Author: Mark Fletcher

Thanks Commonwealth Bank for the free copy of BRW which arrived in the mail at the office yesterday. Don’t know what I did to deserve the gift – I am not currently a Commonwealth Bank customer.

The giveaway made me wonder how many free copies of BRW and other titles are sent out each week. As a newsagent I’d love it if these giveaways came with a pitch of – get BRW every week at your local newsagent! BRW is one of those titles, for me at least, where I’ll read it on impulse so a reminder that a retail purchase at a newsagency may fit my readership choice could work well.

The truck carrying magazines on the Albury run this morning apparently hit a kangaroo, putting the truck out of action and delaying supply of the Wednesday delivery for most of the day. It too k an email from me to a management person within Gordon & Gotch to find out what happened. That was at 1:30pm. Newsagents had been waiting for their magazines since before 6am.

I would have thought that in this era of modern communication newsagents could have been informed sooner than seven hours later.

Given the sales decay of weeklies in newsagencies, the impact of the accident today will not be recovered. Many of those customers will have got their Wednesday fix elsewhere – especially with no visibility as to when newsagents would have the stock.

I don’t know how the kangaroo is doing but I suspect not well.

This stand is proof that you can break merchandising rules and enjoy success.

Last Friday, I setup the stand with one column of men’s fitness magazines and another column with cat and dog magazines. I chose these deliberately as they are located a long way from the counter and not browsed often, they are not high sellers in my newsagency and there do not compliment each other.

In the five days since creating the display we’ve sold more of some titles from the stand than the traditional location. I guess that should not be a surprise – people are happy to spend money if the product appeals. The key is to get that product in front of them. Newsagents need to find display opportunities like this, at traffic points, to use the business itself to drive impulse sales.

The challenge of micro management of magazines is the time required. Rewards are there as sales of men’s fitness, dog and cat magazines from the stand show. I just wish we made more than 25% for the effort.

French Provincial is a new title being released this Friday through Gotch. I found out about it when the publisher contacted me last week through this blog. An Australian magazine, French Provincial is designed to appeal to people interested in everything French. There is a strong emphasis in furniture, decor and food. Gabriel Gate writes for the magazine. It is from the same team behind Finally At 40 Life Begins.

If home and luxury decorating titles do well in your newsagency – think World of Interiors – then French Provincial should do well. Check with Gotch to make sure you are due to get stock.

I feel bad but I’ve had to wedge Krystal’s 2008 calendar in between a stack of Zoo Weekly copies this morning. Zoo buyers are Krystal’s market so locating here nearby made sense. We were sent two Krystal calendars and without anything on which to display them and given that they are the only calendars in that category, I decided the wedge with Zoo was the best approach.

Publishers need to think through these things before they send stock out to newsagents. We finalised our calendar model months ago. Every extra, unrequested, title does not have a space – meaning we lose time working out where to put her. No wonder newsagents get frustrated with suppliers sometimes.

I am certain that this problem, and others I have blogged about here today, would be resolved faster if suppliers worked in a newsagency and had their own money invested. I know that my software company made some significant enhancements when we bought a newsagency.

Hopefully Krystal will sell quickly from her home wedged in Zoo.

Great Walks is a timely new title for newsagents. As I understand it, it’s exclusive to our channel – this appeals. Great Walks taps into a greater community awareness of health and fitness and an interest in walking as good for the body and soul. The media kit at the Yaffa Publishing website has some good background on the title which might help with in-store promotion.

The challenge is where to place the title – I think it will get lost in the outdoor, leisure, travel or sports sections. I see it more as an impulse buy for people looking for something different.

Great Walks is being promoted heavily to bush walking clubs around Australia. This should make newsagents a destination for walkers looking for the new magazine created just for them.