Aon has written to Victorian newsagents pitching their lottery agency insurance package. While that is their right, the wording of the letter is concerning and is likely to confuse some. They tie the requirement to purchase insurance such as that they offer to the recent NSW Lotteries case. The implication was that the NSW case led to insurance cover changes being required. Our existing policy was fine so we filed the Aon letter in the bin.
Who needs the weekly gossip and star focused women’s magazines when you can access popsugar for free? Newsagents should see how connected (online) people are getting their gossip fix.
Tuesdays really are changing in newsagency retail – they are no longer the starved child of the retail week. In my newsagency, Tuesdays are delivering excellent stationery numbers and coming in as the third and even second best day of the week. Tuesdays have benefited the most since we started rebuilding our stationery department. Not only are sales strong but the mix of products sold is good too. We are using this information to look at Tuesday offers we can implement to leverage the obvious interest.
Note to magazine publishers – those premium inserts you use to add value too often detract. Take a look at the photo below of how inserts looked on Good Health and Notebook which we received today. Both premium, high quality, titles look damaged because of the promotional insert:
In both cases, the magazines appear to be damaged when it is the insert sticking out from the magazine which is damaged. While we put the damaged product to the back, often more than half total supply is damaged.
If publishers are going to use inserts such as these to promote their titles, they ought to invest in appropriate packaging to ensure the titles arrive in a merchantable form.
In 865 Federal Government owned Australia Post shops right now you can see how serious the government is about small business. Leveraging the conflicted positions 100% ownership of Australia Post and controlling legislation which governs Australia Post, the Government has ensured its annual profit windfall. Over the last eleven years this windfall has come at a significant cost to small business including newsagents.
Take the current twelve page Australia Post brochure: page after page of stationery items which, on my reading of the Act, fall outside activity permitted by the Act under which Australia Post operates. My newsagency, like any newsagency competing directly with a Government owned Australia Post retail outlet, fights every day for stationery business. Newsagents have been in stationery since the 1880s. Australia Post has beefed up in this category during the last eleven years.
That Australia Post government owned stores so aggressively and blatantly target independent small business newsagents is evidence of how the Government views small business.
Helen Coonan, the Minister in the government responsible for Australia Post will say that the legislation con trolls Australia Post – as if to wash her hands of the situation. Her Government controls the legislation and can prove its small business credentials by taking the Government owned stores out of this direct competition.
Australia Post has an unfair advantage in that it uses its protected monopoly of postage services to drag traffic to their retail outlets. Newsagents do not have this luxury, it costs us far more to land customers in our stores than Australia Post.
Fairfax published a coupon in The Border Mail, The Illawarra Mercury and The Newcastle Herald last Saturday which, if redeemed at a newsagency the next day, gave the customer the Sun Herald for $1.00. This 44% discount is significant. It is interesting to see a promotion aimed at driving retail sales.
Most cover price discounting is around subscription offers. Maybe the Sun Herald on Sunday had a big home delivery push – I haven’t seen the newspaper. Given that newsagent commission on the discounted copies was maintained at a pre discount rate, Fairfax grossed 55 cents per copy. This is a 59.25% discount off their usual gross.
Given the inefficiency of newspaper sales in newsagencies – around 70% of all newspaper sold are sold alone – I’d prefer to see a newspaper publisher drive sales of their product by partnering on a deal which also drive sales of another product in my business. Ideally, the partner product would be a stationery item – at least something away from the convenience line. That said, if the only option I have is a deal like the one tried last week then I’d embrace it and try and build something myself around the pitch.
We are trying something completely different at the end of one of magazine aisles with this bear display: cross-promoting the Hallmark Forever Friends range as well as a selection of bear magazines. Both ranges are located some distance from this display and would not be seen by the high traffic passing this display.
Our feeling is that we need to come up with a bolder backdrop next time to draw attention to the display. We see this display as a start. It is along the same lines as our wedding card and magazine display which I blogged about tlat week – a display off which we have now sold three magazines. I don’t know if they are extra sales but I do know they have been bought from the small magazine display in our card department. Even one magazine sale from these cross-promotion displays has to be worth it.
