I was shocked at news from a publisher recently about the number of newsagents who early returned a new title the day it came out, without even giving it a shot on the shelves.
Newsagents backed their own opinion over the considerable research of the publisher. Sales in newsagencies where the title was promoted show that newsagents were wrong to early return the title without giving it a go.
I cannot see any reason why would you early return a title on the day of launch and weeks before you would need to return it to avoid being billed – i.e. before the end of month cut off in the month in which it went on sale.
Seriously, why would you do this?
These newsagents have sent the message to this publisher and other publishers that the newsagency channel is not the channel of magazine specialists.
Supermarkets do not early return. Newslink stores do not early return. 7-Eleven stores do not early return. Okay, they do not have the same terms or title volume as us. I’ll go back to my point, it would not have hurt newsagents to try this title for three weeks at least.
What do you think publishers make of this when they get together. They look more carefully at these other channels of course.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against early returning. No, I am only against early returning on the first day of sale of a new title or early returning to a point where return below your average sales of a title and thereby deny your business of absolutely certain revenue.
These newsagents who early returned this new title have made our whole channel look bad. I could understand this publisher pursuing a supermarket only model with their next new title launch. This is a serious consideration for them … thanks to the newsagents who allowed this new title to be sent back without justification.
We are our own worst enemy sometimes. While some may have an excuse, I don’t see any which I could accept.
This title could have sat on the shelves for at least three weeks before being returned in advance of the end of month cut off. There was no cash flow need to send it back the day it was released. Okay, you could argue about space but even then I’d say not given what we now know – that this title sold well.
I don’t know what we can do about this issue as we newsagents are only as good as our worst operator, sadly. This is why groups with disciplines will emerge and separate themselves from the newsagency shingle.
I am not about to name the title. It could be any one of several with a number of launches over the last two months – there have been plenty including partworks. How would it be if we lost partworks to supermarkets? Dreadful!
Why not name the tittle , it is a bit hard to relate to what you are talking about when we have no clue what mag it is or when it came out
At least give us the release date Mark, if it arrived at the very end of the month in volumes that were large then early returns might have been justified. We have received a few titles that are billed just before the end of month so it gives me no other option then to either sponsor the title out of my own cashflow and hope for the best or early return.
ALL new release titles should be released at the start of the month which would give us time to test the water before we need to return without it hitting us in the pocket. From my point of view partworks are a joke as the supply after the first issue is never enough to cover demand and subscriptions are pushed down customers throats at every chance. take the latest doll house funiture thingy, we do not even get to offer the house but we got a box.
luke talking of partworks i have already been stuffed around on allocation on the new are of knitting , what a good start
Early in the month. Plenty of on sale time prior to financial cut off – as noted in the blog post.
Absolutely no reason for early return except for poor management of magazines..
do you know what ever the category the mag is in wether it works for these particular newsgants ? do you have the agents side of the story ?. are these stories also true do you have proof of it . or is it a supplier looking for a chance to knock newsagents for an excuse to get into the woolies market .
lets just say it was in a category that does not work in your store why would you take on a new tittle for an area that does not work , i know that lets say another teen magazine was to come out i would probally think twice about giving it space as i know teen mags do not work for me they might work well for someone else but not for me . But if it was a cook book sure i would give it 100% because i know from previous sales that it should work . so depending what mag and cat it in it it is hard to even comment on this one
A good business operator works hard to establish and grow there market. Based of Marks information in the above blog, some newsagents are doing the opposite and I bet these are the same ones with declining sales who whinge about how bad things are. Do your selves and the chain a favour and work atgrowing sales and keeping print media relevant and within the newsagency for as long as possible. Your and my businesses depend on this.
Well if the publisher was not aware of how screwed up the distribution system is, they certainly are now.
That actually happened to me, I was waiting for a new mag, I knew it was released, went to the only newsagent in town and they told me they sent it back already. They had not put it out. So now I missed out on a first issue and wa pissed off. Subsequently they put me down for a ‘put away’ the 2nd issue came out, I recieved that, the 3rd was released they never got there copy, but they did not chase it up untill I queried where was it. This is why newsagents are struggling.
