Fairfax in Tasmania appears to be taking the migration of newspaper home delivery account management away from newsagents sfurther than News Limited has done so far in its own migration moves thus far.
Fairfax appears to be requiring newsagents to give up, without compensation, newsagent developed intellectual property around run delivery details including layout and sequence.
As with the imposition by News Limited of an 80 cent a copy fee on The Adelaide Advertiser being delivered in the Port Lincoln region, I wonder if the Fairfax move in Tasmania is a trial of a possible national approach.
Fairfax is taking complete control of newspaper home delivery of its products and apparently cutting newsagents out of everything except for being a courier service delivering product as directed. However, the fairfax moves only address fairfax titles. Some drivers will have other titles. My information is that some drivers will go from one run handling three titles using a single consistent approach managing the delivery in three different ways. The time and OHS issues here are considerable.
Today, customers receive one account for multiple titles. Fairfax will bill separately and in advance – a move affected newsagents say will hurt sales.
Whereas today newsagents handle stops and starts in one system, the system they operate, there will now be two systems – one for Fairfax and one for everything else.
Whereas with migration in South Australia the newsagent continues to manage the sequence of each delivery run, with the Fairfax Tasmania moves the publisher seems set to seize this responsibility for themselves, considerably altering the business activity of the newsagent.
This move, if my understanding is correct, could dramatically cut the value of delivery newsagencies.
Further,from what I can see, Fairfax is directing home delivery customer payment traffic away from newsagents.
Another question here is what will happen with News Limited product delivery? How will newsagents handle this. Today, they magazine titles from multiple publishers into a cohesive run for each geographic territory. The Fairfax Tasmania moves appear to block this approach – unless News in party to any such move to centralise managing newspaper distribution runs.
Is what we see happening in Tasmania being contemplated for elsewhere. This is the same question I have in relation to the 80 cent a copy surcharge by News Limited in South Australia on The Adelaide Advertiser for the Port Lincoln region.
Farcical and good luck to them getting the data without compensation. The “delete” button is looming large and then where do they go. In my corporate and newsagency business lives, Ive never seen such a debacle as the way both major publishers have handled this distribution restructure.
my money is that it’ll go pear shaped and won’t be rolled out nationally. If that happened to me here in VIC, I wouldn’t hesitate to drop Fairfax titles and continue on with the rest. See where that gets them.
Some newsagents I have spoken with feel they have no choice. They are feeling considerable pressure. I wrote about it here in the hope other newsagents would offer support.
I would not hesitate to tell Fairfax to go take a jump and hand the entire run back to them. we all know that its impossible for it to be done cheaper or better than newsagents currently do it, call their bluff
The challenge is that Fairfax owns a newspaper distribution business in launceston.
does not alter my position, but needs to be a coordinated decision by all newsagents. take the hit now and maybe change their decision, or take the hit later when they decide they don’t need us anymore, and that day is fast approaching. they seem to forget how much we do for the pittance they provide.
Rick I understand and am inclined to agree with you on this. Our decision, our timing.
Do you know is this all Tasmanian newsagents or just a selected few, and is this happening in the two major cities and/or rural towns?
How can any newsagent be forced to hand over details of their non subscription customers?
Are they being threatened with non supply of papers if they don’t?
Make sure you ask customers before handing over any info ,I asked mine and they all said no do not give out any info about me ,unbelievable they all said the same thing
Martin Niemöller:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
Without detailed local knowledge, any attempt to restructure the direction and layout of a delivery run is doomed to failure.
Forget GPS and street directories, unless you actually KNOW the streets you cannot create a more efficient run flow than what a driver of experience has created for themselves.
The idea that a desk jockey with a degree in going to morning tea has anything like the know how to take this structure out of the hands of the experienced operators gives us a very good clue as to the direction that Fairfax is headed. Personally very glad I don’t own any of their shares.
The Fairfax titles are in such low proportions in many areas’ overall delivery numbers makes this proposal all the more laughable.
If they weren’t piggy backing on the News and local titles they would not be a viable delivery proposition.
I’d suggest the publisher gets its publishing house and dwindling title list in order and leave the retail and delivery of their product to the people who are at the coal face. Believe it or not, but the professional retailer has an interest in helping the publisher INCREASE their sales, but will be ever less likely to come to the aid of the dying dinosaur who arrogantly still thinks it knows better.
