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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Yachting World magazine confuses

yw_oct08.JPGThe publisher of Yachting World is confusing consumers with the new retail offer.  There is the magazine available at its regular price – $9.75 – and the same magazine bagged with Classic Boat for a higher price – $13.70.  The confusion comes from the bagging.  Newsagent shoppers know the bagged magazines don’t offer great additional value since most of the free stock is old and even damaged.  They will not consider that Classic Boat is worth the extra cost and will be confuses by the two prices and the claim that the bagged package represents a saving of $7.00.  On top of that, newsagents now need to double their space allocation for Yachting World magazine.

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magazines

Bill Express not available

bxp_reminder.JPGThe overprint on vehicle registration bills in Victoria tells only part of the story.  The Bill Express not available message doesn’t reflect the on-going stress and frustration experienced by many newsagents about Bill Express and all associated with what now looks to have been an elaborate financial scam wreaked on newsagents.  Every day or so I receive a call from a newsagent fighting a bank over equipment rental or a small business partner wondering where they can go for their money.

Newsagents will remember the cost of Bill Express for a long time and this will, rightly, be a problem for the associations which did not serve their constituents well on the matter.

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Bill Express

TV ad DVDs for newsagents

tvc_dvd.JPGWe have mailed 4,000 copies of the TV ad to newsagents this week. The DVD contains a high quality version of the ad. The artwork on the DVD matches the artwork for the TVC and the artwork for the print version of the ad. Our focus on this has also been demonstrating branding discipline.

To play this in your shop be sure to set your DVD player to auto repeat.

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newsagency marketing

ANF seems set to go it alone

The ANF seems set to go it alone in representing newsagents if what I have been told is true.  Despite representations from various parties including state associations, the ANF Board meeting this week in Sydney has determined to pursue creating a national association without assistance from or co-operation with with any of the state associations and that this model will be based on commercial as well as traditional association functions.

Newsagents will be reluctant to support the ANF given the association’s past failures in the commercial arena.  Having lead around 3,500 newsagents into Bill Express, the ANF failed to provide timely professional advice and demonstrated a lack of empathy for the financial and emotional cost of the collapse of Bill Express to newsagents.

If newsagents have to make a choice between the state associations and the ANF, if what has been put to me is accurate, newsagents will, in the main, choose their state associations.  The ANF would fail.

Some would say that the ANF has failed already.

I would like a strong national body representing newsagents on policy matters.   Associations have no role to play in offering commercail services as this takes their focus from why they exist.

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Newsagency challenges

Promoting Andre Rieu

rieu_limelight.JPGLimelight is our feature magazine at the counter this week.  The Andre Rieu cover made the choice easy – his popularity is extraordinary and the media coverage around his forthcoming tour considerable.  I expect this issue of Limelight to sell out quickly.  As I first blogged here eleven months ago, Rieu is a powerhouse – magazines, CDS and DVDs with his face on the cover sell well to a broad demographic.

We control this counter space ourselves.  This enables us to promote what will perform in our favour.  If we sell the space we will find ourselves promoting titles which may not work as well for us.

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magazines

Take5 and Halloween

t5_halloween.JPGTake5 has a Halloween theme with its latest issue – it is the only adult magazine to do this yet. I’m happy because of our strong Halloween pitch over the last three years through newsXpress. Each year sales have grown – and they will continue to grow. Sure it is an American tradition which feels somewhat out of place here. Who cares! Halloween injects fun into retail and provides a break from off the daily grind. I’m glad Take5 supports Halloween.

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newsagency marketing

The future of publishing

The old John Fairfax Holdings from 5 years ago today contributes only 35% of our total earnings.Our earnings from our online businesses are 15% of the total – that’s just under$115 million – and growing rapidly.

This is a quote from a speech by Fairfax CEO, David Kirk, delivered at the Sydney Institute on Tuesday evening. The speech makes the dirction of the company clear:

Our strategy is to build a digital media company that creates, distributes and monetises content across many different media platforms: newspapers, magazines, the internet, mobile phones and wherever else it makes sense for us to be.

A simple way we think of it is that we are in the process of transforming Fairfax Media into a multi-media news and information company.

Fairfax Media is going about this transformation is a considered yet entrepreneurial way. Their forays into Brisbane and Perth and in pursuit of the Gen Y market have attracted interest from publisher watchers around the world. At some point in the future newsagents are bound to say why weren’t we told? Fairfax is making no secret of the importance of the online division of its business to its future.

