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Updated advice on doing a magazine relay in your newsagency

In the three years since I published my article How to do a magazine relay in your newsagency plenty has changed. In this post I provide up to date advice. I hope you find it useful.

Before you start the relay, consider the amount of space you want to allocate to magazines. Do not allocate space to fit what you are sent. Allocate space to make money.

Today’s newsagency needs somewhere between 15% and 25% of floor space allocated for magazines. With the category one of the least valuable in pure gross profit terms efficient use of space is key.

Once you have your floor space allocation and know your fixture situation you will have a pocket count.

Now you can get down to your relay.

The relay you do in your business is your relay. There is no right or wrong way. There is also no end point. What you do today will need refining next week and the week after. So, do not over think what you want to do as that would be a waste of time.

The goal of the relay has to be to disrupt magazine traffic in pursuit of an increase in sales. What I mean is: change everything, upset customers and staff, sell more magazines as people discover titles they did not know you had.

PLANNING

Determine your zones shopper: garden, food, men, women, sports etc. In some locations you will full face titles while in other locations you will fit three titles into two pockets and in others as many as six titles into two pockets. The categories where I use less than one pocket per title is: special interest, British weeklies, food, comics and some craft segments.

Yes, customers looking for a destination title for which you receive a small quantity will look for the title. Save money, use less space for these titles.

Look at the percentage of sales delivered by each magazine category and look at sales trends for the categories.  Tote up broad groups. For example the percentage of sales for women’s weeklies, women’s interests, crafts & hobbies, crosswords, home & lifestyle and food & wine.  If your newsagency is like mine, this grouping will account for more than 50% of your magazine sales.

Use your data to broadly map out a plan.

NOW, THE MAGAZINE RELAY

I suggest it is done by one person, an owner, working alone.

  1. Take every magazine off the shelves. That’s right. If you are going to do this you have to commit and taking every magazine off the shelves is a commitment.  Also, take down all magazine posters.
  2. Clean the shelves. What an opportunity!
  3. Build the women’s zone. From the busiest section in.  If it is an aisle, start with women’s weeklies on one side and fashion (marie claire, Cleo, Cosmo, Vogue) on the other.  Concentrate on one side first, the weeklies.  Respect top sellers, give New Idea, Women’s Day, Famous, NW, Who, OK!, That’s Life and Take 5 prime position.
  4. Place a half or full column of crossword titles next to the weeklies.
  5. Next to weeklies place, in order, pockets of Better Homes and Gardens followed by Australian Women’s Weekly, British women’s magazines (yes, all of them), country living titles, home and living titles, food, wedding with a waterfall of the major title and hair.  For me, space wise, that sees out one side of the aisle.
  6. On the opposite side, directly across from and facing women’s weeklies, I have fashion young, fashion older and I end this with a waterfall of Frankie.  Next is women’s health starting with younger target titles and blending to older ones. Next is pregnancy and baby followed by crosswords. This usually rounds out that side.
  7. This is my women’s aisle.
  8. Using key titles as borders and features at the same time.
  9. I look for one space on each side for an in-location display, where I take between four and six pockets for a poster supporting a title.  This can ease the visual conflict of a mass of titles and drive incremental business for a good title to boot.

What I do in women’s is the same for the other zones I create.  I do each zone separately and try and get into the head space of the shopper of the zone – using the most popular titles to act as beacons, or signposts, for the zone.

I also take note of covers and give really good covers, eye catching covers, time in the spotlight.

I am careful what I place next to top selling titles. This is a prime spot, next to the popular titles. Choose wisely. Choose titles that naturally fit next to the big titles, titles shoppers are likely to browse and purchase on impulse.

If I am not sure about where to put a title I put it aside and move on.

I take extra time with special interest and hobby titles.  For example, I put railways and model railroad titles near each other but I am careful to ensure that they are separated as they appeal to two shoppers and only occasionally do you see titles from both segments in the same basket.

Within the zones I look for and respect specialisation. For example, within men’s lifestyle and sports I create a clean space for the quality serious fitness titles like Coach, Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness.

REVIEW, FEEDBACK, FOLLOW UP

You’re not done when you think you are done. Track sales, listen to your team and your customers. Tweak where you feel it is necessary.

Bring new issues to the fore. Continue to be engaged in how your magazine department looks.

