IGA has announced a new free newspaper offer for News Corp titles for customers spending $20 or more July 1 through July 28. I know newsagents with an IGA a door or two away who will be frustrated with this. News Corp. loves these free newspaper deals.
These deals feel like they are all about driving subscription sales and not on going over the counter purchase.
I doubt we will get papers today.
They don’t care about regional Queensland.
It’s a joke.
News Corp. Is killing our newspaper sales.
Plenty of newsagents in Queensland are angry at botched and late deliveries by News Corp. Hearing about late and entirely missed deliveries from regional newsagents, in towns where a paper with local news still matters, is heartbreaking. Customers are angry too.
This is the last time I try and buy a paper at the newsagents.
Haven’t you paid your bills. (On seeing no newspapers)
I came all the way into town to buy a paper. It’s 10am. (Yelled)
One newsagent contacted News Corp. to discuss the delivery route, to try and get papers to their shop before 11 each morning and the News Corp. response was could you create a new route for us to follow because you know the area better than us. This might have been a reasonable position if the company was preparing for the changes. It is unacceptable from the company after their changes, controlled by them, have been implemented.
By any measure, what News Corp. is doing with regional newspaper delivery in Queensland is a mess. Regional and rural locations are missing out, and, from what I can tell, the company cares less.
It’s like they want this to fail.
I wonder if the newsagent who said this is right.
The reality is that newsagents make too little from newspapers to invest time in resolving the problems caused by the News Corp. newspaper distribution changes. Some have questioned whether quitting papers altogether is what they should do rather than putting up with the mess created by News Corp. This is not made up, there are newsagents discussing this.
What a mess by News Corp., a company that invests heavily through various platforms telling Australians and Australian governments what to do. Here they have demonstrated inability to properly and professionally manage their own backyard.
News Corp. controlled the decision making and the timing of implementation. The closure of regional papers and the merging of limited local news in remaining times are decisions the company made. It has only itself to blame for the mess, the anger of customers and the utter frustration of newsagents.
The company needs to urgently resolve the situation and to considerably improve its communication lines for retail and distribution newsagents. Again, that this is being asked for after the implementation of the changes is core.
What a mess.
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.
The Great Southern Star and Yarram Standard suspended print production in March as the coronavirus pandemic was ramping up. The publisher has now confirmed that the closure is permanent. The Age has the story.
Closure of independent local papers highlights the struggle for all media – locally-owned and multinational – as the pandemic eats away at the remaining advertising not yet lost to digital giants like Google and Facebook.
The Star, established in Leongatha in 1890, had a weekly print run of about 4300; the Standard at Yarram near the Ninety Mile Beach, about 1600.
Mr Giles said his family had been torn over the decision to close and the impact on communities.
“I understand towns are probably fearful of losing their identity,” he said. “The main people I’m concerned for are the 60-plus seniors who love their paper.”
Mr Giles said among the body blows to local papers was the leakage of revenue to social media. “I’ve been trying to tell local businesses that [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg is taking all our profits over to America.”
While I get that publishers see value in targeting Google, Facebook and other social media platforms for loss of revenue, the reality is that what has happened is the world has changed. How people engage with news has changed. We have all seen it coming for many years.
I am surprised there have not been more newspaper closures sooner.
I agree there is an issue with the tax paid by these giant offshore social media companies, and, indeed, many large businesses. They scam us raking in billions from Australians paying little in tax, making almost no economic contribution to government funded infrastructure.
There is also an issue of shop local. Advertisers have fled print to these social media platforms. I know I did ten years ago because of the more efficient ad model. Everyone on Facebook and Twitter, everyone searching Gooogle for news and clicking on a paid ad has put a brick in this wall.
News itself has fuelled the change. Whereas in the past, stories would break in print. Now, they break within seconds of happening and become fanned quickly beyond local thanks to the digital platforms.
The medium is dead. Okay, for some, the print newspaper is something they like. However, there are not enough of them to fund the infrastructure to keep print alive. All that is up for debate right now timing of to closure of print newspapers. Okay, maybe not all because analysis and investigative journalism newspapers like The Saturday Paper could exist for ages.
