Author: Mark Fletcher

I like the idea of Magazine Week, as planned for the UK in September this year, to promote magazines to consumers. This is something the Magazine Publishers of Australia could get behind. Newsagents ought to be at the heart of any campaign as they are the only magazine specialists in Australia.

Check out the planned in store activity:

1. Point of sale branding to create in-store theatre
2. Window dressing using Magazine Week branding
3. Shopping messages, each day a different message
4. Meet and greet with staff at the front of the store, e.g. staff wearing branded t-shirts
5. Rotation of magazines on a gondola daily
6. Till receipts to hold logo (contact PPA for logo)
7. Shopping message, each day a different one e.g. “Buy a magazine – and one for your mum!”; “If you like gardening, why not look at our great range of gardening magazines”; “It’s the weekend – buy a magazine and relax!”
8. Voucher incentives (included in regional press, local flyer campaigns etc.)
9. Using every communication vehicle (both staff and customer facing)
10. Targeted leaflets to consumers – using Magazine Week to fulfil individual store objectives (e.g. promoting shop save; highlighting expanded magazine range etc)
11. Out of Category PoS / Out of category positioning of magazines
12. Using clubcard/loyalty card promotion (or equivalent)
13. Any other ideas you might have!

Brilliant! I’d actively support this among the 1,400+ newsagents using Tower Systems software to manage magazines. From a marketing group perspective, many of the activities connect with existing in-store strategies in newsXpress stores.

Following up my complaints here about the gross and repeated oversupply of Reader’s Digest to my newsagency by distributor NDD comes an email overnight from an individual documenting poor treatment by Reader’s Digest:

I am not a newsagent myself but rather an individual who has received unsolicited subscriptions and bills for the magazine which I did not order. The latest being a letter saying that goods were returned to them being undeliverable despite me informing them I do not wish to receive any further correspondence.

Unhappy with the resolution of his complaint, my correspondent has made a formal complaint to the ACCC and a Principal Investigator has been appointed to handle the matter.

One reason systemic oversupply to newsagents remains unresolved in the lack of attention by newsagents to lodging formal complaints to bodies such as the ACCC.

Here’s an example of a magazine we don’t need. Newsagents are well served with Sudoku titles yet some bright spark thinks we need this UK title.

If I were the magazine czar controlling the titles which can access newsagencies I’d block this title. I might reconsider if newsagents are paid a handling fee to cover real-estate and labour.

Those responsible for newsagents receiving this title are abusing a system for their exclusive commercial gain.

In 2004 ACP Magazines made the first move to cut newsagents out of long term supply arrangements with key petrol outlets. Just under 1,000 newsagents lost revenue as a result. Some other publishers subsequently followed ACP. Now, almost three years on, we see magazines getting moved in major petrol outlets and while top selling titles may still be doing okay, the magazine category overall has suffered. While no one will agree it would be good to access sales data to understand the impact beyond individual publishers. The previous newsagent supply arrangement was better for the category – maybe publishers will realise this when they discover how far from the traffic in some outlets their product is being moved.

Magazine publishers and distributors show their care about the environment by sending magazines which failed to sell the first time out to newsagents again and again. These old issues are used as fodder to fill double and triple packs, to add value to a title. The trouble is that punters committed to the title probably bought the old and very old issues when they first came out. Punters know the packs are a con – this why they are often ripped open in store to uncover issues not already purchased.

I don’t mind a an occasional double pack to reignite interest in a title. However, too often the double and triple pack strategy is used cynically by publishers to keep dead stock circulating. It’s cheap marketing.

While some will say why should I worry since if they don’t sell I can return them. True. But the freight costs for returns are high – I’m paying two and three times to freight a dead issue of a magazine back to the distributor.

Double and triple packs ought to, in my view, have a premium attached to them which respects the additional real-estate they need in a newsagency. If newsagents operate on a fee for service basis we would see far fewer double and triple packs.

Good to see Pacific Magazines announce that they will launch Women’s Health in Australia by the end of this year. The health category is strong at present and launches of new titles such as Women’s Health will help drive further growth.