Day one of a five-day back to basics newsagency management challenge: magazines

This week I am shining a light on five back to basics areas of our newsagency businesses over which we can make a difference for the good of our business and the benefit of our customers.

By back to basics I mean parts of our business that define us and can separate us from others.

Today, I want to challenge how you manage magazines.

Magazines continue to be the single most important newsagency channel wide traffic driver for us. Every newsagent sells magazines.

While we don’t have enough control over supplier, are not given equitable gross profit and are are disadvantaged through the supply model, there are management opportunities available to us that can make magazines more successful.

But first, I want to consider why? Why spend any time on magazines? That’s a question I am often asked by newsagents angry with iover supply, under sipply, poor margin and disrespect from distributors. I understand their frustration and that this feeds into anger.

Magazines are important to us because the range we carry is the only channel-wide point of difference we have. Magazines generate excellent traffic,. Magazines work as impulse purchase item. Many maggazine shoppers are loyal. Magazine sales can informa many other valuable business decisions.

How can you better manage magazines?

1. Do a relay. This really is the single most important management activity. It should be done once a year. Click here for my advice on how to do a relay in your newsagency.
2. Several times a week review magazine placement. This is an owner’s responsibility. Give the category your attention.
3. Have a magazine promotion at the front of the store – as a traffic driver.
4. Always have one or two impulse purchase friendly magazines placed with your toip selling newspapers.
5. Engage in co-location for key titles: Better Homes and Gardens with weeklies, crossowrds with weekliues, garden magazines featured to align with major season shifts (spring etc).
6. Feature magazines that are growing. For exasmple, how do you treat Frankie? It speaks to a young shopper and you can build other sales around it.
7. Engage with publisher programs: Nexus from Pacific Magazines and Connections from Bauer. Use the services of these porograms to their fullest.
8. Offer a loyalty program for genbuinely loyal magazine shoppers. Either a points based program or discount vouchers – whatever you offer make sure that it rewards / drives genuine loyalty.
9. Promote magazines on your receipts.
10. Respect the category. If you as the leader of the business respect the category your employees will follow.

Magazines are vitally important to newsagents. Ignore tham and you invite shoppers to look elsewhere for their magazines.

The goal of this series of back to basics newsagency management advice is to get you revisiting parts of your business that you may not be paying enough attention to. This should help imporrove basket size, drive traffic and get you better engaged with your newsagency business.