Yes, it is sad local papers are closing. We knew this would happen. Their closure does not need to mean an end to local news, it does not need to mean the end of a local newsagency that is part of a channel created to distribute news.
It is now up to locals who want a local voice for local news and opinion make that happen. A newspaper publisher closing does not mean the need is gone. Those calling for the need for a local newspaper should look at what they are doing and the choices they have made and can make now to support a local voice platform for 2020 and beyond.
Newsagents can play a role in this.
Here is the full announcement from News Corp this morning about newspaper closures and redundancies:
The Executive Chairman of News Corp Australasia, Mr Michael Miller, today announced significant changes to News Corp Australia’s publishing portfolio.
Mr Miller said that over recent months News Corp had undertaken a comprehensive review of its regional and community newspapers. This review considered the ongoing consumer shift to reading and subscribing to news online, and the acceleration of businesses using digital advertising.
“COVID-19 has impacted the sustainability of community and regional publishing. Despite the audiences of News Corp’s digital mastheads growing more than 60 per cent as Australians turned to trusted media sources during the peak of the recent COVID-19 lockdowns, print advertising spending which contributes the majority of our revenues, has accelerated its decline,” Mr Miller said.
“Consequently, to meet these changing trends, we are reshaping News Corp Australia to focus on where consumers and businesses are moving and to strengthen our position as Australia’s leading digital news media company. This will involve employing more digital only journalists and making investments in digital advertising and marketing solutions for our partners.”
Mr Miller said News Corp’s portfolio review highlighted that many of our print mastheads were challenged, and the double impact of COVID-19 and the tech platforms not remunerating the local publisher whose content they profit from, had, unfortunately, made them unsustainable publications.
He said the portfolio changes being implemented would mean that from Monday June 29 the bulk of News Corp’s regional and community titles would move to purely digital publishing.
“More than 375 journalists will be specifically covering regional and community news and information. They will continue to serve, and live in, their local communities with the majority in regional Queensland where we have most of our titles,” Mr Miller said.
“More than 640,000 Australians, our latest figures show, are currently subscribing to News Corp’s digital news content and subscriptions are growing at an annual rate of 24 per cent.
“Much of this growth is from local news, where subscribers have more than doubled in the past year. In regional Queensland more than 80,000 people have digital subscriptions and this number has grown by more than 40 per cent this year.
“I’m confident that these numbers will accelerate through dedicated and constant digital publishing and continuing to serve the local communities whose trust and community commitment the mastheads have developed over decades.
“Over the past 19 months News has launched 16 new digital only local mastheads. In total we will now publish 92 digital only regional and community mastheads, each offering readers rolling coverage, electronic alerts and newsletters, richer audio and video content and deeper local sport coverage and community debate.
“At the same time, News Corp’s major mastheads in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide – The Courier-Mail, The Daily Telegraph, the Herald Sun and The Advertiser – will now become more state focused with increased regional content and will partner with our regional and community local titles in their states to ensure we deliver compelling journalism to Australian consumers regardless of where they live. Subscribers wherever they live will now have access to the best of News Corp’s local, regional, state, national and international news, sport, features and columnists.”
Describing the changes being announced today, Mr Miller said: “These initiatives are significant. They will involve fundamental changes to how we operate our business but they are necessary. Together with senior executive and editorial appointments announced recently, they will enable us to be more effective in driving further success in the growth areas News Corp is excelling in such as digital advertising products, solutions and subscriptions and will embed a more collaborative way of working to maximise our sport and news coverage, hyper local digital subscriptions and the success of our all-important weekend editions.”
Today’s announcements to News Corp’s publishing portfolio will mean some job roles will change and regretfully, will lead to job losses. Mr Miller said that for those employees impacted by the changes, he wanted to thank them personally for their professionalism, dedication and contribution.
“They have provided News with invaluable years of service. Their passionate commitment to the communities in which they live and work and their role in ensuring these have been informed and served by trusted local media has been substantial,” he said.
