magazine distribution

Further to my post a week ago about Fisherman and Boatowner, the editor has gone to ground and is not expanding on his comments that the distributor, NDD, is to blame and that he did not mean to attack newsagents – not to me and others I have spoken with at least. The Fisherman and Boatowner situation, gross oversupply for many and undersupply for others, supports the claim that newsagents are treated poorly by the magazine supply chain – particularly in the long tail, titles outside the top 200 sellers.

No matter which KPI you use, return on investment, return on floor space, stock turn, or cash flow, smart newsagents are able to measure the cost to their businesses of the inefficiency in the magazine model. That they are denied the opportunity to make good business decisions about magazine supply is an appalling situation. Those presiding over the current supply model in the magazine distribution businesses ought to give entrepreneurial newsagents the tools to =run their businesses as they see fit – I suspect that the result would be an increase in overall sales.

Maybe Fisherman and Boatowner should close down – from retail at least. That newsagents are effectively funding the title by providing free shelf space and labour ought to be enough to see it removed from supply in all but the locations where it pays its own way. If such a move leads to the demise of the title so be it. I don’t see anyone providing financial assistance to keep struggling newsagencies open – we are not car makers after all.

The photo shows the fishing segment of the magazine range in my newsagency as at this morning. Next to these two columns we have another two columns of boating magazines. The photo and my posts over the last two days about Fisherman & Boating serve as evidence supporting my call for newsagents to appoint a magazine czar to approve all titles which have access to our retail and distribution network.

Until we take control of this and respect our network as the asset it is, we will continue to experience oversupply and undersupply or magazines.

The Coles, Woolworths / Safeway, BP and Mobil petrol outlets get what they want in terms of magazines because they manage access nationally. That newsagents do not is, in part, our own fault. It leaves us disadvantaged. This is why we must appoint a czar and require all magazine publishers and distributors to deal with us through the czar. Sure distributors would not like this. It does not suit them having us control our labour and real estate assets.

Given the Forest Hill demographic, my newsagency is over serviced for fishing magazines. The problem is that no one distributor would know this as they would only look at their sales data. That suits their model. It does not suit niche publishers but they are too small to do anything about it.

I am across the discussions between magazine publishers, distributors and the Newsagents’’ Federation of magazine KPIs. The KPIs agreed thus far do not address the issue.

Until newsagents take control we will continue to experience problems such as those with Fisherman & Boating.