With the AFL Grand Final is full swing it is fascinating the different shoppers you see this afternoon in major shopping centre situations. This morning was a surge as people who would have shopped in the afternoon got it out of the way. This afternoon there are plenty of grandparents and kids as well as families. It is terrific seeing the change in mix of shoppers.
Rugby League Week is $7.50 this week yet it scans at $6.95 in what appears to be a data issue. Check you price. If you have sold it for less and it is proven to be a data issue I expect you could claim the lost GP.
This, just now, in Coles…
Shame on everyone at News Corp. who participated in making this deal happen. This weekend of all weekends to do this – it is an attack on newsagents.
130+ newsagents gathered on the Gold Coast earlier this week for the second national newsXpress conference of 2016. From Sunday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon these newsagents any plenty of suppliers talked business and socialised in pursuit of mutual success.
At the conference, newsXpress launched several initiatives for newsxpress members including:
In the main conference session, the newsxpress Profit and Loss statement for the 2015/16 financial year was presented. This is done each year at the conference in the second half of the year.
The conference also included an insightful presentation from experts at Pacific Magazines in a presentation unlike anything from a magazine publisher at any newsagency conference in the past.
Three suppliers presented who do not supply other groups in the newsagency channel, sharing traffic generating strategies – two of them announced newsXpress exclusive products for 2017.
Optimism was everywhere with plenty of talk of transformation, reconfiguring businesses and finding space for new opportunities.
From 8:30 to 12 noon on Tuesday an open forum was run that included comprehensive training on the latest best-practice approach to using social media to drive new traffic. This session was of particular value to those not currently using social media successfully.
To help members get to the event newsXpress provided travel reimbursement up to $500. There was no cot for participation.
I mention all this here as, for me, the conference represented the world of the future of our channel – talking about traffic generating strategies, working with suppliers who do not usually supply newsagencies and seeing technology advancements that unite the newsxpress channel in a unique and commercially valuable way for locally owned stores.
Yes, I am a Director of newsXpress. In the past I have been a member of Newspower and a member of and shareholder in Nextra.
The shutdown of power in South Australia late yesterday through to today has caused extraordinary disruption for small business newsagents in the state. Some have boon closed because of no power, plenty don’t have stock they were due to receive today, some have considerable storm damage to repay, some have electrical equipment that has been fritzed, some have food rendered unsaleable because of the blackout.
At Tower Systems the help desk team has been giving priority to calls from South Australian businesses. I am sure other service companies have been doing the same thing to help SA businesses recover from the disruption.
I firmly believe that print and digital media products live or due based on the relevance and quality of their content and not based on sales gimmicks and multi masthead bundling (discounting).
I was interested, therefore, to read the terrific report from Mediaweek of their interview with chief executive of The Week, Kerin O’Connor. He made some fractionating observations about newspapers and magazines including:
“If you went to your tap and turned it on and no water came out you would go and get another water supplier pretty quickly. Magazine and newspaper publishers often don’t bother with that part of their business – they can be too obsessed about what their social media strategy should be or what they should be doing on mobile.
The interview is much more than this brief quote. I urge newsagents to read it as it offers an interesting insights from a UK magazine publishing perspective.
Content matters, yet for some titles in Australia right now it feels like content is not as important as it should be.
An interesting report from the UK on invoice settlement times and practices shows Australian businesses as being among the slowest to settle invoices – an average of 26.4 days late.
Late settlement is a cost of business to suppliers. I suspect some suppliers factor late settlement into product pricing, impacting all their customers. Other suppliers take the hit and this can hamper the future if their businesses.
Retailers need successful suppliers. Key to the success of a supplier is the on time settlement of invoices by their customers.
If you can’t afford something, don’t buy it. Suppliers don’t force retailers to purchase their product.
One thing suppliers could consider is a stronger pitch of pricing based on on-time settlement and increased penalties for late settlement.
This report from the UK is a timely reminder about the management of indebtedness and settlement off supplier invoices.
