We are pitching That’s Life Unwind magazine in a unit placed in between our women’s and crossword titles to leverage the sweet spot for the shopper for the title. It is easily understood, hence the decision to place it where impulse purchases will work for us.
Just released by Alexander Wang:
Australians are searching Harry and Meghan in good numbers. Here is the number of times each is currently being searched each month through Google in Australia:
This is rom verified search data.
You can position your newsagency business to leverage this with tactical inshore placement of magazines featuring them, running related in-store marketing and engaging on social media around the impending wedding.
If you are in a marketing group you should already know this and have been receiving information for months. That is what we have been doing with newsXpress.
The Pacific Magazines Nexus program is promoting in-store engagement with some excellent opportunities, which I encourage Nexus members to engage with.
If the royal wedding is not part of your marketing plan I urge you to make it so. The commercial value is set to be c considerable.
In my opinion, there is no value for small business newsagents in supporting or working with Lottoland. here is why:
The issue here is not about newsagents and their businesses. Nor is it about regulation or protection. Newsagency businesses need to live or die as a result of the actions of the owners in running a compelling and appreciated local businesses for the communities in which they serve. This and local community desire will determine if newsagency businesses survive.
The issue here is about Lottoland, their operation and their ethics.
They launched into Australia running a campaign over which they had 100% control. That told us about the company and what it stands for.
Their TV commercials were, in my opinion, dishonest and disrespectful. They are reaping what they sowed.
Footnote: the newsagency today cannot be the newsagency Australians remember from the past. Today’s newsagency is a shop leaning into change, offering different products thoughtfully selected and carefully curated for local community needs. Whereas in the past people walked in the door of a newsagency for papers, magazines and lotteries first. Today, many newsagencies have people walking in for more high-end sought after lines with papers, magazines and lotteries becoming the impulse add-on.
A check of the current Fairfax subscription pitch page for The Age shows the extent to which Fairfax is focussed on digital and weekend delivery ahead of seven day print. Print sales plus production and distribution costs of print versus digital explain this focus.
I share this here not to alarm but to inform. Newsagent who are not actively pursuing new traffic opportunities for their businesses are behind.
The print edition of The Collective is to close.
Since its launch, this magazine has been consistently oversupplied in businesses for which I have seen data. Small business newsagents have been a bank, providing funding to prop-up the title.
The publisher asked to meet with me prior to launch, to discuss ideas for engaging respectfully with newsagents. While they listened with courtesy, they did none of what I suggested. In my opinion, we were used from the start.
The May issue of Grand Designs Magazine is out on 28th March! Subscribe, download or pick up a copy at all good newsagents and supermarkets https://t.co/npuNgZEI94 pic.twitter.com/i7bVyUdwhC
— Grand Designs Mag (@granddesignsmag) March 27, 2018
Stephen Kaye, former circulation executive at News in Victoria, passed away on the weekend.
I first met Stephen many years ago, when he was Circulation Manager at The Mercury in Hobart. back then, dealing with circulation managers in News around the country, Stephen was one of the bright lights in my view. He was tough but fair, always open to discussion and respectful of the role newsagents played.
When he moved to Victoria, Stephen continued to serve News professionally while being fair to the newsagents on which his company relied.
It is a tough gig working for a large and domineering company like News with employees often having to enforce rules and requirements they as individuals found challenging. You can do this by being uncaring or reflecting some personal empathy. In my dealings with Stephen I found he did the latter.
I appreciated the note he sent on his retirement from News last year:
Hi Mark,
Well all good things come to an end. Back in October last year I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, a big surprise considering I’ve never been a heavy or regular smoker. Since then I’ve battled along with my chemo treatment and have been coping reasonably well, but not well enough to return to work. News Corp have been very supportive and done the right thing by me by offering redundancy which will help with our financial planning. My last day with News Corp will be June 30.
I just wanted to take this opportunity to contact a select number of newsagents and suppliers to say goodbye. They are people I have had a lengthy association with over many years and despite having different views over that time, I have both liked and respected.
I wish you well for the future and hope our paths cross at some stage.
