The ABC yesterday reported that Nine Media will review the decision to stop same day access to print editions of The Australian Financial Review and The Age in Tasmania.
However later on Wednesday, Australian Lottery and Newsagent Association (ALNA) chief executive Ben Kearney said he had been contacted by Nine and told the decision was under review.
He said no timeline was given, and the original intention may still stand.
“They’re going to look at that decision and consider some of the other options that might be available, so certainly from our point of view that’s really good news, that’s what we’ve asked for,” he said.
A couple of points in the ABC article have me scratching my head.
Newsagency co-owner Teresa Sturzaker said her Hobart business would take a financial hit if the original decision went ahead.
“The direct hit is a $25,000 profit per annum, so it’s about $2,000 a month that we’ll lose straight off the top starting,” she told ABC Radio Hobart.
The $2,000 a month figure from The Age and the AFR seems high. It equals $8,000 a month in sales of these 2 titles in one business. If that’s what they do, it’s awesome. But if that’s what they do I’d have thought Nine Media would have a plan B for them. If it’s a distribution business, based on what Nine and News have been doing around Australia it is only a matter of time before it is taken from the newsagent and managed through one of the new publisher distribution partners.
Launceston newsagent Garry Matthews said he would lose a lot more than just newspaper sales.
“Probably across the board, you’re not going to attract your general walk-ins anymore,” he said.
“If they no longer can come in and buy a paper and a cordial … it just means there’s one good reason why they don’t come.”
“It’s pretty sad that a big company like Nine should really care very little about Tasmania.”
Any newsagent running a retail business built and relying on shoppers coming in to buy a paper and a cordial is doomed. Supermarkets and convenience stores own that business. Over the counter purchase of newspapers has been in steady and predictable decline for 15 years. While there is an occasional bump because of a news story, the downward trajectory is set.
Smart newsagents years ago started attracting shoppers for other reasons. In know newsagents in rural and regional Australia, in small towns, that are thriving because they made this shift. Sure, they still sell papers, but they do not rely on them.
The report by the ABC yesterday plays in to an old and out of date narrative that does not serve the newsagency channel well. It makes our businesses look out of date. It does not reflect accurate reporting. The ABC should do better on this.
What people read in The Age and AFR is old news. The opinions that pack their pages are old, too. How people access this has fundamentally changed forever. There is no going back.
What News Corp. and Nine Media are focussed on right now is to achieve the best landing for their businesses, for their shareholders, and that does not include sustaining print forever. If you are a shareholder in either or both you’d want them to maximise profit as that sets your return. If print editions in Tasmania are loss making, you’d want them cut regardless of an emotive story from newsagents.
I get that it will be unpopular to call out the quotes from newsagents as I have done. We owe each other the truth. The truth is, print newspapers are in decline. The publishers have demonstrated this to us through their decisions over the years.
More fool any newsagent who expects the publishers to put newsagent needs ahead of the needs of their shareholders. Publishers have only one legal obligation, and that is to their shareholders. Any emotive argument to the contrary will fail.
My advice to newsagents for years has been and is today:
- Choose to be a retailer, not an agent. the two are quite different. One makes you the driver of your success while the other tethers you to the success of others.
- Chase new traffic every day. The more reasons for which you attract shoppers, the more sustainable your business.
- Convenience is not a future for indie retailers like newsagents. Convenience retail in Australia is owned by big businesses with deep pockets, which which you cannot compete.
- Don’t be your barrier to success. Too often I see local small business retailers decide against something for their business that will work.
- Size doesn’t matter. Some of the most successful newsagency businesses in Australia today are small. Size is irrelevant.
- Location dosen’t matter. Some of the most successful newsagencies in Australia are regional and rural.
- The shingle doesn’t matter. The newsagency shingle is irrelevant to what you can achieve.
- Only you can save you. No supplier, no association can save your business, only you can.
- Make every day your pay day. The value of your business today is what you make today, not what you dream of selling it for in the future. Make every decision on that basis.
There is upside for our channel, plenty of good news. I talked about this recently when sharing the results of a traditional newsagency that I am fortunate to be helping to evolve: https://vimeo.com/756607390 I know of many success stories of growth and profit in our channel, in businesses that sell newspapers, but which to not rely on newspapers.
