A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

Grass-Roots Classifieds Momentum

We’ve received welcome coverage from Sandra Hanchard at Hitwise, the respected web traffic measurement company, on the impact sites like Find It is having on mainstream classified sites:

While the top 10 Classifieds websites accounted for 83.1% for the week ending 21 January 2006, they now comprise 75.3% for the week ending 20 January 2007. The decline of 7.8% in combined market share for the top 10 players means we’re seeing a more competitive industry. This is a trend for the major classifieds to keep an eye on.

Read the whole post here.

Newsagents, through over the counter grass roots efforts, are helping build Find It traffic and local community relevance – especially for our free community classifieds.

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Online classifieds

Sharing the love of my newsagency

We’re going to experiment with what we’ll call workplace love. We’re creating t-shirts for team members to wear if they want. The message of I love my newsagency personalises how they feel about their workplace. And making it optional makes the message more personal.

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Too often and in too many businesses customers encounter grumpy people. We want to provide an environment which focuses on the customer experience and we can’t do that until we focus on the employee experience.

In discussing the t-shirts with the team we’ll get to talk through what’s good and not so good about our workplace and, as a result, make changes to improve the experience for all. The t-shirts will help us facilitate any necessary change.

Newsagencies are visited, collectively, by millions every week. Customer service is often the only differentiator we have. By focusing on this in a personal way we can ensure that it works for us and not against us.

This is an initiative in my store only at this stage.

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marketing

Street marketing for online classifieds

We’re commencing the next phase of street marketing for Find It, the online classified site we’re building in partnership with newsagents. Here is a copy of a double sided card we’re handing out at key venues. We’ll hand out 100,000 and then assess the response.

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Of course we’re doing more than just these street cards. I’m posting this material here as an illustration of the more guerilla style marketing.

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marketing

US newspapers target mothers

Media Life Magazine has an excellent story about newspaper innovation. Lisa Snedeker writes about publisher interest in mums as the demographic of most corporate interest. The article is well worth reading. Chck out this passage:

Why didn’t someone think of moms before?

A good part was certainly that newspapers knew they already had moms, and in their ever-growing panic over declining circulation, the bigger issue has been snagging readers they didn’t have–and what they see as the next generation of readers–the young.

But another part has to do with the stodgy, male focus of traditional newspaper managers. As local monopolies, or near monopolies, papers traditionally put little value on understanding their readers’ different wants, operating on the premise that one paper fits all.

What’s caused all this to change is the realization, dawning on publishers and advertisers, that mothers are increasingly hard to reach through traditional mass media, such as the daily newspaper and network television. They are no longer a given, and that has made them a more valued demographic.

Mums are a big chunk of newsagent traffic. Our shops serve them through the journey of pregnancy, motherhood and well beyond. If newspapers were to focus specifically on the mum demographic as some are in the US newsagencies would be the ideal retail partner.

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Newspapers

Lottery counter gear

I’ve been contacted by people reading my postings here about lotteries commenting on the difference in equipment between the states. Here’s a photo of the full terminal – without giving away any Tattersalls secrets.

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Lotteries

Stoner magazine exploits newsagents

Stickypoint is “Australia’s latest and greatest cannabis magazine” – or so says their website. Distributed to newsagents today by Wrapaway, Stickypoint is another new title exploiting the low barrier to entry to the lucrative newsagent channel.

stickypoint1.JPGNewsagent generosity or stupidity allows Stickypoint to launch with little downside. Newsagents become their marketing arm and bankers. We guarantee eyeballs seeing the title and provide cash flow in advance of sales. Where else could a small publisher get such gifts?

Then there Stickypoint itself. I’d be surprised if there is a commercial market for a cannabis title. I received six copies and would be surprised to sell one – not because of any view I have about the subject matter but because of my demographic. This magazine was released to retailers in December. Newsagents have received their copies today. That suggests to me that we are their second tier retail channel. I can imagine the attitude – yeah, send it to newsagents, it costs us nothing!

stickypoint2.JPGStickypoint is a two cover magazine. The first cover (above) is the more traditional and the second (left) is chasing the girlie market. Neither title works visually in a newsagency. No matter where we place it, Stickypoint will look bad thanks to its low production values and a very dark cover.

It is disturbing that Wrapaway have entered this niche title space. The last thing newsagents need is another magazine distributor playing at this end. I hope everyone returns their Stickypoint stock right away and sends a message to the publishers and distributors.