Continue to look at your sales data.  If there is no lift be open to further change.

FINAL WORDS

Doing a magazine relay can be like doing one of those kid’s puzzles – you move them around and around until you have the completed image. That image can look and feel like a work of art once you are done.

I can’t stress enough the importance and value of a magazine relay to your business and you personally. This is you placing your stamp on the business.  It is you breaking free from being a conveyer belt newsagent. It is you taking ownership of your business.

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading.  Magazines really are a point of difference which we need to work harder at embracing – despite the challenges of the distribution system.

I’d be happy to answer questions or discuss magazine relays with anyone: mark@towersystems.com.au or 0418 321 338.

Over to you…

6 likes
magazine distribution

Test driving self-checkout at WH Smith

IMG_8725WH Smith has self-checkout units in many of their retail locations and today I used one for the first time. The experience is as you would expect – the same as we have with our supermarkets in Australia. I purchased a newspaper and found the multiple steps tedious. However, it was faster than the line for human service at the counter. But then the human service is what retail is all about. The smile, comments extra help are what differentiate shopping with us from online.

I think we should want to encourage more human interaction and not less. But WH Smith is a massive company with a good track record so for them this must be an appropriate offer for them to have in their shops.

WH Smith appear to manage counter staff allocation as our supermarkets manage human checkout operation – to a minimum.

There must be a point at which a self-checkout terminal is cheaper than human labour. However, I expect this would be years as the terminals are not cheap.

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Newsagency management

You’ll find the best cards in the UK

IMG_8647I don’t know if it is the highly competitive marketplace or more due to a concentration of creative designers, card shops in the UK have the best cards of any retail I have seen around the world. Between Scribbler, Paperchase, Clintons, Hallmark stores, WH Smith and many independent card shops in the premium space there is considerable competition. Even at the discount (value) end there is extraordinary competition.

At the Harrogate Gift Fair over the last two days I have seen close to twenty independent card suppliers – all with unique designs. British card retailers are spoilt for choice in terms of range and quality.

The standard of small independent greeting card lines I have seen here is superior to what we see from independent card publishers in Australia. From humour to artistic to locally themed, they do it well.

5 likes
Greeting Cards

Here’s how they pitch free water with a newspaper in the UK

IMG_8728 (1)Here is a photo of the floor display unit promoting the free bottle of water with The Telegraph at WH Smith outlets that I mentioned in my previous blog post. I have loaded a larger version so you can click on the image to see it in detail.

While I am not a fan of the stand – it looks ugly, outdated – I do like that the water and the newspaper are together and that there is space on the stand for a further up-sell (Mentos). I also like that there is a choice of water.

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Newspapers

Books, water and candy used to drive newspaper sales in the UK

IMG_8723WH Smith outlets at transport locations I have seen in the UK over the last week all had offers to drive newspaper sales.

The most substantial was this boo discounted by 50% when purchased with The Telegraph paper. Given the pricing being used by many bookshops it’s not much of a deal.

The most common offer was free water with a newspaper purchase.

Curiously, I did not notice these offers in high street newsagents I visited. I suspect this is because the newspaper purchase in a transit location is more an impulse purchase and because of the challenge of dealing with independent retailers compared to a network like WH Smith.

We are seeing more of these newspaper related promotional offers in Australia. News Corp. is the leader in this field. They are demonstrating considerable flexibility as to the products they promote with.

5 likes
Newspapers

How 3M could increase sales in the newsagency channel

IMG_86813M products are brilliantly represented in stationery outlets in the UK, especially the Ryman Stationers outlets. There, they have floor display units with terrific seasonal value propositions as well as good ranges on the regular shelving – satisfying broad demand.

We don’t see promotions like this from 3M in newsagencies. I am not sure if the problem is at 3M or at GNS. Regardless, we are not pitching 3M in a manner that is competitive with Officeworks. This costs us revenue. It also costs 3M revenue.

I’d like to see the company develop appropriate floor display offers with newsagents and pitch these as a package to our channel with a target of, say, 1,000 engaged retail newsagency businesses. The most efficient way for it to do this would be through each of the newsagency marketing groups.

Stationer banner groups in Australia already do this with a range of suppliers. If we don’t we will lose even more stationery sales.

