magazine distribution

Jarryd Moore writing at his Unboxed blog intensifies the spotlight on Express Publications, a company about which I have written in this place.  Express Publications recycle what to me looks like junk, magazines without dates and with price stickers from months and even years past.  These old magazines are sent in sealed bags on a merry-go-round, on trucks which spew out carbon emissions.  There is an environmental story here.  There is also a story of the space these bagged magazine take up in newsagencies.  Finally, there is a story for the advertisers.  I wonder what they are told about circulation and readership?  Be sure to jeck our jarryd’s blog post and add your voice on this issue.

Magazine distributor NDD sent us this More Sudoku title yesterday.  A check of our data shows that supply was not warranted.  A check of the performance of other Sudoku titles shows that supply was not warranted.  We don’t need more sudoku titles!

More Sudoku is a good example of imported magazine junk which we do not need in Australia.  We have plenty of locally published Sudoku titles – more than the soft segment of the crossword category needs.

While NDD will say that sales of the title justify distribution of the title to newsagents, I would only believe this with evidence.  NDD is paid a fee to ship the title out to newsagents and a fee to process returns – if this title is managed under usual arrangements.  Newsagents pay for the title and carry the cost of floor stock for the shelf life.  Newsagents and the publisher have a risk.  NDD does not.

NDD is developing a track record for responding to my blog posts like this with threatening correspondence from their lawyer or similarly threatening  correspondence from their General Manager.  The last letter sounded like a kid in a playground as it said what about Gotch and Network, the other two magazine distributors.

The best response from NDD would be to kill off cash-sucking titles like More Sudoku,  and set fair performance benchmarks which make NDD commercially responsible for the fringe product they push on newsagents.

they have good titles like Notebook, Vogue and Gardening Australia which cause newsagents little or no grief yet they also have trash like More Sudoku which sucks cash and space for little return.

I don’t mention Network and Gotch as often as NDD here because they account for fewer oversupply issues in my experience.  Also, I have considerably more control over the titles and quantities I receive with them.

While blogging here has improved my personal situation with NDD, there are fewer oversupply situations than previously, I know from what I see in other newsagencies that mine is not a universal experience.  Their attention to my supply should be equal to their attention on supply to all newsagents.

Universal Magazines demonstrated this morning that they have listened to concerns expressed by newsagents here and elsewhere.  They have changed newsagent terms for Complete Bride magazine.  Billing is now delayed by two months, supply is split into two deliveries, newsagents no longer have to return full copies and supply allocation is now more finely tuned to sales.

These are welcome changes.  I hope other publishers take note.

The changes improve newsagent cash-flow relating to Complete Bride magazine.  They also dramatically reduce the cost of returns – given the weight of the title.

Newsagents should be encouraged by the moves made by Universal for they demonstrate that a publisher is able to significantly alter their terms and distribution arrangements to better serve newsagents.

While it was initially a rocky road with Universal (and their lawyers), the result is good for newsagents and hopefully good for them.

Yesterday, we received Road Rider Cruiser and had no available space for this title.  As happens in newsagencies across the country we have to find space by taking off a title which has not performed as well.  We tool off Australian Road Rider.  This had been on sale for five weeks and while the publisher wanted it left on the shelf for another four, we needed the space.  This problem is not of our making.  Newsagencies have finite space.  Magazine publishers and distributors send stock often without considering the physical space available.  If we find ourselves unable to display the new issue of a title, we prefer to take off an old issue of a title from the same distributor.  In this case, we selected Australian Road Rider as it was from Network Services.

Space allocation is a complex issue to resolve.  Indeed, it will become more so as newsagents reduce the space they allocate to magazines.  Newsagents need to take the initiative to resolve the problem because it is our space at the core of the issue.  If we leave it to publishers and distributors we our business needs will not be put first.

We have sold one copy of Fishing Knots & Rigs from Express Publications in seven weeks on sale.  Rather than keep this for another six weeks or so we have cut our losses and returned this title early.  The publisher and distributor would prefer that we don’t early return.  Since they are not funding my real-estate, labour or theft risk, early returning makes sense.  Outside of the early return battle is the issue of the cost of returns.  This publication, like most from express Publications, comes bagged with old magazines.  We have to pay to ship this stock back to the distributor.  The weight of each bag is such that we will spend around $10 shipping these returns back – this is stock we did not order in the first place.

We are noticing a slowdown in the sales of children’s magazines, especially the small format titles such as Mania.  Indeed, the last issue has a sell-through of 12% – one copy.  This makes it loss-making for us.  A couple of issues back we sold out.  This rocky road of sales leaves newsagents carrying the cash cost of poor sellers.

The Mastering Digital Photography Guide distributed today by NDD is a perfect example of newsagents being abused by poor distribution practices.  We are well serviced with Digital Photography titles.  This publication, at $14.95, is expensive.  It is also small and not suited to our magazine fixturing.  It is easily stolen and therefore presents a higher risk to us.  I can see no evidence in our sales data of various Digital titles to justify this title being sent to us.  It looks to me like a cash grab.  We are early returning all copies.

