Author: Mark Fletcher

From the other side of the street it looked as if a Balaclava newsagency ended the year by closing. I go past it every day on the way to get the best coffee in Melbourne (Gattica) and noticed this morning that the window was covered over with old newspapers. My assumption was wrong. The sign on the door advises that they have closed for a week to remodel. Newsagencies never close to remodel given the daily nature of their products so the move is odd.

While I will reserve my judgment on the value of the closure once I see what they open with, the result will have to be stunning given they have a bigger and better located competitor 150 metres away.

We’ve had an amazing three days trade Dec. 26 through Dec. 28. All departments are showing excellent growth over last year but none more so that lotteries. Our sales are up 109% on last year. There is no major difference as there was a superdraw last year as well. Our sales were already good so the 109% increase is fantastic. In the magazine department, over the same three days, Women’s Weeklies are up 27%; Sport up 67% (on the back of Shane Warne coverage); Men’s Titles up 43%; Crafts up 50%; Computers up 47% and Children’s up 79%. Motor titles are down 10% and Buying and Selling down 71%. Newspapers are down 8% in the same period.

We’re putting the growth down to people not going away this year in the numbers of last year. Of course it would be great if the growth is sustained through the year – we’ll have to wait to see if that is the case.

The Industrial Court of NSW has ruled this afternoon that the temporary injunction granted to a newsagent last week stopping the take over of their newspaper distribution territory by a publisher is to remain in place until the parties have participated in mediation. I am told that the newsagent sought mediation with the publisher prior to today’s ruling and was rejected by the publisher. My previous posts on this matter can be found here.

Today’s ruling and those leading up to it are a blow to the publisher who was using what I’d label a vague provision in its newsagent contract to take over a business for no compensation. The contracts have been contentious since they were introduced in 1999 following the deregulation by the Federal Government of newspaper distribution in Australia.

The matter before the Industrial Court of NSW is a test case and newsagents will watch the outcome closely. It will set a benchmark as to when and how a publisher can take the newspaper distribution business from a newsagent.

The court mandated mediation will be most interesting.

Magazine sales were very strong in my newsagency this Christmas – double digit growth in the three weeks to Christmas Day. The main kick was in Women’s Interest, Crossword, Special Interest and Sports titles. Looking deeper, it’s in titles where newsagents do not have a competitor. Balancing the growth was a significant fall in computer, motoring and teen magazines.

Merry Christmas and thanks Fairfax. More than 75% of calls at my software company this week have been from newsagents asking how to handle bumper editions for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review. Fairfax didn’t tell us about the bumper editions – they rarely do. We found out from newsagents last week, did further research and published an advice sheet by mail, fax, email and on our website. Because of the time of the year and lack of forward advice from Fairfax, newsagents are calling us with many questions. It’s frustrating being hammered with hundreds of calls every day this week for something which has nothing to do with us. The software handles it beautifully if our simple point-form instructions.

In their post, Goodbye Supanews and a big F*&% YOU!, bunz ba nunz blogs about being dumped by Supanews along with, reportedly, another seven Supanews employees. The blog post is a reminder to all employers that blogging empowers anyone, including employees and former employees, to publish anything. I found the post through a Google search.