Author: Mark Fletcher

I know I go on here about bagged magazines (they are not browser friendly and waste newsagent space), especially the junk from Express Publications.  Yesterday, one customer bought three packs of bagged Express Publications magazines.  I asked her why.  They were for a gift and they knew the person liked crafts.  The purchaser was not into crafts – she said she had no idea what magazine was good or not so she went for volume.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that one magazine was current the other two were ranging from old to ancient.

Railway Digest is bucking the trend of many magazines from what I can see.  Sales for this very special interest magazine are strong.  In our case, we have a sell through of in excess of 90%.  With a $9.00 cover price, Railway Digest is nicely profitable for us.  Our success is, in part, due to careful placement of Railway Digest along with all of our other railway magazines.

We discovered strong interest in this segment some years ago and were careful in placement and expanding the range.  Now, we have some hero titles like this one.

We use Railway Digest as a beacon for our other railway titles.  We do the same in other magazine segments, especially in special interest areas where we want to be known as the go to location.  Special interest customers will travel further to satisfy their interests.

So, despite the gloomy talk here and elsewhere about the challenges of magazines, there are success stories.  Newsagents are better placed to leverage these than any other magazine retailer.

Snuggies are all the rage for people who actually like them to those who get a laugh from the how religious-sect like they look in the TV commercial.  Lovatts have tapped into the interest by offering Duvet Suits as prizes to competitions in their latest BIG Crossword magazine.  I see this as being a bit of fun and could help draw attention to BIG from those who may otherwise not look twice at the title.

Spinning in the Grave is an excellent article by Jonah Weiner on Slate.  Weiner focuses on music magazines and offers a useful perspective as he was a senior editor at Blender magazine until a few months ago. The article is relevant to newsagents because it thoughtfully assesses the changes impacting the segment.  Rather than saying online is taking over, Weiner presents reasons for the decline of music magazines.  I see the challenge in sales figures – the music category is experiencing a rocky ride.  Even free CDs and other giveaways are not driving sales as they used to.

New York Magazine covers this story too.  Be sure to read the comments at the end of their piece.

The cover of O The Oprah Magazine reads…

OPRAH’S PRIVATE MOMENTS: We gave her a camera, she gave us a snapshot of her perfect lazy Sunday.

I think it should read:

MY PRIVATE MOMENTS: I gave myself a camera, I gave my staff a snapshot of what I think will help sell my magazine.

Maybe I am getting cynical. The feature does seem a bit silly – O is her magazine after all.

I was interested to read that ACP has appointed a new editor-in-chief for the Australian Women’s Weekly.  AWW is experiencing a sales resurgence this year from the sales data I see.  From a newsagency store-level perspective, I’d put this down to excellent cover choices.  However, I am sure that improved loyalty has to do with content as well.  I hope that Helen McCabe’s appointement continues to improve sales for AWW as it is a cornerstone honey-pot magazine for newsagents and, indeed, all magazine retailers.  We need it to be successful.

By honey-pot, I mean a title customers are drawn to and around which we can build other success in our businesses.  Newsagents have just ten or twelve true honey-pot titles. AWW is the stand out.  This is why we need the latest moves around the title at ACP to work and continue to strengthen the title.