A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Mall posters drive ink sales

fhn_ink_mall.jpgThe posters we have placed in the malls, away from our shops at Frankston and Forest Hill are working for us.  In both stores, customers have mentioned the posters when buying ink from us.  We have posters on display around each centre – the centres provided the space without cost, we provided the posters themselves.  The same collateral is also on display at the websites for each centre.  Plus, we have flyers on display at customer service booths and material included in newsletters sent out by centre management to their database.  We were careful to craft a compelling call-to-action message targeted at the shopper.  As I noted, this campaign is working, customers are buying ink as a result!

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marketing

Trading on Pink’s appeal

frankston_pink.JPGOur team at Frankston cleverly put FHM magazine featuring Pink on the cover at the counter.  With Pink’s Melbourne concerts selling out and new dates added her popularity is clearly strong in our marketplace.  Opportunistic placement at the counter like this is all about driving impulse purchases.

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magazines

Rupert Murdoch on the digital future

Fox Business has published another video interview with Rupert Murdoch in which he talks about, among other things, newspapers.  He makes interesting comments about migration online.  Check it out:

Reuters has several quotes from Rupert Murdoch including this about newspapers:

“Communications are changing totally and we’re moving into the digital age and it’s going to change newspapers. But if you’ve got a newspaper with a great name and a great reputation and you trust it, the people in that community are going to need access to your source of news. What we call newspapers today, I call ‘news organizations,’ journalistic enterprises, if you will. They’re the source of news. And people will reach it if it’s done well, whether they do it on a Blackberry or Kindle or a PC.”

“I can see the day maybe 20 years away where you don’t actually have paper and ink and printing presses. I think it will take a long time and I think it’s a generational thing that is happening. But there’s no doubt that younger people are not picking up the traditional newspapers.”

Some in News Limited here in Australia could learn from Murdoch’s direct answers on newspapers.

Newsagents need to watch this interview, and the previous one, and take on board the comments in the context of shopfits and newsagency business planning.  The fundamentals of our businesses are changing.  We need to embrace this change as the opportunity it is.

This means flexible shop fits, new traffic-generating product categories and embracing entrepreneurial spirit.

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Media disruption

South Australian newsagents need to organise

South Australian newsagents concerned about the moves by Advertiser Newspapers to take over collection of payment for all home deliveries of News Ltd product need to organise themselves.  With the ANF currently only focusing on its 100 or so SA members (down from 400+ in late 2004), many newsagents are unrepresented on this issue of vital importance to all newsagents nationally.

At risk here is the relationship between newsagents and their customers of long standing.  This will impact traffic in retail newsagencies.  It may significantly impact the cash-flow of distribution newsagencies if all opinions are not considered.

I had hoped that the ANF would open its meeting on Thursday this week to all newsagents.  Failing that, I had hoped that some newsagents with political abilities in SA would organise their own meeting of newsagents.  Unless either of these occurs, the currently weak leadership from the ANF on this issue is set to prevail.  What they have said so far about this issues demonstrates ignorance of the risks.  This can be remedied if they open the meeting and listen to all newsagents and stop their spin.

This takeover by News Ltd is bad for newsagents.  If it proceeds, it will further destabilise the fine balance in retail newsagencies and dilute our relevance to consumers.

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Newsagency challenges

Reporting back on magazine initiatives

Here are some updates on some of our recent magazine initiatives.

The new food column we introduced in our women’s weeklies has worked well.  Sales of food titles were up and several of the pockets emptied.  We will keep this for the next few weeky – but change the titles up each week.

Australian Women’s Weekly performed very well at the counter and is tracking well for the issue.

Crosswords are doing well next to one of our lottery counters – we will leave them in place for another week.

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magazines

Ink promotion drives traffic

fhn_ink_june09.JPGWe are enjoying excellent traffic from the latest HOT Ink! promotion.  As we have found previously, Tuesdays are an especially successful day for us given that it us the quietest day of the week – over $600 in ink sales Tuesday last week.  Every day since the latest catalogue promotion hit has delivered excellent business.

