News overnight from Retail Newsagent in the UK:
Trinity Mirror announces retailer margin for 25p The New Day will be cut from 11.6p to 5.8p per copy.
While the new margin rate is reasonable as a percentage, it is unreasonable in monetary terms.
With real margins falling for small business retailers of newspapers here in Australia as well as the UK, we need to educate newspaper publishers to help them understand th real cost of these products in our businesses. We need to educate the through our actions.
Retail space is expensive as is labour. Costs are increasing here in Australia for both at close to 5% a year yet the real return we achieve from newspapers is falling.
Publishers address their own financial requirements through ad rates yet they squeeze small business retailers through cover price and permitted margin.
This is why newsagents are moving papers to locations that cost less and, in some cases, getting out of newspapers altogether. These moves are, in my vote, more important than any lobbying done by industry associations. Associations have failed on this for decades.