What newsagents want from an association in order for them to join

Here are all the responses to the third question on my newsagent association survey from the weekend. The third questions asked: If you are not a member of an association what must they do to get you as a member?

1. Close the QNF, close NANA, close VANA and replace all the staff and board members at the ANF with people who have a plan for helping newsagents.
2. All I want is for them to be relevant.
3. Get better quality board members. The nana board is clueless if you listen to their statements in the last few months. They sound years out of date and irrelevant.
4. Hire smarter people.
5. Fill your boards with newsagents who actually put their head up and speak to other newsagents. The current boards at the state and national lever are faceless men.
6. Publish a national journal that has professional editorial principles.
7. Stop investing newsagent funds in things like hubbed that will never work because the world has moved on from that. The ANF investing in it without transparency then and even now is the biggest reason to not join.
8. I was a member of the ANF and VANA and quit them When they told me to keep paying the   Bill Express equipment lease when others told me to stop. They never apologised for getting it so wrong.
9. Get smarter people on the boards who actually have a plan for the future of newsagents and who are more open and transparent with newsagents.
10. Stop wasting newsagent funds on flying around the country going to meetings and dinners that don;t achieve anything for everyday newsagents.
11. They do not provide anything of substance for the fees charged.
12. Show me what they are doing to help my business that is worth the membership. The ANF seems too busy endorsing products and services instead of lobbying to fix problems in the channel.
13. Become relevant in today’s market and focus on ways to add value to our businesses not just provide OH&S info and deals that they get a kick back from.
14. I was a member, but resigned. found that I got nothing out of the association.  When I did use them, I never had any results.
15. VALUE FOR MONEY
16. Do more for newsagents and show some backbone
17. Show some effectiveness in representing our issues to principals and lawmakers
18. Be proactive in promotional programme to promote Newsagents as a destination shopping experience and not just keep our industry as a shop that nobody knows much about except that we deliver papers.
19. Use people qualified for the positions.
20. Act for our behalf with full transparency with no self interests.
21. Do their job and protect newsagents’ interests
22. Achieve results
23. Be seen to be making meaningful progress on magazine oversupply. I cannot think of anything else. I paid my dues for 10+ years and got nothing but a ring side fight at a little kids squabble. I think I have paid enough to get nothing.
24. Member tas anf – until all associations co-operate fully will not get value for money. Ben Kearney does get involved and does good job. associations should not be involved in commercial operations though – their impartiality should be paramount,.
25. Represent us on core issues getting a better deal for us from newspaper publishers and magazine distributors. They need to show these core suppliers that the newsagency industry industry is more valuable to them than the supermarkets and other outlets they are currently giving so much attention to.
26. Once the associations achieve and maintain this, then they can look for new industry wide opportunities for us that ALL newsagents will benefit from.
27. They lost me because they treated my subagency as second class even though they were willing to let me join and pay my dues for little or no benefits that other newsagents were receiving.
28. Fight hwt and fairfax about better commission
29. Actually be an association and serve newsagents and not just the newspaper deliverers.
30. We were a member and have recently resigned as they have been no help with the T2020 fiasco nor the Intralot deal some years ago. They are still allowing themselves to be dictated to by the publishers
31. Forget about deals on ins etc and tackle the big issues.
32. Was a member . Would not consider again.
33. Stop supporting businesses like hubbed without due diligence.
34. Start working on what really matters to newsagents: magazine oversupply; fair compensation for retail newsagents of newspaper sales; labour rates.
35. Be relevant to today’s world and stop looking after the distribution only newsagency businesses, probably because VANA is being run by one.
36. Start giving us what Newsagents want, represent the industry. Stop trying to make commercial inroads to support their overheads. Stick to what associations are set up for represent and lobby for their members.
    do something in the interest of newsagents!   Take on the oversupply issues and have a win!  Take on coles/woolworths special promotions they get regarding magazines and have a win!  They just don’t seem to do anything and if they are having wins on our behalf – they are pretty lousey at self promotion.
37. They do nothing, the industry was deregulated over 10 years ago and they have stood by and let all sorts of change occur to the detriment of the channel. Here are some specific examples.  1. Newspaper distribution- why are the still allowing the situation where a retard masquerading as a retailer who is also a distributor control what his subagents get to the point that it costs the sub agent sales, the ridiculous extreme of this is Melbourne papers in a prominent se qld holiday area, where the only agent open on a Public Holiday afternoon is the only one who doesn’t get Melbourne papers- because he isn’t a newsagent?   2.I have seen no evidence of any effective lobbying or working to relieve the pressure brought on by stupid penalty rates that are crippling weekend trade and holiday trade.   3. The same lack of effective lobbying for leasing issues.  4. When the QNF is staffed and associated with brokers who are also directors or strongly connected to one marketing group and clearly use their insider trading knowledge to their own advantage.  4. After the flood and all our Insurances went thru the roof, the QNF went on a roadshow to justify the insurance companies position, even if you were in an area that had never flooded and had no chance of flooding.  5. I have not seen any actions to remove the restrictive trade practices of the Magazine companies, starting with having to pay a bond, gross over and under supply issues, holding new entrants/owners to ransom because of previous owners bad business ethics.  6. Being an active business partner and working to resolve real issues, providing guidance and real retail education.  7. The one thing they did wade in on and hold up for 18 months was the changes to the lotto renumeration model, I am led to believe that had they not charged in it would have gone thru a lot sooner- who in their right mind could expect that the model would be different to what had been accepted in every other state.     Address all these things and they might start to gain some support, but until then forget it.
38. Grow a spine, have a new set of teeth fitted and offer some value for our investment.
39. 2. Is not easy to answer. Any help I have asked for has always been productive. However after all these years why can’t they get the magazine companies to adjust supply?
40. To little, to late, the ANF-QNF is an absolute joke. The QNF sells out it’s own members, I know from personal experience. No need to say anymore..
    stop getting involved in commercial enterprises and focus just on industry issues.
41. Need qualified people to represent the positions and to stop getting involved in commercial opportunities that the Marketing groups already cover.
42. Start tackling national issues such as weekend wage rates.
43. I was a member of the QNF. I pulled my membership because of a lack of response to a problem I had with a magazine supply issue.
44. BEEN A MEMBER FOR 18 YEARS. PUT MORE EFFORT INTO MAGAZINES, KEEPING NEWSPAPERS RELEVANT AND STOP FIDDLING WITH PERIPHERALS LIKE NSTOCK.
45. Stop wasting newsagent money.
46. Unite the industry and fight for the industry as a whole. The Pharmacy Guild is a good example of what the associations SHOULD be doing.
47. The first thing they have to do is gain my trust, however as I am no longer sure what they actually do, I’m not sure how they would go about gaining that trust.    Perhaps if the ANF were to list some significant outcomes for Newsagents over the last couple of years it might be a start so I could then weigh up the pros & cons of being a member.     Given the ANF is unable to meaningfully negotiate with Newspaper Publishers or major magazine Distributors/Publishers, putting together a list of significant achievements might be the biggest challenge they have taken on in the last few years.
    nothing. We have no interest inbeing a member of any association. After 35 years being a newsagent and  being in various associations they have NEVER benefited us only cost us lots of money
48. Tackle real issues. Magazine distribution would be a massive step.
49. Stop wasting money. Communicate better. Do things that are relevant to newsagents.

I edited out one response as I considered it defamatory and I am publishing this post – as opposed to comments here which are published by the commenter.