Software training for newsagents
Tower Systems is hosting a National Spring Newsagent Training and User Meeting Tour starting next week. Any newsagent is welcome to attend. The meeting will commence with a presentation on how to use the Tower software to increase sales and cut costs – smart business management for tough times.
The dates for the free training are as follows:
- Newcastle – Tuesday, October 28 – 10am*
- Melbourne – Wednesday, October 29 – 2pm*
- Sydney (Camperdown) – Thursday, October 30 – 10am*
- Sydney (Camperdown) – Thursday, October 30 – 2pm*
- Brisbane – Friday, October 31 – 11am*
- Melbourne – Friday, October 31 – 11am
- Canberra – Wednesday, November 5, 2pm
- Perth – Wednesday, November 5 – 10am
- Dubbo – Thursday, November 6 – 10am
- Albury – Thursday, November 6 – 10am
- Geelong – Friday, November 7 – 11am
- Adelaide – Friday, November 7 – 10am
- Cairns – Monday, November 10 – 1pm
- Gold Coast – Tuesday, November 11 – 1pm
- Darwin – Wednesday, November 12 – 11am
- Hobart – Wednesday, November 12 – 1pm
Click here to download the booking form for the Spring User Meeting Tour. Bookings can be made on bookings@towersystems.com.au. * – these are the sessions in which I am certain to participate.
Disclosure: I am the owner of Tower Systems.
ANF announces discussions on Bill Express debt
The ANF has sent a newsflash to members saying that they are in discussion with Pepper Homeloans and the Bank of New York about the Bill Express equipment rental agreements. I am suspicious of the timing of the newsflash given that the ANF opened these discussions three months ago.
Time will tell whether the announcement has more to do with retaining members than actual news.
In the meantime, I suspect there are many newsagents who would say to the ANF and those involved in these discussions that the ANF does not represent them.
Newsagents, check your margin
Most newsagents do not know the margin they make from what I’d call discretionary product – product where counter staff can play a role guiding the customer to one item over another.
I’d recommend yo take a moment to list all of the categories where your staff can guide the outcome of a sale. Next, find out the margin for every possible product in the category. The, check your sales. Finally, work out what you could have made recommending the most financially beneficial product.
Whether you tell staff to recommend based solely on your margin is up to you. At least make that decision with all of the information at your fingertips.
Christmas starts
With Christmas well and truly under way at the majors, we created an initial window display last week to feature some soft toys and boxed Christmas cards. This is the earliest we have gone out with Christmas. It is working, customers are purchasing.
The battle is around space and the battle between calendars, diaries, books, Christmas and the usual flow of promotions. The next two and a half months will be challenging on this front.
Our focus is to create a unique and enjoyable shopping experience while, at the same time, embracing every opportunity of the channel and the season.
Halloween gingerbread
This new gingerbread product we have found for Halloween brilliant designs and a great taste. This is a perfect counter offer to fit with our Halloween promotion. From what we understand, we are the first newsagency to offer this line. We are looking forward to seeing how it performs. Our fall back position is that we get to eat what is left. Yum! Seriously though, it is good to have some depth to our Halloween offer beyond witches hats and other costume items.
We sourced this product from Vicki’s Bickies in
Cool USB sticks
This VW Kobmi van USB stick is one of many I saw today at the Mega Fair in Hong Kong. Some manufacturers are creating some fun USB devices – for different demongraphics. There are USB sticks targeted to men, women and kids. The people with this Kombi Van USB stick also had USB memory stick readers in the form of a range of luxury cars – for office desks. Very cool.
Dymocks selling digital books
Just as you enter Dymocks at the IFC Centre in Hong Kong, next to the counter, is a bold self-service facility from where you can purchase and download digital books to a range of devices. It looks much better and brighter than my photo shows. The display is in the best position in the store – showing the importance of this move into digital to Dymocks.
From the self-service unit you can search their stock database and quickly find titles for which digital editions are available. It is very easy to use – always a challenge for self-service units like this.
The rest of the shop appears to have the same range of books as other times I have visited.
Don’t be scared, be smart
The news reports over recent weeks are enough to make any newsagent worry about business. Worrying achieves nothing positive. Indeed, it can suck you into pursuing failure.
