Newsagents appear to lose out in another association turf war

Have newsagents not learnt? The failure to create a single national, newsagent controlled, industry association for decades has left newsagents weak and fighting with each other at critical times.

In my opinion, weakness failed newsagents in negotiating terms of government encouraged deregulation with newspaper and magazine publishers in the 1990s, the deconstruction of the newspaper home delivery by newsagents over the last 10 years, lottery commission terms and more.

The disorganisation of newsagents representatively, led, I think, by the egos of a few in leadership roles over the years, but not all in those roles, has seen newsagents weakened through critical changes in and to their businesses.

The latest turf war flows from the reported involvement of The Lottery Corporation (theLott and formerly Tatts etc) and their engagement with the National Retail Association. The Australian has the story:

Newsagents claim they have been covertly signed up to National Retail Association
EXCLUSIVE
ELI GREENBLAT
SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER
@EliGreenblat

4:35PM OCTOBER 13, 2022
The industry body representing some 4000 newsagents has denounced the National Retail Association for allegedly forcing franchisees to become members.

In an email to its members obtained by The Australian, the Newsagents Association of NSW and the ACT accused the NRA and the ASX-listed Lottery Corporation of trashing individual freedoms and the right to the freedom of association by dragooning newsagents and sellers of lottery tickets into its grouping.

“National Retail Association and … Lottery Corporation demonstrate how they are prepared to ignore your fundamental rights to freedom of association – their arrogance is contemptible,” the email reads. “You shouldn’t have to opt out of something you never asked or gave permission for.”

The Newsagents Association said the NRA would seek to advocate on their behalf but could be compromised in any dispute between Lottery Corp and newsagents as a senior executive of sat on the NRA board as a director.

The article is odd in that it appears to have come from the ‘Newsagent Association’ side but it does not make clear which association. It quotes Ian Booth as the secretary. Booth is secretary of NANA a NSW/ACT association, and he is a Director of Newspower. The article says The industry body representing some 4000 newsagents has denounced the National Retail Association for allegedly forcing franchisees to become members. I don’t think NANA has anything close to 4,000 members, not even 2,000.

ALNA, the national association probably has more, but I suspect not 4,000 newsagent members. There aren’t 4,000 newsagency businesses in Australia.

Then there is NLNA, the Victorian led and run group that claims to be a national association. I doubt they have 4,000 members.

So, a fact check by the journalist at The Australian could have helped create a more useful and, maybe, accurate article.

While the article does reveal a relationship between The Lottery Corporation and the National Retail Association that I think could concern newsagents with lotteries, its usefulness in shining a light on the issue is diminished by an apparent lack of basic fact checking, which brings me to the reason I am writing this.

Unless newsagents sort our their representative mess and bring ALNA, NLNA, VANA, NANA any any other NA under one banner with one national focus they will continue to lose out, and by they, I mean individual newsagents. And in my opinion, ALNA has the national representation runs on the board over many years.

To me, unless I am missing something, this story in The Australian reflects continuation of the failure if strong representation of newsagents, a failure that has let down too many local small business retailers.

Oh, and as for the National Retail Association, I have read what they offer and I don’t see any value whatsoever there for local independent newsagents, I don’t see the need of their current membership mix aligning with those of local independent newsagents. To me, that’s a more interesting story – why try and group newsagents with the NRA group? Who wins?

Footnote: there is a reason newsagents do not engage with their various associations in meaningful numbers.