Kind regards, Stephen
Lottoland needs to revisit how they launched in Australia and contemplate addressing their targeted and relentless attacks on newsagents before looking like they do in this ad.
They knew what they were dong then and they know what they are doing now.
This graph shows the percentage of Tatts’ own lotteries revenue reach year from online sales, over three years, as reported in annual reports published by Tatts Group.
The big battle for lottery retailers is the online push by Tatts and OzLotteries.
While the Lottoland battle win is good and sure to be appreciated by many lottery retailers, I think the bigger challenge remains the migration from over the counter to online purchase.
I am told Tatts reps say to retailers to not worry about this. Of course they would say that.
I think lottery retailers need to run their businesses as if the migration continues, and picks up pace. There is no downside to any lottery retailer running their business believing this. The only result can be a healthier business.
I have started collecting basket data for the January – March newsagency sales benchmark study. Thanks to early input of data I hope to have results by the end of next week. I already have data from seventy stores of a variety of business situations.
The January – March study is usually valuable in providing an insight into what the rest of the year can look like in key categories of magazines, newspapers and greeting cards.
The Queensland arm of News was first with details of the Commonwealth games pin offer. Then, very slowly, other outposts of the company provided details of their pitch.
This should be a national campaign, managed nationally and consistently. Okay, not in WA maybe, but certainly elsewhere.
It is a slim margin offer and the dribbling of pitches from the various News Corp. state offices adds to the cost off businesses that support newsagency businesses across state / territory borders.
This stuff should be easier.
In pursuit of ‘efficiency’ News Corp. has invited expressions of interest from parties interested in pitching for secondary distribution business. That is, providing one delivery point for News for small geographic areas for further distribution to retailers and home delivery customers.
This has elements of T2020 and some elements of a UK wholesaler model.
This from the News Corp. pitch doc sent last week:
BRIEFING DOCUMENT NEWS CORP SECONDARY DISTRIBUTION – MARCH 2018
Currently News Corp (“News”) meets consumer demand for print media via a large network of distribution partners (“Distributors”) servicing small geographic areas. News delivers newspapers (and other promotional items from time to time) to these Distributors from our print site. These Distributors provide the distribution of newspapers to subscriber’s homes and workplaces, delivery to retailers for retail sales and delivery to other commercial partners such as Airlines, Hotels and other businesses in bulk form. Some of these Distributors also manage directly the relationship with some retailers and subscribers. Collectively this service is known internally as “Secondary Distribution”.
The media landscape is continuously evolving and the current Secondary Distribution operating model has challenges for both News and our Distributors.
Our intent is to review our Secondary Distribution model to determine the right, fit for purpose and sustainable model that offers News a cost-effective solution, data integrity in the network whilst ensuring a network that is viable for our Distributors.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this market engagement is to explore and identify interested parties and potential solutions or
alternate options that will support a sustainable distribution mechanism to the subscribers in NSW for the next five years.
The key objectives of this process are to :-
SCOPE
We are inviting you to propose for consideration by us how you or your organisation would provide a service that
meets our requirements for all or part of the coverage areas listed in the attachments provided with the RFI document, specifically outlining your approach, any indicative pricing, details of technology solutions and what further information you would require to enable you to participate in a formal RFP process (should we proceed).
We also understand that any solution must be viable for the Distributor and we would ask you to propose a contract term to support investment in technology, systems and infrastructure required to support any new model.
We would encourage greenfield thinking for both the operating and commercial model.
1
HIGH LEVEL REQUIREMENTS
Your submission should consider that secondary distribution is for all News paid publications. Primarily, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian, as a stand alone solution and does not rely on or include publications from other publishers.
However we do understand and accept scale is a key driver of efficiency and therefore News would consider industry collaboration where practical.
Regions for consideration have been split as: Sydney Metropolitan area and the major regional centres of Wollongong, Newcastle, The Central Coast, Blue Mountains and
region could
Current volumes, estimated arrival time to nominated drop points and postcodes in each region will be provided to those who complete the initial expression of interest.
RETAIL DELIVERIES
Minimum requirements are as follows for Retail Deliveries and Home Deliveries but we would encourage alternate solutions that may be more cost effective, agile and sustainable in the long term without affecting the customer experience.