Guys,
Newsagents in SA have supplied FULL copies of runs to News, in either hard copy or html (for tablets etc) for 3 yrs.
This is seen as protection for our business should a disaster strike our family. News (in SA) have made it quite clear this data WILL NOT be used for any other purpose than for a emergency relief effort, and YES it has been used a couple times with success – and yes the newsagent still has his run without any effect.
I have seen first hand where a distribution territory has been taken from a newsagent and within 2 weeks a full set of working runs has been developed. The concept of “I’ll delete it” rather than pass on, achieves nothing. Desk jockey’s using spatial planning can achieve this (currently been investigated/used in WA)
I don’t know what Fairfax’s motive is, however if they develop along News’s Connect file transfer systems (as in SA) then Newsagents may benefit from reduced work load. If Fairfax used this approach in SA, personally I don’t see any delivery or software issues. Probably just a change in sequencing procedures.
I’m sure not all will agree with me!
I do agree with Mark – it would be useful if Fairfax placed their cards on the table. Then the ANF, Newsagents and Fairfax could (hopefully) come together for a solution for print distribution in the digital age.
John
I ask again – is this happening to all Tasmanian newsagents?
Do they have a strong home delivery service through out their state or have newsagents been handing back their territories recently?
Jenny, northern Tasmania at the moment. These newsagents have strong home delivery businesses. Only a few have got out.
If Fairfax own a distribution business in Launceston and I had a newsagency anywhere in northern Tas I’d be worried they will take home deliveries away from newsagents, but in other states not so sure.
Why would they invest in home delivery when they are pushing digital?
John….not liking the sound of what’s happening in Tasmania but as always you bring some perspective to this blog.
John, from what I can see, the Fairfax move is different to SA. Their engagement with stakeholders alone is quite different – I say this from personal experience. Tasmanian newsagents, on the basis of what they currently know, have every reason to be concerned – and therefore all distribution newsagents have every reason to be concerned.
Newsagents have developed IP for their runs and this is, in part what allows them to charge goodwill when they sell. Giving a supplier the ability to use the IP without compensation disrespects the newsagent investment.
Distribution newsagents remember, yours is a business, not a pieceworker in a factory in India or China. You need to be treated as a business.
John,
Do you not see it also as giving the publisher the ability to remove that run from you with ease should you ever have a dispute with that publisher?
I have seen this occur in NSW, so either you are being very trusting in those publishers not performing such actions or very naive that they can and will.
Amanda,
No, not naive at all – The only way (under existing contracts) for the publisher to remove us, is to give 6 months notice or to issue 3 breach notice’s within 12 months.
As I said with a fully migrated database, any “desk jockey”could reproduce the IP in the runs we use, it may take a couple of weeks, but within 4 weeks it would be as good as we have now.
Never under estimate the resources of the publishers.
Why would a publisher want my run? In SA, News Ltd have just gone through a process of divesting themselves of HD runs!
We have been successful Delivery Only for 26 yrs – and still making a reasonable living. I see the biggest problem is the lack of trust by many newsagents.
Please remember SA is very different to the eastern states, plus we have had the advantage of a very effective working relationship between the ANF and News Ltd.
Now all of this could change at anytime – but the costs for News/Fairfax to deliver the last 5 meters is far greater than using an expert delivery agent.
At some point Newsagents will need to start to work with News/Fairfax and stop fighting – or print delivery will be dead.
John
John, your comments may be appropriate for your very unique situation in South Australia only.
You are not covering the extraordinary backlash against the migration you as ANF Director reportedly told News would be okay. There was a mass meeting in Adelaide with hundreds attending, a meeting which ultimately led to significant changes to what was proposed. This meeting demonstrated a lack of trust in the initial migration approach. Newsagents benefited from the changes.
The reason I have written abut what is happening in Northern Tasmania is because it is different to what happened in SA, to bring newsagents into the conversation. Newsagents across Australia must be part of the conversation. The silo approach is unfair.
On your last point, print delivery will die – all that’s happening right now is arguing about what the last days look like.
I am seeking some feed back from newsagents in North Qld about giving all subagent and run details to News limited . To date i have refused to just hand this info over to them but today they are on my back again ,they are saying myself and another newsagent in town are the only ones that have not handed their run details over ,i would love to hear from others that have not handed their info over .
Well i contacted all subagents today and all said no to handing over their info to QLD News . Tomorrow i will have it all in writing from each one signing off that they do not wish to have any of their info handed over .