The current issue of Who magazine has a sampler for which goes on sale tomorrow. Sampling is an excellent way to introduce shoppers to a new title. The Feast sample is an excellent representation of what people can expect from the new magazine.
I’d encourage publishers to consider working with newsagents on the distribution of samplers of their titles. These would / should actively promote newsagents as go to places for the titles.
I was looking forward to promoting this new title (Feast) but feel we as newsagents have once again been let down by the distributor and the publisher.
After being pushed to actively promote this title I received my allocation in a broken POS counter unit for starters. I then had a flick through the magazine and have found
i) A fall out subscription offer.
ii) A tear out subscription offer.
AND TO TOP IT OFF!!!
iii) A full 2 page subscription spread.
When are publishers going to realise that they are slowly eroding their main platform for getting these new titles in to the public domain.
Being a LPO with close to 600 post boxes I see how many sales I / We as a whole are losing to these offers.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could blackban the titles that persist in using us solely for their benefit for a short period.
Maybe then they would realise that it would be better to scratch our backs and come to an agreement that beneficial to both parties.
Jon I reckon this is okay. It’s their product, their investment. Publishers need a mix of subscriptions and retail sales in their mix.
Newsagents and publishers have trialled a number of subscription models but none have worked yet.
I still don’t get why they pay all that money to Aust. Post for delivery of subscriptions – when they could jsut get us to include it in Home Delivery for less (cost) and some margin for the channel
Ricky,some Stores took on home delivery of subscriptions a few years back,in our store it cost us more than they paid us.
It was a complete shambles and was a waste of all time and effort.
It didn’t last long as so many gave it away.
Not all things are as simple as they seem.
I would never look at it again.
Ricky, I am with Mary here. We trialled Network’s attempt at home delivery of subscriptions and it was an insufferable nightmare. I rarely go a week without getting
someone complaining to me about their subscription which has absolutely nothing
to do with me – mostly they expect me to replace their “lost” copy…… go Australia Post !
Yes, the Network Services Delivery Program (NSDP), while well intentioned, never was never sustainable for newsagents. I had seven territories and at best barely covered costs even on thousands of deliveries a month.