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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Health Smart blocks other titles

notsohealthsmart.JPGWhile I am sure that the folks at Reader’s Digest would be thrilled with the work of the merchandiser in promoting the latest issue of Health Smart. Their action, as shown in the photo, is disrespectful in that it blocks view of titles to the left, right and above.  One of these would be fine but all three is a bit much.  The merchandising shown in the photo is selfish and unfair against not only the other titles but also the retailer.  What is more frustrating is that the merchandising company probably paid something like $25 for the merchandising visit.  If the publisher had provided us the materials we would have navigated a better outcome for all concerned.

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magazines

Great Back to School deals in Australia

bts09.jpgForget Big W, Officeworks, Target, K-Mart and other big retailers chasing back to school business this year.  Their deals are not so hot.  Australian newsagents have excellent deals.  I know from my own experience that newsXpress has some excellent deals which beat the big boys.  There are twenty Nintendo Wii up for grabs as well.  The Newspower catalogue has some excellent deals too.  In addition to these good deals, Australian newsagents provide good local service, employing local people and supporting local community groups.  These are important reasons to support local newsagents with your back to school business. 

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Stationery

EGM to close

Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine is to close.  The January issue is to be the last.  Gamasutra has details on this move.  While not a big seller, it has been an important title in the gaming mix.  Joey Allarilla writes about EGM and challenges for print magazines at cnet. 

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magazines

Promoting Tattersalls instore or online?

tattsoutside.JPGI am disappointed that Tattersalls has paid to place this generic poster just outside the entrance nearest our newsagency.  I would rather it promote our business or at the very least not promote online.  While you may say that they are funding the advertising and can do what they like, it’s ten steps from the poster to our shop and I would have thought that a call to action to buy from us would have worked well.  I would have shared the cost with them.

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Lotteries

Newsagent exclusive opportunity with music cards

cp_pitch.jpgCardplai sells greeting cards which come with access to music as the gift.  By using the unique code which comes with the card, the recipient can download songs selected for them or, depending on what the giver has selected, any songs in the catalogue of 38,000 new and existing albums.  Newsagents are the exsitive retail partner for cardplai.  Our Tower Systems Point of Sale and eziPass platforms are the exclusive access point.  Tower users running the integrated eziPass software can sell the cardplai product.  Non Tower newsagents can get ezipass stand alone for free to sell Cardplai.  We have eziPass running in newsagencies using other newsagency software.

The folks at Cardplai offered us a commission to bring their product online and to promote it.  We said thanks but no thanks, prefering that they spend the commission we would have earned in helping newsagents make more from Cardplai.

So, for the record, we receive no payment for the work we have done on Cardplai or for endorsing the offer.  We are supporting the offer because we like that it is exclusive to newsagents, that it is a good and natural fit for newsagents and that it opens our channel to a new product offer around digital music.

The team behind Cardplai is in the process of calling newsagents to offer access.  This is an opportunity for newsagents to show they can band together to bring a new product to market.  Click here to download a copy of the information sheet developed by Cardplai to announce the offer.

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Greeting Cards

Promoting mobile phone recharge

mobilerecharge1.JPGClick on the image to see a larger photo of the how we are using A3 posters to promote mobile phone recharge in our newsagencies.  While there is plenty of collateral material around specific brands of mobile phone carriers, our feeling is that a generic sign like this more efficiently speaks to the overall offer mobile phone recharge offer.  The Tower Systems marketing team created the poster for use in times when we have good real estate available for a generic promotion such as this.  Click here to download a free copy of the A3 artwork if you’d like to display this in your newsagency.

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newsagency marketing

Rethinking Western Union

We plan to review Western Union this year.  While I like the overall offer and that it positions us well with foreign language newspaper sales, the more complex compliance requirements and the slim margin have brought it onto the radar for review. 

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Newsagency challenges

Martha Stewart late for Christmas

msliving.JPGThe latest issue of Martha Stewart Living is a good example of certain issues of overseas titles which face challenges.  Only a die-hard Martha Stewart fan will buy this Christmas themed issue which arrived yesterday.  We will be unlikely to sell the one copy we received.  I am not sure what the answer is: airfreight seasonal issues, cut supply or live with it as we do today?  Having Christmas titles now makes us look lazy or out of date.

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magazines

Is Gowns magazine free or what?

gowns.JPGGowns, published by Wildfire Publications, has a price of $9.90.  However, it is free if you buy Sydney Weddings.  This is extraordinary.  In a newsagency I visited today (in Melbourne) there is Sydney Weddings on the shelf with Gowns for free and next to it is Gowns by itself priced at $9.90.  Both are distributed by NDD.  Surely someone at NDD noticed this?  I hope not because it would shock me that they noticed this and let it through.  This behaviour makes newsagents look stupid to customers.