Ignoring the economic news, we are using our point of sale software to pursue growth. Plenty of smart newsagents with good software are doing this. Things like using the software to marketing the business at every opportunity, to improve customer service and to cut labour costs.
The staff roster is a good example. Using your point of sale software to manage your roster makes it easy to make changes. At the risk of humiliation I’d suggest the Coco Chanel approach to rostering.
Since many newsagency employees read this blog, I have a revenue raising suggestion for you to balance the above suggestion that your boss cut hours from the roster: If you are responsible for a part of the newsagency in which you work, ask to see sales and other reports which compare this year to last. Get into as much details as possible Look a your area as if your future depends on you achieving cost savings or sales growth of, better still, both. By you thinking about your part of the business as an owner and with access to new data about your area you are likely to drive a good result for the business and for you.
My point is that smart newsagent computer systems can be your best friend in tough times. Use them to their fullest and worry less.
Kudos for e-paper
So, finally – we have electronic device which is a reasonable enough size and weight to potentially replace ordinary paper. This’ll either change the world, or bankrupt the company.
Zack Whittaker writing at ZD Net about the e-paper device developed at Cambridge University and being manufactured by Plastic Logic. Be sure to check out the photos of the device.
This is another reason we need flexibility in or shofit design.
TV Guide sells for $1
In 1988 the US TV Guide sold for US$3billion. Last week it sold for US$1.00, yes, one dollar. Village Voice has more on this story.
Phar Lap movie timely
The release of the Phar Lap movie as part of the Australian Movie Collection partwork is timely with the Spring Racing Carnival being in full flight.
We are taking the opportunity to promote Phar Lap (and the partwork series) as part of our overall racing promotion. It is a good opportunity to try and win some additional support for the partwork midway through.
Sunday Herald Sun support newsagents
The Sunday Herald Sun yesterday ran the full page ad promoting newsagents. This is the second run they have given this ad. I hope newsagents are thanking their reps. I also hope that newsagents are making the most of this and playing the TVC in their shops and have placed the free A4 or A3 posters in their window.
Labor buys masthead
I am grateful to Angelo from Jindabyne newsagency for sharing this photo of the ad for the Labour Party stuck on page one of the Canberra Times newspaper late last week. Paying to be stuck on the newspaper masthead did not help Labor in the territory election. These ads are a blight. They demonstrate the bean counters winning against editorial.
An apocalyptic period?
Speaking at the opening Digital Leadership Dialogue event at POLIS on Tuesday, Emily Bell predicted an apocalyptic period for mainstream traditional media.
Read the full report at journalism.co.uk. Not a positive start to the week.
Change brings opportunities for all of us. We have been working on plans for a shop-fit for our Frankston newsagency. We are embracing change by developing a model which allows every fixture to be movable except for the counter. Magazine fixtures, card fixtures and stationery fixtures will not be built in to outlast armageddon as is often the case.
While I am not expecting an apocalyptic period, significant change has been evident in the newsagency channnel since 1999. Disruption of mainstream media by technology and the current economic situation are to fans pushing change forward. Hence the need for a flexible shop-fit.
The future of magazines
Further to my post yesterday about the status of magazines in the UK, Nick Chan, CEO of Pacific Magazines, spoke at the VANA Conference on Friday in Melbourne. He diverted from his prepared speech and explained why Pacific and other magazine publishers think that magazines have a healthy future while acknowledging the challenges of generational change, technology based disruption and the current economic circumstances.
Nick Chan’s comments about the future of magazines are not dissimilar to those of the UK publishers in the interview from the UK to which I referred yesterday. They are also similar to comments by representatives of ACP Magazines. It was good to hear his comments yesterday.
I agree that magazines will have a future – in part because I want them to and in part because I genuinely believe this. The challenge is how hard we (newsagents) have to fight, as retailers, to maintain sales for them to have a viable future in our businesses. This is as much about our resources as it is about external factors such as other sources of interest satisfaction for consumers.
It would be easier for newsagents to protect their market share of top-selling titles if non top-selling titles did not drain our resources. 80% of newsagent magazine revenue consumes only 20% of our resources – labour, cash, real-estate. Put another way, 20% of our magazine revenue is derived from titles which consume 80% of our resources. I and many newsagents want range. The problem is that I cannot control the terms around this range.