Commercially, these portfolio changes will make News less complex for its partners to leverage and will build on the innovations it already has in place. This includes:
● News Xtend which is now Australia’s top digital marketing agency for small and medium enterprises;
● News Connect data platform which ensures businesses reach the right consumer segments wanting to pay for their products and services through its specialist ability to access two billion consumption signals from 12 million Australians;
● Australia’s number one digital publisher for news, real estate, business, sport and fantasy sport, food, fashion, health and beauty, parenting and women’s lifestyle;
● Digital powerhouse news.com.au which has increased its audience more than 30 per cent in the past two months to more than 12.2 million monthly users;
● A leader in audio and video with News’ data now showing award-winning podcast downloads of more than five million monthly and digital video views topping 100 million monthly, up 45 per cent in a year;
● Monday’s launch of BINGE entertainment streaming service which joins Foxtel and the Kayo sport streaming service as the nation’s premium subscription broadcasters;
● REA Group which is Australia’s clear leader for real estate digital services and investing in Asia and the United States, through its 20 per cent stake in Move, Inc.
In conclusion, Mr Miller said: “News Corp remains committed to Australia’s regions and communities and the initiatives we are implementing today represent a detailed, considered strategy to ensure we will better serve our journalism to Australians who live outside its major cities.
“News Corp and its employees also will retain at their creative core their passion for championing, and advocating for an ever improving Australia. As our country emerges in coming weeks from the lockdown enforced on us by the threat of COVID-19 into a ‘new normal’, we will ensure these values that separate News Corp from other media companies are even stronger than ever.”
Consequently, News Corp Australia is announcing today that:
Our major regional titles – The Hobart Mercury, NT News, Cairns Post, Townsville Bulletin, Gold Coast Bulletin, Toowoomba Chronicle and Geelong Advertiser – will continue to publish both in print and digitally.
The following regional titles will become digital only: Queensland – Mackay Daily Mercury, Rockhampton Morning Bulletin, Gladstone Observer, Bundaberg News Mail, Fraser Coast Chronicle, Gympie Times, Sunshine Coast Daily, Queensland Times, Warwick Daily News, Central and North Burnett Times, Central Queensland News, Chinchilla News, Dalby Herald. Gatton Star, Noosa News, South Burnett Times, Stanthorpe Border Post, Western Star, Western Times, Whitsunday Times, Whitsunday Coast Guardian and Bowen Independent, news from the towns covered by the Atherton Tablelander, Northern Miner, Post Douglas & Mossman Gazette and Burdekin Advocate will continue to appear, as it does currently, under the regional sections of the Cairns Post and Townsville Bulletin; NSW – Tweed Daily News, Ballina Advocate, Byron Shire News, Coffs Coast Advocate, Grafton Daily Examiner and Lismore Northern Star; Northern Territory – The Centralian Advocate.
The bulk of titles in our community groups – NewsLocal in NSW/ACT, Leader in Melbourne, Quest in Brisbane and Messenger in Adelaide – will become digital only. Community print editions were suspended early in April because of the impact of COVID-19 restrictions.
The community titles to be digital-only news services are:
Melbourne Leader titles – Stonnington, Mornington Peninsula, Knox, Whitehorse, Monash, Northern, Whittlesea, Maroondah, Moorabbin, Mordialloc Chelsea, Moreland, Lilydale and Yarra Valley, Frankston, Bayside, Caulfield Port Phillip, Cranbourne, Greater Dandenong, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong, Wyndham;
NewsLocal in NSW and ACT – Fairfield Advance, Penrith Press, Macarthur Chronicle, Blacktown Advocate, Canterbury Bankstown Express, Central Coast Express, Hills Shire Times, Hornsby Advocate, Liverpool Leader, Manly Daily, Northern District Times, Parramatta Advertiser, Inner West Courier, Southern Courier, Illawarra Star, Wagga Wagga News, St George Shire Standard, Canberra Star, Newcastle News, Blue Mountains News, Central Sydney, South Coast News;
Quest in Queensland – Albert and Logan News, Caboolture Herald, Westside News, Pine Rivers Press, Redcliffe and Bayside Herald, South-West News, Wynnum Herald, North Lakes Times, Redlands Community News, Springfield News;
Messenger in SA – Messenger South Plus; Messenger East Plus, Messenger North, Messenger West, Messenger City, Adelaide Hills and Upper Spencer Gulf.
