The Australian yesterday ran a story about newsagents yesterday: Signs of hope after agents battered by print fallout. Written as a puff piece to promote Hubbed Connect, I say it is incomplete for these reasons:
- The headline: Signs of hope… yes, there are signs of hope but not because of a bill payment service but because smart newsagents are thinking and acting as retailers and not as agents.
- Plenty of newsagents love newspaper home delivery and don’t see it as thankless. They see the News Corp. controlled fees as thankless. Portraying it as that only serves the purpose of the article.
- News Corp. itself has played a key role in the state of newsagency businesses in Australia: For decades it has forced newsagents to deliver newspapers for a fraction of the real cost of providing the service; for many years it held the cover price of its products down, causing newsagents to make less each year in real terms; News controlled who became newsagents yet it did not use this control to build a strong and viable channel.
- Not all retail newsagents sell lottery products. I would guess that around a third of all retail newsagents don’t have lotteries. This is important since the article says ANF data show 30% of newsagency traffic comes from lottery product sales. I don’t have lotteries in any of my businesses and I’m not complaining at all.
- The article says the last year has been the toughest for newsagents yet there is no explanation of how this conclusion was reached. I know of plenty of newsagents how increased sales last year by being entrepreneurial. Such balance is not included because it does not serve the purpose of the article.
- The number of delivery only newsagents is wrong. A quick check with News circulation people could have confirmed that.
- The article quotes an ANF representative saying Connect is a game-changer for newsagents. The article should have tested this, interviewed newsagents who have already implemented their own game-changer strategies. It should has asked how it is a game-changer beyond pitching to newsagents in 2013 something Australia Post has had for many years and offers today in a retail format far more advanced than what is being proposed to newsagents.
- There is no disclosure of the ANF having a shareholding in the Hubbedd Connect platform promoted in the article.
- There is no disclosure that Matt hand bury is a relative of Rupert Murdoch, CEO of the company that published The Australian.
- In February 2012 I wrote that News Corp. was in crisis in relation to newspaper home delivery. The company denied it was in crisis in a range of public forums yet it did not challenge the evidence of considerable newsagency closures. The company since responded with new terms for newsagents and by this action indicating that it was in part a cause of the crisis.
There are many newsagents who have successfully reinvented their businesses, newsagents achieving growth in shopper traffic and growth in revenue on the back of their own entrepreneurial efforts. Why does The Australian not cover that?
Yes, retail is tough and being a newsagent is hard work. This article in The Australian is written to serve a commercial purpose and for that reason it is incomplete and inaccurate.
Thanks for the post Mark. The Australian article does not mention that News have been screwing over agents for years and will continue to do so with the change to a flat delivery fee. This article also
reinforces me to think that the ANF should not have accepted 5% share in Hubbed and now Hubbed (with ANF quote)using a News publication to push their product aghhhh. Does anyone have the real numbers that have signed up for Hubbed ?600 quoted for rollout?
Interesting, I must find this article to read.
Click on the link Jenny.
Point 2 plenty of newsagents love home delivery where are they because they certainly don’t say that here and really the tone of your responses is negative – glass nearly empty, maybe they need to interview you Mark.
Paul I would wish they interviewed any of the many newsagents reporting excellent year on year growth.
the last line isn’t that different from what you have been saying it reads–“Some level of consolidation is not necessarily a bad thing. You are probably seeing the stronger newsagents taking market share,” he says. “There might be some more consolidation to come but ultimately, if you get better-run newsagents as a result, that is probably good.”
Paul consolidation isn’t a bad thing. The article is about more than this last line though. It paints a picture that is inaccurate.
Do/will their readers understand/know this I doubt it very much wrong or right it will be forgotten by tomorrow
Yes it will.
I love home delivery – yep i dream about it all night just keen as ever waiting for that lovely sound to come out of that DAMM ALARM CLOCK .(wife probaly loves it even more than me because she is the one that i tell to hit the snooze button every 5 min)
Mark, you should invite sally Jackson to do a follow up story on the “real Newsagents” and why life is tough in our channel. Would love to hear her response to your invitation.
Pretty crappy article and photo.
‘Print fallout’ ? Yes it’s slowing, but it’s not killing our businesses.
P, hands up here, ok maybe we don’t ‘love’ home delivery but nor do we hate it. At the end of the day it’s a job that we and many others chose to do, if it pays well do it, if it doesn’t get out. Your choice. If that many newsagents hate it then why are so many running successful distribution businesses?
Jenny i think the “ïf it pays well do it” is the key it doesn’t but like us our customers come first which is why we do it.I may be wrong but lets see the future newsagents do it I doubt very much they will
Scale is the key for success in suburban areas whereas customer connection and viable fees are keys to success in regional / rural areas when it comes to home delivery.
We are regional and although viable fees are extremely important scale (retail only newsagents) is the key to our success.
P, our customers are very important to us also but if we weren’t making decent money we would not do distribution.
Getting up early, cancelling our social events due to staff hassles, late Sunday papers, car and wrapping machine problems is not fun.
I see our customers in other newsagencies so home delivery does not guarantee faithfulness. They shop where it suits them on the day.