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

Author: Mark

Reality works for magazines

readersrecipes.JPGThat’s Life Reader’s Recipes is a popular food title even though the latest issue is only issue #4.  It is also from the reality genre – real recipes from real people. There is a  photo of each contributor next to their recipe.  You can’t get more reality than that in the magazine space.

Judging by sales of this and the previous issues of the title, as well as the continuing popularity of weeklies which play in this space, there is a good market for reality magazines.  While we like to watch the fancy chefs ponce about and make their creations, I think that there is strong interest in accessible everyday recipes.  That’s what That’s Life Reader’s Recipes offers.

You only have to look at the continuing success of reality TV shows to know that real people like to watch real people.  Having said that, it is not fair to compare the ‘reality’ of some reality TV shows to the authentic reality on the pages of That’s Life Reader’s Recipes.

I’d encourage newsagents to promote this title in a good traffic location.  Our sales in the last few days have been excellent.  We have ordered more stock as a result.

Well done to Pacific Magazines for creating this title.

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magazines

Attracting younger shoppers

slam.jpgSometimes in the sea of magazines on our shelves we lose track of titles with which we can attract a younger group of shoppers. SLAM magazine from Morrison Media is good title, especially for young males.  While sales are not massive, this title placed next to titles with similar appeal – surfing, body boarding, wake boarding – can work very for some newsagents.  I have seen SLAM work as a promotion at the counter as well as in a well defined section in the magazine department.  Like any title, show it some love and you are usually rewarded with sales in return.  This is a good title with which we should remind ourselves that we are not our customers as I bet there are not all that many skateboarding newsagents out there.  Click here to see the flyer from the publisher with more details on  SLAM.

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magazines

Promoting MatserChef magazine

mag-masterchef.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of MasterChef magazine with an in-location display capping our food section.  I love the colour of the cover and the poster for this issue – they make it easily noticeable in the sea of of colour in a magazine aisle.

With the TV show soon to return I’d expect interest in the magazine to pick up.  We will also be supporting the title with promotion at the counter over the weekend.

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magazines

Promoting TV Week and the Logie Awards

mag-tvw-apr2011.JPGLike most newsagents around Australia we have been promoting the latest issue of TV Week and the Logie Awards feature with an aisle end display.  While the display looks good and promotes the title, I think that a more tactical approach would drive sales.  With space is at a premium we cannot do both and so have opted for this display as required by the ACP Connections program.  I’d much prefer a channel marketing program which focused on incremental business rather than billboard displays.

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magazines

25 Angus and Robertson Stores to Leave the Group

25 Angus and Robertson stores are today giving notice to terminate their relationship with Angus and Robertson and will each trade under their own independent name.  This is another blow to the restructuring of the RED group which owns A&R, Borders, Whitcoulls (in NZ) and Calendar Club.

As I have noted previously, the turmoil around RED Group businesses presents an opportunity for opportunistic newsagents and other retailers.  I guess that these 25 A&R franchisees have seen this and decided to back themselves.

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Newsagency opportunities

Courier Mail covers EFTPOS challenge

The Courier Mail yesterday covered the looming EFTPOS fee challenge from a newsagent’s perspective with a story featuring Brett Carey from newsXpress Deception Bay.

Politicians on all sides have played a role in what has created the opportunity for the expected EFTPOS fee hike against small business.  Politicians on both sides need to facilitate a solution.

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EFTPOS fees

At 920g is the Sunday Telegraph unsafe to deliver?

Newsagents tell me that the Sunday Telegraph published by News Limited this past Sunday weighed 920 grams.  This is an unsafe weight to deliver using traditional delivery means.

