Newsagents interested in the financial performance and prospects of magazine publishers will find the report in The Australian on Saturday about ACP magazines an interesting read. James Chessell offers context of the ACP business within the overall Nine operation on the backdrop of a possible decision to float the business.
We are promoting the latest issue of Dolly with this aisle end display facing out onto our dance floor. Click on the image for a lager version. Dolly is one of those magazine titles which can respond well to promotion in a high traffic location – especially with mums who buy it for their daughter. This display will be up for a week only given the demand on display space at the moment.
Tower Systems created artwork for its retail customers and any other retailers to use in encouraging their customers to donate to the Queensland Premier’s Flood relief Appeal. This free artwork is available here. Feel free to use the artwork and share it with others. Every dollar helps.
We have been raising funds in our own newsagencies for several days with tremendous success. We have had customers dropping in coins from change while others have tipped in $20 or $30 from lottery ticket winnings. Most heartwarming indeed.
The French edition of Elle magazine sells in France for €2.50. This exact same magazine is priced here in Australia at $30.60. While the Australian dollar has risen, the local price has not fallen.
A quick check with a couple of banks indicates that €2.50 should convert to around $3.30 Australian right now. So, what is the remaining $27.30 made up of. Freight would take a portion of that, but not $27.30.
The continuing high price of international magazines, those brought in by air freight and those not, is impacting on sales and feeding the perception that newsagencies are expensive. Customers are finding sources elsewhere.
It is reasonable that newsagents and consumers ask: who is profiting from the exorbitant prices being charged for many international magazines in Australia?
I originally prepared this advice for members of the newsXpress newsagency marketing group and share it in this forum as it may be of value to other newsagents.
Back to School time is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with existing customers and to attract new customers to your store.
Back to School is also an excellent season in which newsagents can demonstrate their point of difference over big players like supermarkets, Big W, Officeworks and the like in the back to School and general stationery stakes. This is the time for the newsagency channel to shine folks!
Here are some free marketing suggestions (some mainstream and some left field) designed to help you attract customers and get them shopping your Back to School range. Most of these marketing tips can be tried without spending too much money:
Tell a visual story in-store. Get an old school desk and create a display showing your back to School supplies being used.
No matter how big or small Back to School is in your store, it is an opportunity to have some fun and strengthen your connection with the local community.
Today’s edition of the Weekend Sportsman includes the night racing special and will have a cover price of $7. Check your newsagency software to ensure that it is charging the right price.
From PaidContent yesterday:
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, claimed today he was in possession of “insurance” files on Rupert Murdoch and his global media company, News Corporation (NSDQ: NWS). Assange also claimed that WikiLeaks holds more than 500 confidential US diplomatic cables on one broadcasting organisation. Speaking to journalist John Pilger for an interview to be published tomorrow in the latest edition of the New Statesman, Assange said: “There are 504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organisation and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp.”
Fascinating to any News Corp. watcher … as many newsagents are.
Network Services issued the following advice this afternoon to Queensland newsagents:
Metro Customers:
Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast areas – We will deliver where possible to these areas as close as possible to the normal schedule.
Brisbane – Due to road access and driver safety, deliveries will be progressively made, where possible, throughout the day on Friday.Country Customers:
There continues to be significant road closures to the north and west of Brisbane, not to mention local access issues. We are expecting this to remain the case for the next 5-7 days. As a result we are not expecting deliveries for Friday the 14th of January to made. NOTE – while there may be some exceptions to this, we expect this to apply to the vast majority of agents in this area.Far North Queensland Customers:
We don’t expect any deliveries to be made on Friday the 14th due to our inability to get stock to that region safely. .We do apologise for any delays in the supply lines caused by these recent events. We understand how important supply is to all businesses at this time, it is for this reason we wish to reinforce that supply has not been preferential. All supplies have been and will continue to be shipped to all businesses (regardless of type, size, sales volume) as soon as safe passage is available, the only factors influencing supply at this stage are the availability of drivers and safe access.
NOTE – We will be in touch as information comes to hand about Monday’s on-sales.
We are currently attempting to contact all retailers and agents whose business’ or towns have been inundated by flood waters. This is order to discuss how we can best assist you during this difficult time. If you have not yet been contacted we ask that you call our Flood Assistance Hotline on 1300 131 169 and select Option 1.
With the road between Sydney and Brisbane cut, it appears unlikely that there will be magazine deliveries next week. The volume of weekly titles especially is too great to justify using air freight to get the stock from the printers to the distribution centre.. That said, publishers and distributors are working on options at the moment and the situation is expected to change.
Related – Kudos to the magazine distributors for acting quickly to put accounts on stop when newsagents request this based on the impact of the floods on their businesses.
Newsagent stationery wholesaler GNS has advised that their Brisbane warehouse is open and operating. The big issue is the challenge with distribution from the warehouse. Here is their latest update:
Because of flood waters blocking road, transport is unable to get through in a northerly ,southerly or westerly direction.