If art supplies sales in your newsagency are down, check out your local Officeworks. As fairfax reported yesterday, Officeworks has expanded into art supplies. I have seen several art supplies area in Officeworks stores. They are impressive.
Blueshyft emailed newsagents yesterday afternoon asking them to call their POS software company for a stock file update.
Despite the claim in their email, Blueshyft had not told my newsagency POS software company – serving more newsagents than all other POS software companies combined – anything about the update, they had not provided the file, we had not seen the file and could, therefore, not help. We were not told the email was being sent.
But the support calls came. In huge number. Newsagents calling Tower because Blueshyft told them to. Some newsagents were rude to Tower employees, saying we were fools for not knowing about this.
This all happened when the Tower COO and I were on a flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne. We had been on the Gold Coast on business.
The Tower help desk was slammed – all because Blueshyft had kept us in the dark and because some newsagents didn’t believe that we had no knowledge of this new file.
I called Blueshyft CEO Kain Warwick at 04:06pm when I landed and had realised the mess. Kain returned the call at 05:12pm. I and expressed by frustration at what is, in my opinion, appalling communication from Blueshyft and a lack of respect for what Tower Systems does for them. Kain had no empathy for the situation. I felt the call was a waste of time.
I also called the CEO of XchangeIT as they had subsequent to the Blueshyft email sent the file. He as not aware of the issues, of the broken communication. I also expressed frustration at the large file but it was not his position to comment on this.
The call did not go well. Here it is 7am the next day and I am yet to receive any update from Blueshyft on why they would email their customers telling them to call my company (and other companies) hen they had not advised to expect the calls and have the information ready to assist.
Tower Systems gets get no compensation for any work related to Blueshyft. XchangeIT is paid to do what they do. I suspect Blueshyft pays VANA for their support and kind words. Yet the POS software company with the most newsagents is expected to be mind readers and know about a file we have never seen.
What happened yesterday is ridiculous in my opinion.
I have told the Tower help desk we will not take calls on this new file. Instead, the help desk experts have updated our online advice. This has all the instructions you need to load the file. Click here for our advice.
Had Blueshyft been professional, they would have provided the file to the Tower support team, let them test it, let them provide Blueshyft with advice on loading and then communicated with newsagents. Instead, they dumped the heavy lifting on companies like Tower for no compensation at all. This is typical Blueshyft. They say they are helping newsagents yet it is others who are being asked to donate to their cause.
But on the file, it has 2,700 stock items. It does not make sense they want to bloat your system with all these but that is a separate issue.
Yes, I am frustrated as it is things like this that divert our attention from providing support individual customers of ours call us for – calls from the businesses that pay for our support services. Blueshyft is freeloading at my expense and, ultimately, at your expense.
In his defence, Kain Warwick will say he emailed me and the Tower COO on Monday about a new file comping saying he would like to discuss it. This is kind of odd. he has our phone numbers. he has the Tower help desk contact details. yet he sent an email saying he would like to talk. there was no time indicator on the file release, no details at all. As Gavin and I were at an important conference on the Gold Coast we figured we would call Kain on our return.
This whole situation is ridiculous. You have VANA doing their song and dance about money some newsagents are making from Bueshyft, probably because Blueshyft pays them a fee to tout for them, yet others are expected to carry Blueshift for nothing.
This is agency business for which, in my opinion, there is no long-term upside for newsagents.
A tweet a few days ago to 12,100 followers of Steve Molk frustrated me:
As no one had responded so I did last night. We had a conversation on Twitter. here is how it went:
This Facebook post on the weekend pitched masks we have in-store for Halloween. The idea was to get people in our area thinking about is for Halloween party items. We deliberately are not promoting the cheap Halloween products discount stores and supermarkets carry. We have chosen a less cluttered space – and it is working based on the terrific response.
This approach is what they call a blue ocean approach – making a deliberate choice to place or pitch the business in a less cluttered ocean – a blue ocean of clean water rather than a cluttered red ocean full of blood from all the competitors swimming there.