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Stationery

Transurban stops using Australia Post – an opportunity for newsagents

Some newsagents  are seeing more traffic thanks to Australia Post no longer doing Transurban (Citylink in Victoria, Go via in Queensland and eventually Roam in Sydney) account top-ups.

The challenge for newsagents is the 55 cent fee they get for what can be a sizeable transaction. The impact is around banking, to ensure money is ninth business account in time for the sweep by Touch.

If the top-up is paid for by a card, the newsagent will have to charge a fee to cover costs of the card. otherwise they lose money.

My understanding is the 55 cent fee is set by Transurban. Certainly that is where I would start in ,lobbying about this. I have raised it afresh with Touch and will share here what they come back with.

I first raised this with Touch early this month – that’s how I found out more about the move away from Australia Post.

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Newsagency management

Cards in the window could drive card sales for newsagents

IMG_8682Every card shop I have seen in the UK this trip has cards in the window. Our channel accounts for 35% of all greeting cards sold in Australia yet we rarely promote cards in our windows. We are lazy. We are missing an opportunity here.

I wonder what we could do for sales with creative window displays featuring cards.

The photo shows one window from a gift shop in Harrogate in North Yorkshire. They claim it is the biggest card and gift shop in the area. Despite being well known for their range of cards, here they are using valuable window space to promote cards. I think we should do more of this in our businesses.

8 likes
Greeting Cards

Specialist magazines in specialty retail

IMG_8675In the UK over the last few days I have seen plenty of specialist magazines not in newsagencies or other traditional magazine outlets but, instead, in specialty retail. I saw Kinfolk earlier today in a gift / fashion / coffee house in Harrogate. It looked completely at home.

While this type of specialty retail placement is challenging and expensive for publishers to reach, it does place the title closer to the target shopper.

With more newsagents in the gift space, especially the niche fashion gift space, this photo serves to show how a niche magazine like Kinfolk could be placed with gifts, away from the magazine department.

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magazines

WH Smith volume offers could challenge Aussie newsagents

IMG_8533I have been in fifteen or so WH Smith stores so far on this UK trip and in every one they have several stationery value propositions including this 3 for 2 deal promoting new colourful ranges.

Their pricing approach is like we see in Australia from Typo, Smiggle and Kikki.k. While 3 for 2 sounds like a deal, I expect they knew they were doing this from the outset, 3 for 2 is their goal price. It’s not a deal. But consumers will not see it that way.

What WH Smith is doing in the UK is more important than ever to Australian newsagents as this group now owns Supanews, Wild, it’s own WH Smith outlets, Zoodle plus hospital retail outlets. If reports are true there will be more WH Smith outlets in Australia in coming months.

If they get enough stores in the traditional newsagency space and operate all with discipline they could set a standard shoppers will expect in several product categories such as this everyday stationery space.

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Stationery

The value of taking time with magazine placement

IMG_8430Check out the placement of The Monthly and Harvard Business Review in a newsagency I visited last week.

While the display looked okay, there was nothing wrong with it, I thought it could be more successful, especially for The Monthly, the title I expect they will sell many more copies of each issue. Given the cost of magazine pockets, maximising return is vital.

So I switched the titles.

IMG_8431Here is the result of the switch. You get the full effect of the cover art of The Monthly, you get context for the story tease: Of clowns and treasurers…

I think this simple single pocket switch will result in a better return for the business with more copies of The Monthly sold but without denying sales of Harvard Business Review.

It is important we do more than put magazines out. Our magazine department is s reflection on us. Placement of titles is our curation of the range. It can be a valuable point of difference for us.

The change in consumer engagement with magazines ought to drive changes in our engagement with the category. More thoughtful placement is one such important change I recommend.

6 likes
magazines

Checking out the new Art Therapy partwork

IMG_8631I got to see issue #17 of Art Therapy, the partwork from Hachette that will be distributed in Australia soon. I am surprised they are up to issue #17 in the UK. based on art therapy product sales I would have preferred to have had this title two months ago. I am sure it will sell well in Australia if we get it soon.

6 likes
partworks

Sunday newsagency challenge: replace EVERYTHING at your counter

Remove everything you sell at your counter from the counter and replace it with completely different products that are usually not at your counter.

This idea is designed to disrupt you and your customers.

Track the results for a week and see how they compare to what you usually sell from the counter.

If you keep doing what is usual you will get the usual result. Disruption will always inform future decisions.

