mX Sydney expands distribution
I’m in Sydney tonight and picked up a copy of mX, the free daily newspaper from News Limited, at Wynyard station. It fascinates me how many people approach the mX distribution team for their free newspaper. mX is part of the evening ritual, the habit in ingrained. Only rarely do the distribution team I saw approach a commuter – this is a shift from when the newspaper was first launched in Sydney.
mX must have an impact on paid newspaper sales in that it is educating people that mX is all they need in a newspaper. Every copy given away is a message that newspapers should be free. Newsagents ought to head from their shops to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane at rush hour to see mX distribution first hand. To many newsagents it will be alarming.
Today’s mX announces a swag of new distribution points in St Leonards, Bondi Junction, Kings Cross and Edgecliff. The story on page two says the new locations have come “after we received thousands of requests from workers and commuters in those areas who had seen mX, but had not been able to get their hands on a copy”. The article also announces that they are installing new stands for self service – made available through an agreement with CityRail.
mX is a successful newspaper franchise across our three largest cities. It will be interesting to see where it goes next or whether the current offering evolves in the existing cities.
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.
Our sales of Get Up & Go magazine have been consistent at under 5 copies a month. There was no justification in increasing our supply from eight to ten – certainly not in the sales data. The only reason I can see for increasing our supply would be that the distributor has excess product and it saves their cash if they shift that product to newsagents regardless of whether it will sell.
Photoshop User is a problem title. The price of $32.95 ought to have knocked it out of the newsagent supply chain – that and the fact that Photoshop titles are not selling.
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 
Last issue, we sold two copies of 
I received a call late yesterday from an avid collectorof the James Bond car series. He found me through a Google search and landed at this blog. We talked for fifteen minutes or so about the challenges associated with buying partworks – through a newsagency versus via subscription. He has purchased through two newsagencies in Melbourne.
We are carefully watching the publisher calendars this year – while we have canceled most, some sneak through like this one. Our concerns are margin and shelf life. The calendars we have ordered directly generate more than twice the margin so, naturally, we prefer them to these units. Also, the titles we have ordered are integrated – we ordered each for a reason – whereas titles like this not ordered by us has to be placed somewhere. Finding a relevant location for one off product is challenging.
Bagged magazines are a problem in newsagencies. Take this Jumbo Puzzle Pack built around the That’s Life brand.
