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Newspaper distribution

Late newspapers today in NSW

Today’s Daily Telegraph was printed hours late, reportedly because of the State of Origin.

As a consequence, you have newspapers being delivered now and, likely until mid morning. From a workplace health and safety perspective this is not ideal. You have more traffic on the road now at 8am compared to 5am, plus more pedestrians as kids are off to school.

Already, newsagencies are being hit with calls from irate customers. I suspect the publishers will be, too.

Newsagents have contacted me, frustrated with poor communication from News Corp.

What a mess.

If you are a newspaper customer and reading this, please don’t be anger at your local newsagent. The lateness is 100% the fault of the newspaper publisher.

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Newspaper distribution

Some newsagents are yet to be advised about a price increase for The Australian, which kicked off Oct. 5

Communication from News Corp. has failed again with plenty of newsagents telling me they are yet to be advised of a price rise for The Australian and The Weekend Australia that started October 5. Here is part of the letter from September 28 I was sent by a newsagent yesterday.

The poor communication has cost some newsagents money given the poor approach to product data handling by the company.

This would never have happened 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, News Corp., folks made sure newsagents knew in advance as well as software companies – so that newsagents had the current advice a week before any cover price change. Now, with so much institutional knowledge lost in News Corp. it is no wonder newsagents who were not informed last week are furious.

News Corp. like to tell Australians how to live their lives. If only they sorted their mess out first.

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Newspaper distribution

A Sydney Morning Herald home delivery customer speaks out

Here is a note I received yesterday from a long term Sydney Morning Herald home delivery customer.

I found your details and wondered whether you could assist, or at least provide comments.  I don’t know how to write a blog on your website.

This was my Facebook rant last night and gives you all the details of this appalling lack of service since the  newsagency informed Mum they could no longer deliver her daily paper …

I am so angry, and before I begin my long rant, (apologies), I would really welcome any like experiences or feedback

Mum has subscribed to the SMH daily for 30 years.  Earlier this year her local newsagent advised that home deliveries had been outsourced.  Since then, Mum has never received a paper to her door (she lives in a Villa complex of 10).  She is 85 and has had a stroke (sorry Mum for the disclosure 😘).  She can’t walk down the driveway which in Winter is icy.  The papers are sometimes wrapped, unwrapped (and wet), shoved on the letterboxes or in bushes, and last week found right across the road.  We have heard all excuses “the truck is too big” (joke) “the driveway too narrow” (joke) … the drivers’ “aren’t insured” (wrong).  They are entering common property, as confirmed by Strata.  Mum is not getting the service she pays for.  We have battled for 8 months to get answers, and a resolution, and today I wrote to The Editor and cc’d one of the numerous people we have spoken to.  No, I have not heard from Lisa Davies the Editor, but I had a call straight away from the Team Leader who said they cannot “control or make” drivers deliver to the door.  What exactly then is “home delivery”?  How is this different from Coles Online or Amazon?  These drivers from National Delivery Service (NDS) are just lazy bastards … and no, you can’t speak to NDS.  I even registered with them pretending I was interested in being a delivery driver!  Yep, no response.

How sad that in her later years she can’t start the day with her paper as has been her routine for years and years.

Mum & I will somehow continue the battle … Just call us “Erin” … Erin Brokovich.  😡

Mark, I would welcome your feedback.

This plea for help is indicative of how broken newspaper home delivery has become. In an effort to drive down costs newspaper publishers pay less and less for what is a premium service, and customers suffer.

Note – I removed identifying details of the customer and the newsagent.

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Newspaper distribution

News Corp. moves on Queensland newspaper distribution

News Corp. kicked off in Queensland this week the first steps of its playbook for changing the newspaper distribution model.

Round one reads like consultation. While I am sure News Corp. bods will ask questions and look like they are listening, the company will do what the company wants regardless of what newsagents say.

I expect you will see wholesaler/distributor businesses given big territories in which they then supply the delivery agents, who may be newsagents or may not.

For those with long memories, this is News Corp. announced then delayed T2020 strategy playing out.

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Newspaper distribution

Knee-jerk reaction by News Corp. Sunshine Coast publisher

As a result of single incident, decades-long newspaper delivery practices in there Sunshine Coast region have been uprooted with delivery drivers being told they cannot enter premises and drop bundles. At a few hours notice newsagents were told to organise locked boxes on the street or to be present for the 2asm (or thereabouts) delivery from tomorrow morning.