I have retuned my 6 copies of Stickypoint and will not pay the amount invoiced. I did not order the title so why should Wrapaway have access to my cash?

I wonder if they approached Coles and Woolworths? Woolworths could carry the title as part of their renewed interest in farmers.

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magazines

Saturday newspaper sales versus efficiency

Data suggests newspaper efficiency for a newsagency improves as sales fall.

I have been tracking sales of newspapers in newsagencies on a Saturday for some time. While sales on other days of the week are flat or falling, Saturday seems to be the most volatile. Not in all newsagencies I should note – some are delivering excellent growth. With newspapers available in so many outlets now, newsagencies are not as important to the impulse purchase as they used to be – destination purchases make up more sales than before. This is reflected in growing efficiency of newspapers on a Saturday for newsagencies as shown in this graph.

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Efficiency in the graph reflects basket depth when a newspaper is in the basket. From the data from the small group of newsagencies, newspapers sales have become more efficient as sales have fallen. This suggests that the newsagency is more of a destination for these customers, making the customers far more valuable for the newsagent.

While the vast majority of Saturday newspaper sales are single item and therefore inefficient sales, the upward trend on efficiency correlating with a fall in sales is interesting.

What does this really mean for newsagents? I’m not sure. I want to dig deeper into the data and look at other days of the week. I do know that if I can build more efficiency around newspapers I can neuter the impact of falling newspaper sales in my shop.

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Newsagency challenges

Daily Telegraph drops shares listing

I’m not surprised the Daily Telegraph dropped its share price listings from the print edition. Newspapers overseas started doing this in 2005. The listings page directs people to the newspaper website. The News Ltd stablemate the Herald Sun still have a double page spread for its listings.

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Media disruption

Brilliant local area marketing

Hastings Newsagency in Victoria has distributed a promotional newspaper around its area. It’s brilliant. Inside are local stories mixed with stories about products and services connected with the newsagency. It’s an excellent initiative and a perfect example of local area marketing. They even got some local businesses ton support the newspaper with ads.

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Using the newspaper format connects well with what a newsagency is known for. It’s the kind of local marketing newsagents need to use to compete with the majors and to deepen their community connect. It’s great.

This newspaper campaign is an idea worth copying. Well done Hastings Newsagency.

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marketing

Australia Post newsagency

This is the Government owned Post Office opposite my newsagency as of yesterday. Looking more like a newsagency every day. See the Valentines card display in the entrance?

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I wasn’t going to post the photo here, fearing some would think I am obsessed about Australia Post. Maybe I am. Maybe you would be too if a 100% government owned business was taking sales from your shop. I don’t have an exclusive product like stamps to guarantee traffic.

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Australia Post

Back to School at Australia Post

wd-ap.JPGAustralia Post is running this ad on the back page of this week’s Woman’s Day.

Not content with chasing greeting card, stationery, calendar and book sales from newsagencies and other small businesses, Australia Post through its 863 government owned and operated outlets is now chasing the important Back to School market.

Government policy allows Australia Post to take revenue from small and other businesses in this way. They are trading of the highly respected postal service brand and achieving consumer interest for a fraction of what it costs businesses like newsagencies. They ignore competition policy by protecting Australia Post while also approving their targeting of newsagents through campaigns such as this one.

Every step by Australia Post into traditional newsagency space is further evidence of lack of interest by this government in small business.

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Australia Post

Future of media, future of newsagencies

Newsagents wondering about what the future holds would do well to look at the program for the Digital Media Summit to be held in New York next month. Keynote speakers include Rupert Murdoch. Session topics include:

User Generated Media – The Transformative Revolution in Entertainment, News Media, Personal Communication, Search and Advertising

Publishing 2.0: How Multi-Platform Newspaper and Magazine Strategies Are Transforming the Publishing Landscape

Television 2.0: Cable, Telco, Satellite, Broadband & Mobile Redefine the Future of Entertainment and Communications

Contextual Media & Advertising: Transforming and Redefining the Relationship Between the Consumer, Advertising and Media Platforms

Advertising NEXT: Social Networks, User Generated Video, Blogs, IMs, Podcasts, Broadband and Mobile, – It’s the Breakthrough Year!

Personal Media Redefines Entertainment, Communications & News: As User Generated Video, Social Networks, Blogs and PODs Become Mass Media and Big Business

Embracing the Connected Consumer – Entertainment and Technology – From the Digital Home to the Mobile Universe

Reinventing Advertising: Broadcast vs. the New Platforms: VOD, PVR, Broadband & Mobile

As the pitch for the conference says:

Disruptive technologies are changing the face of the media and entertainment industry and Media Summit New York is the conference at the epicenter of the disruption.

