newspaper masthead.
Is really any different to newsagents who place price labels willy nilly on magazine mastheads?
Would Chris W be part of Fairfax Media?
Glad you brought up price lables, you would think that the Australian magazine companys would know that we need to place a label on mags and that place is the top left corner, so why dont they allow for this.
No. Chris W is a newsagent who typically sells a grand total of 11 Ages and AFRs per day!
Shane,
That is a very good question.
Chris, It is very different. Our labels are usually placed under the masthead, the are smaller and they are necessary for management of the product. The Fairfax ads cover the brand as well as editorial from time to time. I am a newspaper fan and a brand fan. These ads cut across both.
Mark, why do you need price labels on mags as there is a price and barcode already on the product
Scott, it makes it easier for the person serving to know where the barcode is on each and every magazine. The label barcode I find is better, sometimes the scanner won’t pick up the addenda.
The same with the price, it’s in a known spot on the cover and in most cases is larger than the price on the front cover, making it easier for customers to read.
Also the recall week/month is very handy and “should” eliminate magazines that don’t get sent back and end up in a $2 bin.
not to mention the overseas tittles ,you need to know what the price is so lables are a must
We would love not to put labels on mags Scott, it takes up a great deal of time and effort but we find that without labels more people bring the mag to the counter and ask how much is this, when did it arrive, what issue is this or they want to argue that the US or UK price is the actual price. For my store labels are there for customers mainly so it gives them a clear price point, as the magazines tend to hide the price amongst the cover.
Hope this helps
The labels are crucial to in-store management of magazines.