Print newspapers fading from hotels
I am noticing fewer newspapers available in hotels now than at any time I can recall. More hotels are offering free online access through services like Press Reader which was available in a hotel I was in this week. Press reader provides access to the full content of more than 2,000 newspapers from around the world. No wonder hotels offer this over one or two print newspapers.
Digital offer with print issue of People magazine
There is a digital offer on the shelf in retail with the latest issue of People Style Watch. You get access to a digital issue if you purchase the print issue. This marketing drives sampling of the digital experience. It is a key component of the education strategy of a number of magazine publishers.
The Australian promoting a free tablet
Like many major News Corp. dailies, The Australian is promoting a free tablet computer as a gift with a 12-onth digital subscription. The ad pops up when you go to the website for The Australian – you can’t miss it.
Time Out New York to be free
Print copies of Time Out New York will be distributed for free starting with the April 15 issue. While subscriptions will continue, the over the counter copies will disappear with free copies to be available from 175 locations around several New York boroughs. Read more here.
Smart tablet offer from News Corp.
When I first wrote about digital subscriptions by newspaper publishers years ago I noted that if I was doing it I’d bundle the offer with a tablet. This explains why I like offer promoted in the Herald Sun today – and, I am guessing, other News Corp. products.
This is a smart offer and essential to uptake and engagement. I’d be surprised if it does not work.
Owning your route to market is key for any newspaper selling digital subs to consumers who could be challenges with other channels. It’s also a terrific ‘gift’ to drive up-take.
Thinking ahead and considering the disposability of mobile devices, a free tablet with every year-long subscription has to be on the horizon.
Yes, I understand newsagents are not part of this story. It does’t matter as we have an abundance of opportunities of our own and print for titles like the Herald Sun has a good future for the foreseeable future.
BriefMe app spotlights social media as news traffic driver
The BriefMe app has been on Apple’s app store for two days and it’s popular. It provides the user with access to top trending stories across social media. While currently US focussed, I’m finding it useful for hearing about US stories not reported on here or as much through mainstream press. I trued BriefMe having read about it at TechCrunch.
What does this mean for newsagents: here is another app to disrupt how, when and where we can access news. It also disrupts the process of curating news. These are more than fads, they are trends that will not roll back.
I know some will say this is too much to consider to take in, that they are not that connected to care. Being aware does not need you to use these apps.
A newsagent at the counter you are like a human Brief Me when you talk about news stories which you and earlier customers have discussed.
Discount magazine bundles don’t help Bauer stop deep declines in weeklies
Weekly magazine circulation has declined again based on the latest audit results published at mUmBRELLA.. From the declines speak to the failure of their discount bagged magazine strategy. here are the Bauer declines: Zoo (now terminal) 36%, NW 15%, Woman’s Day 5.7%, TV Week 4.4%, OK! 3.7% and Take 5 3.4%. Pacific weeklies declined too: Famous 14.5%, Who 12%, That’s Life 6.3% New Idea 3.5%.
Consumer habits have changed and some titles are yet to catch up with that in terms of content they offer. The publishers also need to engage differently with retailers. They focus too much on billboard displays and not enough on engagement that fits with retail today, specifically retail in newsagencies.
The publishers have not helped themselves by spreading into retail outlets where magazines are not treated well. Their arrogance has distanced some publishers from the newsagency channel.
In short, publishers need to reset their contact, change how they engage at retail and embrace newsagents as their specialist retailers. We’re all in this together and can support each other. However, supermarkets, convenience and petrol will not see themselves that way.
These declines are not new. The lack of a smart response from publishers is also not new. In some respects it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Magazine circulation figures sobering
Circulation of Bauer Media’s Dolly dropped 42% year on year in the latest audited circulation report – as reported by mUmBRELLA. other Bauer titles dropped: Cleo 25%, AWW 4.2%, Cosmopolitan 9.2%, PC & Tech 19%, Top gear 19.8%. Pacific titles dropped too but not at the same level as Bauer: Girlfriend 22%, Total Girl 29%, Men’s Health 19%, Women’s Health 12%, Marie Claire 9%, Better Homes and Gardens 6%.
Frankie, which usually achieves growth, dropped 3.5%.
Only a small number of titles reported growth this quarter.
Magazine publishers could grow sales by changing how they engage with newsagents. I am certain that newsagents could help publishers in return for a more commercial relationship. We could more actively promote magazines and engage in campaigns that increase multi-purchase as well as attracting shoppers back for their next purchase.
Newsagents have an opportunity to engage with the category differently to supermarkets, and P&C outlets where the focus is only on the SKU. For a better margin we can nurture and support magazines. It all depends if Australian magazine publishers want this.
Print readership continues to decline
The Australian reports newspaper print readership contracted in December:
PRINT readership of Fairfax Media news mastheads continued to contract apace, with an analysis of December figures showing Fairfax’s major national, metropolitan and regional Sunday titles lost one in 10 readers collectively.
News Corp’s major Sunday titles slipped 3.2 per cent in the Enhanced Media Metrics Australia figures, while its weekday titles were down 1.2 per cent (7.8 per cent for Fairfax).
Newsagents need to factor these results into their business planning. The decline is not inconsistent with the newsagency sales benchmark study results I have published here.
