Our promotion of the launch issue of Maxim magazine has gone well. We ordered extra stock as we are almost out of stock. The Jennifer Hawkins cover was a smart move. It certainly makes the magazine more accessible than the usual lads mag. The most successful promotion for us for launching Maxim has been with the in-location display in the men’s magazine aisle as shown in the photo. This is located near Zoo on one side and UFC on the other side.
Australian magazine publishers who care about a viable newsagency channel through which to see their products need to act to ensure the viability of the channel.
The supply model being employed by our two biggest magazine distributors, Gotch and Network, is showing no signs of improving – despite the spin from both companies.
Oversupply remains rife, hitting newsagent cash flow and driving newsagents to react sometimes without reason against good performing magazine titles.
The problem with the model is that distributors are primarily paid to distribute, despite what they claim. Move them to a payment only for sales model and their behaviour would immediately change. Indeed with such a model all players would be compensated for the same common activity – sales.
Magazine distributors manipulate statistics, they wear complainants out with data and demonstrate little care about the amount of money made by their other so-called partners. Now they will say that I am wrong and that my allegation is unfair and hurtful. They are not in newsagent shoes. Nor are the in the shows of independent Australian publishers. They are in no position to assess the impact of their model on newsagents who rely solely on sales for magazines to pay their way.
Newsagents are cutting magazine display space because they see this as they only way then can control the volume of inventory they receive. This could get to a point where the magazine specialist channel is no longer the specialist.
Unless publishers act.
Australian publishers have an opportunity here to work with newsagents on fixing the distribution problems. Get these two sides with a common goal, sales, together and we can tell distributors what must be done.
This blog post is familiar as It have written words like this many times. I have done it again today because of a call from another distressed newsagent. Yesterday. $32,000 in magazine sales last month and magazine bills of $33,000. So much for a 25% margin.
I was fortunate to be at the launch of the new feast magazine in Sydney last night. This high end SBS branded title from Pacific Magazines is a deliciously sexy looking food title.
Feast is set to shake up the top end of food titles. With so many having gone on a journey with food titles from the entry level to mid tier, more shoppers are looking for a five star foodie challenge. Feast looks to be the title to step up to this opportunity. The food on the pages looks delicious. The stories are passionate. The production is first class.
I am keen to support this new title and leverage the marketing campaign being invested in the launch – I hope that other newsagents do when the title hits the shelves this Monday.
Food titles continue to perform well in newsagencies with many of us achieving excellent growth in the last quarter in this space. Feast can help us cater to a broader market and continue the growth we are enjoying.
This book had not sold during our recent book sale. We had six copies left. We sold five of the six copies in just over a week when we put it on this acrylic stand, lifting it out of the books display and giving it a moment in the sunshine.
It is amazing what such a simple change in placement could do for sales of the title … a reminder of the need for use to dig for gold every day.
We are promoting the latest issue of Melbourne Wedding & Bride magazine with this display on a pillar facing into the store. This location works well given the size and weight of the title.
Early sales have been good. This is a popular title.
The gold background for the top part of the display makes it more noticeable – an attractive and practical touch. Our price pitch above the display also helps since $6.95 for such a big product reinforces a perception of value.
The display is timely as we are moving toward wedding season. Our plan is to leave it up for a week, maybe two.
This display is an example of us supporting a title which would not usually be given prime space in a newsagency. Our preference is to display titles which respond well to support. It is important that we have the opportunity to make such display choices.
We are giving Time magazine a week in the spotlight with this in-location display promoting the special journey issue on Islam.
While not a big seller for us, this display is important as it reminds shoppers of the diversity of titles we carry. It also presents an opportunity for impulse purchase because of the subject matter.
In-location displays are a key factor in our magazine sales success. We continue to swim against the tide and achieve year on year growth.
The GNS Market Fairs start this weekend with the Perth Market Fair on Sunday at Challenge Stadium in Mt Claremont. These trade shows provide an excellent opportunity for newsagents to engage with suppliers who support the channel.
You can see the suppliers supporting the GNS Market Fairs if you turn to the back page of the latest GNS Group News newsletter – the July 2011 issue. There, on the back page, are the logos of newsagent suppliers supporting the GNS Market Fairs and through this GNS and the newsagency channel more widely.
Newsagents can reasonably question the support of stationery, marketing group and software companies not supporting newsagents by supporting the GNS Market Fairs.
GNS is owned by newsagents. This is our company. It depends on newsagent and supplier support. This is why it is important for newsagents to know which suppliers support GNS and through this support the millions of dollars of newsagent funds invested in GNS.
