I’m told that the ACP Magazines subsidiary Network Services is considering launching Cake Decorating, a new partwork title, through Coles and newsagents.
This would break the exclusivity newsagents have had over partworks titles. It would mean the TVC promotes one national brand – Coles – and newsagents.
If my information is right and Network Services does launch Cake Decorating from UK Publisher DiAGOSTINI through newsagents and Coles it would damage the newsagency channel. It would reinforce Coles as a go to retailer for magazines even though Coles would probably not offer the full service put away service offered by newsagents.
Magazine publishers using Network Services and magazine publishers more widely should be concerned by the possible impact of this move.
The only reason I could see Coles wanting to do this would be for the traffic boost from the TVC promotion issue 1. The publisher and their Australian representatives would want the back end subscription business.
Network may say that they have been forced into the move because fewer newsagents are engaging with artworks. I’d want to see evidence of this. Too often suppliers make claims about newsagents and then baulk at proving their claims.
If I am wrong and Cake Decorating will be exclusive to newsagents then I will be thrilled and apologise for shouting off here. If I am write and it will also launch in Coles – shame on you Network and ACP – your support for the channel you say is important to you is noted.
We try to support partworks, but sometimes really hard when for the first issue they only send you 2 copies (the new Marvel one). Partworks are great because they just keep the customer coming back into your store.
Will Coles offer a putaway and back-order service for its customers so they are guaranteed to get the collection?
For us partworks are just too expensive, sure the first issue is a few dollars but then they jump to $15-$20.
In our area we go great guns for the cheap issue then we see almost a 100% drop off once they start paying full price or they work out how much the full set will cost.
If they are coming from the UK and the dollar is so strong we need to ask why are they so expensive and who is ripping who off? Are we just a dumping ground for old stock?
If people are getting repeat business from partworks then go luck to you but for us, we stock the first few issues and then they all die a natural death of no sales, and if the mag companies want to get subscription customers by offering cheap issues then great but be honest with everyone and maybe offer us better margins to promote the start of the series.
So if this is the case do we make a point and early return all stock of this title or do we what seems to normally be the case and complain and take no other action ?
I’d be more inclined to take this as an opportunity to educate who do want the part works and a put away service the we are the go to place for “Service”. They will soon get sick of hit and miss stock supply at Coles……unless Coles are given generous supply quantities that we currently do not enjoy after about part 3 of most series. That would be a travesty.
What ii will do is post the subscripions back to them.All this has been done before in coles and k mart ,had bins all that , will go the same way as coles look alikes and of their will be no bin or our large display IN OUR STORE .SILLY BASTARDS SHIT IN YOUR NEST
The real silly part is when the merchandizer comes into the store to “promote the new partworks” and 3 times this year alone we have had no supplies.
The merchandizer then says “oh well I’ve done my job – I came to do it so it’s not
my fault if there is no stock”
This industry needs a bomb under it!
This morning alone, I had $250 worth of
unsaleable stock due to stock being wet
and damaged (yes I do have a dry dock
for them but the deliverers couldn’t care
less and dump them all over the ground)
If only the publishers could see the way
the goods are packed they would have apoplexy.
Top and bottom items (one was $32.50)
totally wrecked with strapping and thrown into a puddle is a normal delivery
for me.
IPS do it perfectly. Top and bottom protected with posters (paper) and then
strapped. I have NEVER had one item from them badly packed. GG and Network
need to get their act together.
How hard is it to do that job? A well trained monkey could do it. I know that
because I’ve done it for 33 years and wouldn’t dream of delivering stock in such
a condition as to render it unsaleable.
didnt a cake decorating partworks go into kmart about 20 years ago and yes they got heaps of stock
Really? If you doubt Partwork sales look at your POS figures and return at your own lose.
Yes averill it did and had stock every were,do not seem to get do they
If Coles does get this partwork it will hurt newsagents more than the comments here indicate.
Mark, newsagents will have no say in where partworks or any other magazine is sold. To think we actually matter to network or anyone else is a dream. As small business owners we are bottom of the food chain for all suppliers as the see the $$$ but not the damage to brand that coles/woolies offer.
BUT what we will have is the history that everything coles buys into hurts the supplier in the end as they grab and burn everything they get their hooks into. You would think network would do due diligence about the way they operate before becoming another slave to the multi?
With the recent Marvel part 1 we sold out our 10 copies in 2 days the same with Agatha Christie. But here is the problem with the Mavel issue, they are giving not only a dollar saving if you subscribe direct but also bonus items not included if you buy from the newagent? We had 1 person requesting a putaway till they saw the bonus items then rang and cancelled the putaway. Why do we not get these items as well in our packs.
