I have noticed that Avant Card is distributing magazines to cafes in Melbourne for reading by customers. I know of a couple of newsagencies who have lost sales as a result. I cannot see why a publisher would consider this good for their business.
Great to see Pacific Magazines donating 10 cents from every copy of New Idea sold this week to Steve and Terri Irwin’s Wildlife Warriors organisation. We made a similar donation from New Idea sales two weeks ago and customer reaction was very positive. Thanks to excellent point of sale material we have been able to use our now trademark roadblock strategy to get New Idea in front of customers this week.
I suspect that the 10 cent a copy donation will not, of itself, sell extra copies and I expect Pacific would know that. This makes the gesture more genuine. We’re certainly letting our customers know about the donation.
We are also using the roadblock strategy to support Woman’s Day and Australian Woman’s Weekly with their Steve Irwin tribute issues. A lack of point of sale material for Woman’s Day (we get 1 poster compared to 6 for New Idea) means we cannot be as bold as we would like.
Some excellent material for Women’s Weekly has enabled us to also create a bold aisle end display. Most newsagents will create bold Women’s Weekly displays this week thanks to the supporting materials from ACP Magazines.
Newsagent support for these special editions is proof of our value to magazine publishers. I have been to three supermarkets and two convenience outlets today and none has a feature display for these magazines. They have stock in the usual slots as if it is a regular week. In some of these outlets New Idea, Woman’s Day and Women’s Weekly will only sell because customers have already seen bold displays in newsagencies.
Susan Murray, General Manager of the National Breast Cancer Foundation, has written to newsagents and apologised for not advising them sooner of the NBCF decision to sack newsagents as their retail partners for the Pink Ribbon awareness and fund raising magazine in favour of Woolworths.
In her letter to newsagents, Murray says, in part, “thanks largely to newsagent support, we have raised over $500,000 from the sale of just four Pink Ribbon magazines”. Not only this, but newsagent support has also raised over $500,000 from the sale of Pink Ribbons, pins, bands and other merchandise supporting the NBCF. This takes the total raised via newsagents to over $1 million.
The letter then goes on to try and justify why the NBCF decided to sack newsagents and replace them with Woolworths: “In summary, by attaching to the AWW we are able to increase the distribution of the magazine from 30,000 to a total of 160,000, therefore giving us the opportunity to quadruple the amount of people who will be able to get access to the magazine. Not only this, but any financial risks associated with publishing the magazine have also been reduced due to the fact that production costs no longer sit with the NBCF. This is an opportunity that we could not pass up, as our mission is to raise funds for research and to build awareness among as many women in Australia of the issues surrounding the disease.”
If the deal is so good the NBCF ought to publish the financial data.
Woolworths is a public company and as such its core business focus is its share price. The deal putting the Pink Ribbon magazine into its stores is, in my view, about buying social responsibility and this is good for profit and the share price.
Unfortunately, many charities now focus more on corporate deals than gaining support from individuals.
Here’s what I wrote to the NBCF today:
I refer to the September 21 letter from Sue Murray to newsagents published last week.
I am disappointed by your financially expedient decision and that you have rejected the more socially responsible decision.
By sacking newsagents as your retail partners you have told us we are not relevant. You have told the Australian community we are not relevant. You tell the Australian community that getting your magazine, even as a tip on, into supermarkets is more important than independently owned small business newsagencies.
Consider, for a moment, the retail experience in supermarkets. Roger Corbett’s TV ads do not reflect the reality of shopping in Woolworths. Rarely are you greeted with a smile and rarely is the experience pleasurable. Magazines are lowly rated product by supermarket management. They are at the checkout to help customers pass time. Rarely are the displays professional.
In a newsagency, on the other hand, you get conversation, a smile and local knowledge. Newsagents are magazine specialists. We cater to a diverse congregation. Newsagents provide a local community connect which supermarkets ignore.
Your refusal to distribute your magazine through newsagents says that you do not consider us magazine specialists. By partnering with Woolworths you are saying big business is more important than a community business.
As a charitable foundation your focus ought to be on the community and how you can more successfully engage with them to raise awareness and raise funds. Newsagents provide a better opportunity for such engagement than a supermarket checkout counter.
