Some magazine publishers have a deal with their magazine distributor which sees them paid an advance of forecasted sales of titles distributed.
This sounds like a money printing arrangement.
Come up with a title, produce it on the cheap by buying in cheap, and I mean really cheap, content from elsewhere, maybe recycled content from another magazine. You then freshen this content up (again, on the cheap), attract a couple of advertisers to fund some of the printing costs, cut a good printing deal and ship the title out to newsagents with a long long on sale period.
The longer the on sale the better for publishers receiving an advance against their forecasted sales. Such an arrangement could unlock cash for three or four months, enough time for them to get their next money printing title into the newsagency channel.
Newsagents are funding this magazine distribution arrangement. We pay for stock sometimes within twenty days of it arriving on our shelves. Some newsagents will not get a credit for a three month on sale title for four months depending on the recall date.
Newsagents are the banker – of the magazine distributor and the magazine publisher in this scenario. How does it feel to be providing these interest free loans? How would you feel if you discovered that some magazines are published with the sole purpose of unlocking access to our cash?
I wonder if this is the case with the Google magazine I blogged about recently.
My suspicion as well but proving it would be next to impossible I would think. They could just as well come back and say that the poor content is your opinion and that the product would/should appeal to some people. Who it appeals to I don’t know but they could well come back and stand on that alone which would leave us with the long non-return period to continue dealing with. I agree, the Google and recent 501 Movie magazines are totally worthless publications that in this day and age I am surprised finds funds to get up. You may well be on to something Mark but proving it would be the challenge in my view.
Is there anywhere we could get accurate circulation data on these two mags in say 3 months time? By then the mag would have been sold or returned.
If they printed say 25000 of each and sold say 200, that would help prove what we are thinking. I can’t imagine the distributors or publishers being honest on this though !!
Keep at this Mark. You are digging into an important topic not only for newsagents but also for independent publishers of legitimate original content who have to compete with this junk.
For some time there has been concern about the dumping of overseas magazines in Australia.
I would suggest that what you write about here is an example of content dumping.
Keep digging and keep writing about this.
Newsagents, please take note.
I don’t understand why newsagents would prefer to bicker about dying newspaper sales when you have written about a far more important issue here. I looked at the Google magazine and considered it to be landfill. Now I understand more about how they get paid I am angry. This is MY MONEY.
Keep at it Mark.
To stop this rot simply early return ALL unsold stock by the end of month cut off for returns. That way you are only paying for stock you sell.
The few sales you miss out on is more then made up for with the easing of our cashflow. 60-80% of sales happen within a week of the onsale for most titles and those that it does not are not worth the space anyway.
You cannot beat the game they play of catch up so the best way is to return everything and start each month fresh.
Luke, I agree with you.
I have no magazines from December left on my shelves. I have also cut back on the slow sellers from the first week of January. I have only 4 vacant pockets in the whole shop. The last of my returns will get put through today before G&G cutoff tomorrow. I will probably do another small return for NDC later.
Publisher, thanks for the comments. I hope that publishers of genuinely fresh and valuable content pressure magazine distributors on this issue. While we can early return, there is a significant cost with that.
Luke & Max, I’m with you. As soon as sales are unlikely to pay for the space of a magazine I clear it out. I do try to avoid empty pockets though this is not always possible. If I made the effort I should fill this space with something constructive, either compatible stock such as books I already have in stock or some promotional material until there is stock to fill the gaps. Something I must put some thought and effort into.
Brendan, have you thought about waterfalling high volume mags? We dedicate a full row about 8 pockets to say womans day at the back end of each month when the monthlies are low, this keeps the shelves looking full and also will increase sales of high turn over weeklies. After all we are all out to make money.
Brendan,
Most ( but not all ) times when I have a vacant pocket, I am able to give a good seller extra facings in a waterfall fashion.
At my shop Country Style, Country Home Ideas, Better Homes and gardens etc sell well, so if I need to I upgrade them from 2 facings each to a maximum of 4 and it looks ok. Same sort of thing with Street Machine, some hunting mags ( Australian only ), Madison and Marie Claire.
Back to my returns.
I just had a G&G EDI file come through for Friday, I will be able to fill up my vacant slots.
Yeah, we waterfall mags, spread them out, whatever we can but now and again a smaller category simply has an empty pocket or two depending on the delivery cycle for that category. It’s normally for a long period but I feel there must be more constructive, high impact ways to use this space short term rrather than re laying 8-10 meters of magazines for a couple of days. Something that would point customers to related but higher margin items would be ideas, any ideas??? I’ts all about using the space more profitably for me.
” It’s normally for a long period ” should read normally not for a long period.
Brendan why not print out some flyer type things and laminate them.They could have all sorts of tips and other things you sell or offer a putaway service for titles.Just let the customer know things they may not know.
Place in the empty pocket until a new title comes in.
Been a newsagent for more than 15 years and thought that publishers p[ublished because they had good content they wanted to get out. Reading this, there may be publishers who only publish to access cash. More fool us for letting this happen.
Now before the chorus tells me to early return, I do – it costs a lot of money.
I hope more newsagents read this article because it goes to the heart of how magazine distributors treat us.
Thanks Mary, love the idea of a laminated sign to encourage putaways.
This will be in place by Friday, thanks again.
David you are right, this issue does go to the heart of the magazine distribution model. I am surprised more newsagents are not concerned.
That’s a great idea, Mary! Thanks for sharing.
Newsagents need to understand the role they play in propping um some publishing companies. If it were not for the cash paid for 8, 12 and even 26 week onsale titles these publishers would not survive. Have newsagents ever calculated the cost of being the banker to some of these publishers, especially those with a sell through of under 50%. Do the math people.
I have been a newsagent for a few years and have seen the cash grab every week. Mark what you’ve explained here makes me even angrier.