The Anzac coin collection yet to launch in newsagencies is available on eBay. Click here to see an ad. Click here to see and ad for the Victoria Cross medal. Here is someone else selling the Victorias Cross medal.
These activities diminish the value of the newspaper promotion. Right now everything should be about the mastheads connected to the promotion.
What do you think?
Click here for a copy of the announcement from News Corp. this morning of its newsagent commission fee review. Not great newsier newsagents in this.
Last week I received an anonymous note following my posts here about people selling newspaper promotion sets online. In the email, the correspondent included banking and address details which I have edited of the post below. I am happy to share these details with publisher folk to investigate:
Hi Mark,
I’m a fellow newsagent and a follower on your blog, your recent posts regarding a select few rouge agents selling magazines on eBay drew my attention.
I have done some investigating and hope you can forward my findings to the relevant suppliers and stop this behaviour.
Excuse the long email as I outline my findings.
One seller in particular I noticed is prolific at selling News Limited Promotions and other current magazines often at below cost price, with free delivery.
Link to this seller’s profile:
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/auton_goyck/m.html?I couldn’t find much initially, the item locations are mainly Carlton VIC, with a few others listings stating Sydney which are likely false too to throw off suspensions from News Limited.
Examples of the listings include the Roald Dahl Full set.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-MARVELLOUS-ROALD-DAHL-LIBRARY-set-14-books-case-advisor-courier-mail-/252760717924
We’re not allowed to sell without tokens and this eBay seller is selling for $39.99 inc postage.AFL Season Guide
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-AFL-Record-Season-Guide-2017-By-Michael-Lovett-Paperback-Free-Shipping-/252762339055?
RRP $40 – Selling for $29.99 inc postagehttp://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OUR-WORLD-IN-CHARTS-UNDERSTANDING-THE-ECONOMY-MONEY-ALAN-KOHLER-/252688189246
RRP $30 – selling for $13 inc postageBy my calculations, with eBay and paypal fees close to 10% and postage for 1-3kg parcel close to $12. This seller must be doing dodgy returns as otherwise the items are being sold way below cost.
I created a fake account and purchased a small item, found the banking details.
In the checkout process, eBay actually linked me to another similar product which I discovered was the same seller with a different account :
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/32168732/m.html?
This account has over 2300 listings for sale, mostly old magazines dating back to 2013 and around 600 stationary items from GNS all with the item location in Glenroy VIC.
The photos in some of the listings from these 2 accounts share the same floorboard in the background and I found the banking details matched too.
Quick check online showed no recent rental or sale history, presumably this seller own it, can’t really confirm it unless I do a title check but that has a fee.
With the AFL Season Guide I mentioned earlier, I bet not many newsagent’s receive over 12 copies for this title. I’m sure they are able to filter a list of newsagents receiving 12 or more (with a high history of returns) in Melbourne and cross check against Owner’s Names and address.
Hopefully this is enough of a lead to work with and you can forward this to the contacts at News Limited and Gordon Gotch who can do something about it, this character has obviously been around for a while given their feedback history.
There are of course other sellers on eBay selling magazines and promotion items, but none with the same scale and magnitude.
If the outcome from this finding leads to an appropriate action (ie a full audit on the identified newsagency account) , I would be willing to dig through the other sellers and gather more Intel.
Perhaps you can also share this on the blog and enlist some help. I myself do not seek any credit and wish to stay anonymous.
I, too, am concerned about people operating outside the rules when it comes to these promotions. It gives our channel a bad name.
For their part, publishers appear disinterested in what looks like rogue behaviour.
I welcome comments from others on this.
Earlier this week here I asked distribution newsagents three questions:
Now, I have a supplementary question, a judgement question:
If a newsagent is found to have paid sub agents less than publisher mandated commission and they charged sub agents to deliver newspapers to them and/or have charged sub agents for returns pickup, should they have their distribution business taken from them?
Back in 2006 the flat wrapping of newspapers for home delivery was a big issue. After various trials, flat wrap papers became a standard in South Australia.
But what about the rest of the country? Why did flat wrap not become a national standard?
Ten years ago this was a big story. There were many meetings and many arguments. It was thought by some to be crucial to the success of newspapers into the future.
We now know flat wrap has had no impact on the sales success of a newspaper.
The South Australian situation was and is unique because of how home delivery agents are clustered in depots, groups of newsagents sharing infrastructure. Even so, newsagents with larger distribution businesses elsewhere have not embraced flat wrap.
