The article published this week by Fairfax with the headline: Do we still need newsagencies? is inaccurate and reflects poor research. It is written with subtle support for newspaper home delivery, a part of many newsagency businesses which loses more money today than years ago.
There are quotes from newsagents which are not supported by evidence. I am surprised Fairfax editors let them through – but they do support the pro newspaper stance. For example:
but I would say that in the last 12 years magazine sales have fallen approximately 50 per cent, way more than newspapers
I don’t see this supported in the data I see in my benchmark studies.
Another newsagent is quoted as saying:
People are buying cards rather than gifts.
If this is the case the business needs to look at its card supplier and its gifts mix. I know of plenty of newsagencies where dollar for dollar gifts match cards and both are experiencing double digit year on year growth.
A real estate anger is quotes as asking:
It is a dying industry and unless they find a way to re-invent themselves, I can’t see the traditional newsagent surviving.
I agree with this 100%. However, reinventing should have started ten years ago.
Later in the article is an ignorant quote from a newsagent:
For 10 years I have been in the business and the trend now is move more into the gift business,” he says. “There are higher profits and higher margins.
No, gifts are not a trend now, they were a trend ten years ago and more. Now, the trend is beyond gifts.
The article finishes only with a supporting statement about home delivery. Newspaper home delivery is declining. Newsagents make less in real terms today than five years ago thanks to paternalistic publisher behaviour.
Newspaper publishers have a history of selfishness when it comes to newsagencies. This narrow-focussed poorly researched article reinforced that view.
Do we still need newsagencies? Yes, but not for the mixed message reasons Fairfax outlines in this sloppy article.
Maybe the question should be “do we still need newspapers?”
To answer Scott’s question, Do we need newspapers? My answer is Yes. The answer wouldn’t have been so emphatic yesterday but today newspapers were not delivered to Woolworths and the Cafe in my shopping centre. Normally I sell around 55 West Australians on a Friday, but today I sold 95. I had an extra 40 people in my shop that saw, possibly for the first time, what I have to offer.. plush, gifts etc.
Wouldn’t it be great to have an extra 40 customers everyday? An extra 14600 customers a year!!
Your lucky to have a spare 40 copies