This title was supplied on the basis of sales data for other titles in each store which received allocation. The allocation criteria and decisions make sense to me.
Subsequent sales indicate that it would have easily sold in the newsagencies which early returned.
Folks, lets call this what it is – poor magazine management by the newsagents … a missed opportunity
9 of the 10 new titles today don’t deserve display at all
i do display them all , but result so far not good at all.
last month my sales is less than my bills , i will work harder now to return MORE MORE ….
I think point Mark is making is that this is a new title and should be given a fair go. I question some of the subject matter that I receive as well and am sceptical that some of it would sell and I know a lot of it won’t but I am often surprised by what people will buy particularly when I’ve made assumption on what I think they won’t.
If I were a publisher I would have to question the value of the Newsagency channel if this is how my title is being handled on day one! What if the launch is supported by advertising pointing out it is available at all Newsagents and we don’t stock it because we sent it back?
I’m very conscious of watching my cash flow, believe me! The returning on day one of a new title is plain nuts.
I don’t think the title in question is relevant here. It’s the principle that matters.
Mark, I don’t disagree with what you are saying BUT
“This title was supplied on the basis of sales data for other titles in each store which received allocation.”
Your kidding surely.
They cant even get allocation right for current mags let alone new ones – particularly at the end of the month.
Leon, some publishers handle their own allocations, others get the distributors to do it for them. In this instance I am confident that the publisher allocation was ideal for this title.
The problem is the model:
– no store should receive any new publication without first a request on how many they would like to try and sell before receipt:
– my limited past experience suggests publisher research is either not used or understood by the parties involved; and
– this action is no different to your previous suggestion that each store needs to act alone for their best interests.
The problem is the charging model used by the distributors and their attitude towards payment. Perhaps all new titles should have two month extended terms for the first three issues.
New titles need special handling, the POS needs to be right, the agent needs to be engaged about quantities and needs to know its even on the way. To surprise an agent with a new title, limited POS and large quantities is unprofessional and disrespectful of the agents time and cash.
Im happy to support new titles but they need to be happy to support me too.
not mention if you receieved 100 copies of a new title and didn’t sell any but 1 got lost/stolen…..then you cannot cancel that title forever with network because you will have an average sale of >.1
like other posters said….many shops are choosing not be be magazine specialists anymore because of the time vs reward. plus the contempt shown to us by blatantly offering subscriptions to bypass us.
Brett well said that is exactly what should be happening . It does sometimes but not often enough
I stand corrected on the first comment Mark but how can we continue to be the mag specialist when we have no control over supply for the vast majority of titles? Some issues are oversupplied then they get cut off and need to be reordered which skips a month then things arrive late or not at all. I think the bit you skipped over about the other channels “Supermarkets do not early return. Newslink stores do not early return. 7-Eleven stores do not early return. Okay, they do not have the same terms or title volume as us. I’ll go back to my point,” they do not return at all, they only pay for what is sold, this is the point they do not have the burdens we do but enjoy the benefits.
How would it be if we lost partworks to supermarkets?
You must be kidding Mark – how would supermarkets possibly cope with the grief most partworks cause – missing or damaged issues, under/over supply, etc, etc – or would they get preferential treatment on them as well with a supply model that they dictated.
Easy Jim – just as they do in supermarkets in the UK.
Luke we can argue about all these points or come back to the fact that some newsagents made a bad decision which cost them and possible the channel. We need to be accountable for our action and inaction.
I know from recent personal experience the a couple of publishere are trying to work with us and one instance may be the mag used as an example in the initial blog. This publisher is making great efforts to better accomodate newsagents needs but a first day early return screws it up for everyone and will only discourage publishers from trying to work better with it. Really, what does every one expect, a personal phone call re every new title to establish supply needs? Three to four weeks to trial a new title and then by all means early return it if it won’t work for you is sensible. Immediate returns are short sighted to say the least and maybe these agents would be better value as subbies.
Give us a list of the so called “Good” publishers and the mags they supply ( the ones that use REAL DATA and only supply reasonable qty’s so we can nake our own minds up, at the moment all I see is vast oversupply of a large amount of mags that can only be controlled by early returns and harsh cuts.