You will be required to provide a delivery service to both Direct retailers and Indirect retailers 7 days per week, ideally before 6.30 am.
Where there are substantial efficiencies from later delivery times or prioritising 24 hour retail outlets, these should be provided for consideration.
You should have the capability to provide data by each retail outlet; sales and unsold copies by title by day. News may also require evidence of unsold copies which may include preparation for collection if required and auditing by a News authorised representative.
Indirect retailers – these are retailers that you will have the commercial relationship with whereby you will manage copy allocation and be responsible for the financial relationship.
Direct retailers – these are retailers that you will deliver a predetermined quantity on behalf of News and News manage the financial relationship.
HOME DELIVERIES
Home delivery copies will need to be presented in a format that is acceptable to News and subscribers. (Currently the product is rolled and wrapped but we encourage alternatives to traditional wrapping that may produce a more cost effective alternative or a more desirable product presentation to the subscribers.)
You will be required to provide delivery service of newspapers up to 7 days per week to a nominated delivery point for a subscriber ideally before 6.30 am but we would like to understand the cost implications of alternate delivery times.
Canberra. Subject to proposed solutions, each be broken up further into a number of geographic zones if this delivered a more sustainable network.
2
Have the ability to stop and start the delivery of home deliveries as directed by News and have the ability to implement customer changes in a timely manner (ie within 24 hours of being advised by News).
Provide an issue resolution contact and process to ensure issues can be actioned on the delivery day.
THE COMMERCIAL MODEL
We would encourage your thoughts on proposing a commercial model that explores possible differing service levels or alternate scenarios which may vary from the stated high level requirements – yet deliver a more cost effective outcome.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Any proposed solution must have the following as minimum standards:
On my phone today. I could complete a purchase in under 10 seconds.
While the Lottoland victory is important, the migration of over the counter purchases to mobile and online is the main challenge newsagents with lotteries face. I fear too many are not managing heir businesses with this migration on their mind. It is easy to ignore something you do not easily see.
School holidays are a wonderful opportunity its for finding new shoppers for your business.
To win new customers you have to act different to what you have done, you have to pitch your business in fresh ways and to people who otherwise may not have seen your business or considered your business.
But most of all, to make the most from school holidays, you need to have fun!
Here are marketing suggestions to help school holidays be more valuable for your newsagency. They are just some of the ideas you could embrace. Hopefully, you will think of plenty for yourself.
These ideas are designed to help you create a business during any holidays period that is looked at differently to the rest of the year, to help you gain a reputation as the best school holidays place locally.
The owner of Rankins newsagency in Brisbane has setup a petition to lobby the council to reverse their decision to evict the business to make way for new development.
See more about the story here:
Brisbane City Council is evicting Rankin’s on the Mall at the end of May. https://t.co/xz9WiwqNed #7News pic.twitter.com/ImiknBr2ie
— 7 News Brisbane (@7NewsBrisbane) March 30, 2018
Finally, a new special interest magazine I can really get behind. #excited
Thanks to @ben_doughnut for this.
If you have Easter stock still in-store, I suggest you pitch it hard to clear the stock, so that none is stored for next year.
I never keep unsold seasonal items as I see that as a waste o0f money one all fronts: space, labour, inventory.
Here are tips for quitting Easter stock:
Start the day with the goal of selling out. Price adjust to achieve this.
Hanging on to stock for next year is hoarding and wastes money.
There was a time trading hours of newsagents mattered. Not in The Age today or the Herald Sun, because times have changed. Businesses that are part of everyday are listed.
On a massive news day for sports-obsessed Australia, plenty of people will get their fix without print, without a visit to the newsagent.
I received this A5 double-sided flyer from Woolworths at my software company Monday this week. It is another piece of business to business marketing from them, the second I have received this year already.
Promoting to local businesses is important. As Woolworths shows in their offer, the actual offer does not need to be substantial. The most important part of the business to business offer is ease of transacting.
Make it easier for local businesses to get supplies from you and you are more likely to get the business.
