magazine distribution

We received five copies of Artist Profile magazine from Next Media this morning. This is a new title for us. Some bright spark decided to risk our money, time and space in supporting this title.

This is the problem with the magazine distribution model. Newsagents, the bankers, are forced to provide credit to publishers and distributors, take the risk of theft and give up expensive space to support titles others think we should carry. Had I been given the opportunity to decide on this title I may have said yes.

That I was not given an opportunity says that my business acumen counts for nought. Publishers and distributors who complain that newsagents are not business people ought to think about this. Their actions often deny us the opportunity to be business people.

Publishers and distributors need us and they say they like and respect our channel. They ought to show us this through fairer and more inclusive actions.

The 600% increase in supply for Gameinformer magazine we received last month failed to result in a sales lift.  We returned 80% of supply today.  All this did was muck up our cash-flow.  The publisher and the distributor forced us to partner with them in their experiment.  Newsagents don’t have the financial or space capacity to support publishers wanting to grow sales by shipping more product to the retail channel.

On January 21 I wrote about the gross oversupply of the latest issue of Gameinformer magazine.  Up to yesterday, sales do not warrant the 600% increase in supply.  We have the title in a half waterfall, taking valuable space.  This is a good example of where a publisher ought to carry the responsibility of using our space and time to support their expectations.

We didn’t get our expected supply of the latest issue of Gardening Australia.  Half of the stock we did receive was a bagged special offer for Newspower newsagents.  Rather than lose sales and return this (since we are a newsXpress store), we put it on the shelf – and it’s selling.  I don’t see the long term value on marketing group specific magazine offers.  While they may drive a sales jump, as with this issue of Gardening Australia, I doubt that they promotions build loyalty around the marketing group brand being promoted.  I’d be more interested in offers which promote our channel over supermarkets and other channels.

We sold out of Good Food last week, within days of its on-sale. This was due to the good value sample bag which came with the magazine. We ordered extra stock and the Network Services Sales Based Replenishment program kicked in and ensured we received more extra stock than we ordered.

It will be interesting to see how many copies we sell over the next three weeks without the sample bag to support sales. Good Food works well for us so I’d expect to sell at least half the additional stock supplied. This would provide an excellent above average net sale result for us this month and tell us something about the title along the way.

We (newsagents and publishers) can get a bit caught up in premium offers and discounts on cover price and forget that the product is what really matters.  At least that is what I hope to see from the next three weeks.

Magazine publishers don’t like early returns.  Early returns are the first line of defence they use when newsagents complain about poor performing titles.  Their case is that early returning denies the title an opportunity of reaching its potential.  While I accept this argument in some situations, it does not apply to most.

I early return when I have no choice because of space demands.  Take this morning, our country home section was full and we had a new title requiring space considerable.  Australian Country Collections had been on sale for six weeks and achieved only a 33% sell through in that time.  The performance of the this issue made it a logical choice for early return to free up space.  While this will not please the publisher, it was an essential decision based on title performance.

I’d also note that Australian Country Collections was due to remain on the shelf for another six weeks.   Three month on sale periods make us the bank, regardless of delayed billing.

Publishers need to understand that retail space in a newsagency is limited.  Title performance is a key factor in choosing titles for early return as is the space taken.  Australian Country Collections is chunky this month as it is bagged with an old issue – another reason it gets on the radar for early return.

Owner Driver magazine is a highly specialised title, not one which would see considerable fluctuation in sales.  Our sales are low, a couple of copies here or there and none at all other times.  This is why the quantiy we receive does not make sense.  There is no justification for an increase.  When this happens it makes you wonder about the algorithms used by magazine distributors.  I appreciate that their are ‘blips’ from time to time.  They are frustrating and expensive to resolve.