While it is funny going back to three magazine deliveries this week, I don’t see it being that disruptive in that those of us getting magazines on Friday won’t have to label them. The biggest challenge I can see will be for newsagents with sub agents. The sales opportunity is what I’m more interested in. I am keen to see what this baby can do for us. This is why we will be going out hard in my newsagencies.
The Scooby Do Holiday Hi Jinks ‘magazine’ pack is expensive at $12.95 in my view. Inside the pack are four small booklets. The package is made to look bigger with a large plastic sleeve. It’s not worth $12.95 in my view. We received this in-store after school holidays so it’s late connecting with holidays – too late for me to justify keeping it on the shelves. So, I’ve early returned this title.
The supply of this title is an example of something that only gets to newsagents because of a magazine supply model that does not respect us. We have to give our space and labour for a product that’s late and too expensive. The only way our major competitors would get this title is if they are paid a fee to take it.
One day magazine publishers and distributors will wonder why newsagents are getting out of magazines.
I feel for newsagents who sell lottery products as they would have had additional challenges yesterday with Powerball at $30 million and handling the first Thursday delivery of magazines.
I suspect the newsagencies with larger magazine departments will need a few weeks to settle in operationally with the changes. I know we will. There are many factors in addition to getting stock out: promotional displays, processing returns, placement management and setting the shop for the weekend. This is work that was spread over two days with one of those days being regular hours.
It will take a couple of months for us to see any change in traffic caused by the change. That said, magazine sales yesterday were up but Wednesday and Thursday combined were down on what we usually experience across the two days. This will be something to check on in a couple of months.
I noticed iPad & iPad mini for Seniors in a newsagency earlier this week. It’s a title I could sell easily in my three newsagencies. To get it I have to chase it. Despite their claims otherwise, too often the magazine distributors do not scale out based on what their data shows will sell in a newsagency. This failure drives oversupply as well as undersupply and causes plenty of frustration for newsagents. This failure is what we will find is one cause of newsagents getting out of magazines in the future.
We received five boxes of Teen Beach Movie postcard packs from Network Services Monday in what appears to be gross oversupply. One of our team members checked and discovered Teen Beach Movie is a made for TV Disney Channel movie to be broadcast in Australia on August 9 on the Australian Disney Channel. Unless there is something missing
I’m disappointed by the Tweet from Oxygen magazine that say: Fat Loss 2013 is on sale NOW! Pick up your copy from selected Coles Supermarkets, all good newsagents or online at the following linkhttp://ow.ly/mQCRq.
My disappointment is that a Coles outlet without the title was not selected and that a newsagent without the title is not good.
Most newsagents do not have a say in whether they get this title or not. To label those with it as good reflects an ignorance in the way the magazine distribution model operates. The number of Coles outlets with the magazine is more a function of the pockets the publisher is prepared to pay for.
Following the publication of the results of my survey of newsagents about the change to magazine delivery days I have been contacted by more than ten magazine publishers. None are happy with the change. They all express feeling helpless to impact the change. Several are actively working on a change to distributor as a result.
A letter from magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch confirming recall arrangements following the change in magazine delivery days says that through XchangeIT, software companies were consulted. My own newsagency software company, serving 1,800 newsagents, was not consulted.
While it’s of no consequence since the software will handle the changes, I am unsure why Gotch claims there was consultation when there was not.
Whoever is responsible for sending the Psychics Directory out with a white stocker covering a newsagent’s price sticker ought to be ashamed. This magazine should never have been sent out in this condition. It’s unprofessional, unmerchantable. The quality assurance process at Gordon and Gotch ought to have stopped this product getting out.
I have to ask – did any of the psychics see this coming?
The science of magazine allocations continues to amaze me. We did not sell any copies of the launch issue of World of Knowledge. Believing in the title, we promoted issue 2 as I documented here. We sold out our allocation, ordered more and sold some of the extra copies – ten copies of issue 2 all up. Network Services, demonstrating its allocation prowess, sent us 3 copies of issue three. This is despite them knowing that sales of issue 2 were strong for us by the time they did (or should have done) their allocation. Three was never going to be enough. We’ve ordered more and are awaiting approval for that. We’ve sold one copy and should sell the other two in the next day or two.
This is a story for magazine publishers. Take control of your allocations and use current sales data from newsagents when setting the allocation. Better still, give newsagents control – we want what you want … more sales of magazines. I am sure if I had control for my newsagencies magazine sales would increase.