As I blogged on November 20, 2006, the Nery report, commissioned by the ANF, found unsafe work practices which stem from the handling of heavy newspapers.  According to the report, current work practices are unsafe. The report documents unsafe work practices which stem, in part, from having to handle heavy newspapers. Any newspaper above .6 kilogram in weight is considered to be heavy. Consider this quote from the Executive Summary the report:

The Results section of this report (page 10) has outlined significant ergonomic risk factors associated with the newspaper delivery tasks. These risk factors are particularly related to dimensions of the weekend papers (Advertiser and Sunday Mail) when combined with the repetition, volume and manual handling aspects of the delivery process. In particular, there are significant risks associated with the delivery/throwing of the larger dimensioned and heavier Saturday Advertiser and Sunday Mail newspapers.

David Nery, the respected author of the Nery report was clear:

The current situation, in my view, is unsafe and modifications to the weight, dimensions and volume of papers distributed per person need to be reduced to provide a safe system of work.

Late last year, News Limited issued a rebuttal to newsagents, based on their own expert study.  Their report, or what has been published to newsagents at least, is years late and lacking in detail and professional scope compared with that of David Nery.   The News Limited rebuttal is in the from of a letter telling newsagents that they are responsible for OH&S issues relating to newspaper delivery.  They claim that Nery is wrong and that it is safe to deliver heavy newspapers.

News Limited controls the weight and dimensions of the product being delivered.  They also control most of the economic terms relating to newspaper home delivery: delivery fees, cover price and requirements about obligations on newsagents to accept customers.  These economic terms determining whether newsagents can reasonably split a heavy product into two.Newsagents need to revisit the Nery Report in the context of the fat Sunday Telegraph.  If I still had a home delivery business and were in a position to influence industry response I would:

  1. Re-engage David Nery for a response.
  2. Talk with Worksafe and other state government OH&S bodies for an opinion.
  3. Talk with insurance companies to determine liability on the insured should an injury claim be made relating to this issue.
  4. Assemble a team of experts to research and guide a whole of industry response.  The team would include an appropriately skilled lawyer, OH&S expert, medical expert, a newspaper deliverer and a newsagent.
  5. Discuss with the federal government funding opportunities to help newsagents pay for the necessary research and advice in navigating such a complex issue.
  6. Set a timeline for progress on this.
  7. Seek agreement from News Limited to engage nationally given that they are dealing with it internally nationally.

It may be that the process results in a negotiated middle ground position between News and newsagents.  If it doing nothing wrong, News should have nothing to hide and therefore be prepared to actively engage.

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Newsagency challenges

Borders magazine offer facing challenges

bordersmags.JPGI was in Borders on the weekend to spend a gift card before they stopped honoring these from last night and noticed signs in the usually busy and now deserted magazine department at a Borders store reflected the challenges of the retail group trading under Administration. Coming soon! New issue magazines will be in next week. Lack of current issue stock is death to any magazine department, especially one where range is promoted as a point of difference – as has been the case at Borders.

The issue of kicking a business when it is down notwithstanding, newsagents with a Borders store in their shopping centre should check out the Borders magazine department and if they find it depleted as I saw they should increase their attention on their own magazine department.  Promote magazines inside and outside the store.  Talk to Centre Management about an off location promotion. Try and attract Borders magazine shoppers to your business.

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magazines

Odd gifts with My Weekly Healthy Living

myweeklypack.JPGCheck out the gifts bagged with the latest issue of UK magazine My Weekly Healthy Living.   There is a Brain Booster puzzle book as well as a tub of Luxury Body Butter. While these are both good gifts, I am surprised to see them both in the same pack.  Maybe I am wrong but it feels like gift overkill to me.  Either one of the items would have been a good gift.  The other could have been held over for another issue.  I guess it all comes down to the money on the table to promote the gifts.   I noticed the title when looking at how to display it – the unusual shape and thickness mean that we cannot display it in the usual way.

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magazines

Do you want to sell out of magazines?

I want to sell out of magazines. I love it when it happens. Independent publishers I speak with love it too. A sell out is good. I it happens early enough in the on-sale I will order more stock. I’ve done that plenty of times.

