The election results reveal a fading of influence for News Corp, which, personally, I welcome. Now, maybe the company will rebuild as a news organisation. But then, maybe not …
Paul Murray just declared tomorrow night “the resistance begins” and I think that’s beautiful. #AusVotes22
— Josephine Tovey (@Jo_Tovey) May 21, 2022
Just got told by biggest newsagent at Melbourne Airport that newspapers don’t arrive these days until 7.30am. This idea of giving one ex newsagent, Cameron Mullunger, the distribution contract for the whole of Melbourne is not going well. Why did Nine follow News into this deal? pic.twitter.com/TJ2IWeXkOY
— Stephen Mayne (@MayneReport) May 10, 2022
Update (12:26): we’ve had customers coming in saying there was coverage on this topic on 3AW today, which surprises me given they are owned by Nine Media, one of the companies responsible for the mess.
Several Victorian newsagents shared with me their frustration about newspaper delivery failures yesterday. here is one:
I am dumbfounded after my attempts to find out where our paper deliveries have got to today.
I was advised by NDS customer service that they cannot contact the driver to ascertain when we might receive the delivery, nor can they ensure that the driver delivers the papers and where applicable, magazines directly to the shop front. We are left in limbo not knowing what to expect.
On Thursday just gone, not only were the papers late but our magazine delivery was also late. We have a staff member start work early on a Thursday to ensure that magazines are on sale as early as possible and there are obvious costs wasted when magazines are delivered late
It is becoming an issue as to whether it is viable for us to stock newspapers as the combination of space taken, effort required to manage them an time spent attending issues such late and non delivery of papers outweighs the pittance they earn for us.
Here is another:
Good morning folks, once again we face a disastrous morning for a newsagency.
We happen to be away on holidays and our poor staff have no papers at 9.15 on a Saturday morning.
No communication at all, no notifications from anyone.
I could share more, but they are the same message – no papers, no communication, time wasted in the business, angry customers that erodes trust in the local newsagency business.
The failure of News Corp and Nine Media to get newspapers to newsagents, and to home delivery customers, consistently and on time must be a factor in the future of the print product.
What a mess.
The good and timely communications from the Victorian outpost of News Corp continues for us retail newsagents with advice this week on easter arrangements. After years of relying on patch communication from my distribution newsagent, this is welcome.
Good Friday – 15 April
- Herald Sun – normal press start.
- The Australian and Geelong Advertiser are not published – please DO NOT enter zero as this may impact supply for the following Friday.
Circulation Publishing Schedule
- Thursday 14 April – Publish Friday 15 April
- Thursday 14 April – Publish Saturday 16 April
- Saturday 16 April – Publish Sunday 17 April
- Sunday 17 April – Publish Monday 18 April
- Monday 18 April – Publish Tuesday 19 April
News Retail Support Operating Hours
- Over the Easter Weekend (Fri – Mon) – 7:00am to 11:30am
Returns
- Returns may be entered up to 12:00 noon Wednesday 20 April into either iServices, iDeliver or the new Retailer Portal (whichever is applicable)
The Weekend Sportsman
The Weekend Sportsman will be delivered 24 hours early for on sale Thursday 14 April
To those at News driving this, thank you!
The Citizen (A PUBLICATION OF THE CENTRE FOR ADVANCING JOURNALISM, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE) has published a terrific report into the actions of News Corp. and Nine Media in removing newspaper home delivery from local small business newsagents and putting it under the control of a faceless, contactless mess of an organisation.
I am grateful to Petra Stock for the time she took to understand the issues and speak with some directly impacted. Her reporting on the impact on local family-owned Lygon Media speaks volumes to the disinterest in the offices of News Corp. and Nine Media in delivering a local service for local newspaper readers.
Lygon Media Distributors – a newspaper distribution business co-owned by Fabian Pizzica – made its final delivery run on Sunday, 27 March. Mr Pizzica has been selling or delivering newspapers since 1989, working from age 18 in his father’s Lygon Street newsagent.
In the mid ‘90s, brothers Fabian and Nick joined forces with cousins Robert and Pat (who has since passed away) to form the newspaper distribution arm of the business.
From a few suburban paper runs they grew Lygon Media into a service that stretched from the northern suburbs down to Docklands and Port Melbourne and delivered around 15,000 papers a day.
Lygon Media Distributors closed after newspaper distribution changes. Photo: Petra Stock
Until recently, the family-owned company was one of eight-to-10 remaining larger newspaper distributors, which alongside around 100 smaller newsagents, delivered daily papers around greater Melbourne.