If the NBCF wanted deeper engagement with individuals and needed to boost fund raising then they ought to have undertaken some focus group research with newsagents. I am certain that newsagents would be happy to more effectively use their community connect to support charities like NBCF. Until now the NBCF relationship has been one of magazine publisher. They could have re-engaged as a social/community partner and achieved far more than getting their magazines at a Woolworths checkout.
While in the Federal Government owned Australia Post retail outlet yesterday I saw first hand how Australia Post is abusing the Act under which they operate, the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989. I was there to conduct postal business which I can only conduct at Australia Post. The queue was long with nine people in front of me and four at the counter being served. Of these four, one was getting help on a shredder they purchased from Australia Post, another was asking for help with choosing a printer, another was trying to sort out which ink cartridge to buy and the fourth was buying greeting cards. Here is what the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 says about the provision of these “incidental†services:
16 Functions—incidental businesses and activities
(1) The functions of Australia Post include the carrying on, within or
outside Australia, of any business or activity that is incidental to:(a) the supplying of postal services under section 14; or
(b) the carrying on of any business or activity under section 15.
(2) Without limiting subsection (1), the functions of Australia Post
include the carrying on, within or outside Australia, of any
business or activity that is capable of being conveniently carried
on:(a) by the use of resources that are not immediately required in
carrying out Australia Post’s principal or subsidiary function;or
(b) in the course of:
(i) supplying postal services under section 14; or
(ii) carrying on any business or activity under section 15.
Including the four at the counter, there were thirteen customers in front of me. Only one was there to conduct postal service business from what I could see. This makes a mockery of the Act. Australia Post and the Government, its sole shareholder, are Abusing the Act to take business from newsagents.
Federal Parliament passed the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 behind which Australia Post hides so it is up to Parliament to decide if they want the economic harm being wreaked on small businesses like newsagents by Australia Post to continue.
The Government has demonstrated disinterest through several ministers. Only the Greens through Senator Bob Brown and the Democrats through Senator Andrew Murray have demonstrated concern for how much Australia Post is encroaching on the business of newsagents.
The Act is where this problem begins and ends and only parliamentarians can solve that. Whether they do or not will be a test of their interest in small business.
The professionally printed sign on display at the Federal Government owned Australia Post store was an invitation I could not refuse:
Mobile phones freeze our computers. Please switch off.
After waiting in line for ten minutes the temptation was too much so I called someone on my mobile. It didn’t seem to freeze their computers. Mobile phones do not freeze computers in my newsagency or any other newsagency I know of.
I found this on the floor of my newsagency this morning. It’s evidence of how newspaper customers react to these post it ads The Age is running on their masthead.
Advertisers need to be made aware that customers rip the ads off and trash shops and the street with these ads. This is not a good look for the advertiser. The newspaper is in the clear because the customer keeps that – the advertiser is seen to be the cause of the problem.
Newsagents are frustrated. Customers are frustrated. Is anyone listening?
There are many Asian newsagents now in Australia yet my software company is the only newsagent supplier I know of with consistent Cantonese and Mandarin assistance. Such language support is crucial from more industry suppliers and associations if we are to help Asian newsagents better assimilate and carry on the traditions of newsagents in their communities.
The Age again yesterday took money to defile their masthead. They stuck a gaudy Primis Telecom post it ad on the masthead. They also gave newsagents boxes of Primus Internet Phone Trial packs to hand out with the newspaper. This was hard slog in my shop. Less than 10% of the customers accepted the starter kits. Others were annoyed at the intrusion. Many had questions – “what’s an Internet phoneâ€, “who is Primusâ€, and, “can I use this without a computerâ€.
As is happening with these stuck on masthead campaigns customers ripped the ad off and left it at the counter for us to trash.
While I welcome the 10 cents paid by The Age to hand out the starter kits, the payment did not cover for the counter time lost explaining the offer to customers. Folks at The Age need to spend time behind newsagency counters and experience the mechanics of these campaigns themselves.
The best place to find customers for an Internet Phone offering is online. Chasing customers offline at a newsagency when someone is buying a newspaper is asking for questions and frustration from all involved.
