Author: Mark Fletcher

Bargain Shopper magazine rips newsagents off. It is supplied late in the month – so they are paid next month – in quantities which are three and four times what newsagents will sell and with a ridiculous shelf life. This is appalling behaviour.

I am early returning 26% of what I received this week as there is no justification for such gross oversupply.

This behavior is unconscionable. The publisher creates the problem with their print run and the magazine distributor facilitates the abuse of the newsagent system. This distributor – NDD – ought to know better.

The problem for newsagents is that the ACCC lets publishers and distributors get away with oversupply at four and five times what we will sell.

This is the display we have created next to the counter to promote magazines with an environmental pitch. It’s a simple display, designed to attract.

We have placed the display next to our main newsagency register point as we have found this the most effective in promoting magazines outside the top 50 sellers.

Typically, we will leave this in place for between a week and two weeks – depending on customer interest. We also add new titles as they come in.

I know the display does not look corporate – it’s not meant to. We see this multi-title approach as a service for our customers and in support of the depth of range we have.

Further to my previous post today about Conscious Living, the same health store has Wellbeing magazine for sale. We have it in our newsagency too? Why would a publisher put this stock in my newsagency as well as the health store. The shelf life and cover price makes the title of little value. Getting into two stores reduces sales in one or both so I might as well get out of the space. The health category is doing very well but if publishers like Universal are going to chase other outlets to the cost of my business why should I support them?

It is disappointing to see Conscious Living magazine in a health store not far from my newsagency at Forest Hill. What is worse, is that the publisher lists the magazine as available from this health store and does not list it as being available at my newsagency.

While the two businesses will attract different customers, it dilutes the newsagent pitch as the magazine specialist. Their lack of support on the website demonstrates that we are not central to their distribution plans.

With a six month shelf life, Conscious Living is already cash-flow challenged for newsagents. I am going to re-think stocking the title.

Gee, ex Big Brother housemate Krystal Forscutt is busy. She was on the cover of Zoo last week and is on the cover of XBOX 360 (twice since this issue has two covers) and Playstation Magazine this month. What is odd about the latter two covers, promoting the need for speed game, is that they have each used exactly the same photo. Mistakes happen I guess, production errors they get called – we just need to not display them too close together.

For some reason XBOX 360 magazine has been produced with two covers this month. Everything is the same except for aspects of the cover image.

I can’t see a reason for doing this – it won’t get the title additional retail space and is more likely to lead to confusion among browsers.

I wonder how much browsers take notice of magazine covers. Here are two which were on the shelves in the month leading up to the election. In hindsight, they provide a commentary of the result. While both titles are not top-sellers, the covers would have been seen by many.

Putting the Christmas editions of Food Ideas, Good Taste and Table next to each other and next to our top selling weeklies is working a treat. They will sell out today or tomorrow.

When putting magazines in a such a premium space we look for titles which compliment each other and are likely to encourage multiple title purchase. Yes, we obsess about magazines. We see every unplanned purchase as a victory.

I have lost track of how many magazines have free calendars with them at the moment. Some are excellent value and others quite mediocre. Some are poorly attached and detract from the magazine.

I wonder if all these freebie calendars detract from calendar sales? Some newsagents think so. While there must be an impact of so many free calendars being available, I can’t quantify this in terms of sales of calendars in newsagencies.

I am not suggesting that publishers refrain from the calendar giveaway, I can see it makes sense. I guess the purpose of this post is to acknowledge that there are some unintended consequences.

Newsagents may want to check how many copied of Fisherman & Boatowner they received last week. We usually receive three copies. This month they sent six. On inquiry I was told it was a re-launch. Okay, that’s fine. Don’t use my cash to support the publisher’s efforts – not when we sell, on average, two copies of each issue.

Once in two years we have sold three copies – no justificati0on for a 100% increase in supply.

We received some Women’s Weekly stock on Friday at Forest Hill (after their production problems caused us to miss our delivery Wednesday) but we will sell out over the weekend.

Unless we get more stock Monday, I’d say our performance this issue will be around 40% of usual for the Christmas issue. This will cost us around $600 in sales of the title and, I’d expect to lose at least that again in associated product sales.

On top of direct lost sales is the cost of lost customers – who knows whether a customer who purchases elsewhere stops coming to the newsagency as a result.

I appreciate the ACP did not want the production problems. However, to have all major competitors around my newsagency fully stocked and me not severely disadvantages my business and disrespect my customers.