As one of the larger operators, Mr Pizzica says Lygon Media had hoped to win a contract under the new model when News Corp invited tenders last year.
“We were out there buying up territories, increasing the volume. We were spending money and borrowing money to buy more territories, thinking that we’d be big enough for [News Corp] to look favourably on us,” Mr Pizzica says.
But their efforts didn’t deliver a contract. Now, he says, he’s out of a job and the business “isn’t worth anything and we have to pay off debt”.
We’ve all seen, and heard, how upset newspaper customers are with the poor service being provided by the News Corp and Nine Media controlled newspaper home delivery, which can only lead to reduced sales for print editions of their mastheads.
The report by The Citizen provides timely and appreciated coverage.
Personally, I am so lucky to have sold my home delivery runs in 2006, back when they had a good value. But through my newsagency software company, I speak daily with newsagents who did not or could not do this, newsagents who have had tens of thousands, and more, in goodwill ripped from them by the changes to newspaper distribution. This all started in the newsagency channel more than. 20 years ago. Those representing newsagents at the time have plenty to answer for enemy opinion.
Maybe I have not been paying attention but it feels like News Corp. has improved their comms to retail newsagents.
30 March 2022
Dear Distributor / Newsagent,
A reminder that Daylight saving is due to conclude this Sunday April 3, 2022.
We wish to confirm that production will run to current schedule on Saturday night.
Clocks are not adjusted until after the completion of the run on Sunday morning.
Please make your early morning staff aware of this to avoid any confusion.
Kind Regards,
News Victoria Logistics
Much appreciated.
SPECIAL EDITION: The cricket world is in mourning after the sudden death of one of its greatest ever players, Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne, aged 52. Read here > https://t.co/P3rWU5eiNh pic.twitter.com/DxvqHupyoW
— Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) March 4, 2022
Byline Times has published an opinion piece, The Beginning of the End For the Murdoch News Empire?, that may interest anyone here interested in the future of the Murdoch controlled ‘news’ business.
News Corp. sent this notice to newsagents yesterday:
10 January 2022
Cover price rise for News Corp Australia publications
Dear Retailer,
Effective Monday 17 January 2022, the Monday to Friday cover price of the following publications will increase by 30 cents to $2.50.
- Herald Sun
- The Daily Telegraph
- The Courier-Mail
- The Advertiser
- The Mercury
- NT News
- Geelong Advertiser
- Gold Coast Bulletin
- Townsville Bulletin
- Cairns Post
- The Chronicle
A full list of all relevant News Corp Australia publication covers prices, retailer commissions and prices to account as at 17 January 2022 is provided below.
We ask that you notify customers of the price change and ensure your systems are updated on the effective date to reflect these changes.
We thank you for your continued support and look forward to continuing to partner with you in driving new sales opportunities.
Newsagents make 31.25 cents from selling one of these papers. The space the a single title newspaper takes in the shop can cost between $500.00 and $1,500 a year. The labour cost of handling the a newspaper title can cost around $3,500 a year if there are no issues – this does not include the cost of selling them. Other costs for the papers (theft, insurance, tech etc.) can cost around $500.00 a year. So, at the high end, that’s roughly $5,500.00 in costs, or 17,600 newspapers sold.
An average newsagency in a good suburban situation will sell 65 papers a day. That’s 23,660 a year, or $7,393.75 in gross profit, from which to fund the costs noted above. That leaves $1,893.75 to cover the cost of selling the papers and dealing with issues, like short supply or late papers.
By deregulating newspaper supply, the money newsagents make from newspapers has been slashed, making them borderline economically valuable in a newsagency business. But, we keep them.
In my opinion the House of Wellness catalogue being promoted by News Corp. is not worth anywhere near the $2.50 they claim for it. It’s an ad catalogue for Chemist Warehouse. News Corp. has done a deal with Chemist Warehouse that pays newsagents well below minimum wage to hand the ‘title’ out in return for collecting and tracking coupons.
What a joke.
The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age
Sections
Tower Systems has released advice to Newsagency ts on how to handle the changes.
CHRISTMAS BUMPER EDITION
· On Sale Thursday 23rd December, 2021 until Tuesday 28th December 2021 (inclusive),
· All Mon-Fri & Mon-Sat subscribers to be delivered the Christmas bumper edition on Thursday
23/12/2021.