Newsagents have easy access to magazine sell through data data through the Magazine Sell Through Rates Report with which they can make a case on oversupply by a magazine distributor.
Using industry standard calculations, a Magazine Sell Through Rates Report identifies the titles that are failing to meet minimum performance levels.
Magazines delivering a sell through of lower than 50% are, in my view, under performing. These titles are titles that I would label as over supplied.
The sell through is the percentage of the stock supplied that was sold.
The image shows one page from a magazine sell through rate report from a newsagency. I’ve obscured their identity.
My management tip for newsagents today is to run the Magazine Sell Through Rates Report. Look at what it shows for the last year. If you have titles consistently below 50% sell through this is evidence you ought to send to the ACCC as proof of poor treatment by your supplier.
Magazine distributors say to the ACCC that newsagents have control. This is not the case, not with certainty and not for the long term.
This report offers further evidence to magazine publishers as to why newsagents sometimes early return a title without apparent justification.
While Vintage Caravan magazine is no longer being distributed by gordon and Gotch, it is alive and well and available to be socked by newsagents – for a better margin. here’s a letter to newsagents from the publisher.
Dear valued Vintage Caravan Magazine stockist,
It has been brought to our attention that Gordon & Gotch have been wrongly informing some of you that Vintage Caravan Magazine is “no longer in production” and that this incorrect information has also been being passed on to our customers.
The truth is that we have ample evidence of Gotch’s wrongdoings with regards to the distribution of Vintage Caravan Magazine and when we attempted to pull them up on this they reacted by ending our distribution agreement.
As a consequence of this we have made the decision to switch to IPS for distribution from the next issue and hope that this resolves some of the supply and remittance problems we have experienced with Gotch over the past two years.
Vintage Caravan Magazine is getting bigger and stronger than ever and has a growing and loyal readership and we will be increasing the magazine by an additional 8 pages from the next issue on.
We have also just been accepted by the distributors for America’s biggest book seller Barnes & Noble so no, we are not going away anytime soon!
I just wanted to take this opportunity to quash these malicious rumours on the head so that I don’t keep getting emails from my panicking customers who have been made to believe that their beloved magazine is no longer available.
If any of you have any documentation to indicate where this unethical misinformation is coming from I would appreciate it if you would send me a copy as this is grounds for legal action against Gotch and highly defamatory to my business.
I hope that you will continue to stock Vintage Caravan Magazine and place your orders now through IPS.
If you would like us to include you on our online stockist list please email me direct with your address so we can add you to the list.Kind regards,
Lisa
Lisa Mora
Editor/PublisherEmail: editor@vintagecaravanmagazine.com.au | www.vintagecaravanmagazine.com.au
Phone: 0439 993 963 | Postal address: PO Box 1052, Maleny QLD Australia 4552
In an interview in yesterday’s Australian Financial Review, Bauer CEO Matt Stanton forecast that there would be more magazine closures as well as some launches as the business responded to title performance. Newsagents with a copy of yesterday’s newspaper should read the article – page 38.
The bigger story in the AFR article is the growth in digital subscriptions with Stanton claiming 20 to 30 percent growth quarter on quarter. He says they have 116,000 tablet subscriptions across their titles.
Stanton I think mistakenly says that tablet subscriptions are pure profit once you have the back end setup costs covered. This presumes that you have a print product to cover all editorial costs. My reading on the topic indicates we are not seeing people embracing both platforms in large numbers – it is digital or print. So it would be wrong to say that a digital subscription is pure protect. It must wear part of the content creation cost.
The AFR article reports Stanton saying its feasible Bauer could achieve 500,000 digital subscriptions across titles such as AWW and Gourmet Traveller. The road to such an achievement is by way of current print sales. I expect strategists in all print publishing businesses see the current print products as the bridge to the platform they expect one day to overtake print in sales and value to the business. This is why publishers will continue to tell newsagents that print is important to them for some time yet.
An area where the company could save is in oversupply. There are several Bauer titles I’m receiving where sell-through is lower than 50%. These titles are loss making for us. The continued excess supply does not make sense.
I was disappointed to see Get Your Business Online on the shelves of one of my newsagencies yesterday. It’s an expensive special interest title and as such should not be sent unless we request. This is the magazine distribution model I want, a pull model for special interest and other magazine titles that fit a range of criteria. In a pull model I am sure I’d be able to increase my magazine sales.
