Like many newsagents I suspeect we received plenty of new overseas titles today. Too many for my liking. These are titles with high cover prices and with very limited appeal. Titles like: Reef Life, Hair Showcase, Beautiful Baths, Film Comment, Romance Special and plenty more.
Newsagents don’t have the space or the cash flow to support new unwanted stock of the volume sent out today by Gotch. We need a penalty process which protects the newsagent network abuse.
We are promoting the Family Circle Christmas issue (out today) next to our main newspaper stand as well as in a full waterfall display in our women’s weeklies magazine section. We will move this title two or three times over the next few weeks. We took the same approach last year and sold out.
With Family Circle only publishing for special seasons it is important to get it in front of customers elsewhere as they are less likely to look for it. Our goal is to sell out before the end of the month. We have ordered extra stock.
We have relocated our ACP Magazines basket builder unit to next to our newspaper stand. As the photo shows we are using this location to try and drive sales for the Australian Women’s Weekly. We are now into the second week of the on-sale for this issue and have not been provided any significant collateral with which to promote the issue – hence our local initiatives. We still have AWW featured at the entrance to the women’s magazines aisle – the newspaper stand appeals to a different mix of customers.
We are promoting the latest issue of Dolly magazine (out today) at the counter because of the premium gifts accompanying the title. Historically, Dolly has not been an impulse purchase for us. Their recent gift strategy has seen this change. The gifts set a benchmark and an expectation which will be a challenge to maintain. I expect this latest issue of Dolly to move quickly because of the relevance of the gifts to the target reader.
Melbourne Trader, the first Trading Post replacement, distributed with the Melbourne Observer, hit the streets a week ago. Former Managing Director of The Age, Stuart Simson is talking up his plans to launch Trading Mart into the classifieds space.
Outside of a common cover price, the two offers are quite different. The Observer offer is made on the back of a successful weekly newspaper with a history of free classifieds. The Trading Mart offer is the traditional Trading Post offer – pay only for ads which generate a sale.
Classified advertisements have moved online worldwide and they are unlikely to return to print in a stand alone form like the Trading Post. Trawling a newspaper for items to buy or sell is so yesterday and so environmentally unfriendly. People like the ability to search and other facilities with an online model. Look at the success of craigslist in the US and elsewhere. Many say it is a newspaper killer. While I disagree, it has become a lightening rod for drawing everyday classified online.
I think that the free classifieds offer with the Melbourne Observer will work because of already strong distribution and a loyal customer base. The keys are free ads and that they are included within the existing successful product.
I am skeptical about the prospects for Trading Mart because of the considerable capital required to launch, that it is a stand alone product without any other traffic drivers and that they appear to be relying on newsagents to drive advertisement acquisition.
I am biased against print when it comes to classifieds. After considerable research, I spent in excess of $750,000 on FindIt between 2005 and 2006. FindIt was an online classified model to be launched in partnership with newsagents. Despite attracting in excess of 20,000 advertisements and a hundred or so genuinely supportive newsagents, I pulled the plug because we did not have sufficient newsagent support to reach the critical mass necessary and because we had made a mistake in how we connected online classifieds with a bricks and mortar retail network.
While newsagencies are a natural hub for a classified offering to the less online-connected demographic, they will need to demonstrate genuine engagement for a stand alone classified offer to work – far more engagement than ever before and beyond just selling the newspapers. If they want the traffic from Melbourne Observer and Trading Mart sales, they need to ensure their success on a variety of fronts.
Check out appsNminded.com. Three 3 fashion women have launched an iPhone app that promotes on-line fashion shops like Terra Plana, Viv & Ingrid, GoGo Gear, Fuz, Stanton James, Tucker Paisley, and Josh Jakus. Their app provides a mobile and interactive retailer / consumer connect that advertising on the printed page.
iPhone apps are launching daily into spaces previously service by print. We need to be aware of this and configuring our newsagencies appropriately.
Retail was slow across Melbourne today as is usually the case for Melbourne Cup day. Newsagencies in centres were open while newsagencies in high street situations, for the most part, were closed from lunchtime. Australia Post government owned outlets including those in shopping centres, customer-focused retailers they are, closed all day.
Politicians need to look at the costs for days like today and realise that the award structure they have created costs small business dearly.
The Guardian reports that News International yesterday confirmed that it will stop selling bulk copies of its newspapers sold at a discount for mass distribution at airports and other locations.
This is a retreat from a model which saw The Times and The Sunday Times available to many for free. It is an interesting move when considered in the context of the News Corporation push to drive a paid content model for its websites worldwide.