· All Sat only subscribers to be delivered the Christmas bumper edition on Friday 24/12/2021.
· Returns for the Christmas bumper edition will be on your Connect returns form week commencing
Mon 03/01/2022.
NEW YEAR BUMPER EDITION
· On Sale Wednesday 29th December, 2021 until Monday 3rd January, 2022 (inclusive).
· All Mon-Fri & Mon-Sat subscribers to be delivered the New Year bumper edition on Wednesday
29/12/2021.
· All Sat only subscribers to be delivered the New Year bumper edition on Saturday 01/01/2022.
Tower Systems has released advice to Newsagency ts on how to handle the changes.
Here’s what one subscriber shares on Twitter yesterday:
@Gay_Alcorn I accept that you've had production issues recently. These things happen. I'm not annoyed.
What I don't understand is why the onus is on us, the customers, to keep searching all morning for our paper, wondering if it's merely late, & finally we have to contact you
> pic.twitter.com/IcoEiUnsQZ— Karen (@kcIMT122) November 5, 2021
@Gay_Alcorn
Today's a good example. It's now 10:15am. The back half of The Age was delivered a few seconds ago. No sign of the front half.
What am I meant to do now? Wait to see if the front half shows up? Give up, & go out & buy a paper?
The lack of info is not good enough.— Karen (@kcIMT122) November 5, 2021
It’s another newspaper home delivery fail that’s on the publisher.
Check out the terrific story about the launch of the Eyre Peninsular Advocate, a new local and independent newspaper to rise in the wake of a corporate rural newspaper closure.
COMMUNITYAnother SA regional newspaper is reborn1 min read
The new weekly Eyre Peninsula Advocate hit the newsstands last week, heralding the return of print news to eastern and western Eyre Peninsula.
Papers and Publications Managing Director Andrew Manuel said the reception from communities from Cleve to Ceduna had been amazing.
“Regional newspapers are so important to people living in the country,” Andrew said.
“When local newspapers close, it hits communities hard.
“Newspapers keep people connected to their communities and each other through sharing the stories that locals care about.
Check out the online version of the Eyre Peninsular Advocate too. Their subscriptions options are modest:
Just as our parliament, and democracy, would benefit from more genuinely independent representation, so do local communities benefit from more independent media outlets. I hope we see more indie papers start up, and thrive.
I love this placement of The Saturday Paper in the front window of a bookshop in Melbourne, which I saw over the weekend.
With over the counter purchases of newspapers continuing to decline in our channel, promotion of a full front page in the window every few days could be a way to stem the decline.
Many of us ripped out our front of store newspaper stands and gave that space over to more profitable lines, believing that newspaper customers will go to wherever they are in-store. Those moves made sense, and the make sense today for newsagents yet to make the move. But, such moves see newspaper front pages being seen by fewer eyeballs.
Looking at the photo in the bookshop window, I was reminded to treat a newspaper as a product rather than as a service or utility. This means looking at the front cover and leveraging it if you think it could attract impulse purchases in your area.
I am not suggesting a significant change to the treatment of newspapers. Rather, I am suggesting a more considered approach. If you think a front cover could attract impulse purchases, give it a moment in the spotlight.
This came with a check for $25 and might literally be the most amazing letter to the editor I’ve ever received. It’s never too late to apologize. pic.twitter.com/H7KcU3Yv7b
— Matthew T. Hall 💉🙏 (@SDuncovered) October 1, 2021
Theft of home delivery newspapers was a serious cost to our business back when we were doing that 15 years ago. It was so bad that several times we followed delivery people to catch those stealing. The worse situation was in a retirement village where a long-standing feud was found to be the motivator.
I know of situations where people stealing considered it an essentially victimless crime, thinking that the publisher ultimately paid. Little did they realise.
Victoria is in the middle of considerable changes to newspaper distribution let by decisions of News Corp.. While change can be challenging, as we have seen in Queensland and New South Wales, the newspaper distribution experts at News Corp. are certainly expert at the botch up. Newsagents are suffering, enduring higher costs and upset that they are letting their long-term customers down.
Here is the experience of one regional newsagent in Victoria in dealing with the Herald and Weekly Times:
The Herald and Weekly Times replaced the reliable transport company they had used for decades to deliver papers to us and many newsagents in regional Victoria. Under the new transport company arrangement, it has been a nightmare.