News Corp. offers free magazines with newspaper App subscription
This image is an ad from The Advertiser from News Corp. in Adelaide – Friday 9, page 36. The ad is promoting a subscription to the newspaper App and a bunch of magazines. It’s a compelling offer that appears set on cannibalising the print product.
I wonder how retail and distribution newsagents feel about this?
While the magazine range offered is limited, it could be enough to get some to stop purchasing the paper from their usual outlet.
The ad also appears to be encouraging existing Subscribers to ‘close’ print home delivery and convert it to digital only.
This ad was in the metro edition – it is targeting metro customers. Newsagents ought to be concerned about this in my view.
A newsagent colleague who alerted me to this ad noted:
Metropolitan Newsagents in Adelaide are beginning to realise that even the local crew, despite denials, are actively working to erode Distribution Newsagents core business.
What else are they expected to think given the actions of ANPL at a time when we are seeing plummeting HD numbers.
News needs to do what it needs to do to survive the extraordinary disruption to print. However, it ought to be transparent with newsagents about its plans. I am certain the company has timelines it could share which would help newsagents make more informed capital investment decisions.
The best indicator newsagents have of News’ intentions is ads like this.
More Apps that challenge newsagents and magazine sales
There are several Australian Apps for mobile devices that challenge sales of TV guide related titles from TV Week to the weekly listings in newspapers – apps that list TV programs and provide even more details beyond the listing.
The various TV guide apps I have played with are easy to use and accessible anywhere thanks to our connected world.
While the example I have used is not as rich as some in newspapers or TV Week, it’s good and well serves the need to know what’s on.
If you’re someone who visits a newsagency to buy TV Week or a newspaper on the day the seven-day TV guide is published, the App could encourage you to not make that trip.
While our businesses do not live or die by the traffic generated by selling a TV guide, losing a single customer may hurt as they could then ignore us for the cards they buy through the year and other items.
We can’t stop the growth of use of TV guide Apps. But we can develop a business plan that takes into account the take up of this and other Apps.
Check out the subscription offer in this magazine
While I accept subscriptions are important to the sale and distribution mix of magazine publishers, sometimes they go too far, abusing our low cost retail channel for completely selfish gains. Take the latest issue of Men’s Muscle & Health. The issue has a card inserted which partially covers the title in the pocket behind. On this car they pitch a subscriptions deal and a digital product which I suspect is their long term game. Either way, it’s not a card I’d leave in the magazine if I had it on the shelves.
AFR pushing digital
The front page of today’s Australian Financial Review newspaper is a reminder of the importance Fairfax places on digital as a distribution channel for their content. The sticker offering 50% off a six months digital sub is stuck over news on the print edition. While I am not privy to the financials, I expect the daily print edition of the AFR to be replaced by a digital only product soon. Digital distribution of AFR type content makes sense in this faster and more connected world. Newsagents need to factor this into their business planning.
The challenge for Fairfax is that the news in the AFR and the charts are accessible elsewhere. It’s point of difference is analysis and the question is whether that is worth $1 a day.
News turns a profit in the UK
Balancing my posts today about the future of print is news reported by International Business Times earlier this month out of the UK that Times Newspapers has made a modest profit of £1.7m. The whole article is well worth reading as it offers a British take on the health of print newspapers.
The future of the print newspaper
Harvard Political Review earlier this month published The Future of Print: Newspapers Struggle to Survive in the Age of Technology, an article well worth reading. It takes us through the newspaper financial model and looks at the impact of technology.
Technology provides publishers the best option for efficiency, it dramatically cuts the distribution cost. Distribution newsagents who did not factor this into their business plan five or ten years ago are challenged today.
While there is a beautiful and emotional argument about the sound of the newspaper landing on the doorstep, the reality is it now costs to much to do this and so the service will continue to retreat.
Google and the future of News
I enjoyed an article from Jeff Jarvis at Medium about a role Google could play in the future of news. I especially love this quote from Jarvis:
In Geeks, I argue that news organizations must shift from thinking of themselves as content factories serving mass audiences to understanding that journalism is a service to individuals and communities.
The whole article is well worth reading by those who cherish news and the role easy access to independent news and analysis plays in democratic society.
I suspect many 9in existing news organisations are not thinking along the same lines as jarvis – based on the actions they are taking.
News Corp promoting to Qantas passengers
When you check in for a Qantas flight using the self service terminals at the moment, an ad for a News Corp. digital product is on the screen while your details are searched out. In Sydney yesterday it was The Daily Telegraph app being promoted.
it’s a smart move by News, targeting the right market for a mobile product.
Newsagents need to take in and consider these moves as they plan for 2015 and beyond. The best way to learn what newspaper publishers are planning is to look at their actions rather than listening to their words.
News the loss leader to music?
I received this offer by email from Fairfax yesterday for The Age: $3.50 a week for digital access for six months. The bulk of the email was about the music offer: a free album to download every week of the six months. The value proposition is pitched in therms of music and not news. I found the offer to be interesting and disappointing – that they have to do this to get people to ‘pay’ for news.
Great to see a newspaper publisher promoting print
Kudos to the folks at the print edition of the Cairns Post newspaper for so strongly promoting their print product on the front of their building in downtown Cairns. While many Australian newspaper publishers pitch their digital platform ahead of print, this bold support of print is welcome to see. Cairns newsagents should be happy with this support.