With only one significant magazine distributor now, the time is right for Gotch to do things differently – and I think the company will. One such area of difference ought to be with partworks. Those of us who commercially appreciate and leverage partworks to their full potential for our businesses ought to be treated differently than those who treat them as another magazine.
I am sure we can provide greater sales certainty for the UK publishers, Gotch and our collector fans.
In one of my newsagencies we had to gift to get the new DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection. We received 5 copies. I was in a remote newsagency in Queensland a week ago and they received ten. Whereas we treated it as an event, connected with related product we sell, this other newsagents had it placed in with magazines with no special support.
I understand the frustration with partworks and the supply model and that this gets newsagents being frustrated with partworks. Allow partworks experts / specialists better attention and allocation support and the UK publishers and Gotch will soon see the network grow and sales beyond the first few issues stabilise as more of us will confidently promote putaways and that is where we make good money off of partworks as their loyalty facilitates loyalty to our businesses in other departments.
We have the technology in our shops to provide the distributor and publisher certainty for the supply model.
Now is the time for us to act on this.
Yes, I am advocating some newsagents are treated different, better, than others – based on their commitment. They treat partworks differently than others so let’s see this encoded in distribution practices.
With TV commercials on for partworks promoting us, we are reminded of the launch investment of the publisher and the opportunity for publisher / distributor / newsagent to agree a more equitable approach.
There is so much more that could be achieved for partworks. From where I sit, the biggest barrier is the will of the publisher to engage.
If you hate partworks, I get it – they are not for everyone. Please don;t attack those of us who love partworks and the traffic surge that flows from a TV campaign. This post is aimed at those who hate them getting less and those who love them having more control over what they get.
I used to love partworks and we did good business with them and provided excellent service except……poor supply from the publishers and distributors. This left us with frustrated and sometimes angry customers and we decided late last year to stop putting away partworks and yes, we now treat them as just another magazine. I would change this but ONLY if we were guaranteed enough supply to cover at a minimum our putaways. A contract of trust with the expectation of receiving the whole series in a timely manner is formed when a customer engages these collections and I refuse to be a part of a contract that another party can cause me to break.
Brenden, well said. I echo your thoughts exactly.
The dist. should have viability to all put-a-ways in our system and should lock that volume in ahead of casual sales.
I have had partworks cut off too many times recently due to “system errors”, that lead to frustrated customers who then walk away from the series because it takes too long to fill back orders.
My emotional bank on partworks is bankrupt.
not worth the trouble anymore. i did return all new part works last 2 weeks
While the model remains THEIR discretion it is not viable. We must be able to dictate how many putaway customers we have and we must get that number delivered. Every time
I lost the will to live with part work putaways with military watches. Shortages and breakages upset some of our best repeat customers. We no longer promote putaways but still offer the service if required.
Thankfully no putaways for last 4 partworks and hoping that yesterday’s dreadful dinosaurs quickly become extinct.
Not worth the shelf space.
What I don’t understand with Eaglemoss and Decoastini (not sure exact spelling) they both either don’t do it or they both send you shitload (excuse my French) at the same time. This happened about 2 years ago, and then all the sudden there was no partworks and we have a large decline in mag sales because of it. If they make it a even spread we would be able to promote and give them space but when they send you 5 new partworks series in a space of 2-3 weeks how do we promote/display the lot.
It is not in the interest of partworks publishers to supply good consistent guaranteed supply of the later issues of partworks because the publishers get far more money through their “if you want to be sure to get the entire set, subscribe directly through us” model.
Jonathan, I’ve thought this myself for years but what the publishers need to realize is that without us their partworks would never gain traction. They need to treat us not just better but properly if they want a decent market for part works. Hopefully they read posts like this and lift their game. Every one would benefit if they supply us as Mark has outlined.
Whenever someone wants to putaway a partwork, we tell them it is under 50% chance that they will be able to finish the collection.
We do not tell them about subscriptions. If we have to allocate space and then can’t sell the whole series through then bugger the publishers. The only approach I can see until the supply issues change is to make a quick buck on the first few issues then not worry about them.
Partworks, partworks, partworks, how many can we have at once!
There is no more space for partworks with upward of 14 coming in at the moment and a new one coming every week.
With a monopoly Gotch seem to be taking advantage of newsagents as much as ever.