I don’t want Get Your Business Online because we have had titles for the same shopper recently and they have not paid their way. Indeed, the distributor has this data – there is no justification for now sending us this title other than for them to get paid a fee by a willing publisher ken to get stock onto shelves.
Blah blah blah, same old same old. I’ve written posts like this many times before. Magazine distributor behaviour has not changed. the sooner all magazine publishers realise that the distribution model is what causes newsagents to early return stock sometimes irrationally. It is also what is causing some newsagents to seriously think about getting our of magazines altogether.
I worry that publishers will not act on the model until it is too late.
Question 8 of my magazine distribution change survey asked newsagents for any other comments. Click here to see all the comments.
69.5% of newsagents prefer Wednesday as the second magazine delivey day of the week according to my survey of newsagents receiving 407 responses in just four days.
Only 13.8% of those responding prefer Thursday, the day selected by the magazine distributors.
Click here for the survey results.
This result flies in the face of the claim by the distributors that they consulted prior to making the move. Consultation of newsagents would have shown that Thursday is not a good day. Indeed, the result articulates the concerns of newsagents about Thursday, that they may lose sales to supermarkets and other retail channels – indeed, 65.4% are concerned about this.
Magazine distributors and publishers need to take note of this live concern held by newsagents. It’s borne out of what we see on the high street and in shopping centres. If any party would know what could happen to shopper traffic it’s newsagents who live this battle every day.
Do magazine publishers want to participate in a decision that facilitates a shift in magazine purchases from newsagencies to supermarkets, petrol and conveniece? I bet not since that is a shift that would not play out for them in the long run. The problem for us is that some publishers may not understand the risk for them oof migrating sales from independents to mass groups.
Click here for more on my concerns about Thursday as the second day for magazines.
Okay, this worry about a Thursday on sale could be nothing, it could be us worrying unnecessarily. Is that a risk the magazine publishers are willing to take? A genuine consultation process would have thoroughly explored these issues.
The survey results show newsagents as understanding of the need to move from three days to two. I thought the response on this was quite reasonable.
My understanding is that Thursday was selected primarily because of Who magazine. Because of how key content is sourced, out of the US, an on sale earlier in the week than Thursday would not be possible. Indeed, I am told from within distributor ranks that being ready for Thursday will be a significant challenge. If that’s the case then why not deliver Who on a Friday through IPS and leave all other titles for a Wednesday delivery? Surely a deal could be struck between Pacific and Gotch to permit such a move.
I am sure there are many complex factors that fed into the decision. However, from where I sit, it feels like newsagents were not consulted and or listened to. The result is not good for us. The magazine distributors win. Some publishers win. The vast majority of newsagents are worse off.
It is not too late to throw the issue on the table for genuine consultation. That’s what I hope will happen given the weight of the survey results. Do I think it will happen? I’m not confident. Our suppliers have a track record of mouthing how important we are and how they value our opinion. The actions of too many suppliers tell a different story.
So, magazine publishers and distributors … are you prepared to reconsider the decision and actively consult with newsagents? We sell close to 50% of all magazines sold in Australia. We’d appreciate being part of the conversation on such a business critical move.
Footnote: while we can’t be certain all responses are from newsagents, we can be certain, thanks to the survey software, that only one response per computer was received. Given the readership of the blog, I’d say the vast majority of responds were newsagents.
My survey about the magazine delivery changes will close at 9pm tonight. I left it open another day given the rush of last-minite responses – we’re currently at 379. Please click here the link to take part in the survey.
My brief survey canvassing newsagent opinions about the magazine delivery day will close tomorrow. Please click here the link to take part in the survey. I’ll publish the results in full.
My brief survey canvassing newsagent opinions about the magazine delivery day changes has already attracted 80 responses. Please click here the link to take part in the survey. I’ll publish the results in full.
Following my blog posts on the magazine delivery day change here and here, I have prepared a brief survey canvassing newsagent opinions about the change as I am concerned that newsagents were not fully consulted. Please click here the link to take part in the survey.
I am gathering state and type of newsagency data as this could be useful in analysing the results. I suspect we will see different responses in different situations.
I will leave the survey up for a few days to harvest a reasonable number of responses. I’ll publish the results in full here.
