You can’t escape the the promotion of digital subscriptions and weekend only delivery from News Corp. with their now regular pitch printed next to the masthead.
It is odd selling a product for a meagre margin that actively says stop buying from here and, in fact, stop buying the physical product.
Previously, one could rip off the post-it note ad promoting deals like this. You can’t now that it is part of the newspaper itself.
It is actions like this pitch from News Corp, actions that show our shops as being expensive and irrelevant that get retail newsagents wondering if they should cut the paper before the paper cuts them.
The Australian has a similar pitch in print as well as online:
There is no upside for print newspapers. What we are seeing now is the management of their decline and, for some, demise. Publishers will make moves that serve their needs and the needs of their shareholders. Newsagents are far removed from consideration despite what any publisher rep says.
Hence, the active consideration – when do we quit newspapers in our shops?
I recently had a customer tell me he phoned the Fairfax subscription line wanting a 7 day home delivery and he was refused. They told him he could only have weekend papers delivered.
We should be billing them for advertizing!
Problem is those few customers that we would alienate by not selling newspapers – bit like the electronic recharge issue, though obviously that requires little workload.
Newspapers are not an important part of any newsagency so just treat them with the same contempt that they treat us. Put them in the darkest most useless part of your shop and if someone want one they will find it. We cant afford to give them anything better than mediocre placement.
Glenn,
This attitude is not one of a retailer it’s stupid. Respect the stock or the disrespect for it will bite you.
It’s the customer that you service that counts not the supplier.
Products deserve treatment based on their return. Their return is, in part, determined by the respect suppliers show us. Newspaper publishers are now actively using our businesses to shift people from us to elsewhere.
Glenn is right in most of his comment. None of my shop is dark.
I commented on the attitude Mark. It doesn’t affect the supplier as much as your customer.
The drive to nettorise my customers is extremely obvious and very rude to my retirement customer base. A growing number are now buying from me instead of using a subscription from Rupert.
Peter,
My point exactly, you must be treating your customers with utmost service and respect. ignore the supplier and treat the customer even if they close the newspaper they will thank you for you effort and service, That’s retail.
Respect is a very interesting word and is something that is missing form a lot of things affecting our lives. Dare I say Politics, Banking, Retail, Media and many other things. A good example is Israel Folau and his fire and brimstone preaching.
Aretha Franklin’s song Respect says it all.
Respect should be a core business and lifestyle value.
Graeme,
This is the beauty of everyone being able to tread their own path. You think my stance is stupid. I think this stock and its supplier grossly disrespects the value we can add to their product and the costs I incur in dealing with it, and anyone that thinks this stock category deserves respect is, in my view, delusional.
As a retailer with obligations to landlords, banks and staff my focus has to be on generating a return to meet these obligations, and that return will come from suppliers and products that we can work with and generate a fair return from by selling it to customers who value the product.
That is impossible with newspapers. The unfortunate reality with newspapers in the short term, and I firmly believe it is only for the short term, is that we have to have them for no other reason than as a service to our customers. We make no money from them, their owners don’t give a toss about us or our needs and they are not long for this world in printed format. Why on earth would you dedicate any time, effort or prime space to them as never again will they be significant to any newsagent?
As a retailer our role is to service our clients to the best of our ability on the products that we sell that add value to our business, because if we don’t we will not be there tomorrow.
Newspapers and magazines do not generate a return for our businesses, and irrespective of the effort put in by countless people in our industry the status quo remains, and neither the newspaper nor publishing industry recognises nor fairly recompenses us for selling their product. As such, it deserves no better than the furthermost and darkest (ie least valuable) corner in any retail outlet.
I have absolutely no concern that my disdain and disrespect for this stock will bite me, for my retail business is far beyond relying on them to survive.
well said Glen.
A public service at best and becoming less sustainable by the minute.
I also heard theres to be a 20c price hike from news ?
Simple answer.
The stock you have to sell is entirely your choice.
You are a clever retailer the stock is bad and supplier awful.
Just don’t stock newspapers and now magazines and call yourself by another name and retail on in bliss.
No comment was necessary the choice is all yours.
I think it is stupid to do something that you can see is no good for your business but you keep on doing it.