I will be interested to see if the move reaches our shores. Copies of The Australian and capital city dailies are readily available at airports and often at major events. While these free copies are seen as part marketing of the product and part circulation boosters, they diminish the value of the paid product.
Now more than ever, content is what will sell newspapers (and magazines), not price. Publishers need to nurture those who are prepared to pay for news and respect those involved in servicing the sale of newspapers at full cover price, like newsagents.
I’d like to see the distribution of free copies of usually paid for newspapers cease here in Australia. Newspapers, newsagencies and other aspects of the distribution channel would be healthier as a result.
Magazine distributor NDD has invited newsagents to set required quantities for titles through the Christmas period. In the past, NDD has weighted supply through the Christmas period. Giving newsagents a choice based on their local knowledge is a good initiative.
We are promoting the new issue of Prevention magazine, out yesterday, next to our main newspaper stand. This location worked well for the first two issues. We also have Prevention in our women’s health section and women’s weeklies sections. The second issue sold well in all our stores.
Prevention is the magazine launch of the year in my view. Excellent merchandising support for newsagents, strong sales and good media support have made this a successful launch.
We are prmoting a small selection of our large range of 2010 calendars at the front of the newsagency in addition to a more complete range available in our calendar department in-store.
This front of store display is designed to attract passers-by in the mall and announce that the range is now available.
We plan to leave the calendar promotion up in this traditional magazine display location for a week at least.
We are promoting the 2010 calendar issue of FHM with a display next to where the stock is located in store. This approach of promoting a title where it is usually located is working well for us – most recently with Zoo in this same location.
Too often, our displays are off-location and while they may drive sales, they don;lt train customers as to where the titles can be regularly found.
We were sent Chook Wisdom three years ago and returned all copies received. We received the latest issue last week and will early return these this week. This is a highly specialised title which we feel does not fit with our customers.
Chook Wisdom is a title I’d prefer to be asked if I want. This respects the retailer and the publisher. If I missed the request then I apologise.
CRIKEY! magazine is not working for us. None sold in two months. We will cut supply by 66% and see how it travels over the next couple of issues. We have tried a couple of locations and prime position with these two placements. I’d be interested in how this magazine is travelling for other newsagents.
The creative team at Tower Systems has created two graduation posters which newsagents can download and print. Click here for the first poster and here for the second.
With graduation season almost here, now is a good time to put together graduation cards and gifts (plush, albums, photo frames, journals, travel diaries) together with collateral like the posters to drive sales. Teacher gifts could also be displayed in the same location.
Newsagencies are well positioned to do well from graduation and teacher opportunities since we have cards covering both giving occasions. A good gift offer will help drive card sales and vice versa. The key is visual merchandising which makes it clear that you have an offer serving the need – hence the posters.
Tower Systems provides the poster artwork and other free marketing collateral to newsagents as a way of giving something back – Tower is fortunate to serve in excess of 1,500 newsagents with its Point of Sale software.
A slick con-woman has been hitting Melbourne businesses with a credit card scam. She says she wants to transfer money from a credit card to a debit card. The thing is, she doesn’t have the card. While such a transaction ought to be rejected immediately, she has been able to get beyond store policy in a couple of instances of which I am aware thanks to excellent patter. She was caught out by a vigilant team member at Forest Hill yesterday (the first time she tried this on us) and the police and security alerted.
There is a simple way to stop this – NEVER LET SOMEONE LOAD CASH ONTO A PREPAID DEBIT CARD FROM A CREDIT CARD. I’d let them do it using eftpos because a PIN is required.
I am undertaking a newsagent retail sales benchmark study comparing sales for September-October 2009 against September-October 2008.
Tower Newsagents can participate by sending a Monthly Sales Comparison report: tick the box to exclude home deliveries, and tick the box for a category breakdown. Set your first date range (on the left) to September 1, 2009 to October 31, 2009 and the date range of the right to one year earlier.
Once the report is on the screen, click the PDF button to save this as a PDF, go into your email software and send a copy of the PDF to me at mark@towersystems.com.au. I’ll publish the benchmark results here and elsewhere so all newsagents can benefit.
Non Tower newsagents can participate by emailing me for a copy of a spreadsheet template I have prepared.
As with past benchmarks, I expect to get data from between 100 and 120 newsagencies in the next few days. The results will provide an indication of sales performance year on year and give newsagents something with which to compare their businesses.
Given the success we are having with Halloween, I decided to immerse myself into the season as a consumer this year. This meant welcoming trick-or-treaters at the door with candy and hosting a dinner party with costumes and ghoulish food delights.
From the starter of eyeballs two ways through to the Phantom Ginger Cake for dessert, there was total immersion in the Halloween experience. Kids came to the door dressed, a whole crowd at one time. I dressed as an irradiated nuclear plant worker. It was a blast, heaps of fun.