The newsagent magazine distribution model is not designed for us to sell out. The distributors think that sell outs are bad. Many publishers think that sell outs are bad. One distributor representative told me that publishers don’t like sell outs. I can’t find evidence supporting that view. Publishers I have spoken with say they like sell outs when they occur at an appropriate time through the on-sale.

The kind of sell outs which I think are acceptable and for which I would not order additional stock are: weeklies – by day five or more; monthlies – by week three or more. I am not including anything beyond monthlies since I do not think that any title in a newsagency should have an on-sale of more than thirty days.

For this issue to be resolved, a publisher and a distributor need to make a start.  I hope this happens soon.

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magazine distribution

Featuring Better Homes and Gardens

mag-bhg-spatula.JPGWe have been promoting the latest issue Better Homes and Gardens in three locations since its release last Wednesday.  On the weekend, we added this simple display next to newspapers.  With the impressive free cooking brush and spatula, it made sense of make the most of the opportunity – especially given that we were the only retail outlet in the shopping centre with the offer.  It has performed very well for us, especially this newspaper location.

I like how Pacific Magazines attached the free gift to the cover yet made the magazine itself browser friendly.  Very smart.  Whoever decided to not bag the whole issue is to be congratulated.

I know that some newsagents will complain that they were not given this offer.  Various publishers choose to engage with various groups and sizes of newsagencies and other business in return for shop floor engagement.  I think that we will see more of this engagement as publishers realise that not all newsagents are the same.

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magazines

A $2,000 Tiger Tank – a challeneged part series launch

tigertank.JPGWe now have too many new partworks being launched at the same time.  The drought has turned into a flood with the launch last week of Build Your Own Tiger Tank.  We are doing our best to promote the new title but space is at a premium.  Also, the total cost of building the tank, in excess of $2,000, has already been mentioned by customers as a challenge.  That and the highly special interest nature of this title.  We have Build Your Own Tiger Tank on display behind the counter – space shared with another part series.

Publishers who really want engagement from newsagents on partworks will:

  • Fix the supply chain to ensure that we can satisfy customer orders.
  • Fix the problems with back orders.
  • Enable newsagents to offer the free gifts to lock customers in.
  • Help newsagents pre-order based on their assessment of the title.

Partworks can work well if better managed and if there was a more common sense approach to release schedules.

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partworks

Classic Children’s Birthday Cake Cookbook still selling well

The classic Children’s Birthday Cake Cookbook from ACP continues to sell up a storm.  Another fifteen copies on the last week.  No slowdown due to the Big W deal at $10.00.  We still have this displayed at the front of the store – resuing the I Love Magazines stand.  It will stay there as long as it is working at pulling customers into the store.

It is surprising the number of shoppers saying that other newsagents do not have this title.

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magazines

The space fight between Easter and Mother’s Day

Space is at a premium in newsagencies at the moment with the Easter and Mother’s Day seasons colliding in their requirements.  Add to this, a binge of partworks releases, the traditional (and large) Easter Book Sale, magazine features to promote and the regular day to day activity in a well run newsagency and, yes, space is in high demand.

We are complicating it is a couple of my stores with a Toy Sale which still has two weeks to run.  This has been our second successful Toy Sale in four months.

We are addressing the unusual demands on space over the next few weeks with a process of regular rotation for the two major seasons in play as well as regular rotation for the magazine promotions.  This is something we have always done but which is receiving even more attention right now.

As for the glut of partworks, they are not getting the attention we would like.  Poor planning on the part of all involved, flooding newsagents like this.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining about the higher than usual demands on space.  As retailers we live for opportunities to have our stores full of stock and to show off.  I have two core issues: the glut of partworks and the lack of consideration by some suppliers around how much space we give them when we are so busy.  No matter, they will get over it.

