144 people participated in my Newsagents and the ANF survey. Equitable magazine supply is what people want the ANF engaged in the most while A bill payment platform is what people want the least. These responses are not unexpected.
I am not surprised that the majority want the ANF engaged in Lobbying politicians – something the organisation has done consistently and effectively for years now.
I am surprised by the disinterest in Western Union, A parcel pickup/drop off service and in the ANF Running newsagent industry awards.
Anyone representing newsagents in any role, be it in an newsagent association or some other service organisation, ought to consider these results when planning their activity.
Note: the graph shows the average ranking achieved. The higher the ranking the less interested the responders are in the ANF engaging in this activity.
Anyone wanting a file of all survey responses should email me. The data does not identify individuals so there is no break of privacy. I make this data offer because too often headline results of surveys are used with little transparency of all voting. I will share all voting with anyone who wants it.
Click on the image for a larger version.
What great representation newsagents would have if the associations just concentrated heavily on the top 5 issues that the majority voted on.
You can do it all, but you achieve more by giving 100% to a few tasks than 50% to many tasks.
I was pleasantly surprised where distribution rated but as Amanda said the other day it has a domino affect on retail newsagents.
It appears to almost mirror my response to your survey and it broadly agrees with my response. Your comments re western union and parcel pickup and dispatch, I also had higher (not all of us have the same needs).
However the reversal of the scores to the lowest number as the most significant makes it initially hard to follow till you understand the reversal.
Mark, the paragraph which includes ANF
“being engaged in lobbying politicians – something the organisation has done consistently and effectively for years now” caught me by surprise.
As you have a far greater insight into the activities of the ANF you are undoubtedly more qualified to make this comment.
Given the state of the newsagency channel can you give us instances where this lobbying has been “consistent and effective”?
Agree with Peter it’s not the clearest of graphs. Labelling the axes would be helpful.
The ranking of “running industry awards” does not surprise me in the least.
Awards are simply not a priority. They do nothing to fix problems and are likely to divert resources away from more important issues.
The unequivocal top ranking of equitable magazine supply shows how crippling this issue is for the industry. It MUST be the top priority for all associations. Nothing else should take priority.
While I could have designed the survey better to report the response, the data is there showing what newsagents want and what they don’t want.
That is true
It’s certainly clear result. While your questions were about ANF I don’t think that the respondents would see any difference between the role of ANF and the state associations (VANA etc).
I hope both the ANF and VANA boards take notice of the feedback in a thoughtful way.
The ranking of industry awards doesn’t surprise me. I speak to a lot of newsagents and don’t know many who see this as relevant to their business, but rather seeing as being a night out for rusted on inner circle.
I support Gary’s question regarding political lobbying. If they have been doing any lobbying they’re doing a p poor job of communicating about it.
I am not surprised that the majority want the ANF engaged in Lobbying politicians – something the organisation has done consistently and effectively for years now.
On what with what results?
Jim to be fair to them they have lobbied politicians through all recent elections on small business matters. Their failure is at informing newsagents in a form that is understandable and accessible.
They had a bit of a win recently over tobacco although it’s been put to me that NANA won that and not the ANF. I can’t judge as I don’t have the details.
I made the comment in the post to be fair to the ANF. This is important because on Hubbed some in the organisation think I am unfairly targeting them.
Public holiday penalty rates. When is someone going to do something about public holiday penalty rates. This is a truly unjust situation. Another case of the poor newsagent bearing the brunt. VANA and the like should be fighting this issue to the point of being bolshie about it. Either get FWA to re write the award or get the publishers to pay a loading on delivery. $45 an hour to throw a few newspapers is just ridiculous. really stupid stuff.