What it comes down to is publishers use the Newagents as the hook to get the subscriptions for themselves and bugger the newsagent after the first few cheap issues. It will be interesting to see how Coles handle this, imagine Coles being asked to do a putaway?
We do some putaways but i am getting sick of being used in this way.
The lack of fight among newsagents is sad.
Who and what are we fighting Mark, are we fighting network, are we fighting Coles are we fighting publishers? For us partworks have been a joke for decades for all the reasons commented on here plus as you yourself have commented we lost the magazine fight when deregulation happened. What is sad is that we still think we have a say in it. If Coles/woolies want something then the suppliers will walk over our bones to give it to them, but no point pissing into the wind. As you again have commented Mark we now have to look at something new that the majors do not yet have a hold of and us ethat as our point of difference. There is holes in their offer that we can easily fill but not a head on battle.
I’m sure you have read the Art of War Mark, we choose our battles, the battles we can at least compete in if not win.
what are you doing to stop this?
I agree with you Mark newsagent just bend over and take ,we need to stand up and fight or keep going down the path of no return tell them to shove it do something agents for god sake make a choice because we will here .Most likey we will get over 100 or more what i chose to do with them in relation to sale will be up to network but i am drawing the line in the sand .I will do my bit it is up the rest of you to stand up and be counted
Jim,
Never lose the passion you have…..i love your enthusiasm !!!!!
Al
Partworks have always been a mixed blessing to Newsagents. The publisher takes advantage of the retail network to promote the cut price first few parts purely to gather as many subscibers as possible. Thats fine by me as I see my job as selling our putaway service and informing punters of the disadvantages of subscription. Build the Endevour is now at part 110 and I still have 3 orders for it at $14.99 per week plus add on sales.
As for Coles stocking partworks – my local store still has the old Better Homes & Gardens on shelves (Friday) so imagine how they would cope with putways.
Another thing to consider with partworks is that an i pad version will not work so the publishers will still be (reluctanly) sending customers to our stores…
Let the publishers dance with the devil I say. You can bet Coles has negotiated a different supply deal to that of regular newsagents. Every day there are suppliers bitching about being screwed over by Coles and Woollies. Welcome News, Fairfax, Network and Gotch to the real world of supply deals and margins.
The demise of hard copy publications is a self fullfilling prophesy. Publishers had a branded differentiated product sold through specialist retailers with an exclusive access home delivery chain. Now they want to commodotise their product by selling it through a retail chain whose marketing moto is “prices are down”. They also want to compete for home distribution with non profit, government funded, globally available, news generators.
Pleading with publishers to”do the right thing” is ridiculous. They are on off on a self destruct “Don Quixote” race to the bottom and newsagent are one of a number of channels they will use. Lets just get on with selling their product among the other products we have on offer and wish them good luck in their future dealings with Coles and Woollies.
Luke have not said that and have not read the book.
My comment about fighting was more of s reflection on the lack of apparent concern among newsagents in what could be a significant structural change for newsagents.
What will happen at coles is that they will only take my be 1to 2or 3 .The idear is to cut us out and people go direct to them so remove your sub order forms folks ,AS JIM SAID STAND UP
Go for it mark agents have no balls no wonder they are going out the the back door part works can mean big value sales plus add ond these are newsagents people
I am not going to do anything. Newsagents need to do something – if they are concerned.
Luke, why should Mark do anything?
He is a newsagent like the rest of us.
He is not our redeemer – we should be
doing that for ourselves.
As for “the art of war” well newsagents
have had many “pyrrhic victories” where
the price of winning the war can be too
high to justify going to war.
Mark, has, at all times communicated with
our “nemeses” (distributors) and has kept
open those lines so much better than any
association has ever done for us.
That does not mean that he has taken on
the mantle of “saviour” and nor should he.
Give him a break.
t
Mark, thanks for letting us know what maybe happenning. I do not think their is an industry or a business channel that is abused by its suppliers than the Newsagency channel is.
Print distribution companies do not see us as customers at all and that will eventually be their downfall. Jim is right and strategy also can play its part on subsequent issues. Newsagents must look at themselves as customers not slaves to the Print distribution oppression system currently affecting the industry.
Hmmm, what sort of action DO we take? The best I can suggest is that each issue we sell includes payment for the next issue or we don’t sell it. Sort of a next issue subscription. I don’t know if this is the answer but getting out of this segment of the market is not the answer. Offering the customer something different and better for us is. We need to be smarter in how we retain customers for part works and some form of in house subscription may serve the purpose.
The only way forward is for the distribution
network to increase our %. Incentivisation is always the answer and
just telling us we don’t have to pay for a few weeks is not enough for us. That doesn’t pay the rent/wages/utilities etc.
We have become accustomed to delayed
gratification and we need some instant
gratification to keep us viable.