Newsagents need to notice these moves and take them into consideration when making business plans of their own. While newspapers will be around for many years to come, our reliance on them will change. The key is for newsagents is for us to navigate through this on our terms rather than as a reaction to a surprise.

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Media disruption

A warning about paper

Canadian Forest Products Association President Avrim Lazar delivered an interesting speech at the American Magazine Conference last week. Click here for the Canadian Mags blog coverage. He talked about the environmental challenges of using paper and the risk of consumers turning against print.

People will feel that they are dinosaurs, that they are not with it because they are buying your magazine.

There is a growing discussion that environmental issues and not disruption by new technology which will present the biggest challenge to print media. It is an interesting issue for consideration.

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Environment

Christmas early this year

Christmas this year has already started at national retailers. This is because of the economic situation – I suspect they have gone early out of fear of missing out. In the US, Wal-Mart is already cutting the price of toys according to one report I read. USA Today has more on this story, talking about how retailers are changing srategies as a result of the last couple of weeks.

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Newsagency challenges

Free mini mag trend

freemags.JPGNW and OK! are not the only titles using free mini magazines to add value to existing titles – but they are the two I noticed this week.  I am surprised at how widespread this has become – so much so that it is no longer a point of difference between titles competing for the same consumer.  I can understand the reasoning for using mini mags – content is easy to acquire for the benefit of showing added value. I wonder if there are other more creative ways these magazines can differentiate themselves.

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magazines

The problem with thick magazines

thickmags.JPGWe allocate a pocket to Outdoor magazine and the quantity we receive fits snugly into this space.  The latest issue is bagged with another magazine meaning that we need two pockets.  The title does not justify two pockets so this month we either have to store the extra stock or early return.  We chose the latter and will still have enough to match our previous best for this title.   Magazine publishers and distributors need to consider real-estate when they allocate product to newsagencies.  Doubling and tripling the size of a product can present extraordinary challenges to newsagents, challenges which can make the title under perform and the supplier to then blame the newsagent.

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magazines

Victorian newsagents have an election

Victorian newsagents have more nominees for vacancies at VANA than are positions available. The resulting election is an excellent opportunity for newsagents to bring fresh blood to the VANA table and to influence the direction of the VANA Board.

With appalling direction from VANA on the Bill Express matter earlier this year I would expect to see Victorian newsagents support the David Backholer, Ray Burgess, Darren Howe ticket which is pitching on this issue.

Newsagents are not known for engaging industry politics – they leave that for someone else yet they are quick to criticise when things do not go as they wish.

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Newsagency challenges

UK magazine publishers offer steep discounts

I was disappointed to read a report in Brand Republic four days ago claiming that some UK publishers are offering steep discounts to counter a slide in retail sales.

To any Australian publishers contemplating such a move I would suggest active engagement with the newsagency channel. I am certain that better terms for newsagents where they get a customer to commit to a subscription of six or twelve months wold result in good sales growth.

Newsagents play an important role in promoting magazines. Subscriptions sales are often only achieved thanks to the promotional effort of newsagents. To cut them out of the subscription loop is unfair and is another reason can newsagents feel shafted by publishers.

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magazine subscriptions

Zoo pub magazine a challenge

frank_zoo_pub.JPGThis tiny Zoo Pub Ammo magazine / book is a challenge to locate. t one of our stores we received a display unit while at the other we did not. That aside, the small size makes it hard to place. It does not fit with magazine fixturing. It does not meet our counter criteria – all of that space is allocated anyway. The size makes it highly stealable. The price ($9.95) makes it expensive. We will give it a try but we are not holding our breath.  I would have preferred a dusplay unit which clips onto the Zoo magazine display unit and a better margin – more closely aligned with books.

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magazines

Business misses in the stimulus package

I am disappointed that the Federal Government has not seized the opportunity to stimulate business to business activity with its statement today. I would have liked to see a sizeable investment allowance of, say, 40% for approved capital investment. This would get businesses investing in their businesses and thereby driving a strong flow on through the economy. There are more sectors than housing which could do with government attention.

An investment allowance coupled with accelerated depreciation would stimulate business to business spending, help small business owners reinvent in their businesses and boost the economy including jobs.  It worked in 1976 when Malcolm Fraser introduced the same measures.  They also delayed some tax payments to give businesses cash.  The government could consider this if things get tight.