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Newsagency management

The Age newspaper masthead covered, newsagents shafted

ageapr2.JPGFairfax lumped a triple whammy against their brand and newsagents yesterday by attacking The Saturday Age.  The first issue is that they whacked a garish post it note type ad across the newspaper masthead.  This cheapens the brand.  They do it because these ads sell I guess.  The message, however, is that their brand does not matter all that much.  The second issue is that the ad was a subscription offer.  Why use my shop and goodwill to take customers away from me?  I make little enough of newspapers as it is.  This campaign offering a 65% discount is offensive.  The third issue is that they are promoting their newspaper a home delivery campaign which contradicts a campaign tthey have asked newsagents to promote, a campaign for which they provided distribution newsagents flyers for recently.

What a mix up.  Makes me wonder who is in charge, where they see their brand in 20 years and whether they really care about newsagents.

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Newsagency challenges

We get the Winning Post, finally

winningpost.JPGThanks to pressure from the publisher we are  being supplied the Winning Post.  This will make our customers happy.  It also encourages me that fractures in the supply model, where a small number of distribution newsagents refuse to supply some titles, can be fixed.  It also encourages me to go after more titles for which we are currently refused supply.

We are promoting the Winning Post in a good location to drive sales and provide that the fight to get the product in store was worth the hassle and effort.

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Newspapers

Retail Sector Issues Paper

On Thursday, the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Structure and Performance of the Retail Industry – including international online trade, released the issues paper which will guide its review.

This is a paper well worth reading if you plan to be involved in retail in Australia in the future.  I have read it and see several opportunities for individual newsagents and group’s representing them to make a submission and have their individual and collective voices heard.

I am particularly to see retail tenancy issues are to be covered including:

Is there any evidence that owners of major retail complexes in Australia exert market power to command higher rental and occupancy costs than are experienced in many overseas markets?

Is it inevitable that Australian retailers must pay higher rental and occupancy costs as a proportion of sales than offshore counterparts? If so, why and what factors cause this? Does this mean that Australian retailers will have to charge higher prices to maintain reasonable levels of profitability?

I urge newsagents to click on the link and read the issues paper.  This is the type of opportunity where we will say what we should have done once the report has come out and our views have not been represented.

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Newsagency challenges

Trent Nathan improves the retail browsing experience

shirt.JPGBrowsing is important in any retail business but even more so when it comes to magazines.  The consumer research from publishers tells us how the consumer experience with magazines is tactile.  They are using this research to pitch the print experience in comparison to the digital experience.  I agree with the research. Customers in newsagencies demonstrate the tactile relationship they have with magazines every day.

A key reason I do not like bagged magazines is that they impede the browser experience. They deny the opportunity of the content driving the purchase.

The other issue with bagged magazines is that the bag itself becomes a turn off, as I blogged recently here.

So, I was interested to see how Trent Nathan gets around the need to bag products, men;s shirts, to provide the necessary tactile experience.  Check our the photo. See the touch me sticker? It is holding a swatch of fabric to the pack.  This is important as the fabric feels different to the usual shirt fabric.  It helps sell the shirt.

I wonder if the approach Trent Nathan is taking to shirts could be tried where magazines must be bagged.  If there a way to give the customers something on the bag or outside off the bag, which does not make merchandising the product any more difficult, and which reinforces the newsagency browsing experience.

While my preference is no bagged product in my newsagencies, I put this post out there to publishers to show how one company is going beyond the bag to help drive sales.

Being able to touch the fabric without having to open the package guided me to purchasing this shirt over another of a similar design.

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magazines

How often do you look at your Profit and Loss statement?

I get a Profit and Loss statement for my newsagencies within two weeks of the end of the month. This includes an assessment of the month against budget, year to date against budget and a rolling forecast a year out based on current trends.

I am lucky to have a CPA on staff who can do this.

Unfortunately, too many newsagents do not get a profit and loss more frequently than once a year. I am sure that this hurts business decisions.

A properly constructed P&L will guide good business decisions. While Point of Sale software can also do this, it can only go so far as you really need all the business expenses to get a whole of business view.

This is on my mind today because of a newsagent who is in trouble and who has not seen a P&L for their business for more than a year.

