We have started work on expanding our offering of gardening magazines. The first step was to move the segment to just below our weeklies. We did this on the weekend. While customers have to reach down to purchase these titles, we think they will. The titles will certainly be noticed because the weeklies are located above – out of shot in the photo.
We are working on our range of gardening magazines by ordering titles we want. Any magazine distributor people reading this – this post is NOT your cue to sign us up for whatever you think. We will do with this category what we have done for food – the results of our work over several months there speak for themselves. Brilliant … unit sales are up 100% year on year – well ahead of the channel trend.
I was asked last week by a newsagent why we spend so much time working on magazines if they are a declining category in the business. Our work on magazines is focused on sales today and in the short to medium term. I think that well run newsagencies with a professionally managed magazine offer have an opportunity to grow sales. So, there is a financial return for this attention. I am seeing this and this is what drives my attention.
Newsagents who treat magazines poorly and delegate responsibility to someone with little of no skin on the sales outcome will see sales respond to this.