Nuts.

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Newspaper distribution

Is News Corp. pushing newspaper customers to digital with a 31.6% cover price increase?

The cover price of The Observer in Gladstone increases 60 cents, 31.6%, November 18, to $2.50. News Corp. announced this to newsagents on October 30.

This is an extraordinary move by  a company that for decades resisted calls from newsagents for price increases, a key mechanism through which newsagents could make more money from their product.

Now, with newspaper print sales in terminal decline and newsagent revenue increase disconnected from the cover price, the company announces this extraordinary price increase.

Maybe they are testing a higher price rise and customer reaction in this small market prior to roll-0ut elsewhere.

Maybe they are testing to see if it helps with migration to digital, which has to be a goal for any newspaper publisher these days and is certainly a goal for News if you look at their marketing focus on pitching digital.

Newsagent commission under the new price will be a paltry 17.2%, loess than a living wage from the sale of papers.

The letter from News Corp. to newsagents demonstrates, in my view, a detachment by the company from newsagents. There is no explanation, no nuance. It’s not a letter written to a partner.

News Corp. is not treating newsagents in a socially responsible way. A company that claims to be for everyday Australians in their pages are not for newsagents, who are everyday Australians, mum and dad small business owners.

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Newsagency challenges

How the new approach to newspaper home delivery fails customers

I was talking with a newsagent who had handed back their newspaper home delivery runs to the publisher as few months ago. They were telling me about customer experiences. They handed back the run because it was not financially viable and because representations to the publishers for fair compensation were unsuccessful.

Now, months after handing there run back, their old home delivery customers tell them that in the event any paper is missed, it is never replaced. The publisher provides a credit to the account as the only solution to them missed paper complaint.

What this experience demonstrates that the demand by publishers on newsagents that they take out a paper in the event of a reported miss is not a standard to which they hold themselves when they take over a run.

The publisher is demonstrating double standards. For decades they unleashed relentless pressure on newsagents in terms of home delivery service levels, demanding a c retain standard, a standard they themselves fall short of when they take over a home delivery service.

This failure by the publisher shows that the decades of demand were a big business bullying a small business because they could, not because it was right for the customer. I think this is poor social responsibility boy the publisher.

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Newspaper distribution

Selling out of papers more often

We are selling out of papers earlier in the day than we used to. Getting additional stock is impossible. The only option is to guide shoppers to the nearby supermarket, which always has stock.

It is a fight to get an increase in planned supply and impossible to get additional stock on sell out.

All this feeds into our consideration as to the future role of papers in the store.

I’d be interested in comments from retail only newsagents.

Footnote: if you work for a publisher and plan to contact me to help. While I appreciate it, the reality is that your intervention should not be necessary in a good newspaper distribution model.

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Newspaper distribution

Late papers anger home delivery customers

How all their efforts and desires to own the customer relationship, newspaper publishers leave it to local newsagents to communicate on late delivery of papers.

The most recent experience of this was a few days ago in Brisbane when the Courier Mail was four and more hours late to some newsagents, meaning that safe delivery during the morning rush was not possible.

In an ideal world, News Corp would be public about the situation online, by text message and elsewhere so that customers know. Instead, I’m told that the only comms to home delivery customers was that from newsagents.

I am placing this post here as the request of one of then impacted newsagents, inviting feedback from others.

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Newsagency challenges

Fairfax announces plans to change newsagent remuneration

At the same time as passing on a modest fee increase for distribution and retail newsagents, Fairfax has signalled a change to its remuneration process. This, in a letter sent to newsagents. I bolded the part of the letter that deals with the change.

 Fairfax Media Newsagent Fee Review – NSW & ACT (excluding Far North Coast NSW) 

Fairfax Media has now completed a detailed review of the retail sales fees and delivery service fees currently paid to newsagents for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald and The Age newspapers. 

Fairfax considers that the current annual fee review process needs to change to reflect the changing newspaper sales and distribution landscape. It is our intention to move to a fee model and review process that is performance based. This model will provide for fee increases based on specific performance metrics, and will align with our newsagency contracts which contain provisions for fee penalties for non-compliance, or failure to meet existing performance criteria. Work on this is already underway. 

