I like Australian Model Engineer magazine and its place among special interest titles I carrry, especially Australian special interest titles. That said, I was disappointed to have the following text from a recent issue rawn to my attention:
And talking about getting your magazine … if you normally get yours from your newsagent, have you been having troubles lately? Over the last 3 or 4 months I have been contacted by an increasing number of people saying that their newsagent does not have the current issue. In fact yesterday one chap rang to see if we were still in business as his newsagent has not had the last 3 issues. What happens is that several pallets of magazines are shipped directly from the printers to Gordon & Gotch who then distribute to the newsagents around the country. The distribution by G&G is totally beyond our control and we have no input at all. It seems to becoming increasingly erratic where they send the magazines and I have noticed a decline of our newsagency sales over the last 3 issues. Fortunately this is offset by an increase in subscriptions. What I am suggesting is that if you find you have trouble getting it at your newsagent you should consider subscribing. Subscribers usually get the magazine a week earlier and pay about $1.00 per issue less for it. And they are guaranteed that they will get their magazine. Think about it.
Rather than hurting the businesses which have supported and carried Australian Model Engineer magazine for many years, the publisher could invest time in resolving any distribution problems. They could also engage with newsagents in a marketing campaign and invest in growth. Many readers of Australian Model Engineer first discovered the title when browsing in a newsagency. Telling readers to ignore our channel will see fewer of us carry the title and this will have a negative impact on the magazine.
Australian Model Engineer – Think about it ….Well, I thought about it and I won’t be stocking it any more.
we need a distibutor a 3rd party that disributes everything from take 5 to building log cabins that way we can have a choice on who we buy from these 2 distibutors think they are god they do what they want when they want , they call all the shots and it is tere way or no way . even publishers them selves have no choice on who distibutes .
Paul i understand where they are coming from . they give GG say 1000 copies and GG thinks it is better to send to someone that dosn’t sell than one that does . reasons why ,who knows maybe it is cheaper for them to off load nice and close to them instead of spreading them around the country .
Perhaps if more publishers were made aware of how their product was being distributed, we would have a change in the current model that we need.
I am empathetic to this publisher regarding this magazine. Who knows if that is really the whole truth or it is trying to move its business into another direction.
However their are about 4000 Newsagents / Retailers who also have difficulties with distributors. You are right this publisher must engage and resolve its problems with G & G.
I do find it hard to believe however that a publisher has no control / input on distribution, now that is what I call crazy!
I’d like to hear if that is true from other publishers.
I have heard of New Magazine (around Trains and Models) who won’t use Gordon and Gotch or Net rather distributes themself to Model/Toy shops and achieves a 4% retun rate.
Obviously there are magazine producers who re suffering from G&G and Net as well as Newsagents.
derek , what is so hard to believe ? there are 4000plus newsagents that also have no control on what they recieve .
Peter
I have heard the same from a customer.
He also said that the model shop sells the mag above RRP because the owner was not getting a good margin. Don’t know if this is true.
I am going to keep stocking this title. I think the publisher will realise they could have taken a different approach to their issues.
We used to recieve BMXpress from NDD for a customer and it is now sent via Gotch. This title only comes out a few times a year so the customer was quite concerned about missing out. To alleviate the customers fears and to put myself at ease that we would in fact recieve the current issue i personally spoke with the publisher. He assured me that i was on his list that he rquested to Gotch that i would be one to recieve his title as we had received it previously with NDD. I am delighted to report he was correct and that i have a very satisfied customer.So we have a publisher here who done his homework on who previously got it and instructed Gotch of this so it is a bit hard to swallow the claims of the AME publisher, or is it he is not as diligent in making sure his readers do not miss out ?????
I have emailed Peter Bissett with this one. The last two part series, Ferrari and Teacups have NOT BEEN RECEIVED BY MY STORE. It astounds me that this can happen when we have always participated in partworks over the years that we have been in the industry. Furthermore a merchandizer came into our store and did a story with a dump bin and customers have been asking “when is this ferrari partworks coming in” and I have lost all credibility with them because of allocations from GG. Surely when they get their info from xchangeit they can see what sells in what store and do their targeting accordingly.