Ticketek, lotto, bus tickets, recharge facilities are all going to be delivered digitally/online so the old hoary chestnut
of “bringing people into our stores” is done and dusted.
We need money to keep going and without
cashflow we will be made redundant.
Papers are on the demise but magazines
are holding up and we need to be demanding a larger % to handle their product.
Maybe we should be going to the publishers themselves and bypassing the
distributors to let them understand that
their product will NOT be on our shelves if
they don’t lift our margins. Then, of course, we all need to follow through if we
are not successful in our demands.
Surely the publishers won’t want their product returned unopened because they
refuse to come into the 21st century with us?
June, when I asked Mark what he was going to do it was one newsagent asking another and the answer is simple, NOTHING as independent operators we have no pull what so ever, I never asked him to save us. We lost magazines when deregulation happened and for those that have joined us after, it was when the majors got hold of the top selling titles direct instead of through newsagents. That was when we lost magazines not now and not once they have a go at partworks. There are so many holes in their offer that allow us to offer superior service and offers but to think we can stop them from taking what they want is childish at best.
Mark is not our saviour as he is one voice like the rest of us no more, we will never stop coles/woolies getting into areas we now have as they act as one unit instead of 5000 or so small operators. Get over magazines in supermarkets as they are not making them money so will never be a major pull card, all they will be is an add on to people who are already shopping. We lost that batle years ago but the war for survival goes on. As for partworks you can keep them if they make you money but from someone that has been operating for 23yrs they are a waste of time as they draw people away from us with bonus offers for subscription and also make us look bad when they cut our supply. We are simply a dumping ground for oversupply from the US and UK.
And before anyone has a go about not fighting then again I say I have been doing this for 23yrs and made all the changes I need to to still be in business until I decide to move not get pushed out by someone else, i have seen loads come and go both newsagents and competitors so don’t talk to me about fighting as this is what I do. Read Art of War as a business book it gives you ways and means to fight and win.
phew!!!!
Yeah Rick phew. And people wonder why I say the newsagency shingle is redundant. We are killing the channel from the inside out.
Luke, like a lot of us, you are frustrated
at the position in which we all find ourselves.
All is not lost – more of the same will mean
more pain so we MUST pursue something
different from what we have done in the past.
I don’t know what that is yet but I’m going
to the gift fair next week to have a good
look for that elusive “something”.
If I find it I will tell newsagents what it was
but in the meantime if we all seek out a new “something” and share it we might all
prosper, not merely survive.
I’m sorry I did not think this was twitter. Did it take you too long to read it? Do you disagree with any of this and if so what is your opinion if any Rick?
June like we have seen over time the majors are always on the look out for the next new thing so if we can hit them in areas they are weak we can take customers from them and not only survive but grow.
Mark I would think you would would want opinions in your blog not just yes men?
Not sure why you ask the question of me Luke? You know that this place encourages comments. We’re at 30,520 and counting.
My comment, 30 above, is about how far off track we get. This thread shows how separated, and precious is some cases, we have become.
That said, it is what it is.
HI MARK HOW ARE NEWSAGENTS KILLING THE CHANNEL FROM INSIDE I MUST BE MISSING SOMETHING
John,
I start from the premise that the channel is the businesses with the NEWSAGENCY shingle.
Visit 100 and you see 100 different businesses.
Talk to 100 and you hear 100 different vies on core product offers.
Discuss future strategy with 100 and you hear 100 different business plans.
Debate a topic with 100 and you get 100 different positions and very little movement toward consensus for the sake of the value of the shared shingle.
As I understand it, “Newsagents” were originally established by publishers as their “Agents” to ensure the distribution, marketing, and retailing of their product according to the standards and locations they desired.
The minute “deregulation” occurred, “Newsagents” as a specific concept ceased to exist. So the notion of Newsagents as a homogeneous single values movement with a “shingle” is in my opinion not realistic. The industry is made of 4000 individual small businesses. Unless a genuine McDonalds style franchise model is, I believe this to be an unrealistic expectation. This is not to say that the the industry should not try and exercise its market strength. However the disparity of markets, business sizes, owner skills etc makes creting a united front very difficult.
Frankly if we cant out retail Coles in selling papers, magazines, cards etc we probably shouldnt be in the business.
Mark your comment number 35 is so true.
Newsagents are becoming either bankrupt, or something other than a traditional newsagent. There is no other way. I see a lot of concern on this blog about the erosion of profits out of trad lines like papers and mags. I think trad newsagents should just get over past injustices and start living in 2012/3. Perhaps we wont be talking about newsagencies in 2018. We will still be talking about many of the lines todays newsagencies carry. We will be convenience stores or gift shops with bonus cards and mags.
Ido beleive dora is in target