In the interim, Fairfax has decided to pass on an increase to its sales and service fees effective from Monday 3 December 2018. 

The following fees will increase and will be reflected on your weekly newsagent statements issued after that date – 

  • Retail Sales Fee 
  • Home Delivery Service Fee 
  • Home Delivery Fee – 2nd or multiple copies 
  • Fairfax Managed Sub-Agent Delivery Fee (Supermarket/chain deliveries) 

Details of each of the fee increases are shown in the Tables on the following pages of this notice. Further information can be found in the Fairfax Fee Schedule which will be available on Connect shortly. 

I think this letter signals plans for a shake out of newspaper distribution and retail businesses, given the focus on compliance and the goal of aligning with provisions in the Fairfax contract.

What Fairfax management does not get is that what they pay is a pittance for a retail presence. Year on year, rent increases by 5%, wages by between 3% and 5% and overheads by 5%. Fairfax has not been keeping up and their forecast new approach will make matters worse I suspect. The result will be fewer retail newsagents selling their products.

Here are the new fees announced with the letter:

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Newspaper distribution

Thinning newspapers have other implications

Thinning newspapers in Australia are not dealing well with being rolled. The photo shows The Age from Friday a week ago. Whereas a few years back you could easily fold the paper back into shape, it is hard now with such a thin product.

The photo shows the paper after a couple of goes at straightening it out for easier reading. This presentation that you can see in the photo impacts on product enjoyment and potentially impacts subscriber numbers.

While I understand rolling machine setting adjustment could result in a better outcome, there is a problem with thinning newspapers and how to provide the subscriber with a more enjoyable outcome.

Papers most days are too thin for flat wrap, which was the obsession of parts of News Corp years ago. There was an extensive trial and plenty of debate.

Maybe, the approach in some US cities of a single fold into a slim bag you can hang of a door handle could work or maybe a simple tri-fold into a flatter bag. However, neither lends themselves to throwing. The photo here, taken earlier this week, shows a how a newspaper is presented for a home delivery customer in a town in Wisconsin.

I do think there are issues here to be considered by distribution experts, to ensure customer satisfaction and thereby push back against loss of subscribers due to product presentation.

A distribution newsagent I was talking with last week suggested a return to hand folding. Another who already does this themselves for a small run says they easily adjust the strength of the roll based on the thickness of the product.

It is ironic that thinness is a challenge today where years ago thickness was the issue, a big issue.

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Newspaper distribution

News Corp continues with the masthead discount

Earlier this week it was the turn of the Gold Coast Bulletin to pitch the $1.00 a day home delivery offer on to the masthead of the newspaper they have retailers selling in-store for $1.70. They take a product they claim is worth $1.70, add expensive personal home delivery and discount it by 41%.  The discount is at a level that sounds too good to be true.

Desperate times I guess…

I get that subscriptions play a vital role in the newspaper revenue  model. However, why they are not 100% focussed on digital only subscriptions is the surprise, as that is the future for news delivery. I think they could do that pitch without this apparent trashing of the over the counter newspaper purchase.

News Corp. will do what it sees as appropriate for its business. Their intensifying of home delivery discounting should get retail newsagents thinking carefully about the role of newspapers in their businesses. I know of newsagents who have quit the category without detriment.

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Newspaper distribution

Disrespectful obsession with newspaper home delivery discounting

Plugging the heavily discounted $1.00 a day newspaper home delivery across the masthead of The Daily Telegraph does not make sense to me.

Home delivery is not cost effective for publishers without good advertiser support and we are told advertising revenue is in decline for daily newspapers.

Newspaper home delivery is expensive yet the fees paid often do not cover the real actual cost to the distribution newsagent.

Newspapers are not bought for news today like they were years ago. The news they carry is old, out of date. While the analysis may be interesting, it is rare anyone gets a breaking stock from a print newspaper.

Retail only newsagents are disrespected by the publisher pitching this $1.00 offer on a product they sell in-store for $1.70.

While I get that publishers need subscribers in their mix, to be able to pitch to advertisers, it frustrates me that they do this through disrespect for their retailers.

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Newspaper distribution

The newspaper subscription disconnect on show

On 774 ABC radio in Melbourne yesterday, a caller called the open line to express frustration at newspaper subscription arrangements. I’ll do my best to recount what they said.

