March quarter newspaper circulation numbers are out this morning and they show sales in fee fall for some titles. The Age, The Sydney Morning, The Sun-Herald, The Australian Financial Review (Saturday) all reported double digit declines in circulation. Click here for the full numbers as published by B&T.
While reporting declines for most titles but nowhere near the same extent as the Fairfax reported declines, News Limited would have to be happy with the numbers reported, especially for South Australia where thanks to the migration project the company has more control than ever on home delivery circulation. The challenge here for newsagents is the reduction in real-terms of revenue from newspaper home delivery.
Overall, the sales declines are a sobering reminder for newsagents that newspapers lack upside and many instead continue to deliver a sales decline despite continuing investment in marketing.
I wish the a breakdown between retail and home delivery sales.
A question for newsagents: what’s your plan for a newsagency without newspapers? This is at the heart of my Newsagency of the Future discussion.
Is this a demand or supply problem. Over the last month we have been selling out of both the Herald Sun and The Age, often by about 2 in the afternoon. We can only sell what we are supplied. Even with the Herald Sun footy cards our supply was not increased and the authorised agent was selling out too so the problem does not lie there. The result is that newspapers have lost importance to us and we concentrate on magazines the result being double digit growth EVERY month. It’s time for my store to become a Magazine Agent with no emphasis on news.
2 PM and only 2 x Herald Suns left. Me thinks supply is creating falling sales..at least for us.
CM SOLD OUT BY 9AM AUS BY 10 AM FRIGGIN REDICULOUS customer came in and said the sdame haqd happened in the last 2 towns he had past through – whats going on
i always check my supplys on connect weekly, and always get what i ask for. No issue with supply for me (FNQ)
i am FNQ and i am always having a battle with supplies , i adjust and they get changed back and sometimes to less than original .
We have no problem with supply i am in Perth WA. However i have just been asked by a customer about the newspaper and magazine deliveries for $1.80. They are expecting to have a magazine one of the following(Donna Hay, Delicious, Gardening Australia, Vogue ) plus the Sunday Newspaper all delivered for $1.80 per week. So they are cutting us out as retailers and loading up the poor buggers that have to deliver them. I know what i would say if I was delivering??? Our newspapers which is mainly West Australian are holding up with littel loss, if anything a gain. But we are been white anted on the magazines big time. Guess Who?? Rupert.
Dunno where they get these numbers from. Our paper sales are up YoY. Not by much, but up. Mix has changed a bit.
Age is flat but Herald Sun is storming. Home delivery is up. Counter sales are up. Sub agents slightly down.
Maybe they’ve stopped counting freebies to teachers, clubs and such.
At that rate, the print viability of fairfax titles is short term. They’re not even trying to disguise figures anymore.