I like the idea of a professional flyer as it is a low cost way to reach businesses in an area. If you decide to go this route, the flyer had to be professional, contain an engagement offer and easy to read and understand.
I know of newsagents who visit local businesses, pitching for their business. While I think a personal touch like this is important, it is not as efficient as a flyer pitch where you can reach many businesses for a lower cost. Does this mean you should stop visiting? No! Add a flyer to the marketing mis and maybe this will lift the success rate of your business visits.
If I was doing a flyer like this in my business, my flyer would pitch:
The flyer would be different to the slick corporate flyer from Woolworths. I’d try and tap into the local small business emotion without being ham-fisted about it.
I think this type of flyer is vital for retail businesses in the high street, not in a busy shopping mall. These high street businesses often have a traffic challenge already. The flyer is a vital way of reaching outside the business to find those valuable new shoppers. A business is a very valuable new shopper.
The Woolworths flyer was, to me, a reminder that all businesses need to promote their businesses outside their business, to reach out and attract new shoppers, some of whom will never actually personally shop in the business.
Warning because here comes a newsXpress pitch: The newsXpress newsagency marketing group provides a flyer template for its members, so they can create a personal, professional, flyer in a couple of minutes for their business without any graphic design skills. This is what marketing groups do to help newsagents find new shoppers.
Stationery, particularly pens and pencils, is being pitched in many different ways that challenge the traditional newsagency approach. Some of the new ways are successful at getting people to purchase stationery for purposes other than immediate use, this is brilliant.
It can be through display, packaging or tactical placement that pitches stationery differently to what we usually see in a newsagency business. And on the packaging, plenty of alternative options are available if you go outside suppliers to the newsagency channel looking for options.
I your stationery sales are flat or declining, maybe it is time to pitch stationery not as stationery.
Non-traditional approaches I have seen in recent weeks include some in the following photos. None of the photos is from a newsagency type or similar business. They are all from gift and fashion stationery. All overseas.
These photos are not placed here to suggest you stock the lines. rather, they are offered to show opportunities outside of what may have been traditional for your type of business. They are six from more than fifty photos from this series:
news.com.au reports:
In a statement, Lottoland Australia CEO Luke Brill said, “While we understand the concerns expressed by some newsagents, the proposed legislation is both misguided and unnecessary.
“The fact is that Lottoland does not offer betting opportunities on any Australian lottery, so our offering does not have a direct impact on newsagents.
“On the contrary, we want to work with newsagents to provide customers with greater choice and even better services, which have the potential to be highly beneficial for individual newsagents.
“As a responsible and responsive corporate citizen that contributes extensively to local and community groups, we will continue to work closely with regulators and all political parties to reach a satisfactory outcome in the best interest of our more than 650,000 registered customers.”
Big news in this press release from ALNA today:
Australia, 27 March 2018: The lotto and keno betting industry will cease to exist under a new proposed amendment to the Interactive Gambling Bill, meaning the closure of dangerous sites like Lottoland and Planet Lottery – a move welcomed by the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association.
The news comes as a relief to the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA), which has long held serious concerns about the ethical conduct, high consumer risks, damage to Australian businesses, and dodgy structures of these schemes.
Adam Joy, CEO of the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association said, “We are pleased to see this loophole being addressed on a national level. The best kind of consumer protection from synthetic lotteries is to not allow it in our country. The model encourages problem gambling, promotes high risk spending, and is misleading regarding the winnings available. And it also comes at a significant cost to state taxes, and to local family-run small businesses – that employ locally, pay Australian taxes and support the local community.”
Betting on the outcome of lotteries is already not an approved betting contingency in South Australia, so lotto betting schemes cannot accept bets there. The UK government has recently moved to close further loopholes in their Gambling Act, to ensure betting on lottery outcomes is prohibited. And now this proposed amendment will see decisive national action to prohibit these types of businesses in Australia.
Joy added, “We are talking about websites, like Lottoland, that send bets overseas and have a history of being misleading, preferring token gestures over responsible behaviour, of targeting Australian businesses, of illegally misusing trademarks of other businesses and facing legal action. They operate on the methodology that it is easier to beg for forgiveness than to do the right thing from the start.
