Years ago there was discussion about distribution newsagents using their infrastructure to deliver other ietms and thereby get more value from their capital investment. Not many have gone down that road. Some have consolidated and I regularly hear that camp is not happy.
The challenge facing distribution newsagents of what to do to drive business viability is stronger than ever.
There is no upside in print media. Capital city daily newspaper sales continue to decline at an extraordinary rate. Newspaper publishers are pushing content access and advertising delivery models which cut revenue for distribution agents or eliminate it altogether through digital platform promotion. Magazine sales are declining, albeit not as fast as newspapers. The finaicial model for distribution agents is loss making in the majority of cases.
If I was a distribution agent in this climate and wanted to remiain in business I’d consider these options:
- Scale up. I’d take on more territories and chase scale with low-overhead management, no shared ownership with others. I’d be chasing 15,000 home deliveries or more.
- Be the distribution expert. I’d look for a way to be the partner for online businesses and providers to handle the last mile delivery in a personal and lcaol way. I’d use smart technology tom make this easy for retailers.
- On demand local courier service. This idea is about creating a very local, defined area, deliver service – the kind of service small businesses could use to deliver something to a local shopper. Something a shut-in could use to get you to purchase forn them and bring to their home.
- Go into retail. This is the idea I like the most., I’d look at retail in my area and create a shop of the future selling newspapers and magazines but in a way that’s fresh. Around these two categroeis I’d build other product offerings that are unexpected and traffic generating of their own. The shop would be on the high street with good parking. Probably a space that has low rent.
As things stand today, the majority of distribution newsagents rely entirely on newspaper publishers and magazine distributors for their income. Newspaper publishers are responsible for this. It’s a dangerous situation because your future relies entirely on their decisions and their decisions must put the needs of their shareholders ahead of newsagents.
Nice to see more posts on distribution lately, its still a very big part of this industry.
My thoughts on this topic –
No1 – scale up to what is viable for your area and def don’t team up with others.
No 2 & 3 – great way to use shed, cars and staff during daylight hours.
No4 – isn’t this going back to where we started?
It looks like a backward step to me as I think retail and distribution should be separate.
Its hard work doing both, can be good money but long hours and really really hard work.
Those who have dropped distribution are now happy retailers with a better quality of life and a better focus on their retail business, and those doing distribution only don’t have the worry of running a newsagency.
It’s interesting that in certain Regional areas newspapers are not suffering a decline in sales (and by association, h/deliveries) to the same levels as metro figures suggest.
A factor in this may well be lagging broadband speeds.
I think you’re bang on the money when it comes to value adding to the business in daylight hours to increase capital while overheads remain relatively stagnant.
This past festive season gave me a few ideas about creating a personalised delivery service available to certain retailers willing to invest in better web exposure to catch the market which is shopping outside traditional opening hours.
I also see investment in tech solutions for run and ad-hoc delivery requirements and a modernisation of thinking when it comes to processing h/delivery accounts etc as ways to strip out some of the costs weighing distribution businesses down, and create a new think model within the industry which drives innovation from within.
Managing accounts – overdue payments, bad debts and having strict terms are a huge part of running a successful distribution business