This is our eleventh ink promotion.  Consistency around brands, promotion and competitive pricing has established us in our area and this brings repeat business after a catalogue ends.

Most days, we sell more from three metres of ink than we do from two aisles of stationery.  While this could be a reflection on our stationery offer, I think it speaks to consistent external marketing of the ink offer.

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newsagency marketing

The weekly magazine cover face off

fhn_weeklies_june08.JPGPutting out the weeklies this morning I wondered whether the local Aussie girl (Lisa Curry-Kenny) can out perform the relationship challenged mega star (Jennifer Aniston).  Maybe I had too much time on my hands to even think about this.  But I read how a great cover can drive sales so I figured why not get the girls and their tragic tales to face off against each other.  I put Woman’s Day and New Idea on a display right at the front of the shop – Curry-Kenny versus Aniston.  I was going to place a header, explaining the competition I had in mind.  I decided against it, preferring the covers to work for themselves.

Of course, my real interest is in driving sales of Woman’s Day and New Idea – two vitally important magazines to my newsagency and our channel as a whole.

Being a public holiday today, we will see plenty of shoppers we would not usually see on a Monday.  This is both a challenge and an opportunity.  Hopefully both Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Curry-Kenny will not let me down.

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magazines

Promoting Madison magazine and gifts

fhn_madison_june09.JPGThe free lipgloss and make-up bag and Madison magazine make a nice pacakge for our main counter magazine offer this week.I like the care taken with the packaging – showing off the gifts and their value without detracting from the cover of Madison itself.  This is key to driving an impulse purchase at the counter.

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magazines

Missing Gordon Ramsay

gordon_ramsay_missed.JPGGordon Ramsay is in town and you can’t miss him – in the newspapers and on radio.  I am disappointed that we don’t have magazines with Ramsay features to promote.  A cover or two on the weeklies or on food titles would have worked a treat given his ability to grab headlines.  Yep, a missed opportunity by editors.  At least the editor of the Herald Sun understands the opportunity.

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Ugh!

Looking for magazine poster suggestions

chistmasposter.jpgI am planning on creating a new poster (not me but the marketing and design team in my business) promoting a category of magazines and to make it available free for download here in A4 and A3 sizes.  I have done this a couple of times already – most recently last Christmas.  The idea is to create a poster which features several titles from a magazine catgeory – a poster which any newsagency could display regardless of the banner under which they trade.

I am thinking of selecting one from the following magazine categories: children’s, food, men’s lifestyle or special interest.  I’d be interested suggestions.

The artwork will feature a range of titles and prmote the newsagency as having an excellent range of magazines.

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magazines

Magazines and business study

Independent magazines must be of interest to one or two university lecturers based on questions I have received in the last couple of weeks.  At least one business course appears to be using the challenge of the distribution of independent magazines as a case study.  The questions from some of the students are excellent.  A common question is – why not go direct to a newsagent, why would I use a magazine distributor?  This is a question I have for independent publishers too.

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magazine distribution

Where paper boys came from

The familiar neighborhood paper boy was a product of the Depression, born of the need to boost revenues and improve readership. Operating funds for newspapers swiftly declined in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash. Circulation managers responded with one of the few resources at their command – inexpensive juvenile labor. Drawing on connections linking men and boys in the marketplace, circulation heads fashioned a gendered managerial philosophy that was distinctive to their industry. This approach, here termed masculine guidance, revitalized daily news delivery and transformed the relationship between middle-class childhood and paid work in the United States.

From Enterprise and Society 1:355-390 (2000).  Published by Oxford Journals -Oxford University Press.

I found this while researching newspaper distribution history today and thought some visitors here may find it interesting.

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Newspapers

EDI standards unify newsagents

Unity is an overused word in the newsagency channel.  Right now, however, unity is on show for newsagents in a practical and commercial way.

For the first time in years, all magazine distributors, key publishers, software companies and newsagents are all working to a common goal around new XchangeIT EDI standards.  This unity of purpose has been driven by the distributor’s desire to cut costs out of their back end.