I may try this new series for the next few weeks and see how it goes. I’ll post a different challenge each week to disrupt the traditional newsagency.

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Newsagency challenges

Sunday newsagency management tip: stop being your customer

Many gift shops close because the owners stocked the shops based on what they like rather than what customers in the area will like.

You are not your customer.

This is especially true with gift buying. My experience is you will make more money with items you would not buy for yourself than from the items you love.

It is tough to disconnect from what you love when buying but you must.

I have had newsagents say they cannot sell items worth more than $20 who go on to find they can. I have also had newsagents say they cannot sell homewares who have found they can.

Please don’t let your prejudices and tastes hold you back from what you can achieve.

9 likes
Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: run a competition on social media

Facebook is proving to be the best competition platform I have used in years. Entry is easy as is picking a winner and letting everyone know who won.

It is especially useful for attracting new shoppers. I know of plenty of new shoppers now visiting as a result of a competition I ran of Facebook.

The key is to not be overt about the competition.

Write about a cool new product you have in store and at the end of the post say we will give two away to anyone who tags a friend in a comment to this post.

In one case recently I attracted over 500 comments / entries for a $10 spend via a boosted highly targeted post. A secondary benefit was many additional likes of the business page.

While competitions in-store have their place, out of store competitions run in a style appropriate o the target consumer is the best way to attach your business to lovers of the brand or product.

It is vital we market our businesses outside our four walls as new traffic is mission critical to us with several key traditional newsagency product categories flat or in decline.

9 likes
marketing

Discount newspaper bundles in the UK

IMG_8509Check out the discount newspaper bundle I saw at a WH Smith outlet in Manchester this morning: the Daily Express and the Daily Star newspapers bagged together for £1, a 49p discount. We are seeing a version of this with the News Corp bundling trials in Australia at the moment. Bagged bundles may make selling easier.

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Newspapers

More discount magazines in the UK

IMG_8472There are plenty of discount magazine packs for sale in the UK with packs of two and three titles. In one WH Smith outlet yesterday there were four packs. From what I have seen, the discount packs are only in the weekly magazine space from what I can see. This is different to what Bauer does in Australia.

0 likes
Bagged magazines

The free / pay mix for the Manchester Evening News

IMG_8494This photo shows a newspaper stand out the front of a newsagent I visited in Manchester late Friday afternoon. The Manchester Evening News is free on Thursday and Friday and paid for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. All through downtown Manchester there were bundles and bundles of the paper for people to take from as well as stands like this out the front of newsagents.

It is an interesting move. I would have thought it would confuse people – but then I have not looked at all the editions to see the differences in value.

3 likes
Newspapers

Another mobile lottery ticket app

IMG_8429OzLotteries is promoting their mobile app to people who are mobile. I noticed the ad in my Twitter feed  a couple of days ago.

I downloaded the app and checked it out. Sure enough, you can purchase tickets anytime anywhere.

All they need to do is attract a user who is travelling and I expect they will stay once the return from their travels. The ticket purchase process is fast and easy – faster than visiting a shop and making a purchase.

Newsagents need to be aware of innovations such as this when undertaking their own business planning.

It is this type of innovation was more concerned about when saying newsagents in NSW were spending too much on the supermarket situation.

7 likes
Lotteries

Terrific email from a magazine publisher

Check out this terrific email from Dave Brazier, Publisher and Editor of Boar it up Ya and Shoot Ferals Australia magazines:

Hi Mark how are things?

I cannot remember if I advised you of some changes I’ve made to assist in helping Newsagents that little more. Reading your thoughts on IPS on the Blog prompted me to send this to you.

Boar it up Ya & Shoot Ferals Australia magazine titles recently returned to IPS for all distribution requirements throughout Australia.

I have used all distributors available within Australia in my 13 years of publishing, and am of the firm belief that IPS now offer the best sales and support model for Newsagencies by far.

Offering 27% commission for Newsagents that stock and sell my titles I see is a step in the right direction in supporting so many agencies that continue to struggle in the current business and technology climate.

In my direct support of Newsagents also, as of March 2015, subscriptions to both of my titles have ceased as I continue to promote and encourage readers to purchase or pre-order my titles from Newsagents and sub-agents direct. Newsagents are by far the biggest sellers of my titles and I fully appreciate the effort and struggles to house so many titles now within my particular market.