I have NOT heard from GG about this issue but I hope to hear back from Peter Bissett and I am sure he will be quite disturbed about it.
Having whinged I must add that I got a double supply of Hello this week (a week later than requested) but sold them all in one day
so GG must know that I doubled my sales because they adhered to my request. Thank you
GG. I am trying to be fair because when you get your act together things work well.
@ Shaun post 7
I think that there would be a different relationship between publisher & Distributor.
I also would think that the Publisher would have some sort of sales data to see where titles are being sold or hopefully they could have access to this at the very least to this data and have an input on allocations.
Maybe in a ideal world, I dont know exactly how it works that is why I was asking for a publishers perspective on the issue.
As unbelievable as it sounds what this publisher says has been my experience also. There seems to be no sense in the allocations of my magazine and I have had contact from many customers desperate to get a hold of copies who can’t. One customer said their local agent got two copies of issue 1, that they bought both of these issues but that same agent only received 1 copy of issue 2 even though the print run had been doubled on this issue? That customer then had to drive to another agent to get another copy. I have been on the phone and emailing G&G every week about this and it seems “squeaky wheeling” is about the only way to get any action out of them. Sales data is still uncertain and at $1 per copy I’d like to know that when agents request the magazine, they can get it, rather than being told by G&G that they either have never heard of it, or have none in stock when I have been told they had hundreds of copies returned without being put on the shelf!
Of course I want my mag on the newsagency shelves, I need the exposure!
What alternative do I have???
Little, newsagents don;t control their allocations, your distributor does. Talk to the distributor and ask for data on sales and scale out by store. Look at this as see whether the distributor is serving you well. In the meantime, engage through here with newsagents.
Hi Mark,
I realise that the distributors control the allocation and that was my point. I found this website after googling “problems with Gordon & Gotch” and was responding to the agents query as to publisher problems of which I am having many. Don’t get me wrong, I in no way blame the newsagents – my frustration is with the lack of G&G to get my magazine out there on the shelves where i want it to be!Agents have been great in helping cutomers to source the mag. I have been told to by G&G to get my customers to quote G&G Title code 12397and many have then contacted me to say that their local agent has done this only to be told “never heard of it”, or “out of stock” at the same time as I am being told that hardly any copies sold and that there were hundreds of returns. I guess my main whinge is that if newsagents want and ask for copies from the disrtibutor that I am paying good money to DISTRIBUTE my magazine and fo any reason can’t get it then what the hell is the distributor actually doing??? Believe me I am on their case about this and am well aware that this is a distributor problem… one magazine I was working for got so frustrated that they chose to mail out the mags personally to newsagents. I thought this was a suicidal move but what do you agents think??? How do you feel about publisher-direct distribution? Would you put it on the shelf or send it straight back?
Little,
I would happily take product direct from a publisher, especially if it is a niche title with a following. This is one reason I like the IPS model – the pull nature of the model is terrific.
Agree it seems a very effective model and addresses many of the concerns I have raised but why can’t all distributors simply adopt a similar system?
Am aware of the hit and miss type of calculations adopted in finding the exact locations of a nice market and this may well be, as the distributors reassure me, a process of elimination over progressive issues. I am made to feel I am simply being impatient by wanting some kind of verified data on sales versus supply BEFORE committing to a possible over-printing run to get the next issues out?
All I want to know is how many copies it takes to let customers know it’s out there, how many copies it will take to provide as least some long term visual aspect by having at least one copy still there by the last week of on-shelf (at least while it’s getting established) and that agents who sell and/or request copies have access to ready supply of them to meet their customer’s demand. Having released two issues and a third all set to print and a steady stream of web-based enquiries and positive feedback via a variety of mediums including a Facebook Page & ad campaign, the vintage caravans discussion forums and at display stands with the VCM Caravan at car shows and caravan rallies. I get daily feedback on sales via online enquiry forms and it seems to indicate that there is a definite market for the product.
I have collection of Model engineer mags from 1964 to 1979 only a few missing issues I am looking for interest in purchasing .I can supply catalogue of collection to interested party . Bill Solley