Newsagents who want a strong newsagent owned stationery wholesaler should question dealing with stationery suppliers, marketing groups and software companies which do not support GNS. You can’t have one without the other. GNS relies not only on newsagent purchases but supplier support in other ways – such as at the GNS Market Fairs.
So, check out the back page of the GNS Group News newsletter and note the suppliers supporting the Australian newsagent channel through the GNS Market Fairs. Better still, come along to the Fair in your state.
For the record, I own newsagent software Tower Systems which currently serves 1,752 newsagents and half of newsXpress which serves more than 170 newsagents. Both companies are thrilled to be participating in all GNS Market Fairs this year.
So, yes, I am conflicted in writing about this. However, every supplier has had an opportunity to support GNS and newsagents more broadly.
Newsagents want to be treated as a channel. They (we) want to leverage the strength of numbers. A great rallying place for this is GNS. This is why supplier support for GNS and the Market Fairs is a fair point of judgment for stationery suppliers, marketing groups and marketing groups.
Our sales of the latest issue of Donna Hay Kid’s Magazine have not been what we expected so we have moved the title from our counter display and created a new display on a cover of one of our gift tables. Click on the image for a larger version. This display will be seen by more shoppers as they enter the store. It provides a better view of the terrific cover.
It is frustrating when a display fails to pop. rather than blame the product, we try and give it a second go in another location to see if we can find business elsewhere. that’s what we are doing with this issue of Donna Hay Kid’s Magazine. This display has until Monday to pay its way. Otherwise we move the this stock back to the other stock in the feed title section.
Check out the cover of the latest issue of Girlfriend magazine. Talk about cut through. This cover featuring Lady Gaga stands our perfectly amid the sea of colour on magazine shelves in newsagencies.
This is the kind of cover and marketing collateral I like. Different to the usual. Shoppers don’t notice some magazine posters because of the sameness.
Kudos to those involved in Girlfriend magazine this month.
We are promoting the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly with this display at the entrance to our main magazine aisle along with placement next to newspapers as well as an impulse pocket in a stand at the front of the shop facing into the mall.
Most of that activity will be pulled back after the weekend.
It’s really these first few days which are vital to attracting incremental business. What happens after the first week is regular, bankable, business for us.
It took less than a week for us to just about sell out of our new range of Super Mario plush … offering more evidence of the value of selling popular brand related products. What an excellent result! What was most interesting about this small range is the new traffic it drew. It was on a display facing out into the shopping mall. People walking past noticed and approached the display. Once they picked up an item you had them in most cases. The shoppers most often drawn to the Super Mario product were Gen X – players of the game.
I was uncertain about this product. It has sold much better (faster) than I expected. Once again there is the lesson – I am not my customer.
The latest issue of Burke’s Backyard is being promoted with this aisle end display facing out toward the front of our newsagency. We also have the title as a feature in our garden section. Our team, creative as ever, have given the display extra treatment to give us a slightly different look to the usual one sees in a newsagency.Key to this display and all successful magazine displays is that shoppers can purchase off the display.
GNS is promoting excellent packs of the Scotch Christmas Giftwrap Cutter and Giftwrap Tape to newsagents at the moment. The prices are excellent with bonus stock a clipstrips for easy tactical placement. I’d urge newsagents to get these products. I have been selling them in my newsagencies for five years and they sell very well at Christmas. It is terrific seeing a shopper add a couple of rolls of tape and a giftwrap cutter to a purchase on impulse at the counter.
The GNS discount offers end July 31. If you buy now you can easily achieve 50% margin.
And before anyone asks, GNS has not asked me to promote it. I saw the flyer sent to one of my stores a couple of days ago.
Newsagents would be mad to miss out on the opportunity for some easy stationery basket building.
Congratulations to the ANF for excellent coverage last weekend in five major newspapers on their fight on behalf of all newsagents on the new EFTPOS fees which are set to take effect in a few months.
The effort invested in getting this coverage for newsagents would have been considerable. It is a good example of the ANF working on behalf of all newsagents.
Click on the image to see the Sunday Telegraph coverage from page 3 of the newspaper this past Sunday. This is a good example of the coverage the ANF has achieved on this issue right across the country.
Part of the problem with the EFTPOS issue is that it is complex to understand. It also has rich businesses (banks) on the other side engaged in an excellent spin campaign.
Sadly, too few politicians are prepared to do the work necessary to understand the impact about to it small businesses as a result of the new EFTPOS fee hike. Hopefully, the latest ANF led coverage in newspapers will result in fresh attention on the issue.
