I met with a newsagent in Sydney tonight to talk about challenges faced by the business. Answers for the key challenges are in their business data. The biggest challenge is understanding that and then leveraging the data to guide a solution.
The newsagent is relatively new to our channel – less than a year. They came to us with a background of success in another retail channel. They made all the right moves including completing the required supplier specific training as well as the industry endorsed ANF training. None of this training equipped them for the newsagency specific challenges they face.
We let new newsagents down. Our training of new entrants is inadequate. The business management support infrastructure outside one or two marketing groups is almost non existent.
The newsagent found me through this blog. I have no other connection to their business. I am glad to help where I can. Indeed, each situation I encounter like the one I found tonight, is educational.
The key problem I saw tonight was a business making decisions on out of date data. Their accountant provides a P&L six monthly. The only guide as to how the business is travelling is their bank balance.
They buy stock based on what they see they need and based on what supplier reps order for them. They process magazine returns using distributor websites. No one is driving them to change their practices – suppliers have provided website work-arounds which bypass industry EDI standards.
We let ourselves down from the first new newsagent training session through to their early months.
An overhaul of how we bring new newsagents into our channel, how we educate them and how we support them through their early months is years overdue. We have too many relatively new newsagents falling behind, hurting their businesses and the channel more broadly.
This is an issue crying out for national attention.
As for the newsagent I met with tonight, they will quickly address what needs to be addressed. I am confident or a turnaround in the next three months – we are developing a plan which will improve the business and build their knowledge. I am blogging about the meeting and the training issue at their suggestion – they feel let down by the introductory processes.
Check out these four magazines and their pink covers. Donna Hay for kids was the first title of this bunch from this similar looking group. It stood out on the shelves. Now, with four titles in the food segment with pink covers, the visual cut through is not as strong. Indeed if we placed them next to each other, I suspeect that shoppers would not notice the different titles. I am not sure that it is a deliberate move to pull focus from another title – it is curious that it happens in waves, not just with food titles but also with other segments.
