The Hearst owned Seattle Post-Intelligencier is set to close its print product and move to a pure online model according to PaidContent. I first bought a copy of the PI in 1986 on my first visit to Seattle. It was comfortable as it felt and read very much like The Age.
We received stock of the 2009 Country Collections Diary from Network Services in my newsagencies on Wednesday this week. I was surprised, so was the publisher, Universal Magazines, when I contacted them. While they have investigated and resolved the issue for my newsagencies, they have not, yet, addressed the issue in other newsagencies. I have encouraged Universal Magazines this week to:
I am not happy that I have been taken care of as this issue is not about my businesses. This issue is reflective of systemic behaviour by distributors and, to some extent, publishers. The solution needs to be systemic.
Too often, our suppliers fix problems for noisy newsagents yet continue the bad behaviour with the majority of newsagents who are not noisy.
Fixing the Country Collections Diary problem in my newsagencies does not help the channel and it is the channel I care about more than my three newsagencies.
This is why I am blogging about it this morning. Universal Magazines needs to understand that the distribution system which abused newsagents with supply of the diary this week is the problem. They need to urgently fix this so that I can trust commitments they have med to me in recent times.
UPDATE (9/3/09): Universal has gained agreement form Network to recall these diaries this week. This is an excelleent outcome.
We are pitching a healthy Easter range in our newsagencies with a good range of plush and other Easter related gift lines. We have the display at the end of our dance floor, in a high-visibility area. The Easter stock will be moved a couple of times as the season unfolds – change is crucial in driving gift and related sales.
While we will still have the Darrell Lea range, it is these calorie-free items which we think will sell well early in the Easter season.
I have seen sales data from around fifty newsagencies recently comparing Easter 2008 to Easter 2007. More than half the newsagencies delivered double digit growth. While the base in most cases was low, growth is growth. This demonstrates that with some effort in-store, Easter can drive growth.
We are working in creating smarter, integrated, promotional magazine displays which work for the category as well as the specific feature title. This is an initiative developed by our team at Forest Hill. It is leading to a change in customer behavior with magazine displays.
Click on the image for a larger version of the display our team created promoting the latest Top Gear Australia. This display confronts people as they leave our men’s magazine aisle. In addition to promoting Top Gear we promote other motoring titles.
This display occupies space which previously was dead or used ineffectively at best.
Click on this image to see the Top Gear display in the context of the men’s aisle. As they leave the aisle they walk past a waterfall display of Top Gear and then see the display and get another crack at related popular motoring titles.
This integrated display is proving to be more effective for us that a feature display of Top Gear somewhere where it is a good billboard but not working for the category.
Since we have been using this new space in this way we have noticed people spending time browsing the titles – something which is rare with traditional magazine displays.
I’d like to see magazine publishers encourage a more holistic approach to feature displays. While promoting a single title is often appropriate, there are occasions when sharing display space with other titles from the category creates a win win. This is what we are pursuing with our Top Gear display.
The stationery department in a newsagency responds well to attention yet it it often the poor cousin when it comes to labour and capital investment. A small investment in rejigging stock can drive sales growth. I have seen this first-hand in my own newsagencies and in others. Here are some suggestions from the stationery page of the notes I handed at out at the recent Kick Start Your Newsagency workshops which newsagents may find useful:
Stationery responds well to attention in newsagencies. Give your stationery department attention and expect good rewards in return.
Will these simple ideas turn stationery sales around? I don’t know. They have worked in other newsagencies and they may work for you. They are not bad ideas and, if followed, will do no harm to your business.
My key point is that your stationery department needs to be worked. Invest in it and it will better serve you. In today’s climate especially.
David Sarno writes in his column at the Los Angeles Times why the newspaper should not be saved.
And as much as we cherish the newspaper that arrives on our doorstep every morning, as a medium for delivering news, it loses to the Web in too many ways. At the top of the list is, of course, currency. What you read on front pages is, quite literally, yesterday’s news — while what you see on home-pages is what is happening in the real-time present.
If you’re an environmental type, you’ll know that newspapers are not a green product, either. The Green Press Initiative estimated that in 2006, newsprint consumed 95 million trees, to say nothing of the energy consumed or the pollution generated by printing and vehicle delivery.
There is considerably more to Sarno’s column. Be sure to read it all if you are interested in the future of newspapers.
I don’t agree with Sarno, yet. While the US is overserviced with newspapers, the medium has a place – albeit, quite different to the model in the US today.
Our situation in Australia, as I write here often, is quite different thanks mainly due to the tightly controlled (low cost) distribution network provided by newsagents. Changes in that space and other factors will see conversations in the US reach our shores.
Registration is now open for the Tower Systems AFL and NRL Footy Tipping Competition this year. Anyone is welcome to participate. Entry is free.
Prizes for each competition: First $250.00; Second $100.00; Third $50.00.
To join, please follow these instructions:
Each week, go to the Tower Systems website, click on the AFL and/or NRL tipping links, enter your username and password and tip away.