I am accountable for my actions Mark as it is my livelyhood at stake, I do not have a fall back job.
We sell a lot of car, motorbike, truck, tattoo, rugby league, heavy metal music magazines. We hardly ever sell FHM, GQ, Maxim. We don’t have stylish new age men coming into out shop. Maybe we should have given it a go til the end of the month, but 13 mags takes a lot of space allocation from my magazines that I know sell
Actually Brendan, we don’t want a phonecall, just an email letting us know there is a new release, and that we can adjust our allocation on the website BEFORE it is sent out. Easy and cost-effective.
Gee how far off track is this discussion. There are some newsagents who permit dumb decisions to be made in their businesses re early returns, decisions which put the channel at risk. It’s a fact.
Steven, all newsagents getting the new title in question received excellent in-advance communication.
Early returning first day is wrong.
Publishers are selling direct via subscription.Using Newsagency channel to do this. That is wrong.
Supermarkets can have Partworks.
What has Supermarkets, 7/11 etc got to do with this post. The Publishers went outside the Newsagency Channel in anycase to sell magazines.
Their is so much wrong, if this publisher wants to share their pain, why does it not post.
Newsagency shingle is as relevant to day as marketing groups, even better.
Publishers want full returns, it just goes on.
The system is broken, their are too many magazines, ridiculous communication from publishers and distributors, who still fax instead of emailing information.
My views only.
My 2cents worth.
About 3 years ago we adopted and agressive early return approach (and I mean agressive). In the short term this had a postive effect on our cashflow.
However, 2-3 years down the track and our strategy has changed. We now retain 95% of mags received (space permitting), and have a focussed clean-out starting the last monday of the month. This allows to ‘early’ return and still be credited within the month of delivery.
By doing this we have observed som sales in titles we never thought would sell, have a permantly well stocked magazine area and no negative effects on cashflow, in fact further positive effects.
It takes a little more work in the last weke of the month, but means we are spending less time during other parts of the month.
Cheers
Peter
Exactly what we do Peter.
I will not be pressured into keeping magazines under threat that “they will look at other channels”. Until they – publishers – start either paying my bill or giving me better payment terms – I will early return if and when I need to.
Let them try other channels – bet they won’t get as good a terms (kicking the dog) as they do with newsagents!
I’m guessing the magazine in question is either Smith or Peppermint (my guess is the former). I’ve put both out on display but have sold no copies of either so far. Next week they’ll be off shelf and sent back if there’s still no sales. Unlike alot of the rubbish bagged mags that came out today I couldn’t see a reason not to give these two titles a go for at least a few weeks (look great and I’m sure there’s a market there). They get a chance, but if they don’t cut it they go – simple.
I do think this is a two way street though. If a publisher wants the specialist magazine channel to promote their new magazine then they should increase the commission for the first couple of issues (and I’m not talking about 2% – needs to be +10%) to encourage us to really get behind it and promote it for them.
TBH if they want to go to the supermarkets for their distribution then good luck. Their magazine probably won’t go out on day of issue (a major near me often doesn’t have the weeklies out on day of issue). It won’t be displayed to encourage sales and they’ll pay more for the privledge of displaying it in certain areas (and after something that was said to me recently I’m pretty certain at least one of the supermarkets is getting alot more than 25% commission on most mags)
Quick addittion:
I’ve just read the Express Magazines email regarding an in commissions.
Bravo Express !!
They’ll definately be getting alot more attention in my newsagency as a result of this.
This is truely a step in the right direction (not that IPS shamozzle !).
If you read the last few comments and re-read the initial blog you will realise that most are in aggreance with the post.
Aside from the fact it would be nearly impossible to get the distributors to agree to it – would fair compensation for displaying either initial runs of stock be a nominal rent cost per pocket for the month of sale?
I could be completely wrong but I’m sure that I’ve heard mark throw a couple of numbers around here before on the average cost.
There is still the theft risk – but assuming you’re going to fill that pocket with “some” other title, there is still a product there to be taken.
If the distributor said the first run of a title – you get +1 month billing time to encourage a whole month on display, and no return cost if you keep it on display for the first full month. Throw in a nominal “display fee” for a pocket for the month and provide and that covers it all. Would that be acceptable?