Previously, papers for home delivery were delivered between 2:30am-3:30am, giving us time to unload, wrap and deliver by 6:30am. This meant deliveries were done when there was less traffic on the road. Delivery people are working longer hours and are delivering to homes in a less safe situation given more traffic on the road later in the morning.
Newspaper home delivery drivers are angry and threatening to leave. Customers are disadvantaged with later papers, often coming after they have left for work.
Circulation people at the Herald and Weekly Times have been disinterested. They tell newsagents to be patient and that what newsagents are experience are teething issues. For the first couple of weeks this could be the excuse, but months in, it is no excuse at all. To be fair to them, maybe they are saying all they can given the company’s decisions.
The Herald and Weekly Times people set the OH&S standards that newsagents are consistently unable to meet now because of their failure to deliver newspapers on time. The consistent failure puts delivery drivers and the public at risk.
The failures of this change in newspaper delivery transport arrangements is impacting the mental health of some in our channel. Yet, management at the Herald and Weekly Times, and their masters at News Corp. headquarters in Sydney appear disinterested. It feels like the News Corp. financial situation is all that matters.
I get that News Corp. wants to cut costs. But to do so in a way that even more burdens are shouldered by local small business retailers reflects a lack of ethics, it represents poor social responsibility.
I tell newsagents who tell me about the challenges relating to getting newspapers on time for home delivery to quit newspaper home delivery. There is no upside. What you make today in real terms from newspaper home delivery is less than a couple of years ago. Few newsagents genuinely profit from it. It is a distraction to other parts of the business that should be experiencing double-digit growth, and which make you happier.
Allied to the protests in Melbourne this past week has been an increase in calls for people to boycott the Herald Sun, with some referencing similar calls in the UK re The Sun.
Dear Melbourne
With the end of footy season just a few days away, now would be a good time to start a major boycott of The Herald Sun
Enough of the lies, falsehoods and riot inciting
Be like Liverpool and get rid of Murdoch before he gets rid of youhttps://t.co/ytYSiaPRYS— Andrew Mercado (@andrewmercado) September 23, 2021
The deeply discounted home delivery and digital access offer from News Corp and Nine Media has been pitched for ages, years it feels like. A couple of shoppers this weekend expressed doubt that the deal for The Age will really end. meanwhile, they continue to try and take shoppers from retail newsagents.
Mackay Local News launched in February this year following the sudden closure of the Daily Mercury by News Corp.
Established by local business people, the Mackay Local News quickly filled a gap, an interest in genuinely local news.
A few days ago, the folks behind the Mackay Local News decided to close. I’ll let them explain, in their own words:
The directors and shareholders of Mackay Local News Pty Ltd announced to staff on Thursday September 2 that the paper would cease publication immediately.
Despite being recognised as the best quality newspaper based in Mackay, with the highest content of local community news, views and sport, and with the largest staff of any local publication, the directors believed the market was entering a destructive ‘media bloodbath’.
Advertisers had been approached by competitors with offers of ‘free ads’.
Rather than reduce quality or participate in a destructive media war, the directors believed this to be the fairest outcome for all involved.
The directors would like to thank the thousands of locals who regularly bought, read and responded to the paper, and the tens of thousands who visited the FREE mackaylocalnews.com.au website, as well as the local businesses who showed real dollar support by advertising their wares and services at a fair and reasonable price.
Mackay Local News was first published in February 2021, in response to vocal local concerns about the sudden closure of the Daily Mercury by foreign controlled News Corporation in June 2020, and protests about their paywalled website.
The ABC has this story:
News Corp confirms newspaper distribution will cease to much of outback Queensland
For some regional Queenslanders heading to buy a News Corp Australia paper from their local newsagent this weekend, the purchase will be one of their last.
Key points:
- News Corp will stop distributing its titles to parts of regional Queensland
- It says freight costs are too high
- Newsagents say solutions were offered, but rejected
News Corp has confirmed it will stop delivering its titles to certain parts of regional Queensland after September 26 and following more than three months of lobbying from concerned newsagents.
News Corp wrote to select newsagents in March informing them it planned to cease physically distributing eight mastheads including The Courier-Mail, The Australian, and The Daily Telegraph, due to the “very high cost” of distribution.
Longreach newsagent Rob Luck said he offered a range of solutions to the media company to try to reverse the decision.
However, on Thursday afternoon he received an email from News Corp confirming it would go ahead with its plan of ceasing distribution after September 26.
Towns further west than Charters Towers in the north, Emerald in central Queensland, and in some parts of the state’s south-west will be affected.