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magazine distribution

The cost of launching a new magazine

grandma.JPGWe have not sold a single copy of Groovy Grandmas since it launched six weeks ago.  As I blogged at the time, we received 19 copies.  We early returned the stock today.  Besides being out of pocket for a time for the cost of the initial stock, we have to pay freight to send this now dead stock back.  This is a considerable impost on small business newsagents. 

While I understand that the publisher has risked tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more, in the launch of Groovy Grandmas, that is their choice.  Newsagents have not been given a choice as to whether they want to invest in a new title.  The distributor is not out of pocket in such a launch.  Only the publisher, who had a choice, and newsagents, who had no say in whether to invest.

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magazine distribution

Print run cutbacks cost magazine sales

Reduction in supply quantities of some weekly magazines over the Christmas / New Year period is seeing sell-outs.  In some cases, the impacted customers are shifted to a competing title while in other cases they leave to find the title at another retailer. While I understand that the size of the print run of many titles is determined by the ad revenue of the issue, as a retailer I hate losing sales.

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magazines

Fat wedding magazines expensive to return

fatwedding.JPGBesides a six-month period and supply way beyond what we will sell, Complete Wedding Melbourne from Universal Magazines stings newsagents because of its sheer weight.  We have to pay to freight unsold product back to the distributor and cannot fit more than four copies per bundle.  This is another argument for sending the cover only and trashing the rest of the magazine.  Paying to freight returns of Complete Wedding Melbourne is like a fine on newsagents for doing nothing wrong.

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magazine distribution

VANA unsuccessful on home delivery fees

Further to our Bulletin dated 13 November 2008 re Home Delivery Fees. VANA has been discussing a Home Delivery fee increase with HWT for quite some time and we are extremely disappointed to advise that Peter Blunden, Managing Director of HWT has informed us that we have not been granted an increase.  He has stated the following:

“After giving the matter careful consideration, we have decided to seek alternative ways of addressing the issues raised”.

With that, VANA has announced that it has failed, again, to deliver for its members. 

No wonder newsagents are quitting newspaper distribution. 

In what other business is a service provider expected to carry cost increases every year in labour, fuel and other areas, cope with a reduction in margin and survive with no increase in service to compensate? 

Newspaper publishers will wonder, at some point in the future, why newsagents abandoned what was the best newspaper distribution system in Australia.  The answer can be found in this decision and many similar decisions which preceded it – to not pay a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work by newsagents. 

I know newspaper executives are concerned about the number of newsagents quitting home delivery.  They invite such action with decisions such as this.  Sadly, the VANA announcement contains no passion on behalf of newsagents. 

I wonder who VANA used to prepare and represent its case?  If this was done in-house or by VANA Board members then it has let its members down.  On a case such as this, professional representation is essential so that the newsagent position and negotiation is as strong as the other side.  Such a case would have included information on advertising rates as a comparison among other things.

Home delivery is a service by newsagents.  It is only reasonable that they set the fee they cahrge for the service they provide.

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Newsagency challenges

Small retailers ‘protected’ on unit price

The Federal Government yesterday announced that small retailers, those with stores under 1,000 square metres, will be exempt from mandatory unit pricing.  This will be of interest to newsagents selling grocery products, those covered by the regulations.

While this looks like a victory for small business, it, in my view, widens the gulf between them and big retailers. 

Unit pricing is not that difficult since the work is done by the software and the data included on shelf talkers and other labels produced.  I certainly plan on using unit pricing and eliminating an opportunity for a customer to prefer a bigger competitor over one of my businesses.

The Australian has more on the Government’s announcement.

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Competition

Banksia Beach News promotes fellow newsagents

30122008.jpgCheck out how Peter Williams at Banksia Beach News in Queensland has embraced the newsagency marketing campaign we developed a couple of months ago.  On several window panels of Peter’s shop he has included artwork which connects with the TV and print campaign.  Peter has done this at his own cost to connect his business with the wider newsagent network and to support other newsagents. 

Thanks Peter!

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newsagency marketing

Newsagent charged $4,000 a year for software support

A newsagent called me last week to ask for help.  They received a bill for $4,000 for software support.  No, I didn’t tell them to switch to my software company, Tower Systems.  I advised them that I know of newsagents paying just $1,500 a year to their current software company for support (mediocre as it is). 

Software companies ought to treat all newsagents.  There is no justification to charge someone $4,000 and the newsagent in the next suburb $1,500 for the same services – such an approach preys on the weak.

Trust is key to the relationship between newsagents and their software provider.  Trust is demonstrated in common pricing for all.  In the case of this other software company, $1,500 a year software support is the benchmark they have established.

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Ethics

Diaries at full price

We have been talking across our newsagencies about our price policy for diaries and when to contemplate discounting the 2009 range.  With excellent sales still being achieved – $500 to $900 a day Friday last week and again today across our stores – we feel no need to contemplate discounting at this point. 