This is an extensive campaign by Primus. The Age website also ran a banner ad today:
This was placed in the right top corner of their site. Then, repeating the intrusion on the front page of the newspaper, defiling the masthead, they whacked a pop-up:
I hate this type of advertising on websites, especially news sites as it reminds me that the publisher deems the advertiser more important than the consumer.
Given the money Primus were throwing at their Internet Phone Trial, I would have preferred to see them engage with my customers through more of an educational campaign – maybe a DVD for them to play which explains what it’s all about. Handing out some software, earpieces and a microphone, in my case at least, was putting the cart before the horse.
I’ll leave the last comment to one old bloke – “nah, mate, I’ll wait until they give me a computer with paper before I want one of thoseâ€.
Stand up Online is a soon to launch place for comedians and would-be comedians to strut their stuff. Free. Videos, sound files and scripts of comedy routines can be loaded for viewing and voting. Comedians can also list gigs and contact details.
The site launches in a few weeks and is in need of content. If you know someone funny this is their opportunity to star. Stand up Online is a great way for comedians to get noticed and gain a following.
A feature of the site is taking the piss – a place where we uphold the Aussie tradition of takin the piss out off someone with a high profile. It’s our intention that takin the piss routines are good humored and not vicious. One way we Aussies show our respect for someone and their achievements is to take the piss. All through development of Stand up Online Steve Irwin was the first takin the piss character. As a result of Steve’s untimely passing we are launching with Mel Gibson.
Social media is hot right now with sites such as YouTube, MySpace, Second Life, Flickr, leading online traffic across a range of key demographics. Australia is yet to have a big hit in the social media stakes.
TV Viewing and online traffic data tells us that more and more people are enjoying consumer generated content. Stand up Online is all about that – anyone who think they are funny can get a go at our microphone. Who knows, we could find a star? Along the way we’re sure to have plenty of laughs and that’s what Stand up Online is about, laughing. Our tag line, demand almost, is make us laugh.
We’re independent – not connected with any comedy venue, radio station or artist management – and we’re serious about voting – allowing just one vote per IP address or per logged in person per IP address.
Here’s the call to action: if you know someone who is funny or at least thinks they are funny, tape them doing a brief (5 minutes) routine and load it on the site. Who knows, they could be the next big thing!
Stand up Online is part of our Find It online classifieds offering which we are launching in partnership with newsagents. (See a map of our newsagent network here.) Stand up Online and two other yet to launch social media offerings form part of the traffic generating strategy for Find It. We see online classifieds as social and therefore consider it appropriate that we have social media offerings connected with Find It. Find It is currently in pre-beta and will commercially launch early in 2007 – all ads are currently free.
We were proud yesterday to participate in a tribute to Steve Irwin yesterday along with 91 other newsXpress stores. Employees wore khaki or a khaki ribbon and raised money for Steve’s Wildlife Warriors.
I’ve always considered personal expression something best done by a greeting card. Okay, I’m outside the text mad demographic which our phone companies but, but I thought that for sending a birthday, congratulations or sympathy message a greeting card was the most appropriate medium. You can’t display a mobile phone or a computer screen on your mantelpiece after all.
I guess it is my ignorance which leads me to be surprised at how structured the online greetings business is. I have known about e-cards and the like for years but to find established greeting card companies so dominant in the text space is a surprise. Take American Greetings – they have a comprehensive mobile offering through their AG Interactive subsidiary. Their bold pitch is:
The international leader in personal expression content and solutions for the digital arena.
They cleverly attract the 18-24 demographic through a ring-tones business.
This is on my mind today because of data I have seen which underscores the importance of greeting cards to an average newsagency. It shows that more than half greeting card purchases in newsagencies are planned. That is, these consumers visit a newsagency with the purpose of purchasing a greeting card. Often, they purchase multiple.
If (when) consumers transition to communicating sentiments electronically as opposed to by greeting card then a pillar of a traditional newsagency suffers. Given the cross category dependence of newsagencies the impact on many would be significant. To slow such impact Australian newsagents and their greeting card suppliers ought to regularly invest in advertising to remind people about the pleasure sending and receiving greeting cards brings. Otherwise the success of the category will fade with the age of the population. While newsagents will consider this the such investment an obligation of their suppliers, they are wrong. Newsagents need to be financial stakeholders in any profile building campaign.
