Newsagents are taking action against Quadrant magazine and its shoddy treatment of these small business owners used for the retail and distribution of the magazine. I have heard from many who are now refusing to carry Quadrant on their shelves. Some are writing to the Chairman of the Quadrant Magazine Ltd Board of Directors – Elizabeth Prior Jonson.
We are used to publishers spruiking subscriptions in the pages of magazines they sell. Quadrant goes beyond spruiking in the latest issue of the magazine – they put down newsagents.
Quadrant, like around 65% of the magazines newsagents sell, is cash-flow negative for us. It is a titled we carried (literally) to support range. I suspect they will soon discover the cost of their public ridicule of the newsagent channel.
FOOTNOTE: The last maagzine to so blatantly attack its retail partners was Fisherman & Boatowner in 2007. See what I blogged back then.
UPDATE (1530): Crikey.com.au covered this today. Hopefully it brings more attention to the issue.