Newsagents are feeling the impact of such disruption today and this is why we need to refine our model from the shop floor up. I emphasis we because this is our problem. It is our capital invested in our businesses and it is time for us to act on that investment for our future.

I am not saying get out. Rather, I am saying we need to respond to media disruption and the other changes going on around us and develop newsagencies for the future. Our future has to come from within us.

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Media disruption

Time cuts jobs, focuses more online

Time Inc., the top U.S. magazine publisher, will cut 289 jobs from its estimated 11,300 workforce to slash costs as it invests more heavily in Internet properties. See Reuters for the whole story.

Time is not retreating from print. Rather, they are shifting resources to account for the greater contribution of their Internet businesses. Newsagents are not making similar business adjustments. While it is challenging to move a newsagency online, it <>em>is possible to refocus capital so that the business is not as reliant on sales of products which are moving online.

We need to question the amount of real-estate in our shops given to magazines, the location of the newspaper stand, the mix of stationery and how we package our services. As I mentioned in a post over the weekend, we are well served by habit based products. We are equally well served by products which enable us to add value in store such as copying, laminating, invitations and the like.

These considerations are opportunities for us to reinvent ourselves for these new times, just as Time is in the process of doing.

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Media regulation

Retail distribution for Dutch free daily newspaper

Metro Holland, a free daily newspaper will increase daily circulation to 535,000 from Jan. 22 by distributing in 224 supermarkets. Read more at the excellent Newspaper Innovation blog. This post made me consider how I would feel if MX or some other free daily used supermarkets to distribute here in Australia. I suspect it has been or is being considered. Free newspapers need traffic and I can’t imagine the publishers placing them in direct competition with high volume paid sales at newsagencies.

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Newsagency challenges

Powerball lottery sales slump

Powerball sales dropped by around 20% nationally in the second half of 2006.

Powerball, once the darling of Australian lottery games, is in trouble. Sales are falling across the country based on data I am seeing. Punters are migrating to OzLotto with sales of that game up by more than 50% – higher in some states. While it is hard to get a full national view, I have seen data from enough outlets to be confident in my assessment.

I am surprised by the extent of the Powerball sales fall since Thursday is a strong retail day and, for many, it’s still payday. However, since many are now paid electronically the payday view no longer holds.

If Powerball is to continue newsagents and other lottery retailers need to get behind the game and push it. Like any lottery product, it comes down to how well we sell the dream – across the counter, in posters and through in store offers such as syndicates. Arresting the sales slump ought to be a priority.

Lottery products are important to newsagents. 80% of the customers purchase out of habit. Enough buy other things to make them valuable to us beyond lotteries. We need to ensure that the habit is maintained and hence the need to support Powerball.

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Lotteries

Ghosts in magazines

laughter.JPGWe put some magazines in our returns trolley this morning and someone laughed at us. But there was no one else around – it was unnerving. It happened with the next bundle of magazines we put in. Someone was laughing at us! Investigation revealed that it was a magazine laughing at us – Dandy. Actually it was the free Desperate Dan’s Giggle Sack laughing when more magazines being returned were placed on it in the trolley.

For a moment there we thought we were going mad.

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magazines

Selling magazines

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The top third of a magazine cover is crucial to sales in newsagencies. Traditional magazine racking means that it is only on the flat stack that the full cover is seen. The eye level view is as shown in the photo above. I mention this today because of this week’s NW magazine.

NW-jan22.JPGTo my untrained eye the cover of NW this week seems incomplete – certainly compared to the other weeklies. It feels like a departure for the title, not as busy as usual. Others have commented so I’m not alone on this. Sales are the only measure which matters.

While NW does not have the volume of Woman’s Day and New Idea, it’s an important weekly title given the demographic it attracts.

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magazines

The fear of redundancy in a disrupted world

Newsagents may empathise for US Real Estate Agents and their concerns that they could become redundant if Zillow really takes off. Zillow allows home buyers to get rough valuations and access some services previously only available through real-estate agents. Liz Gannes at GigaOM last month reported on enhancements at Zillow which take their offering further:

Tonight, the company is announcing it will provide real estate agents and individuals tools to advertise a home for sale within the excellent Zillow map and home price estimator web interface. And, in a twist, home owners will also be able to attach a “Make Me Move” price to their homes as a casual way to explore putting their houses on the market. Everything continues to be free to users and supported by ads.