Rules:
The 7th National Mainstreet Conference is being held in Fremantle in a couple of weeks. I mention it here as this is a conference at which newsagents ought to be represented – we do have a presence in every main street after all.
Following my blog post earlier this week on Cycle Sport I was contacted by the Senior Account Manager at Network. The UK publisher last year moved to air freight, necessitating a price rise. This is to change back to sea freight with the issue on sale in May. This will bring the cover price down. With the move back to Sea Freight, Network is also reviewing newsagent allocations in pursuit of supply quantities closer to actual sales. It has been bumpy recently due to the switch from sea to air and associated cover price moves.
The cover price discrepancy between newsagents and the magshop online service will be resolved.
While it would be good to have not had the issues in the first place, I am pleased to know more of the back story and that a better outcome for newsagents is being pursued.
The newspaper home delivery model in Australia is in crisis as more newsagents hand back home delivery runs to the publishers. Crisis is not my word, it is what some publisher insiders call it along with many newsagents.
While publishers are responding by increasing internal services for managing these handed back home delivery rounds in-house, there appears to be inaction on addressing the cause.
Many small to mid-size independent newsagents are walking from hundreds of thousands of dollars of goodwill paid when they purchased the runs. It says something about the home delivery model whey they are prepared to write off this investment rather than continue to lose money. To an outsider, this could be seen as a takeover without paying for the assets.
Publishers could stop the mass exit of home delivery by offering newsagents an equitable relationship. While this will cost significantly more than newsagents are paid today, it will cost less than the publishers providing the service in-house.
Offering fair compensation to newsagents for home delivery service would provide a basis for increasing subscriptions and through this increasing circulation. It all comes down to the will of the publishers and whether they want the current system to remain.
From numbers I have seen, home delivery fees need to double.
Back when I had home delivery in my newsagency I know customers would pay a higher fee – they are happy for the convenience of the service. Home delivery newsagents I have spoken with recently tell me the same thing. I wish that publishers had the guts to test this.
The financial challenge for newsagents of home delivery is not new. Newsagent associations and publishers know that. There have been various studies, the most comprehensive by Fairfax working with the ANF and KPMG in 2004. The net result of the various studies, workshops and meetings on the topic is that more newsagents than ever are walking away from newspaper home delivery.
This is not that good of a deal, certainly not a best buy. We received 15 copies of Sound & Image Best Buys Home Theatre on December 31, 2008. As of yesterday morning we had sold two copies. For our gross return of $4.47 we have paid out $14.00 for the retail real-estate the title has occupied for two months.
Even though Best Buys is not due for return for another two months we are returning it this week – we have to cut our losses.
While I support independent Australian publishers, a model which sees me and other newsagents so heavily investing in titles like this is unfair. Wolseley Media, the publisher, ought to consider offering more equitable terms to newsagents if they want to stay on our shelves.
We are giving prominence to the Melbourne Observer this week because of the stories of thanks to donors and other supporters of people affected by the recent Victorian bushfires.
This is a good and timely story from the Observer. We know that it will resonate with our customers – hence our positioning in a high traffic area.
Folio has a report on the Magazines 24/7 meeting which took place in New York a couple of days ago and, in particular, comments from Gary Hoenig of ESPN Publishing about finding the market price for content. He cites iTunes and their 99 cent a song charge and the need for publishers to find their price point.
Breaking articles from a masthead and pricing them at a few cents will revolutionise many magazines as we know them. With more and more portable devices available to deliver on-the-run access to text content, this is the next logical step in our space. While it is happening today, it has not been widely adopted by publishers. They will get there and sooner than we expect.
The Minister for Small Business is hosting a summit in Melbourne on Friday to discuss the current economic challenges in the context of small business. While I will not be attending, I had an opportunity today to share insights about the impact on small business and newsagents in particular with one of the Minister’s advisors.
I talked about the new bricks and mortar security requirements by banks for funding the purchase of newsagencies and the new lending rules put in place by major equipment lease finance companies – as well as covering some more general issues facing the channel.
I am hopeful that the two key points covered in the discussion make it to the talking points provided to the Minister ahead of Friday’s meeting. The more diverse the input for a session like the more useful the outcome.
More newsagents should write to politicians to air their views. I am finding the current Federal Government more responsive to representations – at least you get a response and, sometimes, a phone call.
Pacific Magazines’ marie claire this month packages a free gift is a unique way. Rather than sticking the free Chanel mascara on the cover or in a fold out bag, they have slipped it on the spine and produced a cover wrap around. Whereas free gifts with magazines often detract from the product they are promoting, the approach with this month’s marie claire reinforces the quality of the brand.
It does not look cheap – is what I mean. This is important in the land of gifts with magazines.
The Chanel mascara giveaway and unique packaging have won marie claire access to our prime counter display space.
We have lifted our in-store Australian Women’s Weekly display collateral and re-purposed it for a stand in the front of our newsagency. This stand is seen by lottery customers who do not venture too far into the newsagency – a different mix to those who would have seen the material in its previous location. We could not do this with all displays. Our feeling is that the Magda cover story and the media coverage it continues to generate should make it work for us.