The caller has been a newspaper subscriber for decades. They love the physical paper and enjoy digital access that comes with their subscription.

Their local newsagent decided to withdraw from home delivery. The subscriber was okay with that, expecting they could walk the few hundred metres to pick up the paper.

The frustration comes from the newspaper publisher refusing to fulfil the subscription through a pick up service from the newsagency and that it took multiple emails and calls to get even mediocre resolution.

The newspaper publisher refunded the unused portion of the subscription, requiring the long-term customer to now purchase over the counter at full price, and too pay separately for digital subscription.

The caller had sympathy for the newsagent. The frustration they expressed was at the newspaper publisher.

Here are my thoughts on this:

  • Newspaper subscriptions should be available for pickup through newsagencies. I have proposed this many times for more than twenty years. It would be easy to manage and help reinforce consistent print product engagement. I am certain we could win new subscription customers.
  • Newspaper publishers should respect long-term customers rather than penalising them.
  • Publishers need better communication with subscribers. When things like this happen, they need to be more open and attentive.
  • It is like the publisher is pushing people from print to digital. This is a comment reinforced buy the newspaper subscriber during the call on ABC Radio.

This scenario will happen more as more newsagents withdraw from newspaper home delivery. Publishers should have a more consistent subscriber friendly approach. I have never been given a good reason for newsagents not selling and offering newspaper subscription supported by over the counter collection.

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Newspaper distribution

The future is digital

A check of the current Fairfax subscription pitch page for The Age shows the extent to which Fairfax is focussed on digital and weekend delivery ahead of seven day print. Print sales plus production and distribution costs of print versus digital explain this focus.

I share this here not to alarm but to inform. Newsagent who are not actively pursuing new traffic opportunities for their businesses are behind.

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Newspaper distribution

News Corp. has another crack at distribution changes

In pursuit of ‘efficiency’ News Corp. has invited expressions of interest from parties interested in pitching for secondary distribution business. That is, providing one delivery point for News for small geographic areas for further distribution to retailers and home delivery customers.

This has elements of T2020 and some elements of a UK wholesaler model.

This from the News Corp. pitch doc sent last week: 

BRIEFING DOCUMENT NEWS CORP SECONDARY DISTRIBUTION – MARCH 2018

Currently News Corp (“News”) meets consumer demand for print media via a large network of distribution partners (“Distributors”) servicing small geographic areas. News delivers newspapers (and other promotional items from time to time) to these Distributors from our print site. These Distributors provide the distribution of newspapers to subscriber’s homes and workplaces, delivery to retailers for retail sales and delivery to other commercial partners such as Airlines, Hotels and other businesses in bulk form. Some of these Distributors also manage directly the relationship with some retailers and subscribers. Collectively this service is known internally as “Secondary Distribution”.

The media landscape is continuously evolving and the current Secondary Distribution operating model has challenges for both News and our Distributors.

Our intent is to review our Secondary Distribution model to determine the right, fit for purpose and sustainable model that offers News a cost-effective solution, data integrity in the network whilst ensuring a network that is viable for our Distributors.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this market engagement is to explore and identify interested parties and potential solutions or

alternate options that will support a sustainable distribution mechanism to the subscribers in NSW for the next five years.

The key objectives of this process are to :-

  1. Deliver a commercial model that is agile, efficient and sustainable for News and its Distributors.
  2. Provide News with transparency of data in the end to end process including sub agent data and where applicable subscribers.

SCOPE
We are inviting you to propose for consideration by us how you or your organisation would provide a service that

meets our requirements for all or part of the coverage areas listed in the attachments provided with the RFI document, specifically outlining your approach, any indicative pricing, details of technology solutions and what further information you would require to enable you to participate in a formal RFP process (should we proceed).

We also understand that any solution must be viable for the Distributor and we would ask you to propose a contract term to support investment in technology, systems and infrastructure required to support any new model.

We would encourage greenfield thinking for both the operating and commercial model.

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HIGH LEVEL REQUIREMENTS

Your submission should consider that secondary distribution is for all News paid publications. Primarily, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian, as a stand alone solution and does not rely on or include publications from other publishers.

However we do understand and accept scale is a key driver of efficiency and therefore News would consider industry collaboration where practical.