The new technology and processes software companies and magazine distributors will implement will cut costs for newsagents.  This is why many newsagents are getting behind the project.

Down the track, once the new XchangeIT EDI platform is fully rolled out, I will see significant innovation.  Software companies and magazine distributors will have the ability to better demonstrate valuable points of difference.  Newsagents will benefit from the renewed competition which will flow from this.  Core standards will drive unity but also intensify competition.

As the new XchangeIT standards further evolve, I am certain that we will see more opportunities for a common approach by newsagents and stakeholders – more unity of purpose. Thinking about this today made me reflect on the importance of commercial unity compared to the political unity which continues to elude the channel.

While some will say that newsagents should have owned the EDI standards and platform, it is too late for that.  The opportunity of newsagent ownership of the data channel into the newsagent network was botched by newsagent leaders earlier this decade.  What we have today is better than what was planned back then.

As more newsagents embrace XchangeIT and the new disciplines I am excited by the opportunities ahead.  This is a platform which we can leverage for the benefit of newsagents.  It is also a platform through which leadership can shine.  My only frustration is that it has taken so long to come to fruition.

I have a vested interest because I own Tower Systems.  I have respected that by reducing margin – because of easier sales to newsagents who want the benefits of compliant software – as reflected in our Connections with ACP joint promotion.

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Newsagency opportunities

National Independents’ Week a great initiative

niw.jpgIt is National Independents’ Week this past week in the UK, a week when publishers, suppliers and independent retailers including newsagents jointly promote independent retailers.  The Sun newspaper is promoting offers through coupons in the newspaper.  This is an excellent promotion, one I have blogged about before.

I’d love to see something like this run here in Australia.  I am certain that suppliers and newspaper publishers would get behind it.

I tried something kind of similar with the TV commercial I funded last year and while ACP Magaiznes, Lovatts, the Herald and Weekly Times and some newsagents got behind it, this was not enough to extend the reach.

The UK initiative appears to be more product driven.  That is important for unlocking funding and driving consumer action.

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Newsagency opportunities

Women’s weekly magazines do it tough in NZ

The New Zealand Herald has an interesting story today about challenges facing women’s weekly magazines.  While a good read about factors in the decline of the weekly in New Zealand, the article misses two key points – celebrities controlling more of their story thorugh their own blogs, Twitter feeds and the like and the thousands of celebrity blogs which offer magazine-like celebrity content for free.

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How is business?

Australia post price rise hits publishers

Mediaweek yesterday published a report about the impact of Australia Post price rises on magazine publishers and subscriptions fulfilled through Australia Post.

Publishers have been reacting angrily to notification from Australia Post this week about price increases which will affect the cost of filling subscriptions. One of Australia’s largest subscription fulfillment houses, D&D Mailing Services, has circulated a letter from director David Docherty it sent to Australia Post. One of D&D’s customers has subsequently forwarded it to Mediaweek. It reads in part:

This Increase is 3.9% for Parcels, 3.6% for PrintPost and a further increase to Line haul rates of 3.1% which ultimately increases PrintPost to a weighted average increase of 4.6% in most cases.

I received notice of these increases in my Sydney office from Australia Post dated 1 June 2009. The notice indicates that the increases are effective from Monday 6 July 2009 (1 months notice).

This increase is only 9 months from the last increase. Therefore the increase at this time (3 months earlier) means a further 33% increase to Australia Post profits and an unbudgeted and unplanned impost to customers as it hits one financial quarter earlier than previous years which effectively has an underlying annual increase of a further 1% increase than advised.

This is from the same Australia Post which aggressively targets small business newsagencies with its 865 government owned corporate stores.

The federal government needs to rein in this business it wholly owns.

In the meantime, newsagents ought to work closely with publishers on selling a new type of subscription – a customer pick up.  Lock in the traffic and have an opportunity to sell a year of copies and get the money, albeit a smaller amount, up front.  I know there are some challenges in this proposal, at least we ought to be at the table discussing them.  The Australia Post price rise presents an opportunity to do this.