While in-store we will pitch traditional Halloween, our external marketing right through Halloween will focus on innovative products through which we appeal to a broader audience.
Halloween is a wonderful retail season. We love it.
Startups are all the rage. Politicians especially love them and love talking about financial support for them – as if they think there are votes in startups.
I think the interest is in part due to the new of the startup, the opportunity to create something new that could be a great big thing.
Thinking about the obsession with startups recently got me thinking of them in the context of the Australian newsagency. The reality, our reality, is that we are at a moment in time where we need to create the next model.
Tweaking the newsagency business here and there buys time but not a long term future. No, we need to bring the principles and clean slate view to the future of the newsagency business.
This is the key element of the startup world that I think applies to our channel today – the idea of building a business from scratch, with a clean slate and full of hope from looking forward and not looking back.
That is what I mean when I suggest you think of your newsagency as a startup. You stop thinking about the old-world things you do that hold you back or the old suppliers who now contribute only a fraction to your bottom line.
A good startup starts with a good idea, rooted in a mission for the business. What does your business offer? What does it stand for? What is its USP? What makes it relevant decades from now – rather than why it is relevant thinking about decades of history.
Too many newsagents spend too much time worrying about old-school things that add little or no value to the business. In many cases plotting business performance data shows where those old-school worries will end at some point in the future.
So, think of your newsagency as a start up. Work out the new business you want to create where you are currently located. Even if you don’t do it, the thinking can open you to change to your current business that could be beneficial.
Thinking is free. All you have to risk is some time. What you can gain is excitement for changes ahead that you can bring to the business as a result of being open to thinking like a startup.
Animal Jam product is working a treat at the counter of the newsagency – as a destination purchase while others purchase on impulse. Key to the success is depth of range available. This display says we can satisfy most Animal Jam fans.
This placement is a good example of the moves we need to make at newsagency counters – moves that start with you looking for product outside your traditional suppliers.
This sign in the window of a Priceline on George Street Sydney is interesting in that a national chain would only do something like this if it worked. It looks like an opportunity for newsagents in areas where cruise ships dock or tour groups visit to try if not being done already. You can leverage the opportunity with discount vouchers or similar as the traditional loyalty offer would not work with these types of shoppers.
When assessing the labour cost in your business ensure that you cost your own time at the going rate.
As a newsagency management benchmark guide, I suggest a labour cost equal to between 9% and 11% of revenue where revenue is product sales revenue plus commission earned from any agency sales.
If you don’t include the cost of your time it makes comparing your business performance against the benchmark.
What does your shop look like when you are closed? Smart lighting and a good window display can help your closed hours be profitable. I saw the different smart lighting can make last week in Manchester in the UK. Here is a photo of a real-estate agency on Deansgate:
Here is another real estate agency right next door.
I took the two photos one after the other and from the same distance from each window – to facilitate comparison.
The first agency looks more appealing at night. It is the one of the two you are drawn to.
Take a look at how your shop looks at night time. Are you making the most of any night time traffic?
An out of date sign indicates an out of date business in my view. Take this sign I saw hanging over the front door of a newsagency on Friday:
Valentine’s Day 2016 was more than seven months ago. This sing is out of date. It’s presence above the door does not put the business in a good light.
Take a look around your shop, remove eve out of date sign. Make your team aware of the importance of current signs to reflect the focus of the business.
The Fairfax announcement yesterday of 10% to 12% cover price price increases for its capital city mastheads is in line with how the company has been approaching cover prices in recent years.
Unless I am missing something in the announcement, the newsagent revenue increase is under 9%, leaving newsagents worse off in real terms compared to the publisher.
Here is a display of bagged magazines at a WH Smith in Manchester from earlier this week. I guess the publishers do this because the discounted bagged magazines sell. This discounting has been going on for ages. To me it makes the cover price meaningless.
Check out the display of The Daily Telegraph at a WH Smith store in manchester two days ago. With the water stacked up and the book stand on the side it looks junk shop like to me. I guess it works though.
