The latest issue of Modern Wedding has three extra titles bagged with it. In fact, the package is so fat that we can only fit one copy in a pocket in one of my newsagencies.
It sucks that our space is used like this. In supermarkets, a publisher wanting extra space has to pay for it. In our stores, we are expected to accommodate a fat issue ourselves.
The space an issue occupies is another consideration for newsagents when assessing whether to early return a title.
Why leave them in their bags, put only the relevant magazine on sale and dump the rest. we do that with some of the bag magazines and it makes no difference to sales. The only customers who seek the extra bagged mags are quilters.
Ian I either display the whole product or not at all. My plan here is to watch sales to April 22 or 23 and then decide it’s fate.
Bagged FREE magazines are one of my favourite subjects The packaging means they are taller and partially block out the mag behind it, they are fatter meaning that sometimes you need to give them an additional face and they are a pain to return as they take longer to rip the top off. Mostly they dont sell any more either as you cant browse the mag. Browsers like to see what is inside. Regulars buy the same mag without looking and more often than not they already have the FREE mag. I would love to see the research that says bagged mags sell more.