Three Sydney community titles, Wentworth Courier, Mosman Daily and North Shore Times, which are distributed in the city’s most affluent suburbs, will resume print editions.
Some small print newspapers will cease publication, but the local journalism coverage of their area will continue, feeding into the digital masthead for their regional community. The regional titles to cease publication are: Queensland – Buderim Chronicle, Caloundra Weekly, Capricorn Coast Mirror, Coolum News, Nambour Weekly, Ipswich Advertiser, Kawana/Maroochy Weekly, Gold Coast Sun, Hervey Bay Independent, Maryborough Herald, Balonne Beacon, Surat Basin News, Herbert River Express, Innisfail Advocate, Central Telegraph; NSW – Coastal Views, Northern Rivers Echo, Richmond River Express Examiner; Tasmania – Tasmanian Country; Specialist – Big Rigs, Rural Weekly, Seniors
Additionally, we will streamline our community titles and will publish local stories under their regional or city-based masthead. The community titles which will cease publication are: Leader titles in Victoria – Manningham, Preston, Diamond Valley, Heidelberg, Sunbury Macedon, Progress and Northcote; NewsLocal in NSW – Rouse Hill Times; Quest in Queensland – Northside Chronicle/Bayside Star, North-West News, South-East Advertiser, Southern Star, Bribie Weekly; and South Australia – Messenger Coast Plus.
This is massive news that will lead to seismic change not only in news coverage but in news distribution in Australia.
I feel for those directly impacted, the journalists, production people, distribution people and more. I feel, too, poor retailers who will be shaken by the permanent loss of a local paper that helped define their business.
Amanda Meade at Guardian Australia is reporting that News Corp is set to put hundreds of people out of work as it cuts jobs as part of structural change moving to digital only publishing of some local and regional newspapers.
News Corp Australia is poised to cut hundreds of jobs as it moves towards digital-only publishing for many of its local and regional papers and more copy sharing among its metropolitan mastheads the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.
The executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, Michael Miller, has hinted the company is on the brink of upheaval, saying last week it was evolving from “a network of newspapers” to “Australia’s leading journalism network”.
The job cuts Miller has warned are “inevitable” after the collapse of the advertising market during the pandemic are expected to hit the publisher’s local and regional newspaper staff as well as the major mastheads as soon as this week.
Sources say the cuts could be as high as 30% of staff across the company and many will be force redundancies, rather than voluntary.
This move, if accurately reported, will send shockwaves through the Australian publishing industry. Hundreds of people losing their livelihoods is dreadful for them, their families and the broader community. It will also impact retailers of the newspapers closed. However, smart retailers will have seen this coming.
While a tough move, it is inevitable with print circulation down and online not delivering ad revenue to match what publishing companies had become used to achieving through their print platforms.
Smart newsagents already have businesses that do not rely on the regular newspaper shopper for survival. Plenty of us are attracting shoppers for other products, non traditional agency products.
These changes, if they happen along the lines of the Guardian report, will not be the end of it.
Check out this ad from Airstaker:
Here is a listing of similar ads:
I heard of the same listing on Airtasker being run interstate too.
Someone is keen to know how newspapers are being displayed in unnamed pharmacies. Chemist Warehouse is the only pharmacy group selling newspapers as far as I am aware. It’s a new relationship between News Corp. and Chemist warehouse, which I wrote about here.
Whoever Andrew V, the poster of the task, is, they must have put plenty of tasks on the gig economy platform as they have 1,749 reviews.
If this is News Corp., is this a new model for checking non retailers? Also, is there an issue with the Chemist Warehouse relationship when it comes to newspaper placement in-store.
It’s low-ball pricing: $12 to go to the pharmacy, buy a paper, take photos and answer questions about what you saw. The offered $12 includes the cost of the paper.
A merchandiser visit to a store for as little as 15 minutes costs between $35 and $50 from what I am told by companies using such services. The $10 for labour offered by this Airtasker poster is low-ball by this measure.