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Australia Post

Two years for water damage pay out

Two years after we were flooded out as a result of construction being undertaken above our shop we received this week a cheque from the insurance company for the builder for the $10,000 in stock which was water damaged and removed by them at the time.  I hope newsagents affected by the floods in Queensland don;t have to wait two years.

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Ugh!

Proudly displaying the local community connection

customer_thanks.JPGNow more than ever, displaying the community connection is important – because people are more likely to shop locally to save costs and because people appreciate support for local groups at a time when raising funds is difficult.  Like other newsagents, we are regularly thanked for donations.

One of the best I have seen the letter and photo from Mt Pleasant Road Primary School in Nunawading.  The photo with the letter is an engaging way to say thank you, one we will proudly show in-store.  They invited us to an open day to see the difference donations like ours made – this invitation is appreciated.

Community involvement must be two-way.  Thank you letters and transparency on the positive impact of support are important for businesses which give to give and not to make the person requesting a donation to go away.

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Social responsibility

Promoting Burke’s Backyard and gardening magazines

fhn_garden_june09.JPGWe are using Burke’s Backyard magazine as a feature of a display of gardening magazines at the front of our newsXpress Forest Hill location this weekend – as a drawcard.  With Don Burke back on TV and the new issue of Burke’s Backyard out we the timing is right for a display around the title.  We are promoting a range of gardening titles as well as Better Homes and Gardens which sells well over the weekend.

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magazines

Making newspapers more valuable on the iPhone

Editor & Publisher has overnight published a report about Apple’s new iPhone operating system which could be good news for newspaper publishers.  Apparently, new technology will enable the publishing of highly location targeted content and advertising, based on where the iPhone is at the time.  E&P interviewed Art Howe, CEO of Verve Wireles:

The new technology has the ability to deliver user-location information at the browser level. For example, when a user accesses a newspaper Web site, the browser knows the user’s location. The newspaper can send relevant content and, more important, relevant targeted advertising within 2 blocks on a person’s location. “This makes local advertising on mobile highly potent with high CPMS,” Howe said.

The other big change is in how iPhone content is purchased:

Second: There is a new capability for publishers to charge for subscriptions or micropayments through one application. For example, a user could be reading about the new quarterback in town and with one click can purchase premium content like an exclusive video interview the quarterback.

Those who watched the Rupert Murdoch interview last week will recall the focus on monetisation.  Making micropayments easy on the iPhone and other devices will encourage publishers to engage more with these devices as their distribution channel.  While this will be a major shift for publishers, who have always controlled the channel and all cost points, it represents an opportunity to monetise content for which they receive little or no revenue today.

What Apple will announce next week in this area will be further evidence that newsagents should not spend another cent on a purpose built newspaper or magazine fixture. Flexibility is the name of the game in retail newsagency design.

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Media disruption

ANF set to miss opportunity to lead

I am told that the ANF has advised South Australian newsagents that the meeting planned for June 11 to discuss moves by the Adelaide Advertiser to take control over home delivery payments will be for ANF members only.  I’d encourage the ANF to invite all newsagents to the meeting.  The more attending the better.

The ANF cannot claim to represent all newsagents if it is selective as it appears to be.

The alternative is that newsagents organise their own meeting.  We did this in Victoria last year on Bill Express and showed VANA and the ANF how dissatisfied newsagents were with their lack of leadership on that issue.

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Newsagent representation

Selling newspapers with lottery products

fhn_papers_lottery.JPGWe have made some changes at our busiest lottery country to try and lift newspaper sales.  The Herald Sun impulse stand has been moved to the left, to a location where it will be seen by more people lining up to purchase.  We usually have a magazine offer in this location – most recently Top Gear Australia.

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Newspapers

Did controversy hurt The Monthly?

monthly_may09.JPGOur sales for The Monthly were down more than 50% in May.  We didn’t treat the title any differently or hide it in any way.  I wonder if the sales fall had to do with controversy surrounding the sacking of the editor.  Sales this month will provide some guidance.

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magazines
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