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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Footy is back

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Footy is back is the theme for the category based magazine display we have at the counter.

By footy we mean AFL, of course!  Here in Victoria there is no other football than AFL, for the masses at least.

The display makes sense with all the footy titles now out from the season preview to the yearbook and a couple of club specific publications.

Footy is important to us beyond these magazines – the Herald Sun usually runs an excellent promotion around cards and we also sell close to 1,000 packs of AFL endorsed footy cards.  So, the display reinforces our commitment to the code as the pre-season gets under way.

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Customer Service

DIY magazine

Shelfmade is a yet to launch website which claims it will allow users to publish their favourite online content as a personalised print magazine.  It’s an interesting approach to connecting new media content in an old media form.  The site has no details on print runs and distribution – key if the magazine is to be for more than one person.

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magazines

Elvis is in the building

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Elvis has arrived.  We’re thrilled to have the new Official Collectors Edition of Elvis artefacts and other items now in-store.  This partwork will go off like a rocket with Elvis fans.  Issue #1 is only $2.95 we we have it on display at the front of the shop.

With the TV campaign driving people exclusively to newsagencies it makes sense that we promote the Elvis partwork aggressively.  The distributor is comitted to ensuring we have stock for customers who commit beyond the first issue – so we’re busy signing people up.  Newsagent exclusivity covers for most of the frustrations of the supply model.

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magazines

Calling all Star Trek fans

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Star Trek fans will be happy to see the original series has been repackaged into a definitive magazine and DVD collection.

We are promoting the Star Trek partwork series at the front of our newsagencies.

As we do with all partworks, we offer a putaway service with issue #1 and navigate this carefully (noisily) with the distributor to ensure that we can serve our loyal customers.

We know from basket data that partworks customers are commercially efficient, valuable, for newsagents – hence our front of shop promotion of series like this Star Trek launch.

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magazines

Closed for the winner

We confirmed for a customer yesterday that they had one first division in Saturday night’s lottery draw.  They thought they had won but were thrilled with the confirmation.  The lottery kiosk they purchased the ticket from, in our centre, was closed – as they are every Sunday.  While that’s their business, it diminishes the Tattersalls brand to have outlets in seven day trading centres closed.  This is retail after all!

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Lotteries

Australia Post wants 10% more

Australia Post is seeking a 10% increase in the price of posting a basic letter. The ACCC has announced an assessment of the proposal. I would prefer to see the new Labor Government conduct a review of postal services before any decision is made on this increase request.

European countries in 1997 agreed to a regulatory framework which sought to gradually limit the exclusivity of the postal services in each country. eGov monitor has more on this.

My beef with Australia Post is that their 865 government owned retail outlets have agressively gone after newsagency customers over the last ten years. They have leveraged their government protected monopoly over maiol services to bring customers to these retail locations for a fraction o the cost to newsagents to attract customers. This is a Government business taking business from family run operations. It’s unfair and hurts family run newsagencies.

So, I’d prefer a broader inquiry before the 10% increase is considered – what is best for Australians in the area of competition policy in relation to a postal service.

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Australia Post

UK lads mags fall

Australia is no the only place reporting circulation falls for some high profile magazines. The lads mags category in the UK has experiences a fall according to Sky News. Zoo and competitor Nuts both reported falls in circulation, 12.5% and 8.4% respectively.

The falls in the UK and Australia present an opportunity for newsagents to reassert ourselves as the magazine specialists to publishers and consumers. That’s what I’d like to see happen. Our specialisation in magazines is a tremendous asset if the publishers choose to engage.

By engage, I mean support with newsagent exclusive offers, more appropriate material for in-store promotion, external promotion of the channel to boost consumer awareness and, reward for year on year growth. Treat us like entrepreneurs and I am sure that the results will make it worthwhile.

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magazines

Harvey Norman’s ofis closer

The stationery play by Harvey Norman, is not going away as some newsagents expected. An announcement a few days ago is evidence they are finalising supplier arrangements. I hear that a March opening for the first two stores is the plan with fifty by year’s end. Now is the time for newsagents to redouble attention on stationery.

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Stationery

Underbelly the book, not banned

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Underbelly the TV series may be banned in Victoria but not the book.  We’ve taken the opportunity to promote the Underbelly: The Gangland War, the book on which the TV series is based, at one of our counters.  It’s working already – as a talking point and as a sales generator.

Sure it’s opportunistic and a little outside the usual category of product we sell (we don’t sell current issue books) but we figured why not? 

The promotion shows us as being relevant, having a sense of humor and, of course, being opportunistic.

Since we offer free broadband access at our shop, we could have gone a step further and invited people to come with their laptop and download the show for free but we figured that may be playing too much at the fringe.

