I was thrilled to hear and see optimism among newsagents at the newsXpress newsagency marketing group national conference in Melbourne Sunday afternoon through to last night. The up-beat mood was joyful to see and hear as was the talk about growth categories, business changes to chase and competition to tackle head-on.
There were 180 attendees at the conference, 125 newsagents – from large and small businesses located in the city, country and rural and trading in shopping centre and high street situations.
There was a trade show with plenty of non-traditional suppliers pitching products you can expect to make at least 50% GP and some offering as high as 70% on.
The conference sessions on Monday were about how we run our newsagency businesses and opportunities for new traffic and insights we can leverage for a brighter future. A couple of international speakers from one supplier shared insights that will benefit people for years.
The group visit to the Toy Fair yesterday was incredible in that it focused on growing even further into a category our channel owned decades ago and is a growth category as sales are wrested back from other retailers. Seeing 40 to 50 newsagents on a supplier stand for new product briefings and to purchase is a good sight.
I am a Director of newsXpress and was a speaker at the conference so I’d understand if you think this post is a commercial pitch. I have not written this to tell you to join newsXpress or to even promote the group.
The purpose of this post is to say that with the right people around you and the right supplier partners, optimism grows and optimism can help you see a path forward for your newsagency. You can find those right people and right suppliers in a number of places. It starts with you looking – and that’s what I urge newsagents to do. It does’t have to be a marketing group – but it should be more than you working alone.
These last few days have been a reminder of the value of friends working together and supporting each other on a shared goal.
Well Mark, you may be apprehensive about promoting newsXpress on your own blog, but after attending the newsXpress conference as a member I must say that I have never met a management group, nor a group of members this large with one common goal and totally united.
If any Newsagent wants to be a Retailer with a future, break the shackles of the old regime dominated by companies offering low GP returns for your effort, then this is the group to be involved with.
If you’re not happy or not progressing with what you’ve got now, newsXpress is a fantastic group with vision and may be able to help you stop the rot!
Mark being apprehensive about promoting nXp?
Gary while mention newsXpress occasionally on this blog, it’s not a platform I use for promoting it as that is done via direct mail and other platforms direct to newsagents.
Hey Gary Mark has always been pretty transparent about the businesses he owns and his agenda in this blog. This blog rarely pushes anything besides action in the channel. You seem to be pretty negative on the whole in this blog… what is your agenda?
No agenda Jack. Mark has developed this blog to foster robust, unmoderated debate within the channel. It is a credit to him. His editorials are topical,and sometimes, provocative. I presume that Mark posts his editorials to invite comments. For the most part I agree with his commentary about the channel. When he posts an editorial that i feel has a debatable issue then I will comment. You construe this as negative, it is your opinion and I respect this.
If you think that I have an agenda then I feel that you have missed the spirit of blogging.
i have been a newsagent for 20 years, the road ahead for newsagency core business is challenging if not dying. I was lost and i thought i was hitting a brick wall and nowhere to turn to until i join newsxpress a month ago , iam renewed and refreshed now and i have confidence towards my business. The conference opens up my perspective of future newsagency business and i thank you Mark for it.
It is fantastic to hear the news that a number of Newsagents have joined newsXpress recently to reap the benefits.
Congratulations on taking a huge leap foreward!