Business 2.0 magazine is dead, literally. Tech Crunch has a report on the final issue – the October edition.

Since the title is dead I’d suggest we should stop carrying it immediately and use the space for the living. While a few punters will buy the last issues to collect, they will be in the minority. I’d prefer Australian importers of a title which has been killed overseas to immediately cease importing.

That said, it is sad Business 2.0 is closing. It was a good title. I say was because the title we have today is nothing on what I first found back in 1999/2000. Back then I found it invaluable. Today, it is a servant of advertisers. Peter Kafka has some comments on the reasons for its demise at Silicon Alley Insider.

We now have three cosmetic surgery titles in our newsagency – in addition to other titles which include articles on cosmetic surgery. What does this say about Australians and cosmetic surgery? Of course, from the TV shows we know that interest is strong. These premium magazines feed off that interest. In a commercial sense, I am fascinated by the potential for a segment here. Next week we will try a display next to our high selling weeklies to see what happens to sales.

Bagged magazines are a problem in newsagencies. Take this Jumbo Puzzle Pack built around the That’s Life brand.

A customer today came to the counter and asked what other titles were in the pack – she didn’t want to get a puzzle book she had completed. Fair question, I thought. There was no indication on the outside of the pack so I opened to check out the titles. Happy, she bought the pack.

Too many customers open the pack and leave the mess in the body of the shop for you to put back together and try and create something salable. There has to be a better way with these bagged magazines – a way which works for publishers and newsagents.

I like this display unit which was provided with the October issue of Better Homes and Gardens yesterday. It’s bring, frames the magazine and is, somewhat, disposable – we can put in a good position on the counter, use it for am month or two, and not have to manage it like we do the perspex units other publishers supply and sometimes mystery shop to check.

One way to drive impulse sales is through change and this counter display helps newsagents with such a change. The header card promoting the magazine around the TV show is an excellent idea as some may recognise them more than the magazine.

We’re putting this unit at our Tattersalls counter – I reckon BHG is one o those titles to sell well at the lottery counter.

On the actual display unit itself – I obviously failed Macrame 101 – others showed me how it was really meant to be put together.

We are excited by the look of the new magazine display we are creating at a new store opening tomorrow. This fixturing is allowing us to full face more titles and half face the rest – far more than traditional newsagency fixturing.

I’ll have more to say about this new concept store in coming weeks but I wanted to post this photo today as a demonstration of breaking from the traditional fixturing which shopfitters drive newsagents to use.

I guess the proof will be in the sales, good or bad. But we felt it was important to experiment.