I was in a newsagency yesterday where their diaries are at 50% off.  They told me they did this because another store was discounting.  The newsagent has a bigger and better range.  This is why we don’t need to discount.  It demonstrates the value of a point of difference. 

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Diaries

Promoting the CSIRO diet and

fhn_ni_jan09.JPGThe free 12-page CSIRO health heart program diet book which comes with New Idea this week earns prime position at our counter. 

Thankfully, Pacific Magazines has not cut supply over summer as some other publishers have – we have plenty of stock to support the hoped-for sales kick as a result of the front counter promotion.

New idea is an easy impluse offer with the right cover or some other value-add.  Girlfriend, in this same position last week, did well for us.

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magazines

Managing magazine early returns

early_returns.JPGMagazine publishers and distributors hate early returns, the mechanism through which newsagents send titles back prior to their requested return date.  Newsagents hate them too.  For us, they are work based on an expectation of failure of the title.  For the publisher, they could be a denial of opportunity (and sales).  For the distributor, I am not so sure since they are paid a fee for logistics services regardless.

The label in the photo is produced by our software when we are supplied product which the software is certain we will not sell.  This is one of several mechanisms available to us for flagging early return opportunities based on what is to be supplied.  The label is good because it is a push activity.  That is, it is produced by the software along with pricing labels used in labeling magazines before they are put on the shelves in the morning.  This means that newsagency staff do not need to print out reports or undertake other work find out early returns opportunities.

Early return opportunities are only flagged when a title does not sell as well as a distributor expects.  That is remembered so that action can be taken next time it is supplied.  

Given that it is my money at risk with this dead stock, it is appropriate I take every step possible to mitigate any potential loss.  The frustration, of course, is that this problem is created by magazine distributors given that they have the data to stop supplying something which will not sell. 

Newsagents are stung because they have to fund sending early return product back – I found out recently that this is not the case in some overseas countries. 

One way we could address this, in instances of gross over supply, would be to top the covers and only send these back.  Publishers would soon get the message that gross oversupply is a serious problem.

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magazines

More happy space products

fassets.JPGThese small pads from For Arts Sake are an ideal addition to the happy space in newsagencies about which I blogged yesterday.  They work at the counter as an impulse item and also work in an area dedicated items which reflect a positive outlook on life.  Our customers love items like this.  They make for an ideal small gift to accompany a Thank You or Congratulations card.

The more I think about the more I like the idea of a section of our newsagencies, a happy space,  dedicated to positive and inspiring gifts and thoughts. 

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Happy products

Who needs a TV guide?

Check out TV.COM.  This online TV viewer resource has been localised.  Access is free.  Sites like this represent a considerable challenge to print TV listings such a TV Week and the inserts in daily newspapers.  They are another reason we need flexible magazine fixtures. 

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magazines

4 Ingredients 2 costs us too much

4ing.JPGMagazine distributor NDD sent us 18 copies of 4 Ingredients 2 cookbook on Christmas Eve.  There is no justification for this – especially since 4 Ingredients 2 is available from book retailers for between $15.00 and $17.95.  The newsagent price is set at $19.99.  Our margin is a magazine margin and not a book margin so we have no room to move on price.  NDD has abused us by sending this stock.  It has arrived too late to be a Christmas offer, the price makes us look expensive and too much stock has been sent.  

The behaviour by NDD in my own situation with 4 Ingredients 2 represents, in my view, unconscionable conduct as defined by the Trade Practices Act. 

We will send all copies of 4 Ingredients 2 back.  We may even rip off the covers and return just those since this is a gross oversupply.  We may even rip off the covers and return just those since this is a gross oversupply. By topping the book and returning just the cover we make a statement.  Newsagents have to stop NDD abusing us as has been done in this instance.

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magazine distribution

Box magazine and the grab for cash

boxmag.JPGWe received eight copies of Box magazine from NDD on New Year’s Eve at our Frankston newsagency.  Based on our assessment of what sells in this location, Box magazine is not for us.  We are early returning the stock.  It is a failure of the magazine supply model which allows this.  I am suspicious that it was supplied to us on the last day of the month given that the title had been out for some time.  That we are given no choice by NDD to carry an obscure title like Box is a problem for our channel and another reason, I suspect, why newsagents choose to not deal with NDD altogether.

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magazine distribution

Network Services MIA after spam

Many newsagents reported receiving between 20 and 100 emails from magazine distributor Network Services yeatersday about credits and supply going back several months.  I am not aware of any newsagent successfully making contact with someone at Network about this.  I tried several numbers, including people who can bypass the usual call centre queue, and got nowhere.

Magazine distributors need to understand tht newsagents work when other businesses take a summer break.  To not provide customer service this time of year when your software goes haywire is poor form from Network Services.  The cost in lost time is frustrating. 

The Tower Systems help desk took calls about this because Network was not responding.

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magazine distribution
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