While NDD and their lawyers may say that this blog post is evidence of me targeting the company, I’d suggest they look carefully at their practices.  They could have stopped this blog post being written by not supplying this title in the first place.

Click here for a copy of the magazine cash-flow study I first published in March 2006.  This outlines the cash-flow implications of the current magazine distribution. I am posting it here in response to an earlier comment.

We are soon to hear about the magazine publisher / distributor code of conduct which is being prepared in consultation with the ANF.  From what I have been told, this code of conduct will not address the core issues which cost us the most.

I have been thinking about Quadrant Editor, Keith Windschuttle’s comment published here last night since I saw it come through at 9:30pm.

Dear Mark,

Thank you for drawing attention to your concerns about the wording of the subscription form in the current Quadrant Magazine. I can understand why you and your colleagues are upset about it.

It was a clumsy attempt to draw attention to our appeal for subscriptions, which I now regret publishing. I have told our printers to withdraw it from all future editions. It will not appear again.

Yours sincerely
Keith Windschuttle

While I appreciate Keith responding here, he does not demonstrate that he understands the issue.  This is about more than wording.  Somewhere in their office a decision was made to target newsagents, the hand that feeds them.  They decided to print an insert into the latest issue in the magazine, on a colour paper to draw attention to the offer.  They chose words which put down their network of retailers.

Labelling this clumsy does not do the process justice – unless they have no process for considering such inserts.

I would have preferred Keith to say something along the lines of:

Newsagents,

Sorry.  I am my team here at Quadrant are sorry for disrespecting you as we have in the latest issue. We failed to consider your investment in Quadrant.  We failed to recognise that you have played and continue to play an important role in distributing and selling our magazine.

We intend to make this right.  here is our plan:

1. Every issue from now on will promote newsagents putaways alongside any subscription offer.
2. We will develop a one year putaway product with you so that customers prepaying you for a year can access the same benefits of those subscriptions we post.
3. We will list your outlets on our website – under a find a Quadrant retailer facility.
4. We will research a story about the role of newsagencies in Australian society and run this – if it meets our editorial criteria.

We cannot undo what has been published in the latest issue.  I hope that the steps outlined above show we have learned from the mistake and want to work with you mutual benefit.

Please continue to stock Quadrant.

It’s not too late Keith.

Our supply of the latest issue of Cruzin magazine, out today, is up by 33%.  There is no justification for this in our sales data.  The only explanation can be that NDD, the distributor, has been sent stock by the publisher and has to get it out of their warehouse.  I checked the magazine out to see if there is a reason for the increase.  I could not find anything.  Also, no posters – so no means of promoting sales growth.  We are returning several copies early but the distribution model with NDD being what it is, we will be out of pocket for this unjustified increased supply for at least a month.

People at NDD complain about blog post like this.  They say I am unfair, that I pick on them.  The best way to get me to not draw attention to their failed magazine distribution model would be for them to get it right and to treat my newsagency and all newsagencies with respect.  They need to stop treating us as their bank.

NDD increased our supply of Two Wheels by one copy to eight.  We sell two or three per issue.  There is no justification for the increase by 1 copy.  Why complain about one extra magazine you say?  Imagine the cash rake NDD achieves by increasing all newsagents by this quantity.  Then factor in the theft opportunity – newsagents pay for titles stolen from their businesses.

I am also frustrated that the latest issue of Two Wheels is bagged – don’t publishers of bike magazines know that shoppers prefer to browse these titlles.

I Like Limelight magazine, but not enough to forgive an unjustified increase in supply by magazine distributor NDD.  If anything, we should have had supply cut by 10% instead of the increase we found today of 27%.  Limelight sales fluctuate significantly in our newsagency based on the cover – this appears to not be allowed for in the allocation model.  A couple of issues ago we sold out but that was a one off.  I bet that NDD uses that as the justtification for today’s increase.  Research will show them that our sales are very bumpy.

The supply quantity for Australian Sky and Telescope is another example of over supply by the magazine distributor and or publisher this month.  I know I bang on aboutt the same stuff, over supply, often.  Sometimes, publishers engage, make contact and engage more in the scale out of their product.  Most who do this say they had no idea supply was so patchy.

The magazine distribution model is hard to fathom sometimes.  While I am happy to receive more stock of what is selling, I am not happy to receive more of a title which does not sell in the quantities we already receive.

This is the case for Australian Woodsmith magazine – supply quantity increased this week for no apparent reason.  I suspect we are not alone.

Independent magazines must be of interest to one or two university lecturers based on questions I have received in the last couple of weeks.  At least one business course appears to be using the challenge of the distribution of independent magazines as a case study.  The questions from some of the students are excellent.  A common question is – why not go direct to a newsagent, why would I use a magazine distributor?  This is a question I have for independent publishers too.

Art Almanac does not sell in our newsagency.  The sales data shows this to be the case yet we continue to receive plenty of stock of this title from NDD.  Indeed, we receive plenty of art titles from NDD, none of which pays for the space they use.  I am happy to carry special interest titles – if they sell.