To help newsagents evaluate an alternative to POS Solutions’ DOS and Browser software, we are hosting comprehensive briefing sessions in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. We will have representatives from our development, support, customer service and sales teams on hand to answer all questions and outline a roadmap for newsagents wanting to tap into the Tower Systems experience for their newsagency.
We are running the session in response to requests from many POS Solutions users and with the encouragement of the many who have switched in the last year – some of whom will attend to answer questions.
We have three dates booked:
Melbourne. Tuesday, October 3. 11 am.
Brisbane. Wednesday, October 4. 11 am.
Sydney. Thursday, October 5. 11 am.
Propsective attendees can book by faxing their details to 03 9524 8099 or emailing bookings@towersystems.com.au.
There are plenty of eBay billboards appearing around Melbourne (and other cities I suspect). I photographed this one on the busy corner of Warrigal and Waverley Roads. Time was I used to think of eBay as the place for ticket scalpers and garage sales product vendors. Now they are pitching aggressively for the vehicle space with this eBay Motors campaign.
This campaign significantly broadens the eBay appeal. I suspect it is their move to extend turf prior to the arrival of Trade Me in Australia.
Check out this fascinating blog post from Agent FareEvader about his frustration with the train enthusiast magazines being located next to what he calls “hardcore, plastic-wrapped pornography”. He wonders at the reason: is it a large practical joke at the hands of the national newsagent’s licensing board to make train nuts look like bigger perverts than they might or might not already be?”
Good on Agent FareEvader for his commitment to train magazines. We need more like him.
Mobile is the medium of the future. Certainly News Corp. thinks so having just announced agreement to pay US$188 million for a 51% stake in Jamba. Everything points to this being a smart move. It directly connects News with the generation shunning newspapers and, to a lesser extent, television. When considered with Mobizzo and MySpace it reinforces their investment in the medium and the generation.
Rupert Murdoch is showing that he knows the hot content market. Digital World Tokyo claims claim that there are more mobile users than wired in Japan. Mobile is hot in Australia too – just look at how often mobile devices and connections are being advertised in more traditional media.
We are witnessing a gold rush of a new era.
The National Breast Cancer Foundation has decided to switch to Woolworths for retail distribution of their Pink Ribbon Magazine. Newsagents have happily handled the awareness and fund raising title for years. The switch to Woolworths is unfortunate is it reinforces the might of this impersonal profit focused retail giant. It also suggests a fading relevance of newsagents as the magazine specialists in the minds of all those involved in the decision and, it disrespects the work newsagents have done for breast cancer fund raising over many years.
There is not a week goes by that newsagents are not offering a badge, ribbon or other small gift in return for a charity donation. Their efforts for the Pink Ribbon program, through greeting cards, branded stationery and the magazine has raised plenty of money. Along the way newsagents have raised awareness because of their personal engagement with customers. This won’t happen at a supermarket checkout. The Breast Cancer Foundation has done their image a disservice by shunning the community newsagency. I suspect that supermarkets want the Pink Ribbon Magazine because it buys much needed social responsibility kudos.
More and more newsagents are using eBay to find new customers for stationery and circulation product. It is only in the last few days that I have become aware of at least fifteen newsagents using eBay to successfully move stock for better margin than in their retail stores. We have been doing this through our Inkfast online ink and toner business which we have advertised through Google, Yahoo and BidSmart over the last year. Now, connecting with the ‘eBay newsagents’, we are comparing notes on the costs of acquiring these online customers. It’s a fascinating new development. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, only a fraction of the channel will ever play online.
New Idea sold out this morning in our shop. What is interesting is that the slump in sales for Woman’s Day earlier in the week was corrected Wednesday and Thursday with above average sales – sales for the week will be on track. I think this demonstrates strong brand loyalty for Woman’s Day and that features like the Steve Irwin cover on New Idea boosted overall magazine sales this week.
With PowerBall not going off last night and now worth $12 million next Thursday and OzLotto jackpotting to $6 million next Tuesday the sales dynamic in newsagencies will be altered for a few days. While it’s hard to plan for these things we have to find a way to tap into the extra traffic with appropriate add on sales while ensuring that existing would be magazine customers, especially, do not give up their magazine dollars for a lottery ticket.
