Author: Mark Fletcher

Yesterday, we received Road Rider Cruiser and had no available space for this title.  As happens in newsagencies across the country we have to find space by taking off a title which has not performed as well.  We tool off Australian Road Rider.  This had been on sale for five weeks and while the publisher wanted it left on the shelf for another four, we needed the space.  This problem is not of our making.  Newsagencies have finite space.  Magazine publishers and distributors send stock often without considering the physical space available.  If we find ourselves unable to display the new issue of a title, we prefer to take off an old issue of a title from the same distributor.  In this case, we selected Australian Road Rider as it was from Network Services.

Space allocation is a complex issue to resolve.  Indeed, it will become more so as newsagents reduce the space they allocate to magazines.  Newsagents need to take the initiative to resolve the problem because it is our space at the core of the issue.  If we leave it to publishers and distributors we our business needs will not be put first.

We have sold one copy of Fishing Knots & Rigs from Express Publications in seven weeks on sale.  Rather than keep this for another six weeks or so we have cut our losses and returned this title early.  The publisher and distributor would prefer that we don’t early return.  Since they are not funding my real-estate, labour or theft risk, early returning makes sense.  Outside of the early return battle is the issue of the cost of returns.  This publication, like most from express Publications, comes bagged with old magazines.  We have to pay to ship this stock back to the distributor.  The weight of each bag is such that we will spend around $10 shipping these returns back – this is stock we did not order in the first place.

We are noticing a slowdown in the sales of children’s magazines, especially the small format titles such as Mania.  Indeed, the last issue has a sell-through of 12% – one copy.  This makes it loss-making for us.  A couple of issues back we sold out.  This rocky road of sales leaves newsagents carrying the cash cost of poor sellers.