Rail Modeller, Model Rail and Model Railroader are three of the specialist model railroad titles we have in our newsagency. They are what one could call long tail titles. We sell small quantities of these and other model railroad titles yet having the range draws magazine browsers and, overall, browsers buy. The model rail category along with similar categories combines to demonstrate our point of difference and make newsagencies the destination we are.
We focus as much on these model railroad titles as we do our women’s weekly titles. Indeed, we obsess about their display, making sure that all the model railroad titles are in the space allocated and not mixed with radio control model titles or general railway titles. We make sure the titles are displayed full face and even featured on category displays from time to time. Our effort stems from pride in the range we carry.
In a strict cash-flow sense these model railroad titles rarely pay their way. However, once you take into account the overall basket from the visit the benefits of carrying the range is evident.
The model railroad titles are a good reason for newsagents to establish a Magazine Week promotion here – where we promote the depth of our range. We’re the best magazine retailers in the country after all.
Bernard Zimmermann, Director of POS Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, posted the following to his blog:
Xchangeit sales data is to us both positive and negative.
It is bad that a significant number of our clients are not sending sales data! There is no technical problem, it is just a high percentage are either not bothering or deciding not to send the sales data. I intend to check on everyone of my relevant clients this week to find out why they are not sending data.
On the other hand, the good news is our sales data is extremely good. It has been described to me as the best. This is clearly an excellent result.
As I stated earlier according to my calculations we now have enough sites sending good sales data that magazine producers could send every day reliable estimated daily sales with just Pos Solutions clients.
That Xchangeit is not doing it now is hurting the entire industry. It should be a priority in the industry to send each one of these publishers free this data AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
This is a misleading post.
Magazine distributors and newspaper publishers will tell you that what data they get from from newsagents using POS Solutions software has not been good for years. If POS has sorted this out for all of their customers then good. If not, suppliers ought to be public in declaring lack of compliance.
For years suppliers have been quiet about elephants in the room – the IT companies letting newsagents down on helping newsagents meet basic IT standards.
As the owner of Tower Systems there is no doubt I am conflicted in the issue of which software is better – Tower Systems or POS Solutions. Newsagents, voting with their cheque book, say Tower Systems.
But this is not about Tower versus POS. It is about a whole channel using best practice software and business processes to ensure that newsagents are, collectively, as strong in terms as IT as our major competitors in the circulation product space – supermarkets, convenience and petrol. For newsagents, such as happened in Victoria recently, to wait two years for a software company to play catch up on standards is appalling. It holds the whole channel back. If we – suppliers, software companies and associations – all agree on standards then surely we ought to ensure we support them in a timely manner. The two year delay for a group of Victorian newsagents holds the whole channel back.
Newsagents don’t have time for spin – they want their software to work and their compliance with supplier IT standards to be assured.
POS Solutions’ lack of compliance to industry standards has been the elephant in the room at many industry meetings. In November last year, at a two day News Limited meeting in Melbourne which involved, among others, myself, Bernard Zimmermann, News Limited executives, the ANF and other software providors, the lack of adherence to current standards by hundreds of POS clients was a hot topic. I asked it be parked for private discussion between POS and News because of the difficulties it presented for POS in the relatively open forum.
For years the newsagent channel has had IT standards. It is time for all stakeholders to enforce them – for the good of all newsagents.
Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year, starts sundown, September 12. We usually have cards for sale but they were water damaged and Hallmark has no backup stock. It seems that for these small seasons the major card companies only import firm order requirements. Based on the questions we have had in my newsagency and other retail outlets I know of, these small seasons are an excellent opportunity. The card companies ought to have backup stock to enable a quick response.
My experience this year has me looking for another card company partner which can handle smaller seasons such as Jewish New Year and us builld our credentials as the card experts beyond the high volume seasons.
Jeff Jarvis has written an excellent essay on where he sees newspapers in 2020. It adds well to the consideration of any newsagent wondering about the Newsagency of the Future.