“And they do all this while operating outside of the much tighter regulations, consumer protections, and higher taxes that official regulated lotteries adhere to. This is why amending the Interactive Gambling Act is the only sensible way forward.
“This will be welcomed news for the consumers who have been misled by these online schemes, the community that have been concerned about the impact on state tax revenues, and the more than 4,000 small businesses and their 15,000+ employees that are regulated lottery retailers.”
One of the most concerning aspects of the synthetic lottery model is its introduction of instant and repetitive behaviours that have been proven to be high risk for addiction and encouraging of irresponsible gambling behaviours: “The same features of pokies that make it high risk and dangerous, are being applied to online betting. All the while, using the low harm product of lotteries as the bait to then switch Australian consumers over to high harm gambling.
“The Federal Interactive Gambling Act already makes it illegal to sell a scratchy online and play a poker machine online, and the federal government moved last year to further strengthen the act with an amendment to ban online in-play betting on sports and banning credit betting, as well as making it illegal for unlicensed operators to offer online poker. We are pleased that they are now closing a further loophole in the Act by banning online betting on all lottery and keno outcomes,” explained Joy.
The ALNA has objected to the financial implications of these online betting sites, like Lottoland and Planet Lottery. Based offshore and licensed in the Northern Territory as sports bookmakers, the schemes avoid paying any gambling tax and have no obligation to support the consumers they may hurt with their encouragement of high harm behaviour. And in the case of Lottoland, a Point of Consumption Tax for all synthetic lottery sales would be contributing less than 1% compared to official lotteries.
The ALNA questions if the current licence for these sites can manage the risks that come with the type of complex layered financial hedging that they operate on.
The other concerning financial implication of lotto betting has been that consumers can walk away with significantly less than what was initially promoted or than they had understandably expected if they won.
Joy added, “State Governments have been voicing concerns that lotto and keno betting sites are hurting state tax revenue collections that impact community services that pay for schools, hospitals, roads and other important infrastructure.
“These schemes are also hurting newsagents and other lottery retailers across Australia who are mostly mum and dad operators and have their houses on the line as collateral for their businesses. And because they are bound by tight regulations that provide consumer protections, they are open to having their customers hijacked.”
On behalf Australia’s lottery and news agents, the ALNA greatly appreciates the Coalition Government’s strong support and decisive action on this issue, and would also like to recognise the important role of Senator Pauline Hanson and the One Nation Party in leading this initiative with the government.
– ENDS –
What is the difference between lotto betting and official regulated lotteries:
Lotto betting sites are wagering websites that sends bets overseas, with customers betting on the outcome of lotteries. More colloquially known as lotto bets (synthetic/fake lotteries), these online-only bookmakers are different to official regulated lottery draws.
They do not offer tickets in a draw, rather they draw from regulated lottery businesses and offer bets on lottery outcomes, relying on complex insurance linked securities to pay any winners (there has only been one million-dollar prize recipient, compared to official lottery’s 253 millionaires in 2016).
Real lotteries generate billions in state lottery taxes to pay for schools, hospitals, roads and other important infrastructure.
About the Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association (ALNA)
The Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association (ALNA) is the only national and non-profit, industry body specifically for Australian newsagents and lottery agents. Representing a significant part of the Australian economy, ALNA works tirelessly to better its members businesses, and to ensure a secure future for newsagents and lottery agents.
About Adam Joy, Chief Executive Officer, ALNA
Adam Joy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association (ALNA). He has held senior roles at ALNA for almost a decade.
Adam is an experienced senior executive and board director in commercial, advocacy and non-profit organisations. Previously, he worked in business process outsourcing, petrol and convenience, FMCG, QSR and marketing organisations.
Adam holds a Masters in Leadership and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
As a result of a promotion in the group there is an opportunity at newsXpress Southland in a store manager role. I am looking for someone keen to lead and leverage the excellent work already done in the growing business. This is 80% a gift and collectibles shop. No lotteries. No tobacco. If you know someone who may be interested, please have them email me at mark@newsxpress.com.au.