I guess a question is, are any suppliers taking a similar approach with checking on other retailers, like newsagents.
Click here to see this terrific story by the ABC, from their Landline TV program. It’s a new newspaper for Naracoorte in South Australia – launched as a result of the closure of the local paper by a much bigger publisher.
I urge everyone here to watch this story.
News Corp has announced that it is putting its papers into 100 Chemist Warehouse shops. Here is their media release.
News Corp Australia and Chemist Warehouse have joined forces to make trusted newspapers available to customers during the coronavirus pandemic.
From this week, 100 Chemist Warehouse stores across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia will become a point of sale for News Corp’s metro mastheads, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail and The Advertiser.
Pharmacies as well as news brands have both seen consumer demand surge in the past two months, as Australians stock up on wellbeing products and turn to trusted sources for information and analysis on the crisis.
Lou Barrett, managing director of national sales for News Corp Australia said: “We’re always looking for new ways to assist our clients and their customers and given we’ve seen a spike in audience demand for our products, it makes perfect sense to have them available for sale in Chemist Warehouse stores.”
Lia Heim, group marketing manager at Chemist Warehouse said: “As an essential service ourselves, the ability to provide our customers with another essential service within our stores, that being trusted newspapers, means that shoppers can minimise their travel within the local community whilst remaining updated and informed.”
The initiative will operate on a trial basis until July and, pending the result, may be extended to 400 stores nationwide.
Newsagents are wondering is the News Corp move to sell papers through Chemist Warehouse is a move by the company to break away from these local family businesses. It certainly looks that way. That said, I suspect them move is News Corp. working with a valuable, long-term, advertising partner.
Given the Chemist Warehouse model, look for free papers to be offered when shoppers spend above a certain amount, like News Corp regularly runs in supermarkets. These campaigns hurt local newsagency over the counter sales.
Regardless of the reason, the News Corp decision will hurt small business newsagents emotionally and, possibly, financially, and this is bad news for the channel.
What do I think? I think this move sucks. There is nothing good about it for newsagents. The move by News is socially irresponsible right now.
Our channel has been a good and faithful servant of News Corp for decades. Putting up with cuts to margin and watching as they preference supermarkets with sweet deals.
It seems to me that News Corp. does not care for our channel.
Great news out of Mildura yesterday:
Sunraysia Daily to print on Saturday
THE Sunraysia Daily will revive its printed publication with a Saturday edition.After temporarily ceasing all its printed publications last weekend due to the economic impact of the coronavirus, the Elliott Newspaper Group decided on Thursday morning to print a Saturday only edition while the crisis continues.
Elliott Newspaper Group managing director Ross Lanyon said the move wouldn’t have been possible without the support of staff.
“We have seen an enormous community push for us to revive a printed product this week and we are listening to our readers,” Mr Lanyon said.
“While we have a strong online presence with our revamped website, people still love their paper and are desperate for it back.
his is terrific news as newsagency sales of the Saturday paper were terrific.
Newsagents have lost out from the unexpected collapse a few weeks ago of Sing Tao Newspapers Pty Ltd. Despite this, the liquidator is pursuing newsagents for what could be dubious amounts. Further, they are being heavy handed in their approach.
Newsagents were supplied newspapers by the company. Newsagents paid for newspapers. Then, later in the cycle, they claimed for unsold product. Who knows what the actual debt is given the surprise collapse of the company. Timing is key in determining an accurate position.
The liquidator is threatening legal action to recover what they claim is a few hundred dollars owed in one instance shown to me. I doubt a liquidator would take legal action to recover this. However, I am no expert and offer no advice.
If I received such a notice, I’d show the liquidator an invoice for my costs from the collapse covering any uncredited returns.
Nine has this story:
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp will suspend publication of 60 community newspapers including The Manly Daily, The Wentworth Courier and The Diamond Valley Leader due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company announced on Wednesday morning it would turn its 60 community newspaper mastheads to digital-only products and suspend print publication from April 9 due to rapid declines in advertising revenues.
It’s understandable. Ad revenue has all but disappeared. The question is, will they come back?