Brendan – I think you are right about agreeance with 1 thing in the initial post. It is wrong to supplementry on a first day.
I also like how people are waiting until the last week for supplementrys. I think it is good.
The rest was Mark letting of steam which I responded too with my steam.
Derek, we musn’t confuse the practices of the distributors withe the publishers. As I said in 24, I have experienced a publisher trying to do the right thing. It may not have been 100% but I expect it was very close./ I actually wanted a title that the publisher thought I may not sell so I did not receive it but the publisher has done a good job ofaccomodating most newsagents. Immediate returns without giving a title any shelf time greatly undermine the efforts of publishers doing their best to accomodate our needs. We should be encouraging their efforts not tearing them down and the best way to do this id give them a chance. Again first day returns are ounter productive. I find some of the practices of a few newsagents amazingly short sighted.
To my mind Peters post sums it up perfectly. It is the same way I manage my magazines and I am experiencing steady growth, are those returning title too early growing or sliding? I bet the later in most cases.
Yes, the system is broken. We can see from a slew of recent announcements that publishers are staring to understand. It may be too late – we’ll wait and see.
The sickness of the distribution system is 100% the responsibility of Gotch and Network. It is their system.
Regardless, it is dumb to early return the day of on sale or well before you have to in terms of end of month cut off in the month of supply or to a point where you cut yourself out of certain sales. This is the core point of my blog post.
Like Brendan, my magazine sales are growing and for that I am grateful. This is helped, in part, by newsagents.
It’s easy, mate. Magazines should be charged only after return. We sent you 65, you returned 62. Here’s the bill for the 3. There are numerous advantages to this system to all parties. Network and GG would have to give up the cash mountain they currently enjoy however.
Newsagent federation needs to negotiate this change and a date at which it will be implemented.
Brendan post 37 ” we musn’t confuse the practices of the distributors withe the publishers”
I have been a newsagent since 1989 and can honestly say I can count on one hand the amount of times a publisher has made contact with me direct about mags. The only magazine contact I have is with NET/GG so this is low level of service I expect and in return I give. IF the publisher want me to sell their mags they they need to offer me some customer service (thats right WE are their customers because they want us to buy their titles to onsell) As has been stated here before on this blog, if we give bad service then the customer goes elsewhere so newsagents are looking at other departments because the mag publishers and distributors offer us bad service. My money goes to people and products who look after me first and offer me better terms then 25% and 20 days eom
There have been posts by publishers on this blog site in the past some with web addresses included. Surveys have been emailed to newsagents by one publisher. The opportunities to contact publishers and give feed back is there. This seems to be a recent development so going back to 1989 in meaningless, we need to embrace the publishers that are currently making efforts to service us better and who knows, maybe other publishers will follow.
Back to the extreme early returns this post is about, they hurt publishers, they hurt us but have no effect on the distributors who are after all a warehousing and courier business and make there money from these activities.
I’ve been doing this since 1989 and nothing has changed Brendan, not now not then. Maybe I am not important enough to get contact from publishers directly, so be it.
The retail market has changed and so have newsagents but mags are offering no different to what they have always done, so a lot of us are looking elsewhere. Let them go to coles/woolies and maybe then they will know what is like to get shafted, they should talk to coke about woolies.
Or am I just a cranky old newsagent.
The majority of newsagents do not send a new title back on day 1. The few that may have are likely to have made an assessment based on their knowledge of their market or have been driven to making such decisions because of the continued drain on their cash-flow from poor supplies. I’d recommend to any publisher that has had this happen, that they contact the individual newsagent to ask why – it may well be that the Distributor has a lot to answer for. Good luck to any publisher who thinks they will have greater success elsewhere. Newsgagents sell more magazines that any other channel by a long shot. Mark your comments about 7-Eleven, Newslink and Supermarkets are poorly formed as none of the above accept magazines without a payment for space – No Publisher or distributor in this country pays newsagencies for their valuable display space. Lets remember that after Supermarkets, newsagents are the most frequented retail outlet. Are there some poor operators? Yes, cut them off. As for Partworks, there is no chance on Earth that supermarkets could handle Partworks. The lengths we take to maintain sales of partworks throughout the series are well outside of the scope of a Supermarket. In England, as with anywhere else in the world, magazines do not sell at the rate they do here – thanks to our newsagents. As someone put it above, perhaps publishers should connect directly with newsagents before a launch – the distributors do not have the goodwill nor the expertise.