Zillow empowers consumers. Aggregators like real Estate Agents don’t like that. It happened in travel. Mainstream media companies rely on Real Estate Agents for advertising revenue. A Zillow type model in Australia could impact them as well as Real Estate Agents. The reality is that competition from a new model makes the incumbents improve their offering. Consumers win.

I am interested in Zillow on two fronts: We are offering better quality lower cost real estate ads at our Find It online classifieds site (in partnership with newsagents) to Real Estate Agents and individuals. Second, newsagents are experiencing the disruptions Real Estate Agents are worried about – the bypassing of their business by consumers who want a more direct relationship. This is what disruption is about.

My wish is that newsagents would engage in this discussion about their future and soon.

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Media disruption

Opportunity knocks for newsagents

Using habit based products to replace falling newspaper and magazine traffic in newsagencies.

Newspapers and magazines are less important to newsagents than ten years ago. Since they are available in more high traffic outlets and with sales flat and, in some cases, falling, they are not the traffic promise they used to be. Few newsagents have addressed this fall in traffic.

One answer newsagents could consider is habit based product categories. That is, products which bring people back for more. In our store we have focused on Art Supplies for two years. It has a healthy GP and builds a loyal habit based following.

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I like Art Supplies because they fit with our traditional mix of stationery and craft products. Also, we sell art magazines and if you put the two next to each other both benefit. Newsagents can buy their Art Supplies from their usual wholesaler or an Art Supplies specialist like Mega Shed – his is what we do.

There are other habit based categories newsagents could consider to build GP and lock in loyalty as traffic from other categories falls. These include:

Second hand books – out of left field but think about it, people buy / rent these because they are avid readers. This means they will, come back and back. The key would be to do it right and not bring your shop down.

Puzzles and jigsaws – these fit with crossword magazines; scrapbook products. Some newsagents do well in this space.

Ink and toner – sits with stationery. Again, some newsagents are doing well in this space.

Collectibles – say, small bears which you collect over a year.

These are just a few ideas in the habit based area. Our experiment with free WiFi is another example of what could be habit based – depending on those who use it.

Newsagents must start to evolve their retail businesses to address changing consumer habits. This is a wonderful opportunity to embrace change. Habit based products are a good fit. The challenges are to bring in good GP product and to do this in such a way as to not shock existing customers yet to ensure that new prospects are attracted.

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magazines

Cloth Dolls & Bears – the magazine that never dies

cloth-dolls-bears.JPGWhen Vaughan Lawrence of Beechworth Newsagency told me of how shabbily his business had been treated by NDD in relation to Cloth Dolls & Bears I knew I had to check my situation. Sure enough, we have received the same issue six times over the last two years. I stress, the same issue six times over the last two years. It’s total sell through rate is 45%. The title loses $20.00 net a year for us. While the loss is not much, NDD would know the title is a failure yet they continue to send it to us and other newsagents, milking our cash.

I will write to the ACCC about this title as it offers further hard evidence of unconscionable conduct by NDD toward newsagents.

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magazines

Keno lottery sales success

We setup a 10 share @ $10 a share Keno syndicate yesterday since the spot 10 prize was over $1 million. We considered it a risk since we had to sell all shares in the day. We sold our in 90 minutes. One employee sold nine shares – way to go Shaun. It is a lesson up selling from our newest employee. It also highlights the challenge of keeping long term employees fresh and focused on the need to offer over the counter as well as process the sales brought to the counter.

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Lotteries

Newsagents support philanthropy through online classifieds

This is a poster we have emailed today to newsagents partnering in our Find It online classifieds business We’re asking them to print the poster and stick it on their window – after cutting between the tear off strips at the bottom.

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Windows campaigns for the various Find It categories have been successful over the last three months. This latest poster connects with the philanthropic side of Find It – more than 60% of our categories will be free even after we start charging.

Click the image to download a PDF of the poster for yourself. You’re welcome to place it anywhere. You can read more about our views on philanthropy at the Find It blog.

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Online classifieds

Christmas is soooo yesterday

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Here are five Christmas themed puzzle magazines which arrived at our newsagency and I am sure thousands of others yesterday. We have not even put them on the shelves as they would make our business look out of date. This is yet another example of a magazine distributor having little regard for their newsagent partners.

It also highlights the broken magazine distribution model in Australia. Government policy in part created this problem and they have washed their hands of the mess for small business they created.

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marketing
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