Communication from News Corp. has failed again with plenty of newsagents telling me they are yet to be advised of a price rise for The Australian and The Weekend Australia that started October 5. Here is part of the letter from September 28 I was sent by a newsagent yesterday.
The poor communication has cost some newsagents money given the poor approach to product data handling by the company.
This would never have happened 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, News Corp., folks made sure newsagents knew in advance as well as software companies – so that newsagents had the current advice a week before any cover price change. Now, with so much institutional knowledge lost in News Corp. it is no wonder newsagents who were not informed last week are furious.
News Corp. like to tell Australians how to live their lives. If only they sorted their mess out first.
I long for the days of circulation professionals who cared about us. Tony Prowse in Victoria for example. He understood newsagents. The jerks in that company now are useless or they don’t have the resources to do the job they know needs to be done. It’s pathetic really. Too many lost opportunitys.
When i received email advice on this price rise from News dated 28 09 I set it up in advance using the facilities in Tower Software. Imagine my surprise when I received Monday 05 10 Aus with a price of $3.00 printed on it in the Masthead, (I charged $3.50) and on Tuesday 06 10 the correct price of $3.50 was shown. An Extremely poor show.
I picked up on the increase when a customer gave me $3.50 on Wednesday, I went through all my emails thinking I had missed it but turns out there was no communication…