In our high street newsagency we are tracking excellent year on year results for newspapers with dailies up 12% and foreign language newspapers up 25% – based on unit sales.
I’d be interested to hear how newspapers have gone for others through December.
I expect high street, regional and rural businesses will have similar results to the above. I think the Covid bump will be here for some time, hopefully long term. And, by bump, I mean – more people shopping any from malls and more people buying papers, especially foreign language papers.
Unfortunately not the same experience for us Mark. Whilst our total income is up by 18 per cent for the month, newspaper sales are down by 8 per cent for the same period year on year. Ytd newspaper sales are down 3 per cent again despite strong overall revenue growth. Stationery sales also remain under pressure.
Everything has nice growth in December, except newspapers drop 7%. As the commission will drop to only 10% for newspapers in May next year, not care about it.
I wonder when we will see the first report of a newsagent who has decided there is no longer enough profit in newspapers for it to be worth stocking them .
I’ve now checked in with several more high street suburban newsagencies and their results are similar. For a more accurate bigger picture look I will wait for the Q4 2020 benchmark data.
Jonathan, there are a few newsagents who have quit papers, some have quit magazines.
Interesting, Did they change their name?
If so what do they call themselves now?
A couple I know of did change their name.
In my own case, one of my stores has not had magazines since we opened it 3 years ago. The old owner had 25 titles. We are directly opposite a SuperIGA with 125 titles.
So Fletcher you boast of having no mags, no lotto, no smokes etc but you sell a shitload of cuddly toys. Why do you even entertain the thought of cuddling up to a ‘newsagency’ tag.
Andrew, tell people who you are so they can understand the context of your harboured bitterness.
I have magazines in 2 of my businesses.
I got out of tobacco years in 1996 when I felt stocking the category did not fit with being a family business.
I had lotteries for 17 years. I’ve not sought to put it into businesses I’ve opened since because, as I have noted before, there is no bankable upside.
As for your comment on ‘cuddly toys’. You have no idea what I sell. I share some information here, but not the whole of each business.
I hope your 2021 improves.