In Adelaide yesterday I saw a flat wrapped paper in a cafe and this reminded me of the discussions in 2006. here is a photo of the paper:
That flat wrap has not taken off around the country makes me wonder about the claims in 2006 of how vital flat wrap was and about the costs of the infrastructure given the poor return newspapers provide today.
I am writing about it today in the hope some newsagents till involved in flat wrap share their experiences as I am sure there are newsagents in the channel who know nothing about this type of newspaper delivery.
These are questions for distribution newsagents:
How long would it take you to establish an account and supply newspapers to a retail newsagent account where the business is run by a newsagent with six years experience in owning and running a newsagency, a good payment record for newspapers?
My experience is that such accounts are approved and opened in a day or two.
Do you ask for a deposit where the business persons known and has a good payment record?
I have heard of a deposit being required in rare situations.
In a situation this week, a newsagent with a good payment record has had to purchase newspapers at full retail price from the distribution newsagent sitting on the account application. Further, they have been told even if the account is approved a deposit of $2,000 will be required for an account that will amount to $1,000 a week.
It is frustrating hearing from a retail only newsagent who is not supplied promotional material and giveaways. This happend recently when a capital city daily had a free for all who purchased the paper yet the distribution agent, who also has a retail outlet, refused to supply the freebie to their competitor retail only sub agent. They had plenty of stock. The only problem was their inability to fulfil their obligation as a distribution agent. This is the attitude of a business person scared for their future.
While I have no newspaper publishing experience, I am a consumer of news, especially on my phone, tablet and laptop.
But I don’t pay for it, I won’t pay for it. If there is a story behind a paywall that interests I wait or seek it out elsewhere – not because I am cheap but because the publisher wants me to sign up to a subscription.
The subscription model is an old media approach to a new media opportunity. It is out of date and not suited to today’s online and mobile consumer.
While in the UK earlier this week the Herald Sun had a story about the back room moves at Richmond Football Club. I clicked on the story and got this screen.
They wanted $10 for two months access before they would let me see the story. I love a good AFL back room story but it is not worth paying $10 to access it. That is how I saw it, a $10 fee because of this one story.
I suspect that is how plenty of people see it, especially those of us who travel overseas and want to catch up on stories back home for a short while.
Had the offer been, say, a fee for the story I would have been more interested. How much I’d pay would depend on the story. In this case, I might have paid up to 25 cents.
How much I would pay for future Herald Sun stories would depend on the trust that builds from earlier purchases. If the value is there I’d pay a few cents per article.
Imagine what would happen if publishers adopted this pay per story model. It would make the stories the thing rather than the current obsession with clickbait headlines. It would make journalism the thing as the better the journalism the better the value of the story and the more consumers would respect a masthead and the more stories they would buy. Hey they might even subscribe.
Today’s digital world is often about either free or low cost access to services and products. This is where newspaper publishers ought focus their attention – micro payments per story. The old subscription model is as old as the old paper model and ought to be discarded as the entry point for digital revenue.
Rather than pushing to lock people into long-term subscriptions, yes, two months is long-term, give is story by story access, take micro payments and get more value from each good story you publish.
This approach of a payment per story makes the journalists and editors more connected to the business model. It would make them work harder to develop content people want as they would want to be in the top grossing stories from the masthead.
I’d like to see News Corp. or Fairfax offer this pay per story approach today. I think a trial with fair pricing would produce a good result for them, their editorial staff and their advertisers. yes, I’d accept non intrusive advertising with any sort I purchase.
You only have to look at the pitch from News Corp. to understand where they are focused for their future distribution channel.
The tablet is the distribution mechanism. It is faster, cheaper, more accurate in placement and more current than the current method of printing, stacking, putting in a truck, driving to the distribution newsagent, them unbundling, rolling, loading the delivery vehicle and going out on the road to deliver news that is hours out of date.
These are the facts.
Newsagents need to invest in distribution knowing the focus of publishers. Yes, there is enjoyment from turning the page, not needing a device to read the news and being able to easily dive into a section you like. The thing is, the distribution platform is no longer commercially viable.
Newsagents need to manage the News Corp bundle offer so that sales data flows to News and the company is able to measure engagement. There has been some confusion with communication from XchangeIT and News Corp.
To serve the need of newsagents in any state or territory, my newsagency software company Tower Systems published advice Sunday and Monday.