In an average week, all games combined, no more than $10 million is in play. Already this week, including the Saturday superdraw of $22 million, $40 million is in play. That must affect the sales for other products.
Motorsport News, Auto Action and The Bulletin have been quick to market with Peter Brock memorial editions. It is great to see such a fast and thorough response to what is a huge story. The Motorsport News coverage is particularly good.
Displaying all three magazines next to each other demonstrates the depth of range a newsagency offers compared to other outlets. We have done this right next to our newspaper stand.
Car related magazines are doing it tough thanks to pressure from online news and review websites. I am seeing same store data suggesting falls, across the category, or between 10% and 25% year on year. Monthlies are carrying the bulk of the falls. Anything publishers can do to build relevance of the titles will be welcomed by newsagents.
“Mobile could be the greatest media vehicle ever created, greater than even television. †News Corp. COO Peter Chernin speaking at the CTIA Wireless 2006 Conference earlier this week as quoted at Paid Content.
As I keep saying – newsagents need to invest in future relevance just as our suppliers like News Corp. are doing today. It makes no sense to invest capital in a newsagency to do more of what we do today because tomorrow it will be less relevant.
As a result of the theft of a newspaper insert discovered a couple of weeks ago we realigned our newspaper stand to create a better view for our counter team. The stand was pivoted 45 degrees from that shown in the photo – more front on as people enter the shop. The result is a measurable increase in sales of the Trading Post.
This sales kick for the Trading Post from such a small move reminded me of the challenges of retail and newsagencies in particular. We have so many items and only limited space to get in front of people. Newsagencies are bright thanks to the colour of magazines, greeting cards and lottery posters. There is a ton of ‘noise’ in store. We cannot move everything we want to promote in the way we have the newspaper stand.
I wonder whether newsagencies are too ‘noisy’. For example, would a visually calmer shop sell more compared to the traditional ‘noisy’ shop? Are we, newsagents, hurting ourselves by bold lottery, newspaper and magazine displays at the front of the shop? Is this the reason stationery sales in newsagencies are down? Are our shops too full of promotional displays, posters, dump bins, signs, magazine posters etc. for them to be effective?
Suppliers want to get into newsagencies to tap into our traffic. Tapping into our traffic means making major noise. Customers can only give so much attention so each new display takes a slice of a finite pie.
Maybe it is time to start with a fresh canvas. Some already have in the magazine space, mag nation, for one, is a model many are watching and talking about.
My recent experience with the Trading Post suggests it is time to redraw the layout and display strategy for my shop.
I continue to be amazed at the feedback I receive from visitors to this blog, especially those contemplating buying a newsagency. While the industry, through associations and suppliers, provides access to data, it is challenging for prospective purchasers to play in a newsagency to see if it is for them. To this end ,we have decided to make our newsagency in Victoria available, within reason, for behind the counter and back room experience. The first step is a walk through the business after hours to explain aspects of its operation common to all newsagencies. We are not doing this to sell you anything. The idea came out of a suggestion put to me by a reader here – a request for time behind the scenes in a newsagency to see if it is the type of business they would be comfortable owning. If you are considering buying a newsagency and the walk through is of interest please email me at mark@towersystems.com.au.
This video of what one couple saw on September 11, 2006 puts the citizen journalism movement into perspective and demonstrates how disruptive social media can be to mainstream media. While our TVs have been busy these past few days with slick content commemorating, analysing and dramatising (as if it needs to be) the events in the United States, Bob and Bri have released their home video of what they saw 36 floors up from their apartment near the World Trade Centre. The video is amazing. Raw. Unnerving. Shocking. Compelling.
With so many outlets now available online for user generated content newspapers, TV networks and magazines are challenged to keep up. Traffic to sites such as YouTube, revver and others is proof that people enjoy unfiltered material.
Source: Digg.
New Idea, featuring Steve Irwin, sold more than twice the usual Tuesday number in our shop. Woman’s Day was down 33% suggesting that discretionary purchasers made the choice for New Idea. It is not uncommon, however, for people to buy a magazine for the cover today and shift their regular purchase to later in the week. We’ll see how the numbers stack up by the end of the week.
It’s likely our success with New Idea is unique because of our commitment to give 5% of the cover price to Steve Irwin’s charity.