The experience has broadened my view of Halloween. It has certainly changed how I look at Halloween from a business perspective. I have a personal context now for how this season works on different levels for kids and adults and how we can leverage this next year to make Halloween bigger and better and more fun in-store.
While we are unlikely to reach the level of engagement in the US, where two-thirds of the adult population dress up or engage with the evening, there is no doubt that Halloween will get bigger here and that it will morph from just a kids fun time to something in which all ages participate.
To those who eschew Halloween as a Amercian commercial season I say – get over it. It’s harmless fun for adults and kids.
Halloween will be a more significant commercial season for us next year!
Barnes and Noble are claiming their soon to lainch Nook e-reader is a hit based on sales data. They say it is their fastest selling single item.
The Nook further pushes e-readers into the mass market and demonstrates the stength of this new distribution channel for print content.
I wonder how much newsagents are taking note of these developments.
Another day and another e-reader launch. This time, the MediaBook from Creative – announced in Singapore.
Distribution newsagents are talking about the imminent new contracts from News Limited. There is plenty of speculation in the marketplace including rumours that News is not negotiating the contracts centrally through the ANF and that the contracts will be for one year only.
I don’t have any inside information about the new contracts.
What I do know is that while some newsagents make good money from home delivery, many do not. The inability to charge a price based on the costs of delivering the service stops home delivery being a business.
The drop in real terms of the fee permitted by the newspaper publishers over the last fifteen years is what has caused hundreds of newsagents to walk away from their newspaper home delivery businesses.
While I am on the record saying that newsagents should not enter into new contracts, I appreciate that many will because they want security and because a contract is crucial to their business funding.
At minimum, a contract must provide the newsagent with fair levers which they can use to act as business people in the twenty-first century as opposed to indentured servants from yesteryear.
The future of the current newspaper home delivery model will be decided over the next year. Newsagents who want to remain in the home delivery business must fight for their rights.
While I sold off the home delivery side of my newsagency three years ago, My software company, Tower Systems, serves in excess of 1,500 newsagents, many of whom have home delivery businesses. I care about the health of the newsagency and am committed to helping where I can to achieve a more equitable outcome from newspaper home delivery.
The big day is finally here. October 31 – Halloween. This has been a terrific Halloween season for us, the best ever. Excellent sales of Halloween related items at fantastic margin – 50% and above. Sales across categories: party items, candy, magazines and cards. We have demonstrated our competitiveness on range and price and this has won new customers for us thanks to great word of mouth. Halloween has also given us a reason to create in-store theatre and this benefits the whole of the business.
Halloween is a natural fit for newsagents. Done well, sales can beat some other traditional seasons. We are aleady discussing Halloween 2010.
Ann Davies, US correspondent for The Age, has written an excellent piece which provides context for the Halloween celebreation in the US from an Australian’s perspective.
Like most newsagents, we start the week with a full waterfall for all major weeklies. As the week unfolds, we scale back and use the empty pockets to promote titles from other categories. We carefully select and place titles. Click on the image for a larger version of how our magazine space looked on Thursday this week. See how we block titles and use logic in adjacencies – Real Living and Home Beautiful together for example. We always double-pocket these co-located titles – to give them a chance of being noticed in this most shopped magazine real-estate. We know our approach works because we track sales from these pockets.
Newsagents I talk with usually do not have a strategy for filling space as the week unfolds. I have found that a consistent process for this works well, others in the business can follow the process. Putting thought into the titles you co-locate is more likely to drive the sales outcome you want than letting anyone put any titles into the spare pockets.
Magazines are vitally important to us because the range in an average newsagency is our only product-based point of difference. If we embrace this by working the category we make our business a destination. While print has challenges, these are more long term. Aggressively managing magazines today provides a valuable point of differeence for newsagents over other magazine retailers.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Apple has sent specifications for its new device (iTablet?) to media outlets here.
Apple is the master of content-maker engagement. Look at iTunes. If they get supplier engagement and if the new device is as game-changing as the iPod then newsagents will have a new distribution channel competitor sooner than expected.
We stopped offering the Western Union money transfer service in August. While I was concerned that we would have to recommend the government owned Post Office opposite, the benefits of ceasing the service were too great.
It seems that Australia Post has reached the same conclusion as us, they are no longer offering the Western Union service. I am not sure if this applies in other Government owned Post Offices.
For us the decision was about customer service. There was a conflict between the Western Union service and customer flow for the rest of the business. as we had evolved, Western Union became incompatible.
I figured Australia Post would keep Western Union because their customers are used to long lines and slow transactions.