Victorian newsagents have been hit with newspaper supply cuts from News Corp. as the company seeks to reduce returns volume. As a consequence, many newsagents have been without the Herald Sun and The Australian from mid morning. Getting extra stock that day has been as impossible as setting a requirred supply quantity according to newsagents I have spoken with.
One newsagent has been losing sales of 50 to 70 copies a day while another lost several hundred sales over the weekend.
I can’t work out why News would be happy to lose newspaper sales like this. There are some in the company who are working hard at helping newsagents deal with the situation while others have overseen the process that has created the problem.
How ironic. Newspapers short and magazines to many. One trying to save costs by underprinting and one printing as many as possible to increase profits. Is the model broke or what? Is Coles and woolies running out of copies. I know I have bought copies from them just to stop my customers going there and been told I am not allowed to. And of course the figures then become further distorted because the sales go to Coles and not me???.
In SA News has been giving copies of the The Advertiser away at newsagencies after 2.00pm in Adelaide. Yet in the country our supply is closely monitored and cutbacks are common crazy stuff.
This type of marketing is destroying the value of the paper not just in monetary terms, but also in respect to the brand
Just my opinion, but the easiest way for any publisher to reduce return rates, is to move away from supplying on a sale or return basis and go to firm sale.We all know our business, we know our local area, the seasonal variations due to tourism, we know when one off local events are happening that will increase sales and most of us have years worth of sales data to make accurate estimates for orders. Subbies may not like it, granted, but everyone needs to be responsible for their own patch instead of screaming for extra supply but shrugging their shoulders when they don’t sell them.
I for one would be all for it.
give me 50% comm and im all for it
John H,
I’d hazard a guess that the vast majority of newsagents, myself included, would not even entertain the thought of going firm sale.
Magazine sales are simply too erratic. There are too many factors out of our control that influence sales such as add-ons, cover images and specific content. They are also a highly time-sensitive product, meaning that inevitably retailers would order fewer copies and attempt to sell out rather than order too many have some left over.
Firm sale would also make entry into the market much harder with many retailers unlikely to take a risk on a new product. The same goes for expanding a range with existing titles that a retailer currently doesn’t receive.
There are enough newsagents who would do firm sale to make it worthwhile. However, firm sale does not play out well for the audit model on which magazine publishers rely.
This post is about newspapers though. It’s frustrating that newsagents, especially in tourist locations, lose sales.
We are having a lot of issues with News Limited deliveries. They are flying in Cairns Post three days a week and not the Australian or Courier Mail so we are n ot getting any at all on those days. Other days should be on a coach line but there are issues there too. I have just discussed this with their rep this morning and have been told well the digital option is available. The older customers can’t even turn on a computer. Perhaps I could start up a digital paper “café” and charge l users to read their paper on it but I suspect most of my customers like to put there feet up, read and snooze with the real thing. I don’t see myself having papers at all n the not too distant future.
I do not understand how on Tuesday 29/10 News Ltd sent us emails advising us to increase supply by their recommended levels which I (and I assume most agents dutifully did) so on Thursday 31/10 we get emails saying basically that we ordered too much and everyone has been cut back 2 1/2%??? You want to know about frustrating try getting abused daily by customers Sat sold out before 2pm, Sun sold out before 11.30 today sold out 12.10. My store is in a rural area,town full of visitors right now you cant get a car park any where near the high street and all I am getting is either abuse or potential customers telling me they will go somewhere “Better” to get their paper. To quote a popular term on this blog UGH!!!!!
Jarryd, as Mark said this discussion is about newspapers. I said nothing about magazines.Totally different kettle of rotting fish heads.
Woops, that’s what I get for reading this on a mobile!
We’d certainly entertain the idea of firm sale for newspapers. There is a more much more limited number of products in comparison with magazines and sales are generally more predictable (less reliant on impulse factors). However as Mark iterates it is incongruent with the model that newspaper publishers and advertisers use.
News Corp would do well to look at the supplies & returns of the supermarkets before newsagents. But that would make sense.