February was interesting in our newsagencies. Many departments were up: Newspapers (9%), calendars (144%), diaries 171%), Art (8%) and gifts (77%). Magazines were down. Stationery was flat. At Forest Hill our magazine unit sales fell 14% while at Frankston the fall was 20%.
The fall in magazine sales correlates to the drop in customer count. The good news is that we are making more from each customer.
While our numbers are not what we would like, we are happy because of the growth in key good margin departments. We are operating business as usual, trying new ideas, offering deals on stock we want to quit and presenting our shops as cheerful easy-to-shop destinations.
We are pursuing new customers by distributing Hot Ink! Flyers to homes around our locations. As is always the case, we are seeing a good kick in ink sales.
Since we are in shopping centres, we are somewhat reliant on our landlord to lure new customers to the centre. I’d like to see landlords think right outside the box on this. The usual mix of kids activities, displays and feel good promotions are not having the same cut-through as they once had.
Click here to download a copy of our March customer newsletter. As the photo shows, we have this in a help-yourself stand at the front of our newsagency at Forest Hill. While it is a bit of work to produce the newsletter, it is a valuable way we spread our stories to passers-by.
e-pay has just announced that new contracts with newsagents will not have any break penalty. This makes it even easier for newsagents to sell e-pay mobile phone and other electronic voucher products through eziPass platform. To sign up, please go to the retailer sign up page on the eziPass website.
eziPass is integrated with Tower Systems newsagency management software. From within the Tower software you can easily sell mobile recharge for all the major telcos. This integrated solution cuts keystrokes, eliminates mistakes and makes selling easier. Long lines are eliminated as you can sell from any computer on the network.
Space management in newsagencies is challenged with more magazines using the fold out plastic bag to hold a free gift with the latest issue. These titles are best presented with the give-away on display – otherwise the value of the gift as the driver for purchase is lost.
Traditional magazine fixturing does not help with display. Where possible we will display with the gift fully showing. Many newsagents fold the gift back, meaning that the customer only sees the cover. I think this hurts sales.
The gifts are an important way to lift sales of a title – maybe not so at the moment since so many titles have the free gifts – but display so as to drive sales is a challenge in some newsagencies. This is one reason we created the display at our counter but we currently have an abundance of titles competing for this one resource.
I received an email over the weekend from Jennifer Round of Gerroa Newsagency, Post Office and General Store – a coastal town located around 90 minutes from Sydney. The local council says it will fine them $10,000 every time there is a complaint about the noise associated with wrapping newspapers early in the morning. Jennifer’s own words best describe the situation:
The business and residence is combined with a vacant block to one side and a property to the other with a cliff at the back. The house next-door to us is used during holiday periods.
In February 2007 a neighbouring newsagent gave up there newspaper territory and we took it on and unlike others we are actually making money from it.
However, the increase in work re wrapping papers, trucks arriving in the night, vehicles in and out of the driveway in the we hours have lead to a neighbour lodging a noise complaint. We were a little annoyed since the complaint is from a semi part time neighbour who never came in and saw us just filled a complaint with the council whom are now threatening to issue us with fines if we do not cease operations.
We are in the process of tying to reduce the noise as best we can. We have striped the garage and have lined the walls and roof with insulation have relined the walls with noise reduction plasterboard. Have laid rubber mates on the floor and will laid some on the walls in an effort to reduce the noise of the wrapping machine which seems to be the issue of the complaint.
We are after other ideas we have contacted an acoustic engineer whom has quoted us $10,000 in improvements however they aren’t able to say that after all that work it will make too much of a difference.
We do not have anywhere else to wrap the papers. We have looked at other locations in neighbouring towns but still have the same issues we have at the moment commercial/industrial properties surrounded by residential properties. It would also be unprofitable to move.
We are wondering if any other Newsagency have had issues with noise complaints from neighbours, businesses and alike. Moreover, if they have how have they managed it.
If we are not able to work something out it looks like our doors will be closing not because of hard economically times but because of our local council who are more interested in fining us up to $10,000 for each complaint than finding a solution that will benefit the community as a whole.
As Jennifer says, if you have suggestions, please post comments here.
The season preview edition of the AFL Record is selling well for us – 30% ahead compared to the same period last year. So much so that we would hope to sell out in the next week. Our sales growth may be due, in part, to our opportunistic co-location of the title at Tattersalls counters. Almost anything AFL is a good impulse product in Melbourne this time of the year.
It is important that we know these titles we can pitch at the counter and act accordingly – and early in the sales cycle so that we benefit from a cash flow perspective.
We are introducing the new Hallmark baby card, gift and packaging range with a display at our counter rather than across in our card and gift department. This front-of-shop corner location has more foot traffic so it makes sense to show the new range off to more shoppers.
I like the decision our team made to place this display here as it reminds newspaper, magazine, lottery and stationery customers that we also play in the greetings and gifts space.