Further to my last post, we also have a stack of this week’s Woman’s Day with the Murdoch family on the cover placed next to the Herald Sun. It’s a news related cover so this placement makes sense. We are selling copies from here – that’s the goal! We’re likely to take this placement down by the end of today.
It is not often that we can place Woman’s Day and Time next to each other but that’s what we have done this week. Kudos to the folks at Woman’s Day for leveraging the News International phone hacking scandal into a topical and interesting front cover. I hope that newsagents have embraced the opportunity.
We are promoting the latest K-Zone magazine with the hope of a sales lift as a result of the Justin Bieber cover. Kids magazines are challenged so we are hoping that Bieber’s popularity, particularly in our newsagency as proved with sales all this year of Bieber products, can translate into sales for K-Zone. We have the title in a couple of locations to leverage this opportunity. I hope that newsagents have embraced the K-Zone magazine opportunity and placed where Bieber fans are likely to see it..
Click here to see a story on A Current Affair last night about the EFTPOS fee hike facing newsagents and other retailers. This story came about as a result of excellent work on this issue by the ANF.
I have been calling on newsagents to get onto this issue, lobbying parliamentarians and the like. It is not too late.
Kudos to the publisher of Adelaide Hills magazine for tweeting that the latest issue of the magazine is now available from newsagents. Supporting newsagents in this way, in any way, when promoting a magazine is terrific to see.
With 2,200 followers receiving their @AdelHillsMag tweets, using Twitter in this way is cost effective and smart for the publisher. Twitter connected newsagents should / will re tweet, getting the message of the latest issue even further coverage.
Twitter is becoming more valuable to businesses for promoting directly to those interested in their products and services. I’d encourage newsagents to engage. It’s easy to sign up and free. Besides your followers, people find your tweets based on what you write and how you tag your tweet.
Check out this video showing how LCD screens customer displays can be used in a newsagency to promote phone recharge before, during and after a sale.
Tower Systems POS Customer Display from mark fletcher on Vimeo.
This video was shop on an iPhone in a newsagency in Queensland last week.
We have been trialling this at a couple of my newsagencies. there is no doubt that consistent and professional point of purchase promotion drives impulse purchases for certain types of items.
We have refreshed the Harry Potter display, replacing the large format Lord Voldemort poster with this one featuring Harry Potter.
It is terrific having such a dramatic display behind the counter. It offers a point of difference we like to go for with these displays. It also engages customers and gives a clear message to pitch from this high traffic position.
The Herald Sun promotion is popular, a very nice post school holidays kick for newspaper sales and traffic in general.
We have been promoting the Dolly magazine and the Miley Cyrus one-store with this front of store display facing into the shopping mall. Sales are okay but not what we need from such a valuable location. I think that part of the challenge for magazines aimed at teen girls is the amount of shopping they now do online. As their socialising has moved online so has their entertainment and shopping. We and publishers need to find a new a relevant way to engage with these shoppers.
I was in Adelaide over the weekend and heard first hand of the concern among newsagents about the decision by the South Australian state government to privatise SA Lotteries.
Lottery products play an important role in newsagencies in South Australia. While I am no economic expert, I can see no reason for the state government to sell off the lucrative gambling licence other than to get a short term financial benefit.
Even if the government negotiates five years of protection for current retail outlets as part of a sale, as happened in NSW, this sets a clock ticking for newsagents. It impacts goodwill.
Before the government signs any contract, it needs to assess the economic impact on newsagents, their employees and the communities in which the serve of the possible decision. Such an assessment would need to carefully consider the impact of what may happen after the five years of protection has passed.
The impact on goodwill must be considered. While the state government may reap a windfall, what would this cost the families which own lottery outlets today? The impact on shopper traffic beyond the five years must also be considered. It is possible that this decision plays into the big supermarkets getting bigger.
South Australian newsagents have every right to be concerned.
Over the next few months we will get to see how much South Australian politicians, of all sides, really care about small businesses like newsagencies.
You have feel for Di from newsXpress Pakenham. Her cupcake display was compromised last week when a kid snuck in and ate the icing off the cupcakes which she had baked the night before for the display. It’s a lesson learned I guess. The display still looks good, even without the cakes. Click on the image for a larger version.
I was interested in my travels overseas last week to notice this display of iPhone and iPad related titles at the counter of one airport newsagency.
These were the only magazine titles at the counter.
This placement is a smart move. It demonstrates the continuing relevance of a print media business in world where digital contact is growing.
We plan to run a similar display when the next round of similar titles come in.