Bagged magazines

This triple-pack of discounted magazines from Bauer Media Thursday this week had newsagents scrambling for extra space in the magazine department as it is a new title, an expansion in the busy weekly title section.

The thickness of the bag containing the three magazines meant plenty of newsagents could not place all the stock they received into a single pocket. This increases the costs of carrying the additional SKU.

Also, the pack says new issues when the issue of Yours came out last week and the issue of recipes+ came out last month.

Bagged discount magazine packs like this are out every week in the UK. Not in large volume but there are out and in most stores I visited two weeks ago.

I hope we do not see them weekly in Australia. If we did I think the result would be to take purchases from other publisher titles rather than grow overall magazine sales. In this scenario newsagents would lose out.

Check out the backpack bagged with this magazine I saw today. Talk about a challenging gift with purchase to have to display.

There are plenty of discount magazine packs for sale in the UK with packs of two and three titles. In one WH Smith outlet yesterday there were four packs. From what I have seen, the discount packs are only in the weekly magazine space from what I can see. This is different to what Bauer does in Australia.

This photo shows how one newsagent has placed the Yours / Woman’s Day discount bundle from Bauer. You can’t see the Yours masthead. Only the discount pitch is clear but that covers the magazine in the next pocket above. Maybe I am missing something – I don’t see how these discount bags work in newsagencies where space is limited and we are not paid to allocate it.

I refuse to display the Take 5 / Recipes+ discount pack which came out today.  I don;t have a space pocket in the weeklies section nor do I want to support the discount magazine strategy by Bauer that is not delivering the sales bump they need when you do a title for title comparison in the latest audit.

Bauer is discounting Woman’s Day and NW to chase sales this week. Newsagents are the ones doing the discounting actually as our GP is based on the discount pack price. I’d love to know if other retailers like supermarkets make margin on the discounted price or the cover price of the titles in the discount pack.

While I wish Women’s Health was not bagged this month as it’s an often browsed title and because the gift covers the cover, the free make up bag should drive sales. We have it placed so the gift is easily seen. We have it is two locations for the first week – with health titles and with weeklies.

The latest issue of Australian Cupcakes & Inspirations has not sold for us and the only difference I can see is that this issue is bagged. We can often sell out of this title, not this time around though. This is a title people like to browse – to see if the decorations covered are of interest to them. How have sales of this issue been for others?

The latest issue of Girlfriend is selling well for us, offering an example of a bagged magazine done well and riving sales. The packaging is the key – the promotion of freebies as well as $80,000 in prizes. They package looks like bonus value rather than what many others do in bagging old issues with a current issue. This bagged issue of Girlfriend should sell out for us.

I am disappointed at the ever increasing number of bagged magazines from Bauer. We received two this week. Each bagged offer requires additional pocket allocation. They don’t drive incremental business and each time I have asked for data to support the publisher claim it has not been forthcoming. If I was presented evidence I might look at them differently. As it stands, these bagged magazines only serve to educate shoppers to not pay full price in my view.

I’d be interested to hear what newsagents do with these bagged discounted magazines from Bauer.  While I understand the publisher’s position is that they grow sales, I don’t see any evidence of that in the data.

I rely on our loyalty program to drive sales based on the reward for customer loyalty. It works – far better than these bagged magazines.

I’ve supported the bagged magazines over the years with placement with the main titles and promotion in discount locations. I don’t give them prime position as I don’t want to detract from full price sales. If I was compensated with full margin then I might.

What do other newsagents do with these bagged magazines?

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?