Distribution will cease in the regional centres of Longreach and Mount Isa.
Charleville in the state’s south-west will remain unaffected, after News Corp organised a cheaper, alternative freight arrangement.
Residents in impacted towns will no longer have access to a physical daily newspaper covering state, national, and international affairs.
Consultation just for show, says newsagent
In June, News Corp’s managing director for Queensland and News Regional Media, Jason Scott, visited Longreach to meet with concerned newsagents.
Mr Luck, who has owned one of Longreach’s two newsagencies for 26 years, said he was told “the door is ajar” but was sceptical there was any intent to reverse the decision.
“It took from March to mid-June for someone to come and I will, in inverted commas, use the word ‘consult’ with us,” Mr Luck said.
Read the whole story published by the ABC as it provides details of offers of help from newsagents.
News Corp’s decision is all about money, as its shareholders would want.
Why politicians pander to News Corp. is beyond me. In my opinion, the company is a bully, using its media pulpit to tell us what to think and our state and federal governments what to do. I’d go further and say that some days in their papers it reads to me like political interference. Thankfully I don’t watch the trash on Sky News.
Here News Corp. is just after receiving additional government funding, turning their back on outback Australians.
Given the continued slide in over the counter sales and the decline in real terms of margin, maybe it is time to stop stocking News Corp titles. I am sure Harvey Norman would put the catalogues in their locations.
And while we’re talking about the Herald Sun, Crikey published an interesting article this week:
There’s a changing of the guard in Australia’s media: long-time Melbourne circulation kingpin the Herald Sun has tumbled way down the rankings. Now, it looks like it’s not only runner-up to local competitor The Age, it’s fallen to fourth spot among News Corp’s remaining Australian mastheads.
It’s the second blow to News Corp’s market supremacy, following the ABC’s leap to displace news.com.au at the top of the Nielsen Digital News Content rankings since the 2020 summer of bushfires.
The Herald Sun — boasting an audited circulation over twice its competitor with 600,000 copies when it first merged back in 1990 — is down more than three-fourths, with 146,026 subscribers across its print and digital products, according to June 30 internal figures reported by the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the Australian Financial Review today, Tony Boyd takes a ‘look’ at the performance of Nine Media over News Corp It includes burns like:
Shock, horror: Nine beats Murdoch at his own game
First, the results confirm that Murdoch’s newspapers in Australia are losing the bitter and long-running competitive fight with the mastheads created by John Fairfax & Sons.
…
Now, questions must be asked about the strategic and operational moves by News Corp Australia’s managers who have overseen successive years of poor financial performance.
They appear to have squandered News Corp Australia’s dominant position by failing to transition fast enough to a digital and data-driven business model.
It is in this area that Nine’s publishing arm, which includes The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review, stands head and shoulders above Murdoch’s publishing assets, which include The Australian and tabloids in every major city except Perth.
…
On the readership front, Nine’s publications are showing News Corp’s publications their heels.
…
Beaten at his own game
When it comes to earnings, Nine appears to be comprehensively beating Murdoch at the newspaper game. That’s got to be galling for a man who mastered the art of newspapers at the age of 23 at a small afternoon tabloid in Adelaide.In 2021, Nine’s publishing arm had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $117 million, up 28 per cent on the prior year. This was on revenue of $504.5 million.
The News Media arm of News Corp had EBITDA of $US52 million ($72 million), which was about the same as the previous year. This was on revenue of $US2.2 billion.
News Corp insiders will argue that the performance of the Australian publishing business cannot be fairly compared with Nine’s because News loads some international costs on to the local business.
…
News Corp’s snail’s pace approach to cost-cutting in editorial, which includes another round of redundancies this month, is in stark contrast to the hiring in Nine’s publishing business.
…
News Corp’s digital strategy appears to be repeating a decision that was made by Nine some years ago and reversed because of its damage to masthead brands.
To save costs, News Corp is centralising its news-gathering across all its tabloid mastheads, except for its political coverage. This goes against the fundamental principle that each city in Australia is different and deserves its own unique coverage.
Fairfax, before it was taken over by Nine, merged the business reporting newsrooms of the Financial Review, SMH and Age. This was rapidly unwound after a more sensible analysis of the commercial implications.
In the context of retail newsagency businesses, newspapers play only a small role in our businesses. Bottom line wise, they are almost irrelevant. Foot traffic wise, they count for something, but not that much. Their key value recently has been tom provide products that bestow upon us essential status, and that is worth something.