Regions for consideration have been split as: Sydney Metropolitan area and the major regional centres of Wollongong, Newcastle, The Central Coast, Blue Mountains and
region could

Current volumes, estimated arrival time to nominated drop points and postcodes in each region will be provided to those who complete the initial expression of interest.

RETAIL DELIVERIES

Minimum requirements are as follows for Retail Deliveries and Home Deliveries but we would encourage alternate solutions that may be more cost effective, agile and sustainable in the long term without affecting the customer experience.

You will be required to provide a delivery service to both Direct retailers and Indirect retailers 7 days per week, ideally before 6.30 am.

Where there are substantial efficiencies from later delivery times or prioritising 24 hour retail outlets, these should be provided for consideration.

You should have the capability to provide data by each retail outlet; sales and unsold copies by title by day. News may also require evidence of unsold copies which may include preparation for collection if required and auditing by a News authorised representative.

Indirect retailers – these are retailers that you will have the commercial relationship with whereby you will manage copy allocation and be responsible for the financial relationship.

Direct retailers – these are retailers that you will deliver a predetermined quantity on behalf of News and News manage the financial relationship.

HOME DELIVERIES

Home delivery copies will need to be presented in a format that is acceptable to News and subscribers. (Currently the product is rolled and wrapped but we encourage alternatives to traditional wrapping that may produce a more cost effective alternative or a more desirable product presentation to the subscribers.)

You will be required to provide delivery service of newspapers up to 7 days per week to a nominated delivery point for a subscriber ideally before 6.30 am but we would like to understand the cost implications of alternate delivery times.

Canberra. Subject to proposed solutions, each be broken up further into a number of geographic zones if this delivered a more sustainable network.

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Have the ability to stop and start the delivery of home deliveries as directed by News and have the ability to implement customer changes in a timely manner (ie within 24 hours of being advised by News).

Provide an issue resolution contact and process to ensure issues can be actioned on the delivery day.

THE COMMERCIAL MODEL

We would encourage your thoughts on proposing a commercial model that explores possible differing service levels or alternate scenarios which may vary from the stated high level requirements – yet deliver a more cost effective outcome.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Any proposed solution must have the following as minimum standards:

  • Proven capability in distribution and logistics management
  • Delivery reporting and data transparency with DIFOT a key metric
  • The ability to measure and manage delivery issues via a structured issue resolution process
  • A technology solution and infrastructure to enable seamless and timely data flows to and from News at customer and retailer level
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Newspaper distribution

Newsagents need to be prepared for the day daily newspapers close print editions

Regardless of the spin from newspaper publishers, we are approaching the day when capital city and major regional daily newspapers will cease to be published daily.

As the largest single channel retailing print newspapers in Australia, small business newsagents need to be prepared for this, we need to ensure, today, that our businesses can sustain such a move.

This will happen. Daily newspapers will close. The decline in sales is driving it. The decline in advertising revenue makes it unavoidable.

The print model for news has run its race. The costs of printing the product and distributing it to shops and homes is too high.

I appreciate plenty in the newsagency channel will disagree with me or will hope I am wrong. The thing is, there is now downside in business planning on the basis of me being right. This business planning would / should focus on making the business attractive for people who do not visit today and on how to attract those people to the business.

New business and new traffic are key to success in 2018 as fewer people will walk through your front door for traditional newsagency products. So, we need non traditional newsagency products, promoted outside the business, to attract new shoppers.

Acting now, hopefully, long before now, gives you the best opportunity for successful trading through what I think will be a very disruptive couple of years, far more disruptive than the last ten years combined. In disruption we can find opportunity.

However, my call is that you do not wait for a daily newspaper to close. Act now. Rely less, today, on newspaper traffic.

Acting now looks like this:

  1. Placing newspapers in a lower cost location, away from the entrance and high value real-estate.
  2. Sourcing new product categories that you do not carry today.
  3. Pitching the new categories in marketing outside the business.
  4. Getting the business known as a destination for multiple sought-after categories in your area, categories people would drive at least an hour to shop and purchase.
  5. Spending less time on what is declining and more time on what could be.
  6. Doing everything possible to ensure your business does not look traditional.

I appreciate that no one involved with the newsagency channel wants newspapers to close. However, it will happen. The test is whether you have, by then, created a business that will flourish without daily newspaper traffic.

