Newspaper marketing

Be sure to read the fine print of any marketing group agreement. Check out how ling you are locked in and the penalties for leaving the group. I saw one newsagency marketing group member agreement the other day with this clause:

For a period of one (1) year after expiry or termination of this Agreement the Franchisee undertakes not by itself or by its Directors or its Shareholders either directly or indirectly to join with or take membership of any group marketing/buying venture competitive with or similar to … provided that the Franchisee may conduct a newsagency business without restriction.

Okay, so the landlord requires the newsagent to be in a group. The newsagent joins XXX group. The newsagent decides, after a year or so, to move to another group and resigns. XXX requires the newsagent to sit out from any marketing group for a year. The newsagent cannot breach the lease requirement that they are in a marketing group and must stay with XXX. Catch-22.

The Mail on Sunday in London boosted its sale by a whopping 600,000 thanks to the free Prince CD according to a report by Phillip Stone. Amazing!

News Ltd appears to gave kicked an own goal in NSW with their Travel Australia DVD giveaway at the weekend. Newsagents are hunting down space copies so they can satisfy customer requests. The TV advertising appears to have been less than clear as Jarryd Moore comments at his blog. Newspaper promotions are meant to support not damage a brand.

In Melbourne it was a different story – News Ltd gave away the Make Poverty History DVD with the Saturday Herald Sun. Customers loved it. In our newsagency we had plenty of stock and enough spares for customers coming in today even to collect their free copy – nothing unusual in that since most News Ltd Victorian promotions are well managed.

Is one of Melbourne’s two newspapers about to engage major railway station based marketing initiative? A check of this ad posted yesterday afternoon at at seek.com.au suggests so.

We are currently on the hunt for new team members to assist one of our largest clients with their new customer program.

Work will be located at outer metropolitan train stations from 5.30am to 8.30am Monday to Friday. Acting as an ambassador for this iconic Melbourne media product, you will act as a contact point for commuters to purchase their daily news hit!

If you are looking for a role that has it all- working in the great outdoors, being a COMPLETE hero as you ensure the public get their favourite media product and finishing work just in time to watch everyone else start then apply now!

Work locations include: Bayswater, Berwick, Cranbourne, Hallam, Broadmeadows, Oak Park, Preston, Regent, Carnegie, Hughesdale, Albion, St Albans, Mooroolbark & Mt Waverley.

$20.00 per hour + available incentives to reward hard work and loyalty.

If this is for a newspaper why are they hiring and not the local newsagent?

When I first read the ad I wondered if it was to distribute MX (the free daily newspaper) in a morning edition. But the ad text makes it clear this is about selling something.

If my suspicions are right and this is for a newspaper publisher sales initiative then I’d be interested to understand where newsagents fit in the model and whether there has been consultation.

I missed this stuck on ad in The Age on Saturday as it was not on my home delivered copy. At least this time they are not covering the masthead or a headline.

As a retail newsagent I wish I could offer my regular customers a deal like this. All this promotion seeks to do is shift people from being my customers to home delivery – higher cost and less of a return from anywhere else.

Here is a good example of good local marketing by a newsagent. Ewan and Rod Carr at newsXpress Armidale discovered local tomatoes featured in Australian Country Style. Customers buying the magazine go in the draw for a free tray of Guyra tomatoes.

It is always good to see newsagents engaging with their local community in this way.

At Tower Systems’ head office this morning we participated in a briefing with News Ltd management about IT changes they are driving as part of their Data Collection Project. We are supportive of the project because, if executed properly, it should result in better business outcomes for newsagents. I’ll respect agreed confidentiality and not publish the detail of the discussions.

While it commercially suits me for newsagents to rely more on technology, the reality is that any advancement which eliminates manual processes has to be good for newsagents. For the first time it will provide newsagents and News Ltd a common database and thereby improve service of home delivery customers.

Catching up on my brief time in Thailand this week and came across this photo I took at Bangkok airport. It’s a stand right next to the counter. They print and bag current editions of international newspapers under the Newspaper Direct banner. It’s in an ideal location and in my brief time in the shop I saw three papers sold.

I’ve seen these Newspaper Direct stands plenty of times but the newspapers were not in sealed plastic bags like in Bangkok. It’s a good idea.

I know of a couple of Australian newsagents playing in this space – not sure how it’s going. For my money I prefer to connect with Australian news online when I travel – it’s more up to date and cheaper.

The Age and Tattersalls are supporting their cross-promotion with an ad stuck on today’s newspaper masthead. So much for promoting the content of the newspaper.

The continued use of these front page newspaper mast head ads demonstrates that editorial is not in control of the product.

I picked up a copy of The Form – the new free racing newspaper from Fairfax – this morning at Sydney airport. No requirement to pick a Sydney Morning Herald as well. While the airport is an unusual case with Qantas offering free newspapers at departure gates, some newsagents tell me they cop flack when they tell customers that to get the freebie they have to buy the ‘parent’ product. It was the same when News Ltd launched Alpha. Eventually newsagents allowed people to purchase Alpha without requiring a News Ltd tabloid purchase.

If Fairfax really wants The Form to reach its potential it needs to set it free to find its own audience.

In 2005 Rupert Murdoch said of DVD giveaways

:”People grab (the newspaper), tear the DVD off and throw away the paper. They’ve got to learn. That’s got to stop.”

According to Phillip Stone, writing at follow the media, last year News International cut back on the DVDs and newspaper sales fell by 500,000. Newspapers which did not cut back on DVDs did not report similar falls.

So, even though newsagents are frustrated with the DVDs – especially when scale out is insufficient – they are clearly a necessary evil.

The same article also has good coverage of the impact of free daily newspapers on paid for sales.

In Hong Kong last week I noticed that the UK Guardian newspaper is running an excellent giveaway – a series of Great speeches of the 20th century. It a nice change from movie DVDs and family tree software.