Mumbrella has this story:
In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, Nine has pivoted its publishing arm. The changes include the suspension of some print sections and the optimisation of newspapers’ webpages to provide consumers with COVID-19 updates.
Non-weekly magazines have been suspended and some lift outs have ceased. The staff impacted by the changes will be redeployed as appropriate, said a Nine spokesperson.
Kiwi blog has this story:
Govt closes down all non daily newspapers
The Government announced:
The current focus for government and all New Zealanders must be on minimising the movement of people to stop the transmission of Covid-19
In relation to news and media this applies both to the movement of staff of media organisations and their supply and distribution lines
The focus for news and media as an essential service has to be on the provision of timely news and current affairs
Daily newspapers are currently included in the definition and are expected to take strong measures to ensure safety of staff and the public; combined with their digital reach, they remain essential at this stage for the timely dissemination of news to the majority of New Zealanders
Printed periodical and non-daily publications are not considered essential under the news and media designation
The Sunraysia Daily has announced it is suspending print operations. Expect more news like this.
SUNRAYSIA Daily will suspend printing and all staff will be stood down due to the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the business.
Staff were told in a meeting on Tuesday morning.
It was proposed that Saturday’s paper would be the last edition until further notice.
Staff were told the intention was for operations to eventually resume.
The decision affects all of Elliott Newspaper Group mastheads, including Sunraysia Life, The Guardian in Swan Hill and Gannawarra Times.
Sunraysia Daily, Mildura’s only daily newspaper, is in its 100th year.
This is a terrific email to subscribers for The Age and other Nine titles from James Chessell yesterday.
Dear Mark,
Our newsrooms are used to fast-developing stories but the coronavirus pandemic is without precedent. Since we first reported on the outbreak of a new virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan in January, the coronavirus has spread across the world infecting more than 180,000 people, paralysing countries, and upending global financial markets.
Misinformation during this time can spread as quickly as the virus itself. Our newsrooms are committed to reporting the facts about COVID-19 calmly and explaining what the outbreak means for our economy, businesses, schools, sports, culture, households and daily lives. We will do so without straying into sensationalism. It is imperative that our community is prepared and informed as we face this challenge together. Our reporters on the ground in Australia and overseas take this responsibility seriously and are working hard to fulfil it.
We have made our daily live coverage of the pandemic free to all readers given its critical health and community information. It’s thanks to our subscribers that we’re able to provide this service to the wider community. Subscribers power our newsrooms and access to a trusted source of news is more important now than it has ever been.
The wider coverage includes:
Federal and state political bureaus led by David Crowe, Rob Harris and Peter Hartcher pursuing and examining the government’s response to the serious health and economic challenges ahead;
Foreign correspondents filing from Europe, the United States and Asia to provide a global insight, including Bevan Shields’ excellent piece about the ‘herd immunity’ debate in the UK;
Expert business reporters and columnists analysing the impact on jobs, the economy and business including Stephen Bartholomeusz’s must-read on the myriad forces ending the longest bull market in history;
Opinion writers including Jacqueline Maley, Chris Uhlmann, Ross Gittins, Sean Kelly, Shaun Carney and Julia Baird, who wrote eloquently about the importance of hope recently, providing the best range of measured analysis of events for readers who don’t like to be told what to think, and;
Science and health reporters giving regular updates on the nature of the virus, vaccine developments, and personal health advice. Our journalists abide by a set of reporting guidelines when writing about medical research, which you can read here.
Most importantly, we will tell you what it all means for you and your family.
Each morning we publish a Morning Edition newsletter that provides a summary of the day’s most important stories. You can sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox each morning.
We first published our comprehensive explainer on the virus on January 21. It has had more than 2500 updates since and continues to be constantly revised. It serves as an excellent primer on the basic questions we all want to know including how worried we should be. Our award-winning explainer team has also written about what coronavirus does to the body, the rules of self-isolation and the origins of COVID-19.
We know you will have many more questions and we are keen to hear them. You can send them to our newsdesk via newsletters@theage.com.au
As an increasing number of us become isolated in our homes, we want to keep readers connected not just to the news but to each other and will be pursuing ways we can keep our communities in touch online through our comment feeds and social media groups.