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Media disruption

Menzies’ UK newsagent terms change set to impact small business cash flow

A colleague newsagent from Ireland emailed me yesterday about a significant change in trading terms by their managing and newspaper wholesaler. Here is their story, which I have edited slightly to remove identifying information:

I am the guy who gets up early in the morning, every morning, to haul the bundles of magazines and papers into my store where I carefully and proudly display title after title, many full facing to entice the reader, your customer…to buy. I am the store they love to go to, to browse the hundreds of titles on display.

My store and many more like mine is where your products reach their buyer.

Menzies Distribute your product in Ireland and recently bought out Easons from the EM News Distribution in Ireland. It would seem that they are deploying new tactics too.

We have been newsagents for decades. We have always paid our suppliers on time and the same applies to Menzies. For the record we do not owe any outstanding invoices over 30 days to Menzies.

However I recently received an email from Joanna Nizynska, who represent the accounts department in Menzies in Edinburgh, informing me that our payment terms are now changed to the following:

“all invoices within a calendar month due on the 1st of the next month.” So we are invoiced every Saturday for the current week and all invoices then in August, must be paid on September 1st.

This is effectively a reducing credit term with the last invoice of the month possibly having only days credit?

Without access to the standard terms of 30 days credit most retailers would close.

I am asking for your help where possible to make representation on this issue.

It has been implied by Menzies representatives that If i don’t meet these new demands that i may suffer disruption to the supply of papers and magazines to my store. In other words they suspend or close my account. Bullying me into accepting new terms and conditions or face no supply as they have a monopoly in Ireland.

Is this how we want the industry to go, is this what you the publishers want? is this what you the trade representatives want? We all know the stats in terms of print media but a bigger issue in my opinion and a factor in the whole story is how Newsagents all over the World are being treated by the industry.

Encourage us instead of badgering us, incentivize us instead of penalizing us, help us to help you grow!

Is this the end of the road for Newsagents in Ireland?

How would Australian newsagents feel if any of their suppliers introduced such a change to trading terms?

My opinion is this move by Menzies in the UK is bad. I agree with the newsagent who originally wrote about it. Eliminating usual business trading terms will hurt small business retailers for sure.

If costs have increased, suppliers need to have their customers, the magazine publishers, pay. It is unreasonable to force small business owners, those located at the bottom of the food chain, to pay.

We see this in Australia with uneconomic terms of magazines causing newsagents to react by reducing their space commitment to the category.

At some point publishers and distributors will wonder what happened. Them being disrespectful of small business retailers is what happened. That is what I think is happening here in this story from the UK.

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magazine distribution

Is the Fairfax newspaper distribution fee not as good as it seems?

Distribution newsagents logging in to their account get different information to that which I posted here today I am told.

Click here to access the document Fairfax distribution agents can access. It contains some language differences to the public announcement.

Several distribution newsagents have asked me to post it here as they say it contradicts the public statement. They say they are not that better off and that in real terms they are worse off.

Here is a comment from one newsagent:

I read the Blog item on Fairfax fees and thought others may have a head rush as I did and think that Fairfax had seen the light increasing delivery fees.  We received the notice you posted last week and it wasn’t until I checked the file attached on Fairfax website that  I saw the missing line that shows delivery fees have hardly changed.

I think it is very tricky on Fairfax’s part to have two lots of info.

Here is another.

Not only do they not maintain our fees in line with cost increases, they make every interaction with them harder and more expensive making this latest meagre rise a joke. I should have got out of home delivery years ago. I hate it every day because of moves like this one from Fairfax.

There is no upside in newspaper home delivery. I’ve been saying that for years. Indeed, I outlined in detail my position when I sold by round in 2006 and again six months later.

In researching back on what I have written on this topic, I found a piece from 2005 that remains timely today.

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Newsagency management

A strange newspaper story

Published on news.com.au today:

Vic woman arrested for dumping newspapers

A woman is expected to be charged with “aggravated littering” for allegedly dumping large quantities of newspapers across at least six Melbourne suburbs.

The 54-year-old Narre Warren woman was arrested on Monday after allegedly dumping bundles of newspapers over several weeks in Beaconsfield Upper, Narre Warren North, Pakenham Upper, Cockatoo, Yarra Glen and Yea.

She has been released and is expected to be charged on summons with obtaining financial advantage by deception and three counts of aggravated littering, police say.

I’d love to know more about this story, plenty more.

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Newspaper distribution
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