This Ultimate Guides Disc Burning title was first sent to newsagents in September 2010. The exact same product has just been re-issued to newsagents. The title is from Media Factory, a publishing company which produces titles which are, in my view, of dubious value compared to competitive titles in the marketplace. That they have re-issued this Disc Burning issue is frustrating, especially for one newsagent who has a customer who wants copies of the Ultimate Guides putaway. The customer was not happy when discovering that this ‘new’ issue was the same as one they received in September last year.
I’d like to know the basis on which the title was re-issued as well as answers to some other questions which newsagents should be asking:
- What was the sell through of the first go-round? I’d be surprised if it was more than 25%. magazine distributors should bee required to publish sell through data to newsagents for every re-issue, to demonstrate the justification for the decision to get newsagents to fund the re-issue.
- What criteria did this issue meet for it to be re-issued?
- Why such a long on-sale? (Three months.)
- Was the re-issue a Media Factory decision or a decision taken solely by Network Services?
- Why did the invoice data come through such that this looked like a new issue?
Re-issues are a challenge for newsagents. We rely on magazine distributors making re-issue decisions which respect us. Unfortunately, there is no transparency around re-issue decisions so we can only go off what we see. All too often, a re-issue decision does not make sense. It is entirely appropriate that we demand that magazine distributors provide appropriate information to enable us to decide if our interests are well served by the re-issue decision. Unfortunately too often, I suspect this is not the case.
Media Factory continues to be a problem publisher for newsagents.
Paperbacks from network $2.91 is the going rate for them