IPS has been promoting The Saturday Paper to newsagents in advance of the launch in a couple of weeks. They are reminding newsagents that our commission will be 27%:
The much-anticipated launch issue of The Saturday Paper – Australia’s first new national newspaper in forty years – is out March 1.
From the publisher of the Monthly and Quarterly Essay, The Saturday Paper will publish long-form journalism each week on the country’s most important issues. It will be distributed into New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT through newsagents and home delivery, and will not be available in supermarkets. Published 48 times a year, the paper will earn newsagents a 27% commission on sales.
The addition of a new weekly independent voice is a significant event in Australia’s news media. The Saturday Paper is expected to attract back to the market customers who drifted away from buying weekend newspapers, as well as to become another regular purchase of existing customers.
Mark, is the 27% to be shared between
the retailer and the newsagent or does
the retailer only get 12.5%.
To be fair it should be shared so the %
for that item should be changed in the retailer system.
As usual SA is missing out and it makes me really cross.
Why should we have to explain to customers (who have been talking to us about the paper for months) that it will only be going to Victoria, NSW and ACT.
Is it going to regional Victoria etc or only
to the metropolitan areas?
I note IPS are doing the delivery???????
I understand the retailer will get 81 cents out of which they will give the subagent a commission.
The delivery agent will get 81 cents per copy
Can anyone tell me why we are getting 81cents to sell this in our shop but for the 5 (so far) home delivered to subscribers we will still only get 81cents.
No delivery fee on top of commission?????
Three different country towns to deliver papers to for no re numeration.
WHO authorised this?????????????????
Jenny
Do you have to home deliver it? IPS is a mag distributor do you home deliver any other IPS distributed newspapers like The New Zealander or International express? I’m in WA so I’m not privileged enough to get the Saturday Paper therefore I don’t know the full story but if their not paying you deliver it I’d say don’t deliver it.
Steve,
No we don’t have a contract with them for home deliveries. We deliver International Express to some of our customers and we charge a home delivery fee for doing this.
These are customer paid subscriptions that should go thru the mail like magazine subscriptions or pay a newsagent to deliver on their behalf, like Fairfax and News Ltd do.
NANA is negotiating with them for a delivery fee, but this should never have been authorised by IPS on our behalf.
On top of this will the paper be delivered to us in time for Saturday delivery, the Canberra Times never was and I fear this will be the case with the Saturday Paper.
It’s great we will have this paper for sale in our shop but why would I want to go to the trouble of setting accounts and delivering the paper for the same commission I receive from a walk in customer.
Jenny
That definitely sucks. How can they sell subscriptions without having negotiated a deal with the people who are going to deliver it for them. Its either amateur hour or an arrogant attitude towards the Newsagency channel.
Steve I cannot believe others aren’t complaining. It’s totally wrong.
Crazy stuff by IPs. How can they possibly justify the same commission for a retail sale & a home delivery sale. makes no sense at all. Surely someone at IPS must have some knowledge of what is involved in delivering a newspaper to a hom. I would leave it in the shop & advise the customer they are welcome to come & collect.
I have notified IPS I will not be delivering subsriptions without a delivery fee. Was told it has nothing to do with IPS it is the publishers of The Saturday Paper’s policy. Any customer that rings wanting to know why they have not received their subsription, I was told to get them to ring IPS customer service and leave a message, as no one is their on weekends and someone will get back to them.
Same here DM I’ m not a charity.
Apparently the figures were agreed with industry associations and set for three months. It’s the delivered margin that is lower than expectation while the retail figure is higher. I expect there to be a review sooner than three months.
How can anyone authorize this on our behalf.
Do industry association workers agree to a cut in wages or fees for three months then have a review?
Its not the money here it’s the principle, we are being taken for fools.
I phoned both IPS and The Saturday Paper and they both told me to phone the other one.
They need to sort this out before we commence delivery of subscriptions not in three months.
I’ve had a discussion with the publisher this afternoon and they have indicated they will work on this after launch: We have been made aware of this today and as I am sure you can appreciate we are frantically putting together an amazing issue that will ideally drive thousands of customers into newsagents this weekend.