Newsagents ought to check with their software company in order to run this promotion the correct way. If they do not do this it could impact measurement as well as proper compensation.
Respected media commentator Roy Greenslade has written a column – Suddenly, national newspapers are heading for that print cliff fall – for The Guardian that will challenge all who have print newspapers as part of their business model mix.
I am in Ireland to address the Irish Press Council’s annual general meeting in a lecture entitled “Have newspapers got a future?”
My theme is that they have no future. Declining circulation figures tell us that people are switching week by week from print to screen. It is simply a matter of time before it becomes unprofitable to continue publishing newsprint papers.
While we know that newspapers will stop publishing when the numbers no longer work, Greenslade makes an excellent point about the poorer quality of stories as newspapers cut costs in the end days.
Space in newsprint papers can be filled. The end result is something that looks like a paper, but the content lacks any real value. It is not journalism. It is pointless material without any public benefit.
While Grenslade is writing about UK newspapers, there are parallels here.
For our part, we newsagents should long ago have reset our businesses to not rely on newspaper traffic. Those who have not are facing trouble.
News Corp. has taken on charity status with its request (offer) for retail newsagents in South Australia to give away the Messenger newspaper for free.
This does not make sense to me at all.
If you think this will attract traffic it will not, in my opinion.
News is asking newsagents to provide a service. This massive company ought to have the decency to offer fair compensation.
I would be shocked if any newsagent says yes.
Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood yesterday delivered a presentation at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney. The content is available online through the ASX website.
Below are some excerpts from the published material followed by my comments:
Over the last four years we have reset the 185-year-old Fairfax. We are now a modern media business that is diversified and ready, willing and able to be part of the future.
The strategic priorities and opportunities for each of our businesses feed into our Group strategy, which is to ‘transform, grow and invest’ to drive long-term performance.
We have delivered a 26% reduction in annualised publishing costs (that is $400 million).
At the same time, our digital and print audiences have never been larger, reaching 12.9 million Australians and 3.2 million New Zealanders, as well as 2.2 million radio listeners.
While it could be tempting for newsagents to be critical here from their perspective, I think a more helpful take-away is the focus on cutting costs and pursuing revenue from other sources. These are mission critical moves for newsagents. Newsagents need to set their 140 year old businesses (that’s how old the channel is) on a similar path – cutting costs and pursuing other revenue sources. Many of us have been doing this for years now.
Over the last four years, we have reshaped all aspects of the way we operate. We have built a stronger, more diversified, digitally-driven business that is leaner and more agile.
We have never shied away from the fact that we are on a print to digital journey. We have prepared our business to minimise
Newsagents need to be on a similar journey, replacing traffic for old products with traffic for new, replacing traffic for agency products with traffic for new.
The reality of media today can be summarised in four points:
1. Consumers have wholeheartedly embraced digital, as reflected by the rising use of search engines, social media as well as going online for news and information. Print is steadily declining but still attracting valuable audiences. Already around 70% of our Metro audiences reach us via digital means.
2. Print advertising and circulation revenue continue to decline. Digital display advertising and circulation alone cannot provide an offset.
3. Mass circulation print products involve a high level of fixed cost, notwithstanding the reduction and variabilisation we have achieved over the past four years.
4. Technology and systems costs to support legacy print and digital infrastructure have grown over the years, creating complex and expensive support requirements.
In short, failure to address the old – the traditional model – is not an option.
These are points we need to read again and again. In short, the points come back to: spend less on the parts of your business that are shrinking, chase new traffic, not acting is not an option.
It should surprise no one, and certainly not us, that the seven-day-a-week publishing model will eventually give way to weekend-only or more targeted printing for most publishers. We are already seeing this happening offshore.
Quite simply it is likely that one day, the viability for newspapers on current trends will run out. It isn’t going to happen overnight – but eventually it will.
The question for newsagents is: are you ready for this? Are you ready for the decline in daily traffic that will result from the end to the daily newspaper? Are you ready to no longer be the habit-based retail stop-off? The ramifications beyond newspaper sales could be extraordinary.
Material reduction in printing and distribution costs resulting from significant reduction in newspaper publishing frequency. We expect increased industry cooperation on printing and distribution.
Distribution newsagents take note.
This slide on page 19 of the presentation document is telling. There is no denying the trend re print circulation reported by PWC and included in the presentation by Fairfax – and seen in our own benchmark studies.
