New magazine distributor Integrated Publication Solutions has announced a two month grace period on the implementation of all business policies – to give newsagents time to become familiar with the new magazine distribution model.
This announcement is a gesture of good faith from IPS and will go toward addressing concerns expressed by newsagents on a recent thread here.
The key details of the IPS announcement are:
In support of IPS business policy to work with retailers, IPS will be offering a 2 month grace period on all business policies to assist you in becoming familiar with the new processes.
In particular if you are oversupplied of any publication due to a data migration error, IPS will allow the processing of early returns. Simply email our customer service team at customerserivce@publicationsolutions.com.au and advise them of the over supply and how many copies you would like ‘early returned’. Your account will then be credited immediately and your new standing order will be placed in the system. When the publication is recalled you must submit all tops (including those that have been “early returned’) for auditing purposes.
This grace period announcement is a practical demonstration of a point of difference in dealing with newsagents.
Maybe I’m a bit thick (dumb). This basically says – If they over supply by mistake in the first 2 months – we can early return. If they over supply after 2 months we can’t.
And this is supposed to assist us in becoming familiar with the new processes.
They make mistakes (due to data migration)& we get grace?
Typical…
Did I miss something?? I have starting receiving mags from this new mob IPS with paperwork under same name. Wasn’t a step missed? I am yet to set up an account with these guys and have not agreed to have anything transferred from Fairfax Media. My business relationship is with Fairfax only and not any new identity. Thanks for the mags IPS – which I will not be paying for & can be collected at any time. Things are also further complicated by the fact that I am days away from signing off on the sale of my territory. I will be VERY VERY wary of signing any agreement with a business run by Fairfax – they have repeatedly proven to be the worst managed company that we newsagents deal with – and I’m now supposed to have faith that they will somehow transform into a great ‘partner’ mag distributor. I don’t think so! They will have no hesitation exploiting every loop hole in the as yet unsigned IPS contracts to suit themselves. If any newsagent believes they will not move the goal post in 6 months / 12 months etc are kidding themselves. They are simply offering a measly extra 2% commission plus 1 or 2 other little things to lure people across and attract business from publishers who are unhappy with Network and GG. If they were really genuine would they be offering …… oh let me think……. say 40% commission like books….or only pay for sales scanned through our POS…. I sure we can all name a few. To me this is nothing to get excited about – we are just seeing the creation of another Network and GG. Any publisher moving to IPS is very unlikely to see their mags in my store any time in the future – they can be happy with Wollies, Cloes, 7/11 etc – I will continue to look for product / suppliers that respect and value my business.
dear mr gray why dont you send out alist of your publicatins for us soon to be conned again cash poor newsagents to peruse.we can then decide from pos data how many of each title we wish to stock.this will save IPS from sending unecesary oversupply and my wages for handling some of this crap.it will reduce our carbon footprint and keep bob brown happy.seriously let us determine our own quantitys of supply from the start.no oversupply nocash flow hiccups no wasteage of paper. iam sure agents will increase supply accordingly.
While I am still dubious about IPS, I think this move by them is a conciliatory gesture which goes some way to showing that at least they are listening.
Yep, our usual mag allocation arrived this week, despite that supply info having been removed from our Fairfax supply page. We also received a title we haven’t asked for – one I’d vetoed when I had the means to do so. We haven’t signed anything, and we haven’t an account.
I look forward to our returns form on Connect, come Monday.
Daniel, I find your comments spot-on. This is how ALL newsagents should be approaching a NEW distributor who has come to the market DICTATING their own terms. Quite simply, the newsagent channel should react to IPS in the same way as it did with “the Guide” debacle forced on Newsagents by Fairfax Media.
On the subject of Fairfax Media, I am experiencing severe tactics of intimidation and threats from this company and would like to hear from other distribution agents whom have had similar experience dealing with Fairfax Media.