20 year, supermarkets are paid for space. Newslink and 7-Eleven, while there are some promotions from time to time, are not paid for space. No, my comments are not poorly formed.
While the majority of newsagents do not early return on day one, enough do for it to be of a serious concern to publishers. For some titles it is over 10% of newsagents who do this.
early returning on day one, early in a month, makes no sense at all.
Now we can continue to bleat about this or accept that there are some dumb newsagents who care less about the future of the channel.
We are our worst enemy by making excuses and protecting our own.
i mainly only early return overseas tittles early . i used to keep them all up untill the last day of the month but after getting shot down by a large publisher for keeping them all i looked at it a different way . The space that they are taking up and not selling any to cover the cost for spacing could be getting used to give better display for magazines that do sell and grow sales from there . i Also swap and change depending on howmuch room i have , at some stages i have way to much of just say quilting mags so something has to go but then other months i have extra room so i will let the new (old) magzines in for a look and see what happens .
Brendan
We have seen media releases, comments and interaction from some Publishers over the last years on this blog.
I have supported 1 publisher which has not been as easy as it seems, that publisher is Lovatts, why because it is Australian and it provides jobs for Australians,, its a top quality Publisher house in my view.
We are in the early stages of openning up communication and making foundations for relationships with the Newsagency channel. This is important for both parties. The distributor is the least important of the 3 however it is the strongest of the 3. Publishers have to begin to grow some and look at avenues to do this.
In general I cannot distinguish between Publishers & Distributors because both have behavioural problems, some are trying to correct them and some are not.
Transparent, open, informative publishers will be the survivalist. Express publications were acting with complete abuse, they have a long way to go before I will consider them a good publishing company, I believe the highlighting on this blog let the world know of their practices.
Using the Newsagency channel to push subscriptions publishers are making a business decision that effects Newsagents, they are driving people away from Newsagents.
We have a right to make our own business decisions, We are in the dark, transparancy, openness is nearly non existant. Morrison Media is the leader of the pack at the moment however more needs to be done. Publishers need to address this for their own longevity.
Until clear communication channels are set up from publishers leaving out the distributor, a similar example that Pacific was doing but performing it better and clearer. A two way street more succinctly.
I also hope its not too late for some publishers. They have to reinvent themselves as well as changing from being the distributors lackey.
margin has to increase to 33.3333% to survive
Luke,
As a new INDEPENDENT publisher I must make one thing clear – WE do not set your margins! The distributors do.
I have no idea what the margin is on my mag and as far as I knew, the reason we pay the large distributors was because they took care of all those kinds of things and had established relationships with newsagents and would ensure our mags got on the shelf, and go only where they were wanted! (I’ve since realized the naiviety of that assumption!)
If I have not contacted you, it is because I didn’t know you’d be receptive to direct contact (and by you, I mean all newsagencies) and would prefer to have all magazines supplied by major distributors than by publishers directly.
If I am wrong about, this please correct me and I will happily take orders directly from newsagencies and not keep paying the big G’s more than I am making!
For $1 per copy distribution fee I could mail copies directly if I knew where to send them…
PS: I am not the publisher of whom Mark speaks (I don’t think!) but I did have this same experience with immediate early returns of my mag from issue 1 and is still only fairly new…
I am encouraging newsagency sales as much as I can and I know that my customers are out there asking for my mag but say they can’t find it and when they ask newsagents if they have it they just get a blank “no” or the newsagency asks the distributor for copies and has no luck… then I get sent back thousands of returns… so frustrating!
Lucy, no you’re not. I have see data from several publishers demonstrating early returns to a level which would see the newsagents involved sell less than their average sale for a title.
If you create a flyer, website or some other order mechanism newsagents can use for direct ordering I’d be happy to promote it here.
FIX THE ACCOUNT AND YOU FIX IT ALL