Author: Mark Fletcher

A newsagent today in Australia is not what it was a few years ago. The Australian newsagent business, or newsagency as many prefer, is an evolving business selling cards, magazines, papers, stationery, gifts and, usually lottery products.

It is rare you will find tobacco products in a newsagency business. Many of us ditched that category years ago.

A newsagent in Australia today is more likely to look like a gift shop. Fresh. Innovative. Inviting. Very different to the type of business you would have seen as a newsagency years ago.

Most newsagents don’t deliver newspapers, the publishers took that from them.

What is the definition of a newsagent? is a question often put into search engines by people in Australia. I hope this post indexes in search results to provide a better answer that the current one.

Some people also ask Is it newsagent or newsagents? I would say to this that it is newsagency if you are referring to the business. But, really, the shop can be called whatever the local owner wants. The days of putting the word newsagency above the entrance are gone since that term is loaded with history that’s not relevant to what we do today.

Writing for a chapter contribution to a book on  the history of Australian media I noted:

Since 2011, the pace of change in retail newsagency businesses has increased considerably, driven by declining sales of print media products, increased retail real estate and labour costs, a higher cost of capital and a greater penetration of franchise groups providing newsagents with management and marketing advice. 

By 2012, there was a growing separation between distribution newsagencies and retail newsagencies, as well as a growing gulf among retail newsagencies. This was encouraged by News Limited with a trial project called T2020, intended to force newspaper distribution consolidation among newsagents. While T2020 failed to go beyond trial, newspaper publishers continued to encourage newsagents to consolidate to drive operational efficiency. 

In 2013, around 7 per cent of retail newsagencies closed, due to a lack of newspaper home delivery revenue and falling newspaper and magazine retail income. Today, while a typical high street newsagency has a floor space similar to that of 30 years ago, the average shopping centre newsagency has a more diverse product offering. 

Things have changed so much since 2013. Indeed, the Aussie newsagency today, ten years on, is more different than the 2013 version compared to 20 years prior.

Here’s advice shared with Tower Systems newsagency software customers Friday last week following the Optus outage.
Lessons from the recent Optus outage.

While the actual cause of the Optus outage on has not yet been detailed, the outage itself encourages us to work on our businesses, to ensure we are better protected.

1. Check your network. Make sure routers are current. Talk to your ISP about a more current replacement.
2. Check your computers. Dust is a killer. Power off, remove the cover, take it outside and use a can of air to clean.
3. Document your computers and network. List everything you have and who is responsible for each. We often receive support calls for items not supplied by us and not known about by us.
4. Check your backups. Get the most recent one restored to ensure it is backing up everything you need.
5. Use a cloud backup service for in-store and offsite storage.
6. Have a plan. If your network, computer system or EFTPOS is down, what’s your plan? Document it. Train staff. Ensure everyone knows the plan and where it is.
7. Consider redundancies, like a mobile phone on a different network in case your main network is down, a secondary EFTPOS for payments should it be down.

First responders are good at what they do because they plan and drill, such that responding is muscle-memory. What happened with Optus is a reminder to be prepared in local retail so you are less impacted.

Too often, small business owners do not have a plan in place for outages and disasters. A small investment of time in planning and prepping could made overcoming obstacles related to outages easier, less stressful.

XchangeIT surveyed newsagents recently on behind of the ALNA Think Tank. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of a recent Think Tank supplier meeting. The results are interesting.

The variety of suppliers in a store is concerning. In successful and transformed newsagencies I see, the typical supplier mix is 65+.

A massive pain point that is easily resolved is the elimination of paperwork from all suppliers – moving 100% digital for order forms, contracts and the like, using an e-sign platform. Saves time. Saves paper. Increases sales.

The 36.3 hours a week spent on processes suggests something is wrong. I have businesses under management spending far less.

I’d love the survey to drilled down into questions about magazine management as the out of date tech and expenses imposed on newsagents by this is a drain to local newsagency businesses. Fix that and you improve productivity in newsagencies and increase magazine sales.

That said, the survey is helpful, as is the follow-up survey. Suppliers should take note.

Appeal to more shoppers. This starts with offering products beyond what have been traditional, products people will seek out, and return for again and again. It is important when choosing products to not be bound by the shingle of the business.

Offering cards that sell. Assess card performance pocket by pocket, design by design. You need at least 2 pocket turns a year. In a typical newsagency, 75% of card pockets are not achieving 2 turns a year. Cards are your most profitable department. Work on it. Nurture it. Make your business more valuable as a result.

Quit what’s not working. be ruthless. Act on your data. If products are not paying their way, quit them. It’s black and white.

Getting online. This dramatically broadens the geographic reach of your business, even more so if you do wit with products you’d never sell in your shop.

Manage your costs, including your own time. Business overheads and labour costs need to be tightly managed. I mention your own time here because in plenty of failed retail businesses I have looked at have high owner labour costs for minimal measurable return.

Of course, there are plenty more areas you can and should work on than these five. They are a good start though, low hanging fruit I see them as, easy wins based on my experience helping newsagents.

I recommend these 5 as a good starting point.

If you are struggling in your newsagency, finding it tough, not getting the return you want or need, start here.

If I can help in any way, reach out.

mark@towersystems.com.au
0418 321 338