Author: Mark Fletcher

I have been on the road in Christchurch (NZ) today and found this shop.

All they sell is magazines.

Excuse the front window as they have only just relocated. I’d guess that they have around 1,000 titles. The shop occupies around 90 square metres. They focus outside the major weeklies. Niche categories get a good play as do adult titles – which surprised me.

Opposite this magazine specialist is a convenience store with all the major weeklies on display at their front door.

In the first ten on-sale days of the 2006/07 Australia’s Open Gardens on sale period we sold 1 copy. This year, over the same period, we have sold 10 copies. Last year we located the title in the gardening section. This year, we located it next to the Australian Women’s Weekly. I did this because even though sales of AWW are flat, it attracts many browsers. Also, my view is that both titles appeal to the same demographic. Sales suggest that is true for my newsagency.

While we are bend some rules with what we display next to AWW and our women’s weeklies such as New Idea and Woman’s Day, the resulting sales make the effort worthwhile.

We plan to leave Australia’s Open Gardens next to AWW for another week. Our goal is to sell out!

Here is the same stand I posted about on Monday with a freshened display to reflect today’s magazines. I am posting this to show how the fixture evolves over the week. Note, no poster up for That’s Life since none arrived.

We weighed three budnles of magazines from NDD at my newsagency this morning: 20, 22 and 27kg. I have had a conversation today with Worksafe Victoria and they pointed me to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2007 and advised that we (newsagents) could reasonably request that bundles be 15kg or less.

My plan is to take this up with NDD and request smaller bundles. The Worksafe office advised that they would be happy to investigate this further if NDD does not act on the request.

UPDATE: (16/9) NDD has taken action with the driver involved to address this issue.

Eleven newsagents contacted me following my post here about sales of The Bulletin with Maxine McKew on the cover. All bar two said sales were much stronger, most selling out. Unscientific and not all that meaningful I guess – but interesting to record.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Zoo Weekly might be in trouble for offering cosmetic surgery (breast enhancement) as a prize in a competition.

Maybe this competition is a tipping point. I suspect that the folks at Emap knew what they were doing – especially that the prize would be controversial.

My feeling – based on no hard evidence – is that Zoo has plateaued. There are only so many people wanting to buy magazines featuring former big breasted reality TV contestants. The formula is, well, a formula and without significant change becomes stale.

So, the contest is a success because the SMH and others are writing about the title. I’ll see what happens sales wise.

Sorry about the headline for this post, the temptation was too great.

Scott, commenting on my post about Jeff Webster’s Fitting Out for Bay & Coastal Fishing magazine included a link showing a “Jeff” selling copies of the magazine on eBay. It’s a fair shot to try and find customers for what is a niche title.

It made me wonder, however, how the publisher could better engage with newsagents. Being a niche publisher does present difficulties.

One option would be to get together with related titles which consumers could be expected to purchase with your title. Either create a double pack (which newsagents and consumers don’t like that much) or invest some money into point of purchase packaging to enable two or three titles to be displayed in a high traffic area. This is what the big publishers do with regularity to find new readers. Most newsagents receiving a display pack put it out as requested – the first step to compliance is providing the materials necessary to achieve this.

I bet that putting Bay and Coastal Fishing into a display unit with, three or four related titles would generate a good sales kick. By providing this material, Jeff Webster and other smaller publishers would make it easier for newsagents to drive sales – plus there would be the benefit of a consistent in store display message.

Some magazine categories are a real challenge to locate and so get pushed from pillar to post. Gay related magazines fall into this category. They are often, unfairly, placed in the adult section. I had a customer ask today – because he could not find them in the adult section. When I showed him our small range he congratulated us by not putting them in the adult area. he has just moved from Sydney and has a story about a fight with his local newsagent when he asked that the gay magazines get moved from being mixed in with Picture, People and Zoo.

It amazes me what some people share when looking for they products they want.

We have been experimenting with different titles in this tiny space next to one of our lottery registers. The best performing title in this impulse space so far is Super Food Ideas. We sold five copies on the weekend from this location alone. Not bad considering that each was an impulse purchase. We achieved usual sales from the regular location of this magazine.

Other titles which have done well here include That’s Life, Take 5 and People’s Friend – think demographic and the anchor product of the space, being lotteries.

Passive up selling using space like this is hard work because it is another task to check daily. However, it is essential in this competitive marketplace.

In response to people who have asked to track how we promote magazines at the front of the shop, here is today’s pitch.

I will try and remember to post a photo of the changes we make on Wednesday.

While there is a risk in grabbing sales without driving people into the shop, we decided there is more to be made from impulse purchases from people leaving the centre (we are at an exit) who would otherwise not have purchased.

Sales of The Bulletin this week may offer an indication of the popularity of Maxine McKew, the Labor candidate for the Prime Minister’s seat of Bennelong. In my newsagency we will sell out. This is rare for The Bulletin.

While our base is low, selling out is a surprise – it demonstrates that there is interest in the Bennelong contest. The news coverage of the Bennelong battle would be helping too.

Covers are critical to sales of The Bulletin. It is not a destination purchase in many newsagencies. We certainly take the opportunity to display the full cover and not just the masthead.