With an investment allowance and accelerated depreciation in place newsagents could complete a shop fit, but new equipment or undertake other business investment because of the encouragement of the benefits available.

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Newsagency challenges

Herald Sun ad supporting newsagents today

hs_support.JPGThis is photo of the full page ad in today’s Herald Sun promoting newsagents. While I have said this previously, this is tremendous support – they engaged off their own accord in support of newsagents. I am disappointed that VANA is not supporting this campaign. I suspect that small-minded politics stops them.

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newsagency marketing

Studying the ANF

A class at a University in NSW has set a project for its students to research and report on the ANF and, more broadly, the representation of newsagents.  I have been asked questions by several students, some quite insightful.  It will be interesting to see where their research takes them.

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Newsagency challenges

Newsstand on your iPhone

Old rituals wither and die; new rituals crop up and replace the old. Once upon a time, one of my favorite rituals was to stop every morning at a newsstand and load up on reading materials–three or four newspapers and often one or two magazines. The year was 1994.

I kept up the habit for about 18 months. Although I still read a ton of magazines, I almost never touch newsprint. But my daily ritual trip to the newsstand has been replaced by a routine check of my RSS feeds.

Now I can visit the newsstand and check my feeds, thanks to a clever app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Newsstand.

Read the rest of this Macworld article here. Devices like th iPhone are incredibly disruptive to the print model. Newsagents need to take note and reflect this in their business from the shop fit out.

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Media disruption

Newsagent TVC collateral

support_newsagent.JPGThis is the A4 version of the posters we have created for newsagents to put in their window or elsewhere to display a connection with the TV commercial we are currently running nationally. There is an A3 version as well.

The first of four runs of a full page version of this ad is in today’s Herald Sun on page 76.  This is tremendous support for newsagents from the Herald and Weekly Times.

Advertising agencies tell us that the success of a campaign depends on the number of times a consumer sees the message – hence the importance of newsagents printing the posters and placing their in their windows or elsewhere to promote their businesses.

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newsagency marketing

Print versus online, the latest

A comment here today prompted me to check out some of the latest stories about the challenges of print versus online:

  • MediaWeek has a story about changes at Newsweek.
  • Bloomberg has a story about newspapers axing Monday editions due to falling ad revenue.
  • The New York Times says that newspapers’ online revenue is stalling.
  • BtoB reports about publishers opening retail businesses to promote their brands.
  • Roy Greenslade writes at The Guardian about newspapers that may survive.
  • The Editors Weblog reports that the editor of the Financial Times thinks that there has been a power shift from old media to new media.

This list is by no means complete, not even close. The stories listed above and others similar to them reflect the biggest challenge newsagents face, the challenge which many who claim to represent newsagents have ignored for too long.

I am not afraid of these challenges. No, they present a tremendous opportunity for us to reinvent ourselves – if we are game.

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Media disruption

eziPass serving newsagents well

Close to 1,000 newsagents use eziPass for vending mobile phone recharge, phonecards and other products. It has proven to be reliable and useful software for newsagents, especially since the collapse of Bill Express. Now that Optus is available, eziPass can offer newsagents all the top selling mobile phone products.

eziPass is free for all newsagents including the 1,500 newsagents who use Tower Systems software and the 1,200 newsagents with any of the other six systems on the market.

Last week, some eziPass users experienced challenges when POS Solutions updated their software without warning. Their update included an untested interface to PC TAFMO, technology used in the current version of eziPass. POS had not tested the software in-house.  It had not passed testing with the folks at TAFMO.  Had they followed basic testing requirements they would have found that the software had a bug and therefore not released it.  The TAFMO testing is crucial since they would know the environment into which POS was about to install its software.  POS knew they yet rushed the update out.

We alerted POS to their problem and they sound found the bug released an update to their software.  POS Solutions has blamed  Tower Systems for the problem. They have done this because they are about to announce their TAFMO interface and they want to switch people away from eziPass. This will be easier if they can discredit us.

There are other reasons POS has falsely accused us of causing the problem with their software but I will leave that discussion for another day.

The eziPass software continues to work well on POS Solutions installations and many hundreds of other locations. No update has been released. None was necessary. The problem which affected a small group of POS users was caused by them and fixed by them.

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newsagent software
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