I have spoken to a few people about the cutback in magazine distribution from three days a week to two to try and understand more about the move. While no one I spoke with is prepared to go on the record, here’s what they say about the move:
Personally, I am not against the move necessarily. I understand that businesses need to cut costs. However, I remain concerned about the potential impact for newsagencies versus supermarkets.
On the need to cut costs – it disgusts me that Gotch and Network use this as their reason yet they do not provide newsagents with reasonable ability to achieve cost cutting in magazine supply. This move is another example of do what I say and I will stop you doing what I do.
I have been thinking through the possible impacts of the magazine distribution changes announced earlier this week. Both Network Services and Gordon and Gotch are switching from Monday / Wednesday / Friday deliveries to Monday / Thursday deliveries.
While handling the switch operationally in-store will be easy for most with newsagency software, it will require some roster changes. However, enough time has been provided to handle this. The change will also require careful consideration by newsagents with sub-agents as it changes the dynamic of the work week. However, again, addressable given the time.
I am concerned about the potential impact on shopper behaviour and newsagency traffic flow.
Wednesdays have been important for us for the weeklies on sale that day – Take 5 and That’s Life – and for other titles. While sales of Take 5 and That’s Life have been in significant decline for a couple of years, we should not dismiss their importance to our businesses. Both titles are still often in the top 10 in most newsagencies. In many newsagencies, weekly magazine sales decay reports show that between 55% and 75% of all copies of Take 5 and That’s Life are sold on the Wednesday. It would be wrong to think that these regular shoppers will shop with us on a Thursday.
What if for the Take 5 and That’s Life purchase on a Wednesday we are the destination? Then, what if for a Thursday shop they have other items and we are not the destination?
Newsagents can look at their data and see how many sales on a Wednesday include Take 5 and That’s Life and assess the potential impact of losing these sales on that day. Good reporting will sold sales of the titles alone and with other items and what those other items are. They can also consider the knock-on effect if they don’t retain all those customers on the Thursday.
The risk I see is that the shift to Thursday makes buying Take 5 and That’s Life more convenient at the supermarket when shopping for the weekend. I am told that Thursday is a big shopping day /night in many areas for supermarkets as it’s often a pay day and, in some states, has late night trading. If supermarkets see a traffic boost Thursday it could be that the magazine delivery shift presents them a better opportunity.
Think about it from a shoppers perspective – if they buy Take 5 and That’s Life or other Wednesday titles available at supermarkets and need to do a supermarket shop, why go to two shops when they can go to one?
I don’t think shoppers are as loyal as we wish or think – certainly in the city at least.
Every time someone buys a magazine from a supermarket it dilutes the position of newsagencies as the go to place for magazines in their minds. That’s how we have to see this at least.
I don’t think I am jumping at shadows in pondering this. While I don’t know what will happen I am concerned for newsagents who are not already planning for the change, planning on driving traffic on Wednesday, planning on bringing Wednesday magazine shoppers with them to Thursday, ensuring current Wednesday magazine generated traffic is somehow encouraged to visit Thursday.
It would be complacent for newsagents to view this as simply a shift in delivery days. This move has the potential to impact our traffic and sales. We need to view it as a structural change that impacts us more than our biggest retail channel competitor.
I’d be interested to know whether the magazine distributors consulted any newsagent representatives on this and whether any concerns, such as those outlined above, were put.
The frequency of these bagged magazine offers from Bauer has increased significantly this year. They will say they’re getting sales growth as a result. I don’t see it in the data. Regardless, I am worse off if I sell these titles if the sale of a discount pack results in selling less of the titles inside.
I am told that our major channel competitors are compensated at the full cover price of the magazines in the bag. The only way to know for sure would be to see the billing details to these major competitors – something we will never see. All we can do is speculate. My certain speculation is that we are not being treated the same as our major competitors when it comes to these discount bags.
Out of respect for newsagents, Bauer should disclose their arrangement with our competitors and provide evidence of this.
The other factor for newsagents is the space cost. Since we get the original titles too we have to find another pocket – the bagged item is like an additional stock item for us.
In a move demonstrating independence and a lack of collusion, magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch has this afternoon announced it will move to a two day a week magazine delivery – Monday and Thursday.
Effective, just like the change announced earlier today by Network Services, from July 15, newsagents have some changes to deal with. Newsagency software should handle the announced day of week change without issue.