While the titles from Pacific Magazines and ACP Magazines are efficient and valuable, the very magazine supply model through which they are supplied also pushes thousands of other products which take our attention from these top titles.
This is our challenge. This is where the future of magazines in the newsagency context is questionable.
There is talk of a code of practice negotiated between magazine distributors, some magazine publishers and the ANF. Besides the ANF not representing newsagents, no code of practice will address what needs to be addressed. The magazine supply model needs to be replaced and this needs to be driven by newsagents – those who control the most valuable asset to magazine publishers, the retail network where their mastheads are displayed, promoted and sold.
Pacific and ACP are often asked for more margin by newsagents. While I would welcome that, I’d like to see if they can use their commercail muscle to help newsagents achieve a new magazine supply model which serves newsagents and top tier publishers.
Better Homes and Gardens Christmas feature
The latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, with the free Christmas book on the front, is being promoted at our counter this weekend and into next week. Our sales data shows that Friday through Sunday are the best days for promoting this title – right through the on sale period. Hence our policy of co-locating – at the counter if there is a free gift or at some other high traffic location. We obsess about BHG and other top-selling titles because sales data shows the value of this.
As is often the case when working on the floor of the shop, when I was creating this display yesterday one customer bought the magazine – having remembered seeing the show the night before. This was a customer walked to the newspaper stand and then to the counter. This is the type of customer we have to work hard to convert.
Promoting 4 Ingredients
We promoted the 4 Ingredients calendar as a Calendar of the Week. While the margin is not what we would prefer, this is an exclusive line for newsagents. I know that a national retailer sought to purchase 20,000 units and the publishers declined, preferring to support newsagents instead. Hence our decision to feature the calendar.
4 Ingredients is a brand consumers trust. Their cookbook is a hit and the TV show is keeping them top of mind.
Status of magazines in the UK
For an insight into the state of magazines in the UK watch the latest MediaWeek.TV program. I was interested to hear about the categories which are selling well in tough times – knitting for example.
Christmas marketing tips
Through Tower Systems I have published twenty five Christmas Marketing Tips for newsagents. Click here to download a free copy. While some of the ideas are recycled, others are genuinely fresh. The tips are designed to stimulate the reader to think about how to creatively connect with Christmas in their newsagency.
At Christmas more so than at any other time of the year we are challenged to differentiate our businesses. One way we can do that is through clever, local, marketing. In the marketing tips you will see some good ideas for this. Most can be implemented for little or no cost.
Kindle sales to hit 380,000 this year
In the reports about a delay to the launch of the Amazon Kindle in the UK is the news that Amazon expects to have sold 380,000 units this year by year’s end. The Kindle is an incredibly disruptive device – it enables the download of books wirelessly from the Internet.
You can also sign up for newspaper subscriptions through the Kindle. Take the Wall Street Journal, the Kindle subscription is US$9.99 a month.
The delay with the European launch, and in Australia for that matter, relates to licencing around wireless access.
Mag Nation named Best Young Business in Melbourne
Mag Nation, the innovative magazine retailer was recently named the Best Young Business in Melbourne for 2008 – by the Business 3000 organisation at their recent awards.. Far removed from a traditional newsagency, the folks at Mag Nation pursue magazine range relentlessly. In addition to magazines, Mag Nation shops sell coffee.
I have been to Mag Nation stores here in Melbourne as well as in Auckland. They embrace change, always experimenting with new ideas.
VANA state conference discusses change
I was one of the speakers at the VANA State Conference in Melbourne today. Attendance was excellent – around 130 – and diversity of presentations good. The theme of the day was change and how we, suppliers and newsagents, need to embrace change.
My presentation was about being an entrepreneurial newsagent and the challenges we face in navigating the future. While some of what I was controversial, or so I am told, the aim is to get newsagents looking at their businesses differently and understanding the nature of the challenges of this marketplace. These challenges are opportunities, exciting opportunities.
This is the first such conference in Victoria. It is something they have done very well in Queensland for years. Getting newsagents together, out of the business, and talking about business is always valuable.