I like that Fairfax is transparent about what it is doing and why and that it has been for some years. Presentations like the one to which I refer above can inform newsagents for their own plans, and this is what I hope happens.
Sure, it would be easy for newsagents to complain about Fairfax for a various reasons. I think time and energy would be better spent learning from their plans and considering this information when making our own plans for our future.
If you have not significantly changed your newsagency in recent years, what should this Fairfax presentation encourage you to do:
A newsagent wanting to close their IPS account checked on supply for The Saturday Paper from their distribution agent, who already supplies newspapers to the business. The distribution agent has refused. This is kind of like the taxi driver who refuses a short distance fare. Refusal to serve ought not be allowed.
News Corp. today announced the results of its remuneration review for distribution newsagents.
It is appalling that a supplier can dictate the fees a small business can charge for such a labour intensive service.
Newsagents, the service providers, ought to be able to charge what they like. But, the system is the system and those in the system entered it knowing the terms.
The fee increase is disrespectful and socially irresponsible.
Victorian distribution agents looking to save money ought to consider quitting VANA, the local newsagent association as VANA is clearly not able to help them on the single most important matter, fair and equitable remuneration. Further, it has never been able to help them. Save the fees and reinvest in your business and you will be better off.
APN sent this email to affected newsagents in North Queensland at 5:28pm last night. While the email provides a week’s notice on a price rise, anyone working with newsagents would know that an email late on a Friday is not a smart move – if they want newsagents to be properly informed about the contents. Newspaper publishers need to get better at their email communications.
News and Fairfax are sniping about layoffs at their competitors. With print copy sales continuing to decline and ad revenue down it is only natural the publishers want to cut costs.
Publishers ought to focus on creating more compelling products for today’s marketplace. With editorial roles at the heart of what publishers create, retaining and hiring good and important voices ought to be a core goal.
I want a newspaper I can enjoy for more than the 2 or 3 minutes I give many I pick up to read today.
Further to my post about a promotion offering free copies of the Courier Mail and other newspapers at a Night Owl Convenience store in Brisbane, check out the stack of newspapers I saw at this store just now – at 8pm Sunday night. That’s a lot of unsold newspapers.
I am aware of some newsagents refusing to provide News Corp. with sales data through XchangeIT. The provision of this data is one reason for News now using XchangeIT to send supply files to newsagents.
Unlike some magazine publishers, News wants to reduce the paper wastage of returns – saving them money as well as newsagents money. The best shot they have to make more accurate allocations is through timely access to accurate data. Hence the move recently to partner with XchangeIT.
I have met with senior people from News in Sydney on this and related topics several times and am certain there is no sinister plan afoot here. No, there is no conspiracy.
The data being provided is for the stated intended use only. Indeed, the data being provided would to help the company move against newsagents as it is narrow in its scope.
Even a fractional decline in newspaper returns can be valuable for News and valuable for newsagents.
I encourage all newsagents to get on board with this project and to ensure that accurate sales data flows back to News through XchangeIT.
Now before anyone comments – the folks at News and XchangeIT are not aware I am writing this nor have they asked me to write this. I have written this because I think this project is good for our channel. The more we and our suppliers use timely accurate data the better (are you reading this magazine distributors and publishers?)
There are other factors that will reduce newspaper sales in and through newsagencies that newsagents need to be aware of. Worrying about the supply of this data to News is a waste of time in my view.
Yes, News will put their needs ahead of newsagents, as they should. We, too, should put our needs ahead of News – such as where we place newspapers, how we market the product and the time we invest in managing the category. All our efforts should be focused on our profits from the category as it is with News.
News Corp. has advised distribution newsagents in QLD of the results of its annual distribution fee review. While not probably as much as some were hoping for, any increase is better than nothing.
Some said that the structure of the fees is a problem, and that distribution newsagents are not keeping up.
In the announcement, News made a couple of other interesting comments on their plans:
News Corp Australia has implemented cover price increases on all of our mastheads in the last 12 months and we intend to continue this in the forthcoming year. This has, and will continue to add additional revenue to the home deliveries and retail side of newsagency businesses.
We will also be continuing our highly successful series of collectable promotions which have generated considerable circulation increases and incremental merchandise sales, along with incremental distribution revenue.
You can access the News Corp. announcement here.
FYI I’m not endorsing or promoting the review, only sharing the results.
