Check out the supply and return data for Modern Wedding Cakes & Styling for a newsagent who contacted me yesterday. They received 3 copies of edition #17 on 21/7/2014. They didn’t sell any. On 12/1/2015, Bauer sent them another two copies. They have still not sold any. Today, they receive two more copies.
Newsagents are being asked by Bauer Media to trust their new magazine supply rule. I know the newsagent I am referring to in this post does not trust them. I agree. This gross and persistent oversupply demonstrates a broken model. It is behaviour not reasonably addressed in the proposed new supply rules which have been endorsed by the ANF.
That Bauer behaves this way only to newsagents disadvantages our channel and those who shop with us. It restricts our ability to compete as it taxes us with labour, space, freight and cash overheads our competitors do not have.
Do you think what Bauer has done here is unethical?
Absolutely unethical.
The scary thing is that most newsagents have put up with this for so long, that this is not even a headline.
I agree Amanda. I am happy to use this blog to publish data for specific titles – to get the attention of publishers.