Despite the whack from Tattersalls last week for using part of the lottery counter (which I pay for) to promote non Tattersalls we are heavily promoting syndicates in this weekend’s superdraw. In fact, we have been promoting syndicates in the superdraw for weeks. We promote our syndicates on the wall in the photo and elsewhere in the shop – certainly outside the space where lottery products are usually promoted. Our approach to superdraws is structured and consistent. But it’s not enough to protect us against the challenge of construction – 50 stores around us are closed. The centre is going through a major re-vamp. Given that magazine and stationery sales are up, this tells me lottery sales are affected by the construction. Around 50% of lottery sales in our shop are impulse and with traffic dramatically cut the sales dip stands to reason.
I common question I get from newsagents reading this is: how do you lay your counter to drive impulse sales? While the counter changes several times during the week, the elements are the same and best shown in this photo I took Saturday:
We have three key serving areas – one to the front and two to the right. At each point there are upsell opportunities. At the corner of the counter, the newspaper, magazine and Darrell Lea stands work well at attracting impulse purchases.
We obsess about this space – to the point where we are discussing with a designer to create a single stand to replace the four stands we use at present. A more corporate yet flexible feel will, we think, help us sell more from this space.
At the ANF-Q Awards announced in Bridsbane Saturday, newsXpress members did very well:
Retail Newsagent of the Year: Warrick & Jo – newsXpress Gympie
Runner Up: Mark & Shelley – newsXpress Sarina
Employee of the Year: – Bec – newsXpress Sarina
Runner Up: Andrew Sutton – newsXpress Harbourtown
Distribution Newsagent of the Year: Monterey Keys News – Gold Coast.
As a Director of newsXpress of course I am thrilled for the success of members, employees and the group as a whole. More broadly, newsagents taking time out to recognise the best operators is good for the industry.
No sooner had I moved copies of Crikey! magazine from the children’s section to the high traffic dance floor than a boy, four or five, stopped his mum to point out the title. That was Friday. Saturday I saw the same situation play out again. The brand recognition for Bindi and Bob Irwin is exceptional with this demographic.
Crikey! is a title we will co-locate to the front of the shop so that children know we have it – building habit. We have a group of titles, like Crikey! now, which demonstrate breadth of range and reinforce the point of difference offered in a newsagency.
I continue to be surprised at the conversations I get into with customers in my newsagency. I was asked yesterday if we had Time magazine. Certain we would have a copy – we rarely sell out – I walked to where Time is usually displayed and, sure enough, we’d sold out. The customer was concerned because ours was the fifth newsagency he had visited yesterday looking for a copy of Time. He said he never reads the magazine but had to get this issue.
Curiosity got the better of me and I asked why. It has a story about how people die, was his answer. Then, after a pause, while he appeared to play back in his head what he had said he added, how to nearly die, near-death experience. I checked our computer to see if we had copies elsewhere. My friend told me, Time has a story. Important story. That’s why I want it. He was reinforcing the purpose of his mission. English was not his first language – he wanted to make sure I understood. He touched my arm as he said, more slowly than before, about how you nearly die and come back. Then his face lit up with a huge smile.
I told him I could try and order the magazine but he said no he had to find it today. He thanked me, turned and left to continue his search, smiling.
The brief encounter replayed in my head through the afternoon and evening – I was thinking about word of mouth and how we seek out products and services based on what we hear from others – who seeks online versus who seeks offline, and why.
I am interested in reading about near death experiences too and my shopper’s comments piqued my interest in the Time magazine article. Instead of embarking on my own journey of newsagencies to find Time, I broke the chain, betrayed print and went where I was certain I could find the article. Within a couple of clicks I was reading The Science of Near-Death Experiences by Daniel Williams at the the Time website. Guilt aside, I was satisfied in finding the article.
There are several issues on my mind here:
Print. My newsagency and thousands like mine exist to satisfy the desire for printed copies of articles such as this one in Time on near death experiences. We rely on people like my customer who want the occasional copy of magazine through to the weekly fix of two or three titles. His experience, driven by word of mouth is completely different to my own. With quality content such as the Time article available online and free I have no doubt that my experience will become the norm. This is why I write here about the need for newsagents individually and collectively to navigate to the newsagency of the future.