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Newsagency management

Q1 2011 Newsagent Sales Benchmark Study

I am looking for data from newsagents for my next Newsagent Sales Benchmark Study. While I am primarily interested in data from the 1,700 newsagents with newsagency software from Tower Systems, I’ll happily work with other newsagents on their data.

Participating is easy. Run your Monthly sales Comparison report with Jan 1, 2011 – March 31, 2011 on the left and Jan 1, 2011 – March 31, 2010 on the right. TICK THE CATEGORY BOX as this provides an excellent breakdown to allow more thorough analysis. Please do NOT tick the supplier box. Save the report as a PDF. Email this report to mark@towersystems.com.au.

I need the data by next Monday, April 4 as I’d like to publish top line results by Friday, April 8.

I have been doing these sales benchmark studies for years.  The results have been supported by audits and other studies produced by others.  The purpose of my benchmark study is to help newsagents sport trends and this this make better informed business decisions.

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newsagent software

Liberals join the EFTPOS fight

The Liberal Party has published an article on their website in support of the small business position on EFTPOS fees. While the article includes an ignorant party political shot at the end, it does include this useful call:

The Coalition calls on the big banks to reduce small business banking costs and fees by an amount equivalent to the new revenues created by ‘spinning off’ EFTPOS to ensure that the creation of the new business is not simply a ‘cost shift and double dip’.

I say ignorant about the last sentence because it was under the Howard government watch where the process started which has resulted in the current unfair EFTPOS regime.  No political party has good credentials when it comes to small business.

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EFTPOS fees

Excellent Easter Book Sale

booksale-mar2011.JPGWe are enjoying a traffic spike thanks to our Easter Book Sale.  The four page A5 flyer is an excellent promotion tool for facilitating this traffic spike.  This, along with an appealing display and other activity is helping us make the most of the opportunity.

We try and run four book sales a year rather than a year round book department presence.  The four seasons which we find work for us are:Easter, Father’s Day, Christmas and one other – either mid year or Mother’s Day.

The book mix is vital – kids, food, self help, reasonably current fiction and weight loss.

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Book retailing

What are your Reader’s Digest sales?

Newsagents should heck through their sell-through rates for the Reader’s Digest magazine.  If the data I have seen is experienced by other newsagents, Reader’s Digest is delivering a sell through of around 25% to the newsagency channel.  This makes it loss making for us.

A magazine needs a sell through 60% to be break even in many newsagencies.

Why we continue to be supplied Reader’s Digest knowing that 70% or more of the scale out by Network Services will have to be counted packed up and returned is beyond me.  Actually, it is not beyond me. The magazine distribution model relies on the services for which distributors are paid (distribution and return processing)to be used.

Magazine distributors will say that we need to consider the overall picture, suggesting that the profits of the top selling titles support the lesser performing titles.  The same argument would be rejected by supermarkets so why apply it to newsagents.

For years now I have called for KPIs for magazines and financial compensation where a title does not meet the KPIs.

Reader’s Digest needs to be profitable for newsagents on its own.

While I am sure there are some newsagencies achieving a profitable sell through with Reader’s Digest, I suspect that the majority are not.  Somewhere between the publisher and the distributor there appears to be a lack of will to resolve this. In the meantime, newsagents act as the financier to both.

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magazine distribution

Happy to be promoting Better Homes and Gardens

mag-bhg-apr11.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens (out yesterday) with this feature display on our busiest aisle end near our weekly titles, a small footprint impulse stand next to our photocopier as well as a terrific waterfall display in the usual location for the title in the magazine department.

Better Homes and Gardens warrants this  triple location approach.  Our reward is sales, especially after the TV show airs on Friday night.

As I blogged recently, even well into the on-sale the title performs well on weekends – better than you see for other high volume monthlies which experience a steep sales decay after the end of the first week. I;d encourage other newsagents to try this approach of locating an impulse display next to their photocopies.

This is a title we are happy to move around the store through the four weeks.

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magazines
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