As the flood waters recede and if more rain does not happen we are advised that freight will hopefully once again begin to move starting next week.
The NT News is donating 50 cents from every copy of the newspaper sold this Saturday to the Queensland Premier’s flood appeal. Good stuff.
The new Google magazine I blogged about a few days ago is from a company with a connection to Derwent Howard, the magazine publisher which collapsed in November 2009 owing a ton of money including, according to The Australian at the time and covered at this blog, around $780,000 to Network Services. A Deed of Company Arrangement was entered into with creditors – providing them with five cents in the dollar.
The link is James (Jim) Flynn. He was a Director of Derwent Howard at the time of the collapse. He is the Director of Media Factory Pty Ltd, the publisher of the Google magazine.
Why would Network Services do business with someone who was a Director of a company which collapsed owing them such a considerable sum?
What does this matter to newsagents? If you look carefully at the Google magazine you will see why. With respect to the journalists who have invested time in creating or Australianising content, this is not a great publication. It looks like they have purchased content from a content factory (such places do exist), attracted some ads and shipped the title out to newsagents to hope for the best.
Jim Flynn is also behind Citrus Media, a publisher of photographic and technology one shots with long shelf lives.
The magazine distribution model is the key element here. Newsagents have been sent stock with no say in receiving a new title or the volume. Many newsagents will carry the titles for the full three months. Depending on the arrangement between network services and media factory, these newsagents could unlock a chunk of cash for media factory.
We received the title last week. We will pay for the stock by February 20. Returns go in the first week of April with the credit not showing on our statement until May. That is three months of cash provided to media factory (depending on their arrangement with Network Services) at no cost to them.
We received 15 copies in one of my stores. If I do what the publisher and distributor want, I would be paying $168.19 by February 20. While not a challenging loan to provide, multiply that by a few thousand newsagents and you can see that as a channel we could be sending several hundred thousand dollars, interest free, to Media Factory. Nice (interest free) cash flow with which they can build their business or do other things.
Of course, my numbers do not account for revenue from sales of the title and it is entirely possible that we will sell copies. I don’t expect any more than one or two copies sold but I could be wrong. My figures also do not account for labour, real estate and theft.
Is the Media Factory / Citrus Media model one where they pump out low cost content knowing that the newsagency magazine distribution model will provide them with cash flow regardless of sales? I don’t have the answer for that. After reading the Google magazine I have my suspicions but I cannot be sure.
Newsagents rely on magazine distributors to manage access to the channel. Whether we like it or not, they are the gatekeepers. Having read the Google magazine I think it is time they reviewed how they discharge their role. Of course I am kidding, they serve their shareholders ahead of newsagents.
Kudos to The Age today for pointing out that the current issue of Dolly and Girlfriend each features a young indigenous girls on their covers. Not sure how we promote this without being disrespectful. Just knowing is a start.
News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and Apple’s Steve Jobs are said to be launching The Daily from News, an iPad newspaper, later this month. Source: Yahoo News. This will be an announcement to watch and analyse.
UPDATE (16/01): The joint announcement has been delayed while the work out some kinks with the app.
The following advice was issued by Network Services this afternoon:
QLD FLOOD UPDATE ONSALE WED 12.01.11
Please note Followmont in QLD have had to cease operations today. This is in order to allow staff to get home safely before metro roads shut down.
Due to extensive road closures in Bris area & beyond, including all key line-haul routes, we don’t expect any deliveries to be made in QLD tomorrow.
We will attempt to make all deliveries as quickly as possible. For stock due out tomorrow we expect to deliver to all accessible areas on Thursday or Friday. Please note at this point, regardless of store inundation, we expect large portions of Central Nth, Central West & SW QLD to be mostly inaccessible for the next 5-7 days.
We will update as more information comes to hand.
A customer in one of my newsagencies complained on the weekend about the price of marie claire. They had been told to buy this issue by a friend and questioned why our price was higher than in the supermarket where their friend purchases a copy. The price difference relates to the sunglasses which are packaged with the magazine in some newsagencies. This is not a new phenomenon – increasing the cover price when there is a premium gift with the magazine. Indeed, I like that newsagents get access to differentiating offers like this since supermarkets get access to their own offers from time to time.
But back to the customer. We explained the sunglasses but they didn’t accept that. They didn’t want the glasses and suggested we keep them and they get the magazine for $1.00 less. Showing them the price printed on the cover did not budge them.
With price being such an important factor in today’s retail environment, publishers will need to think carefully about moved which result in different prices in different retail channels. It doesn’t take much to get a customer on their high horse and causing a scene at the counter.
Regulars here will know that I am ot a fan of these ‘value’ packs from ACP. I think they are educating shoppers to not pay full price for magazines. There are plenty of examples in retail where regular discounting and sales has led to more or less permanent discount offers. I have not seen evidence of them generating incremental sales. That said, I ensure that we support them in my stores when they come out – like the latest one yesterday: Woman’s Day, NW and OK! all in one bundle for $9.95. we are promoting the title away from our weeklies display as we do not want to detract from regular sales. We figured that the packaging of the offer warrants it being treated differently.