The experience with the Time article perfectly illustrates the supply chain challenge – the article online can be reached by people for a lower cost and with less environmental damage than the print version. Both have good revenue models around them so it is only a matter of time before we see some titles depart print altogether.
Supply. Time is a magazine where supply based on sales history does not work. A great cover or good word of mouth can make i a sell out. It would be good if there was a better way to manage supply so retailers can service the demand. It turns out that we have had several customers ask about this specific issue of Time this week – we don’t sell many and could have easily tripled our sales.
Backorder certainty. If I could place an order in my point of sale system and guarantee, immediately, that I can supply, I’d pick up more sales like this one. If I could guarantee supply by, say, Monday or Tuesday I am certain I could convince my customer to buy form us.
The community connection. The encounter yesterday reinforced to me the personal connection newsagents have with their community. My customer would not have had the same experience in a supermarket, petrol outlet or a convenience store. Okay, they don’t sell Time – but they do sell other titles about which there would be questions. All they do is sell. Newsagents service. Publishers need to remember that.
I know that business is business but some days, encounters with customers are wonderful – you can’t put a value on the experience.
Stack em high, watch em fly – it’s the mantra most often repeated in retail. Since we are revamping stationery and art supplies, we are quitting some now discontinued brands. Hence the SALE tabl to the left of the photo. To balance this, we have placed our Double A paper display. We have been running this every four weeks or so since we started selling Double A paper earlier this year. A large display like this at the front of the newsagency works well – and proves the stack em high motto. While many newsagents will say they donlt have space for a display like this, we see having it as essential if we are to leverage the traffic into the shop.
The box of five reams of paper sells very well, often with a newspaper.
Click here to download a copy of the latest technology news for newsagents from my software company, Tower Systems. Software is emerging as a unifying force for newsagents – it’s the driver of compliance, gateway to supplier relationships and the means through which newsagents can more aggressively compete.
This is the era of data in newsagencies. Respect for good data = a successful newsagency.
Tower Systems serves in excess of 1,430 newsagents. Our nearest competitor has, by out estimation, around 700 newsagents as customers with two thirds of those running out of date DOS software which does not comply with supplier standards. By publishing IT news we are seeking to demonstrate there there is a better way to run your newsagency and enjoy the benefits of data compliance.
Steve Heller has an interesting blog post about the future of print and in particular newspapers.
Go Vegetarian! is a magazine I ought to be critical of if I am consistent with my postings here. The low cover price and sales mean it will be cash-flow negative. However, I like Go Vegetarian! It fits perfectly into the healthy living and eating space we have created between our food and cook book titles and our health and fitness titles.
We have been specifically asked about vegetarian food and nutrition titles. Hence our support even though at $2.50 Go Vegetarian! will be cash-flow negative. The bigger picture view is positive. Plus, it reinforces our point of difference in the healthy eating / living space. I am glad we have this title.
Take a look at the best promotional poster you’ll see for the 2007 Rugby World Cup:
newsXpress newsagencies are getting behind this sporting event as a show of support for the Wallabies and to inject some fun into their stores.
By connecting with major events such as the Rugby World Cup, newsXpress is strengthening the community connection for its stores and taking promotion beyond the traditional newsagency seasons.
Disclosure: I am a Director of newsXpress Pty Ltd
We are having a crack at adding value to the new Hallmark wedding promotion by displaying two wedding magazines alongside the display. While we have plenty more than two wedding titles, we didn’t want to overpower the Hallmark pitch – it is really a card, wrap and gifts promotion after all. We will cycle other magazine titles through the display every few days.
We are fortunate to have the fresh eyes to see opportunities like this and the resources for execution. I see an opportunity for card companies, magazine publishers and other suppliers to newsagencies to work together to prepackage cross category promotions such as what we have done for wedding magazines and cards.
The Monthly is producing excellent, retail friendly, covers this year – they demand to be given the full face treatment and not left to languish in traditional newsagency magazine fixturing.
This month’s issue with Maxine McKew on the cover is a good example of how well they are reading trends. Maybe it is just our demographic – The Monthly is showing strong sales growth in me newsagency even if it is off a low base.