Saw this at a WH Smith this week in Manchester. Check out the Daily Star. We are not big enough in Australia to have this head to head competition between mastheads.
While I have no newspaper publishing experience, I am a consumer of news, especially on my phone, tablet and laptop.
But I don’t pay for it, I won’t pay for it. If there is a story behind a paywall that interests I wait or seek it out elsewhere – not because I am cheap but because the publisher wants me to sign up to a subscription.
The subscription model is an old media approach to a new media opportunity. It is out of date and not suited to today’s online and mobile consumer.
While in the UK earlier this week the Herald Sun had a story about the back room moves at Richmond Football Club. I clicked on the story and got this screen.
They wanted $10 for two months access before they would let me see the story. I love a good AFL back room story but it is not worth paying $10 to access it. That is how I saw it, a $10 fee because of this one story.
I suspect that is how plenty of people see it, especially those of us who travel overseas and want to catch up on stories back home for a short while.
Had the offer been, say, a fee for the story I would have been more interested. How much I’d pay would depend on the story. In this case, I might have paid up to 25 cents.
How much I would pay for future Herald Sun stories would depend on the trust that builds from earlier purchases. If the value is there I’d pay a few cents per article.
Imagine what would happen if publishers adopted this pay per story model. It would make the stories the thing rather than the current obsession with clickbait headlines. It would make journalism the thing as the better the journalism the better the value of the story and the more consumers would respect a masthead and the more stories they would buy. Hey they might even subscribe.
Today’s digital world is often about either free or low cost access to services and products. This is where newspaper publishers ought focus their attention – micro payments per story. The old subscription model is as old as the old paper model and ought to be discarded as the entry point for digital revenue.
Rather than pushing to lock people into long-term subscriptions, yes, two months is long-term, give is story by story access, take micro payments and get more value from each good story you publish.
This approach of a payment per story makes the journalists and editors more connected to the business model. It would make them work harder to develop content people want as they would want to be in the top grossing stories from the masthead.
I’d like to see News Corp. or Fairfax offer this pay per story approach today. I think a trial with fair pricing would produce a good result for them, their editorial staff and their advertisers. yes, I’d accept non intrusive advertising with any sort I purchase.
Only ever print vouchers from Epay or Touch for phone recharge, gift vouchers or any other form of voucher when the customer is in front of you. Touch or Epay will never call your business and ask you to print vouchers. Tell your staff and protect your business against fraud.
You only have to look at the pitch from News Corp. to understand where they are focused for their future distribution channel.
The tablet is the distribution mechanism. It is faster, cheaper, more accurate in placement and more current than the current method of printing, stacking, putting in a truck, driving to the distribution newsagent, them unbundling, rolling, loading the delivery vehicle and going out on the road to deliver news that is hours out of date.
These are the facts.
Newsagents need to invest in distribution knowing the focus of publishers. Yes, there is enjoyment from turning the page, not needing a device to read the news and being able to easily dive into a section you like. The thing is, the distribution platform is no longer commercially viable.
The September Reed Gift Fair in Sydney was fascinating on a range of fronts.
It was a terrific fair, important at this time of the year for making sure you have what you need for the next few months without the craziness of the larger fairs.
The biggest takeaway was the focus on change by the retailers I spoke with. Most retailers, from various channels, were focused on change in their businesses. Newsagents are not alone with the challenges of disruption in the channel. I got a lot from listening to, for example, the challenges faced by a jeweller or the challenges faced by a specialty garden gift shop being challenged by a new mass-market retailer coming to town.
One thing I didn’t like at the gift fair is the cheap China junk some wholesalers carry. I saw some dreadful products that mimic more expensive lines, products would retail at under $10. They look cheap. They give off a message in retail I’d not want for my shop.
We in our newsagency channel often see what has been and is happening to us as unique to us when it is not. Small business retailers in many channels face similar.
The key from the gift fair is how you face into the challenges.
Getting out of your shop and looking for opportunities beyond what is usual for your business is a good start. That is where trade shows like this are important.