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Newspaper marketing

Making the counter work for magazines

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We are enjoying success with our small counter display for magazines – it is the ideal place to promote titles with a good free gift. This month’s New Woman is an excellent example – great sales yesterday (Saturday) off the counter location.

We have tried a range of titles in this space and it is those with a gift which perform best. What’s good is that the title can be for guys or girls. Last week it was the FHM offer with a free Gillette razor.

So, we’re locking this space, between our two main serving points, as the place we will promote titles with a good giveaway. This solves a magazine fixturing problem since the traditional fixturing is a challenge with the more bulky giveaways such as sun glasses, aprons and the like. It also works in with our desire to go hard as soon as the title is out

The elements of the display will remain the same – making creating a new display each week time-efficient.

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magazines

Covering the front page

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It diminishes the stature of the national business newspaper of record that they permit post it note type ads to be stuck on their front page, over editorial content. It is even worse when the ad is for an in-house publication.

This is what has happened to the Australian Financial Review this weekend. An ad for the BRW business magazine has been stuck on the front page. It pulls focus and creates litter as customers rip the ad off after they have purchased the title.

What do I care, all I do is sell the newspaper? My comments here are more as a newspaper fan, someone who respects the medium and what it stands for. These stuck on ads demean the medium and serve as a reminder of the influence the bean counters exert over editorial content. They reduce my trust in the medium.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Moving magazines easily

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I love the magazine stand in the photo. Sent out to support the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, it enables us to promote this title in various locations around the newsagency.

Getting titles away from their usual place is good for business. This week we have it next to weekly newspapers, behind foreign language newspapers. Next week it will be somewhere else.  Each move finds new browsers.

Given our constant moving of stock, including magazines, a unit like this makes the task easier and helps us provide a fresh retail experience.

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magazines

How many F1 titles?

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We have three F1 titles on the shelves now. One is the regular title and two special editions. This seems overkills to me. We have a certain amount of space allocated to racing titles and we have had to lose one title early to accommodate one of the special editions.

Maybe I am sensitive about this because I am far from a fan of formula 1 racing – I think it’s a waste of money and Victoria would be better off without the drain on our public purse. I don’t see any economic benefit other than corporate types getting suppliers to pay for a day of noise and booze.

On the magazines, maybe they will sell. I suspect that the F1 brand is over represented and that the special editions pull focus from the magazine itself.

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magazines

Magazine audit full of red ink

mag_audit.JPGThe latest Audit Bureau of Circulation data for magazine sales in the three months to December 2007 is not good news for top selling titles:Woman’s Day: -7.6%; New Idea: -2.0%; NW: -10.5%; OK!: +24.9%; TV Week: -12.2%; Take 5: -2.6%; That’s Life: -1.4%.

This supports the November / December benchmark data I have seen from 50 newsagents I benchmarked. The question from many back then was am I alone is experiencing this? The Audit results show the answer is no.

The sales slump in weekly titles is significant and ought to act as a call to arms by newsagents to work harder on driving sales.

There is some good news (but not much) in the Audit results: Better Homes and Gardens: +4.5%; Donna Hay: +13.5%; Men’s Health: 10.2%; Country Home Ideas: 14.1%.

One title of interest to me was Good Health & Medicine from ACP. Sales are down 4.3%. Given the rationing of this title and late promotion (see earlier post), I wonder if titles like this miss growth because of supply chain related issues and or because the publisher is tight on print run.

Part of the challenge with magazines is that they have become a commodity in recent years – more types of retailers carry them today than when newsagents were the specialists. If someone gets the magazine they want from a convenience store or petrol outlet, they are not presented with the up-sell opportunities one sees in a newsagency. Publishers, in chasing other outlets, may have done themselves a disservice by facilitating fewer people visiting newsagencies. I’d like to see effort put into rebuilding newsagencies as the go to magazine specialists – on economically viable terms.

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magazines

It’s the cover

I helped a customer find Women’s Day this morning. She could not see it. The photo below shows how the masthead for New Idea this week pops.

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While people more skilled than me will have other analysis at their fingertips, given that most newsagents have fixturing like mine, I suspect ease of finding the title is part of it – especially for older customers.

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magazines

Valentine’s entry

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One of our customers treid extra hard to win the $400 bear we gave away as part of our Valentine’s Day promotion – they mounted their entry on a plastic heart and begged to win.

We loved their effort so much we created a second prize (as they didn’t win) and gave them chocolates and a smaller bear.  It’s great when customers engage like this so we felt the effort was worth special reward.