I guess the other issue with this offer is that it is a very different pack to the packs which contain old and even damaged magazines behind a current issue. Is that what our shoppers think of when they pick this Woman’s Day pack?
We have had our Valentine’s Day cards out for more than a week and already we are seeing good sales. We have them facing the dance floor – in a high traffic location. While the big sales will be the week before February 14, I am very happy winning good business from the more organised Valentine’s Day shopper buying the cards at the moment. We have a small selection of Valentine’s Day gifts out, more will arrive later this week.
Down here in Victoria I suspect that we have little idea of what life if like for newsagents in the flood affected areas of the country. I certainly feel ignorant. I mean, I have seen the TV footage and have spoken with newsagents with businesses under water.
What I have been ignorant about is the impact in areas not under water there are significant challenges. I have heard of plenty of newsagents who are able to open their businesses but who have no current stock. Transport routes have been cut – no magazines, no papers. There are other stories where shoppers cannot get into town so there is no trade, not even for lottery tickets and the like.
I heard of one newsagent who slept on the shop floor last night so he could open today. Extraordinary.
So, beyond the major stories on the TV news, there are plenty of other stories of these floods impacting businesses … and the situation looks set to continue for some time yet.
By trimming our magazine range in a couple of my newsagencies we are now able to better display full covers of top selling magazines. They react well (in terms of sales) to this attention – the covers are designed to sell the titles after all! We trim the space allocation for weekly titles as the week unfolds.
For monthly magazines we tend to allocate a full face line at the top of waterfalls and half waterfalls for a category, for a couple of weeks of the month – to give the category a boost. This also works well with a noticeable boost to sales.
Newsagents are often so crammed with stock that there is no hope of these displays being created. I am sure that this must stunt sales of top selling titles.
The federal government has been reminding parents this past week about the Educational Tax Refund. Newsagents need to read up on this too, especially exactly what can be claimed under this program. We sell plenty of eligible products.
This is an excellent opportunity at Back to School time for newsagents. Promoting this program in store and across the sales counter could help drive sales.
Engaging with a customer about the opportunity could be as simple as handing a customer a receipt and reminding g them abut the tax break opportunity. Smarter newsagents will promote this in their newsletters and through displaying the poster (the newspaper ad from the website) in-store.
UK music retail group HMV late last week announced the planned closure of 60 stores in 2011 citing tough retail conditions. Here is a tell tale quote from CEO Simon Fox from the company’s press release:
The pace of change in the markets in which we operate underlines the urgency with which we must continue to transform this business.
Hopefully, newsagents reading this blog post will see the importance of the transformation of individual businesses and the channel which I bang on about here regularly. Print is a few years behind music but it is on the same path. We know that from events of the last year.
On Monday I blogged here that of the cose to 3,000 newsagents with a newsagency Point of Sale system in their business, too many do not use the software its full potential.
This failure to use the technology means we have inefficient, unprofitable and theft risking newsagencies.
I laid out some straightforward steps newsagents could take to improve efficiency in and control over their businesses.
I’m glad to report that many newsagents called me to talk about their next steps in improving their businesses in 2011. More need to act on this.
If you seriously want a more efficient, profitable and better newsagency, here are Here are the proven simple steps to saving time, cutting theft and reducing dead stock in your newsagency.
There can be no excuses. If you want to make the most out of your business (and why else would you be in business?) then following these steps is essential and urgent.
If doing a complete stock is too big of a job, consider starting with one department by implementing full stock control justin that part of your business. I promise you that the experience will drive you to do the whole store.
Newsagents who do not fully manage their entire inventory in the way I suggest are more likely to experience theft, more likely to make bad business decisions and will have much more money tied up in stock than is needed.
Newsagents who do not completely and professionally manage their inventory ought to get their own house in order before complaining about anything else impacting their business.
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is always a place where suppliers test the waters with new products. They all look at each other, test what’s hat and what’s not and through the year the strong and smart prevail. If you do a Google search for Las Vegas CES you’ll find plenty of videos from the show floor, like this video of the Sharp Galapagos unit. This is interesting because of the demonstrators talk about books, and newspapers.
No, this device is not a game changer, just an extension of the game changing which occurred with the release last year of the iPad.
It is important that newsagents understand the extent of change in delivery platforms.
We continue to have good success with lottery syndicate sales, even in our small temporary location. The small A5 mini-posters which we have stuck on the pole holding the lottery terminal screens works a treat for us. It is terrific seeing a customer make a purchase and decide on a syndicate ticket as well as the items they brought to the sales counter. It costs nothing to make the A5 poster. In a one hour stint last week I saw four syndicate shares sold specifically because of this promotional placement. We change the syndicates we promote in this location regularly.
Syndicates are also promoted at our lottery entry table (workbench) as well as in a display behind the counter.