Author: Mark Fletcher

The magazine hot pockets we’re using at our Watergardens location are working very well. We are using them as part of our co-location strategy – bringing titles from another category into a higher volume area.

We’re finding that we need to move these titles regularly to get the best return on the space. I can see that as the business grows we will have a weekday offer and a different weekend offer – reflecting the change in demographic over those times.

I am surprised at the difference in magazines I have found at our new Frankston newsagency which we do not receive at Forest Hill.

Take Bitch magazine. It’s an interesting title, appealing to a narrow demographic. What surprises me is that it’s supplied to Frankston and not Forest Hill. There are other titles like – supplied to one and not the other – which, in my probably ignorant view, defy the demographic.

We are finding comparing the businesses fascinating. I expect it will lead to requests for more titles in one of both stores once we get our collective heads around the differences.

As a magazine lover, it’s wonderful to see new (to me) titles like Bitch.

We have created a small display of magazine titles relating to TV shows at one of our register points. It’s working a treat with some of the slower moving titles selling off this stand on impulse.

We run displays like this weekly, featuring different categories and, as the photo shows, titles not usually displayed together but with some connection. We choose the display focus based mainly on team member suggestions.

A key element of the display is the border. It tells our customers what the display is about.

Too many newsagents take the set and forget approach to magazines. My view is that change is critical – hence our focus of time and resources on displays such as this one.

With sales of special interest titles up by 25% this year compared to 2006 and sales of computer magazines down by the same amount it is no surprise that last week we further reduced space allocated to computer titles and increased space allocated to special interest titles.

Layout is key with special interest titles and this is something we work on at least three times a week – ensuring the have appropriate adjacencies and that the many segments within the overall category can be easily identified by browsers.

One challenge is real-estate. With these special interest titles supplied in small quantities we need to find a way to carry more stock in less space yet to still display the titles appropriately. We are working on that.

We balance our real-estate allocation based on data from our computer system. This includes spotting trends which guide us to be opportunistic.

Note to magazine distributors – this is not a green light to send us more stock, we will let you know if we want that.

People’s Friend is one of our best performing weekly magazines at Forest Hill, selling between 65 and 80 copies a week. I was interested to find it performing as well in our new Frankston location. This provides a demographic insight and helps us translate some magazine layout strategies from Forest hill to Frankston.

One of the issues I have seen newsagents struggle with is demographic differences when they move from one location to another. We are using magazine sales as the guide to differences in these first few weeks as we learn the new Frankston business. Hence our interest in finding People’s Friend performing well in both locations.

On People’s Friend, sales are strong enough for us to use this as a honey pot title – we put other titles which need support around or nearby. This strategy, while labour intensive, works a treat. I see several titles benefiting from being close to People’s Friend.

Women’s Health, the new magazine launched by Pacific Magazines on Monday this week is kicking some huge goals based on sales data I am seeing. Sell through rates of 50% and above for a launch title not even seven days is fantastic by any measure. I have seen plenty of copies sold at the counter, as an impulse purchase – demonstrating the effectiveness of the Pacific marketing and advertising campaigns.

What is also fascinating is the kick Men’s Health is achieving as a result.

We received our first issue of G magazine Wednesday. Looking through it, I see an opportunity to create a new display category, bringing together titles around the climate change theme. Some titles such as G and Renew will anchor the category and others, such as this month’s National Geographic will make appearances based on their cover story.

The problem with creating an environmental category is where to put it. Of the six to eight titles I see as fitting in currently, only two are in the same MPA category. We’ll sort it out and have a crack.

I am glad G has been launched – it could help us carve out a new niche.

What did you notice first in this photo of magazines? Hopefully it was the four yellow tags. They are a bright yellow arrow pointing to a title as being just in. These bookmarks are our latest innovation in magazine promotion which we are going to be rolling out exclusively through newsXpress locations.

I have had the idea for some time but creating the high quality form cut bookmarks was too expensive for one store. Rolling it out across 150 stores is more viable. It also provides newsXpress an excellent opportunity to demonstrate again its credentials in innovation in magazine marketing.

Vogue Living is a good example where these bright bookmarks can work well. Being monthly it is easy for consumers to forget when the next issue is in – especially if they do not purchase every issue. By being selective in our placement of the bookmarks and limiting the number in use at any time, they become a beacon to eyeballs.

With so much visual noise in a newsagency it is easy for regulars to become store blind. This is a real problem for poster displays. I think a small number of the bright just in bookmarks could do more for the selected titles than a poster display stuck someone on a wall in the newsagency.

Slimming and Health is another good example of where our bookmark strategy will work – even if we get two or three extra glances a day that will lead to impulse purchases.

Just as others copied the magazine club card I developed in 2004, I’d expect other marketing groups to copy this innovation. There is more to this than printing a bookmark and sticking it in a few titles. The bookmarks have been painstakingly designed, the colours carefully chosen and the research undertaken on the number to use at any one time and the titles on which to focus.

While publishers focus attention on newsagents who do aisle end and other poster displays, our view, arrogantly, is that innovation like these bookmarks is far more valuable as drive drive systemic change in the management of magazines in newsagencies.

There were skeptics in 2004 when I created the magazine club card – newsagencies which have embraced this are delivering considerably above average magazine growth primarily because of the loyalty offering.

The newsXpress just in bookmarks won’t deliver a retirement size cash bonus but they will help drive above average magazine sales. They provide practical evidence of the newsXpress point of difference and further support our brand over individual product brands.

Cult Times magazine and the TV Zone Inter Special title (right) are the same – certainly a read of the text of the cover suggests as much as does the photo. To really check I’d need to open the sealed bag of the title on the right. Customers won’t notice. The bagged magazine is more expensive.

They appeal to the same demographic so why duplicate copy and put it under a different masthead? Unless there is substantial difference in content this repackaging ought not be permitted as unsuspecting consumers could be ripped off. My benchmark would be that a title would need to have at least 50% unpublished content. I suspect that is not the case with Cult Times and its sister publication.

I am annoyed because customers who been ripped off will complain to us as the retailer.