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Greeting Cards

Newsroom cuts

File this under sobering news item of the day: The New York Times is shedding 7.5% of its newsroom workforce. PaidContent has more. The January 15, 2005 edition of Business Week quotes Arthur Sulzberger, Publisher of the New York Times:

“Within our lifetimes, the distribution of news and information is going to shift to broadband,” Sulzberger says. “We must enter the broadband world having mastered the three key skill sets — print, Internet, and video — because that’s what’s going to ensure the future of this news organization in the years ahead.”

Newsagents can read stories like this and feel no connection. Or, they can read stories like this and think, we’re doomed! Or, they can see the waves, grab the surfboard and ride the wave. This latter alternative is the choice to make.

For over 100 years the direction of our channel has been set by suppliers. In 2008, the direction is entirely up to us. The future for entrepreneurial newsagents is wonderful. That future can include newspapers and magazines, greeting cards and lotteries. It can also include other categories which enhance our relevance.

These are the challenges newsagents need to talk about today.

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Media disruption

New benchmark project for newsagents

Following success of the November and December newsagent benchmark projects I have decided to benchmark the seven months to January 31, 2008 to the same seven months a year earlier.

 

I have chosen seven months to get the most up to date data and include back to school 2008.

 

For Tower Newsagents, please send a Monthly Sales Comparison report: tick the box (lower left corner) to exclude home deliveries, and tick the box, lower right corner, to get the category breakdown.  Set your first date range (on the left) to June 1, 2007 to January 31, 2007 and the date range of the right to June 1, 2006 to January 31, 2006.  Once the report is on the screen, click the PDF button to save this as a PDF, go into your email software and send a copy of the PDF to me at mark@towersystems.com.au.

 

Newsagents not using Tower software wishing to participate should email me for a spreadsheet template to complete.

 

I’d like to complete the benchmark by mid next week so data by February 19 would be appreciated. 

I’ll publish the benchmark results here and elsewhere so all newsagents can benefit.  This benchmark project will provide a ood understanding of trends in newsagency sales data and those trends may help us make decisions for the future.

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Newsagency challenges

Change and instant film

It was inevitable, the news that Polaroid would get out of the instant film business. Disruption of traditional (old) media and mediums continues apace. Polaroid could see that instant film was a dead medium and cut it loose to protect the company.

Newsagents will face similar decisions – getting out of dying segments of their businesses to protect (or set free) the broader business. We need to be unafraid of these challenges. We need to make our assessment, having considered information from suppliers which may be affected.

Already there are opportunities for newsagents to make important decisions about products they cut. I continue to see many stationery items on shelves which do not sell. In one case recently 25% of the stationery investment was in items which had not sold in six months.  Quit, quit, quit!

In stationery, magazines, newspapers and even greeting cards, we need to be prepared to make tough decisions and stick by them – as we pursue the newsagency of the future.

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Newsagency challenges

Price fixing on candy?

A dark cloud hung over Valentine’s Day for some German candy makers, the German Federal Cartel Office raided the offices of seven of them. The International Herald Tribune has the details. This follows similar activity in Canada three months ago.  Very interesting.

In the meantime, back here, newsagencies I have spoken with tell me it’s been fantastic Valentine’s Day sales wise.

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confectionary

Valentine’s Day is here

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It has been fascinating watching the different waves of Valentine’s Day card customers over the last month.  First it was the older customers, often in a long-term relationship, then it was the hopefuls and this week it’s been more of the oh, no, it’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t have anything.  We are supporting the season with gifts as well as chocolate.  The gifts include the collectible Momiji doll, a singing frog and this cow.  Surprisingly, the cow is a hit!  Not sure what message that passes on.

Happy Valentine’s Day.  Trade well!

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Gifts

Australia Post offer compelling

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The offer from our local government owned Australia Post store was compelling.  Reflex for $4.95 a ream.  This is around $1.50 a ream less that newsagents pay their wholesaler today.  But, wait, it gets better!  Spend over $50 and Reflex is delivered free.

I have a couple of issue with this: Newsagents ought to be able to buy better through their warehouses; Australia Post should not be able to use its government protected monopoly to take business from small businesses, it’s not why they were created.  I am hopeful that Kevin Rudd’s new team in Canberra will look at this and Australia Posts pursuit of newsagents.

Given that the brochures offers up to a truck load of Reflex, maybe I should take the opportunity and grab the cheap stock while I can.  Checking the fine print, I can’t as I don’t have a fork lift to receive it.

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Stationery

Gifts in newsagencies

We have changed the fixturing we use to display gifts at our newsXpress Watergardens location, drawing on learnings from our Sophie Randall business. The table in the photo below, buried by part of our plush range, offers multiple level and angles for displaying stock in an easily accessible form.

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Beyond efficiently displaying gist related stock, the table offers more efficient use of floorspace and maintains a low profile in the business, thereby supporting retail friendly sight lines.

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Gifts
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