After speaking with many local Newsagents here in Newcastle where I am based, I have a better understanding of the day to day problems Newsagents are faced with. As a publisher I am doing my best to try and alleviate some of those problems, firstly by utilising IPS who will supply what is required to avoid over stocking, offering an extra 2% commission, not accepting subscriptions and reducing the overall sales period due to storage and display area restraints. My previous distributor initially pushed for a 16 week on sale period without me knowing or understanding that a majority of agents would pull stock off the shelves after just 8-10 weeks of on sale. In light of that, both of my titles will now be offered for sale for a period of 8 weeks only throughout Newsagencies in an aim of helping you with cash flow and storage procedures. I think a maximum 8 week on sale period is reasonable.

I’d like to thank all agencies who stock and supply my titles, and wish you well into the future.

Dave Brazier
Mob: 0418 502 760
Publisher / Editor “Boar it up Ya” & “Shoot Ferals Australia” magazines
PO Box 596
WALLSEND NSW 2287
www.boaritupya.com
www.shootferals.com.au
FIND US ON FACEBOOK / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM

I am grateful to Dave for giving his permission to publish the email here. If ever newsagents needed encouragement to support these magazines here it is!

22 likes
magazines

Why should Australians care about the future of the local newsagency?

The discussion flowing from comments by the editor of Monocle about newsagencies in Australia got me thinking about how we are perceived in the marketplace.

By we I mean newsagencies. Whether we like it or not, our businesses are all bunched into one bucket. One crap = all crap.

Do Australians care about us? This is an important questions because some in our channel rely on Australians caring. I think this is part of what is emerged in shop local pitches. For people to want to shop local or support Aussie businesses like newsagencies they have to like you, they have to see value in your business for them.

Before we can answer the question about perceived value, we have to know what we stand for. From what I see, too many newsagents to do not stand for anything other than running a traditional newsagency. There is absolutely no future in this as such a business has no point of difference.

We have to ask ourselves:

  • Is our business relevant?
  • What is it we stand for and is this of value to those we serve?
  • Are we competitive?
  • If we closed tomorrow would we be really missed?

Underscoring all this is the question: is your business growing?  If it is not, then you have your answer – you are losing relevance. You have competitors selling magazines, newspapers, cards and stationery that are growing. If they are growing and you are not your business is not as relevant to your shoppers as theirs.

I think there are some newsagents who act as if they are entitled, entitled to certain treatment by suppliers, entitled to support from the community, entitled to deals way beyond their trading circumstances.

All that matters is your own numbers compared against your history. Are you attracting more shoppers, increasing revenue and achieving a better trading gross profit?

It is easy to get angry at a magazine publisher who makes an ignorant comment. While it’s fair to complain, it is more important to take it as an opportunity to look seriously at your own business. Is it crap? Can you do better?

We have more competitors today than ever. Our only response to this is to be better at what we do than ever.

9 likes
Newsagency management

Overloaded with Hooray magazine by Network Services

IMG_8417The magazine allocations gurus at Network Services have outdone themselves sending us more than double our supply of Hooray magazine without evidence of us selling out.

What a waste of time, paper and money. It makes a mockery of their claims to the ACCC that they want to help newsagents make money from magazines. Their actions continue to fail to live up to their words.

Click on the image and see the ridiculousness of the situation.

Screen Shot 2015-07-16 at 12.59.07 pmI did a search on the Hooray website to see who else nearby has the title. Sure enough, it is everywhere. I wonder if Network has overloaded my competitors?

If I was the only retailer with the title I would feel better about more stock but with these other outlets nearby why on earth send double the quantity when there is nothing special about this issue.

7 likes
magazine distribution

I am not the Mark Fletcher on the POS Solutions blog

Screen Shot 2015-07-16 at 7.54.28 pmA Mark Fletcher made a negative comment on the POS Solutions blog on June 24. All comments on that blog are moderated. I emailed the owner of POS advising the comment was not from me. I also commented on the blog saying this – twice. My comments have been blocked. The negative comment remains without clarification. It does not make sense.

I mention it as a newsagent chided me for the rude comment.

Update (19/7): Bernard Zimmermann, the owner of POS and moderator of the blog has now removed the comment. I’ve not heard from him so I don’t know what the story was/is.

13 likes
Ethics
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