For years, Fairfax has taken a back seat on many issues relating to newspaper distribution and home delivery. Through then on/off T2020 discussions, fairfax has publicly said that they will most likely follow the News Limited lead.
Recent events suggest that Fairfax is no longer taking a back seat. Indeed, the company appears to have an new agenda. I have two stories to share.
A newsagent in financial difficulty put their hand up for help. An agreement was reached to quickly sell the business to a larger distribution only operator. News Limited agreed, Fairfax said they would consider it four weeks later. In the meantime, the financial situation of the vendor necessitated an urgent move. The purchasing distribution agent took on the business. Fairfax cancelled the contract, saying they do not recognise the larger distribution business. They handed the territory to another newsagent, a newsagent who will not make money delivering the lower penetration newspaper of the three daily newspapers delivered in this area.
The Fairfax decision does not make sense. It’s a break with how the company has operated for years. It could disadvantage customers. It certainly disadvantages the distribution newsagent as they now have some quite inefficient deliveries to complete – they will be driving down streets being serviced by the other distribution newsagent, a business with a greater distribution density.
The News Limited approach was more commercial. The Fairfax decision seems, from where I sit, to have been political and petty.
Here is the second story.
Fairfax was recently approached by a newsagent who had upgraded to the windows version of their newsagency software to help with what appeared to be a data discrepancy. I’m told fairfax representatives took a copy of the data back to their office, to match it up with the Fairfax data. I’m told Fairfax invoiced the newsagent tens of thousands of dollars based on what they found in the data. The newsagent asked for that issue to be shelved until the newsagent got the original data issue resolved. I’m told Fairfax refused and advised they would not assist in resolving the data issue until the invoice was paid. I’m also told that Fairfax threatened the newsagent with cancellation of the contract.
The newsagent did not pay and I’m told the contract is cancelled as of this week and another local newsagent found to do the deliveries of the Fairfax titles.
These two stories reflect, in my view, a backward step in much needed newspaper distribution consolidation. For years, Victoria led the way forward. Now, it appears, Victoria is leading the way backward in terms of handling Fairfax titles.
Newsagents are left wondering about the Fairfax agenda and whether the company is hell-bent on breaking the newsagent channel. The company certainly seems to be against the larger distribution-only businesses, preferring to deal with smaller independent newsagents for its titles.
I wonder what News Limited makes of all this…
Pretty surprised there are no comments about this.
I was horrified when I read this post at how these newsagents were treated.
We acquired 3 neighbouring territories and had excellent support from News and Fairfax, and this support has continued.
Could these problems be because one party doesn’t have a good relationship with the other party? It’s totally wrong but it does happen.
The same here.
Support from News and Fairfax when taking over neighbouring territories has always been great. Could not of been more helpful.
Mark, I would suggest there is more to the story than what you were told. This is very different to my experiences with both News and Fairfax.
What exactly was it that they found in the data?
Has the newsagent commenced litigation or were they knowingly in breach of their contract?
Experienced the same thing in Newcastle, NSW.
Were told by a Fairfax Media representative that we were getting too big, even though he had also admitted we were one of the best distribution agents in the region.
What they did were unlawful, predatory practices. ANF would not return calls, NANA did not want to get involved and were no help.
When is someone going to stand up to these companies?
Amanda, if you don’t mind me asking how long ago was this and how many Faifax areas did you have?
We had two territories, they asked us to take over a third which we did, although it did not suit our interests but we agreed because we thought if a particular fourth territory came up it would make the run more efficient and reduce costs. When the fourth territory came up, Nationwide News had no problem handing us the territory, but Fairfax did, and told a neighbouring agent that they would have to take it on.
This all happened within the past 5 years.
More recently, Fairfax in this region has decided to move territories which have been handed back or gone broke to petrol stations rather than newsagents. It appears the petrol stations can then open there store up to resemble a more “Newsagency-like” appearance selling a wider range of newspapers, magazines and now LOTTO!
Just another way our “newsagency partners” are supporting our industry !!!!