We we will be reviewing our commissions once we have launched.
I still will not be delivering any subsciptions until I am paid a delivery fee and will refer customer calls to both customer service numbers. This is a good opportunity for associations to negotiate a delivery fee that is reasonable for effort. It would cost them $1.20 to send it by post.
DM
Thats were the problem started I’d say. Magazine subs are normally mailed so IPS has nothing to do with them. Problem is no subscriber wants their Saturday paper arriving the next Tuesday and the publishers never thought it through properly.
So with all the debate for years about delivery costs being higher than delivery fees and our associations agree for us to delivery anew publication for free,and you wonder why we have little confidence in them
Hopefully it isnt the same association thats going to organise better deals from suppliers for us
If the figures were “agreed” with the industry associations there in are 3 questions raised. (i) how did the associations consult with their member base. (ii) how did the associations inform the member base of the outcome.(iii) Do IPS / Morry Schwartz etc understand that Association members are now the minority cohort of the newsagency network? Please discuss.
I met with Morry Schwartz and several from the team behind The Saturday Paper in July last year. We discussed newsagents as their retail strategy focus. Their commitment to the channel was absolute.
I think it’s wrong to focus on the issue with the home delivery fee when the vast majority of copies will be sold at retail with a commission structure we’d love from other circulation product.
The folks involved have said they will get to this issue after the launch and I trust they will.
Our attention ought to be focused on any who agreed on behalf of newsagents the launch home delivery fee structure.
That’s a valid point Mark. The majority of sales will be across the retail counter, and it will be a paper you leave on the shelf for the full week. The challenge of the publisher will be to transition it from an occasional read to an habitual read.
Happy to fully support the first issue and will do the home delivery but renuneration for home delivery must be sorted out quickly and realistically priced to cover expenses. I’m sure if we except to deliver for no extra fee the other two majors will look for us to follow suit
Happy to support the first issue and will deliver the first one but renumeration for home delivery must be sorted out quickly for if we agree to not charge for home delivery the other major two will expect us to do the same for them
Happy to support the first issue and will deliver the first one but renumeration for home delivery must be sorted out quickly for if we agree to not charge for home delivery the other major two will expect us to do the same for them
Their commitment is on quality journalism. If you think about what we currently offer for a weekend read, quality should drive sales. The Australian is shocking for news, The Age & SMH are a pale reflection of what they were just a few years ago, the AFR Weekend is not worth the money and the News daily tabloids are okay but I am not their target reader. I want something I can read, trust and be challenged by. That’s where The Saturday Paper will play.
Australians are smarter than what some publishers think.
Here in the ACT they are also putting The Saturday Paper into 24 cafes for the next 4 Weeks as a trail.
Would be great if somebody representing this newspaper could state WHO exactly negotiated these rates. E.G Joe Bloggs from xxx association.
This way it is on whoever Joe Bloggs is to explain why a delivery fee for subscriptions was not negotiated. It would also clarify if there was a negotiation, or its just another newspaper abusing the Newsagency channel.
It would not be hard.
Great help from IPS today. A newsagent was not scheduled to get The Saturday Paper and IPS have fixed this and they will have it in-store. Great to see the distributor actively engaged in resolving supply issues for the new title.
Mark, yes IPS have been fantastic. I thought we would be have no chance of carrying the title being far south coast NSW when all I saw was metro only, but I put in the request several week ago with IPS and now after checking the supply on the IPS site we will get it.
I would suggest if you are in a regional area and want to carry this title put in a request. My understanding is IPS are being inundated with requests which is a great sign for the publisher and IPS.
IPS please don’t email a newsagent at Friday 531pm to start a subscription for the following day.
It is not fair to the delivery agent or the customer (if they miss their start).
As a large distribution newsagent we need all our runs printed by early afternoon to be sent to distribution centre, the days of newsagents with single runs printing at the end of day are gone.
This is now two problems that need to be sorted out – payment of delivery fee, and acceptable notification of stop/starts which is officially 3 days by both Fairfax and News but 24 hours notice is fine.