We know too, that our readers will need a break from an overwhelming news cycle and we will be highlighting content that can help you pass the time with positivity such as our Good Weekend long reads, quizzes, Good Food recipes (freezer-friendly favourites and eight simple ways to keep your immune system in top shape may come in handy) and ‘good news’ stories. This month, we are also launching a series of new podcasts with topics ranging from television to AFL and crime.
The safety of our staff is paramount and we are taking as many measures as we can to do our bit to minimise the spread of the virus throughout the community. But we are also very conscious of our duty to report the news no matter what the circumstances.
I want to thank you, as a subscriber, for supporting journalism which in the coming days will be vital. We hope your family stays healthy and safe.
Alex Lavelle
James Chessell,
Executive Editor
WH Smith stopped selling UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph for several days in train station outlets because of a dispute on margin.
WHSmith has banished the Daily Telegraph from its outlets in railway stations, escalating an industry-wide battle over shrinking margins for newspaper retailers.
After ordering managers to move the Telegraph titles to the magazine section on Friday, the UK chain this week refused to stock the daily newspaper in about 120 railway stores.
The dispute arose after the Telegraph raised the cover price of its newspapers by almost a quarter this month — the daily edition to £2.50 and the Sunday Telegraph to £2.80 — but did not increase the amount paid to retailers by the same proportion.
That move, not sharing cover price gain with retailers, is what has been happening in Australia for a while. As the Financial Times story continues…
The disagreement reflects years of frustration among newsagents, whose sales income has fallen along with tumbling circulation of print copies. While Britain’s national papers have steadily raised their cover prices over the past decade, the increases have been offset by cuts to the retailers’ share.
Yes, here too.
A study in 2016 by Deloitte found that the industry, on average, paid 23 per cent of a newspaper’s cover price to retailers and 5 per cent to wholesalers. Today, the national newspaper average for retailers is closer to 22 per cent, according to Financial Times calculations.
Whoa! UK newsagents are better off that us. We are on 12.5% – making newspaper loss making. Plus, newspaper shoppers are not efficient, they rarely purchase anything else.
Like much of the industry, the Telegraph has struggled to cope with plummeting print circulation over the past decade. Since 2017, the Daily Telegraph print circulation has fallen 34 per cent, from 484,000 to 317,000 copies a day, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Boo hoo. The challenges faced by newspaper publishers are not something small business newsagents have to financially support. We have our own challenges that demand our time and capital.
Note, a few days after the newspaper was removed, it was back on sale. No news of the details of any deal being struck.
This local newspaper in the US town of Marfa Texas (pop. circa 2,000) added a cafe/bar to the news room. They then needed to add more journalists. Redefining the newspaper …
For the @nytimestyle I wrote about how the @bigbendsentinel, Marfa’s newspaper of nearly a century, is changing the fate of local news. https://t.co/heTuZ9k91m
— Sasha von Oldershausen (@sashavono) February 20, 2020
The newspaper sales latest book promotion from News Corp. is as frustrating as these promotions have become with stock arriving in bulk the week before and fully paying for this before 90% of the stock can be sold. Then, there is the appalling margin position.
Add to these points that the promotion drives minimal net new traffic and you can see why it is not highly regarded by many retailers.
As well as the paltry margin that itself does not even cover labour and space, News Corp wants floor stickers and posters, visual noise that detract from the messages that are more commercially valuable for our business. This is why I removed all promotional material on the weekend.
I get that publishers want to support over the counter newspaper purchases as they play a valuable role in conversion to subscription, especially digital subscription. I’d like to see a fairer billing cycle, better margin and more active support of retail newsagents as locations.
Running a promotion that takes up so much time and space and distracts from the new core of the business no longer works for me. So, something has to give. In the face of tired and inflexible promotions from News, I think my next step is one I have to take. The future of my business is not in low margin inefficient agency lines.
I was frustrated when I saw the books and posters on Saturday because there is so much good margin news in the shop with new categories performing well and delivering high-value new shoppers to the business. I saw all this good news and the fresh appeal off the front of the shop and then, thud, there was this reminder of practices from decades ago. It was like going back in time.
