A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Online classifieds and newsagents

This letter is being mailed today to all newsagents inviting them to take a stake in Find It online classifieds.

Central to the Find It offer for newsagent is the guarantee of 100% commission on vouchers sold by newsagents to customers wanting to place ads online. There is also a guarantee of trail revenue.

There is no capital cost for newsagents – no financial commitment whatsoever – and the commitment to a profit share remains.

Find It aims to help Australians save millions from online advertising. All but three ad categories will be free and it is from these three that newsagents stand to make good money – if they actively support find It online classifieds.

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Online classifieds

Inspiring newsagents

The Source, a newsagency of the future in Melbourne has received excellent coverage in Inside Retailing. Newsagents ought to read the article and visit the store.

While the future the owners of The Source are pursuing may not be for everyone, their choices are bound to inspire newsagents to consider their own plans for the future.

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magazines

Theft reduction tips for newsagents

At Tower Systems last week we released some theft reduction tips for newsagents. You’re welcome to download a copy here. The tips have evolved from our work with newsagents and police on a variety cases. While a single sheet does not do the issue of theft justice, it is a start for many who ignore the threat – to their financial loss.

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Ethics

Free coupon newspaper

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Smart Saver is a compelling yet unconventional free newspaper. There are no stories, opinion pieces or photos one usually finds in a newspaper. Smart Saver is 100% advertisements, coupons to be precise. The copy I picked up today from a City Convenience Store in Sydney is the first I have seen. Eight pages of coupons from national businesses through to local business for products ranging from fast food to dry cleaning. Backing up the print edition is access to the coupons online.

What is interesting is that Australians are not known for their use of coupons – but, hey, we were not known for our love of fast food a few decades ago.

The distribution model through the convenience stores is also interesting – particularly their branding of the newspaper under the masthead.

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Newspapers

The case for a magazine czar

fishing.JPGThe photo shows the fishing segment of the magazine range in my newsagency as at this morning. Next to these two columns we have another two columns of boating magazines. The photo and my posts over the last two days about Fisherman & Boating serve as evidence supporting my call for newsagents to appoint a magazine czar to approve all titles which have access to our retail and distribution network.

Until we take control of this and respect our network as the asset it is, we will continue to experience oversupply and undersupply or magazines.

The Coles, Woolworths / Safeway, BP and Mobil petrol outlets get what they want in terms of magazines because they manage access nationally. That newsagents do not is, in part, our own fault. It leaves us disadvantaged. This is why we must appoint a czar and require all magazine publishers and distributors to deal with us through the czar. Sure distributors would not like this. It does not suit them having us control our labour and real estate assets.

Given the Forest Hill demographic, my newsagency is over serviced for fishing magazines. The problem is that no one distributor would know this as they would only look at their sales data. That suits their model. It does not suit niche publishers but they are too small to do anything about it.

I am across the discussions between magazine publishers, distributors and the Newsagents’’ Federation of magazine KPIs. The KPIs agreed thus far do not address the issue.

Until newsagents take control we will continue to experience problems such as those with Fisherman & Boating.

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magazine distribution

Publisher takes aim at distributor

Responding to my post yesterday, the Editor of Fisherman & Boatowner takes a swipe at NDD, the distributor of his title. Here is a selection of the comments from his rant:

It is NOT the newsagents that are the problem – but I have to be careful how I word editorial about these matters.

We’ve had this argument about supply / sales / corrections over and over again with NDD for the last 15 years, and we’ve been getting increasingly angry at every meeting.

We’re all going broke because of this distributor problem . . . kid you not. We’re right on the edge now.

I also remember having a ‘crisis’ conference with Gotch’s 1980’s man, Peter Bissett when our sales fell below 75% . . . . (God ‘elp me, I wish . . .) Today we’re luck to average 25% . . . But why hasn’t NDD worked this out? We’d pay them an over-riding per mag fee just to look after the administration . . there has to be a way forward.

Newsagents say there is a problem with the distribution model for this title coming from NDD. The Editor agrees. I am guessing that as with all similar complaints NDD will have excuses as to why the problem with Fisherman & Boatowner is not their problem.

NDD was the best for years at IT and especially the IT connection with newsagents. It is apparent that the data flowing from this compliance is falling out of the pipe somewhere within NDD and that their scale out is not based on performance.

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magazine distribution

Is this a newsagency?

A colleague sent me this photo of a store at Chatswood, NSW. One sign says Convenience Store, the other, above the door, Newsagency. Confusing. The Newsagency sign, including the N, is the trademark owned on behalf of newsagents by the Australian Newsagents Federation.

The only newspapers and magazines for sale in this ‘newsagency’ are the few on the display at the door.

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I’d expect that few newsagents would agree with this business calling itself a Newsagency.

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Newsagency challenges

Fisherman & Boatowner bites the hand

Peter Webster, the Editor of Fisherman & Boatowner in the latest issue asks readers to switch from a retail purchase to a subscription. His pitch is rather clumsy, saying the retail price of the mag in the newsagents in about to start climbing, big time. Nothing like taking a stick to your customers.

Walker then makes a reasonable pitch about wastage, saying in part: When you subscribe, we only need to print just one magazine to make the sale…

In the next paragraph of his pitch for subscriptions, Walker takes a swipe at newsagents. When you buy it through the newsagents, the ratio can be as high at 4:1 in some places ie, print four, sell one, shred thre, lose our shirt. Every month. If the sell through rate is 25% as he claims, Webster ought to talk with NDD, his distribution partner for it is NDD which sets scale out to newsagents and NDD which has the most control over the long-term sell through rate.

Walker and his publisher can set rules for NDD and this should have been where he started. Take my newsagency – I receive 3 copies of Fisherman & Boatowner a month. I sell 1 copy most months, occasionally 2. On these numbers, I lose $1.50 carrying this title each month. I am effectively paying Walker and his partners in the magazine to showcase their title among better selling fishing and boating magazines. I am providing cheap advertising, billboard space, for his masthead.

I suspect that newsagents who read the statement by Walker will contact NDD and ask that they are no longer sent this magazine. Sales of the title, including subscriptions, will fall thanks to less billboard space in newsagencies like mine – all because Walker did not use the resources available to him to fix the magazine supply model for his title.

Niche magazines face a tough battle to survive and while the newsagent retail model has challenges for publishers, careful use of sales data and a smart management by the distributor ought to ensure a good return for the publishers and for newsagents. This is what newsagents want too – better sell through rates. Rather than over-servicing a niche area, newsagents would prefer to sell more of fewer titles. This saves on labour and saves on real-estate.

Newsagents who wish to email Walker can do so by clicking here.

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magazines

eBay online classified pitch

Further to my post here last week about Kijiji, the eBay backed free online classified site launching in the US, it is interesting to read some of the 160 stories posted so far. Kijiji is big news in the US. Read what some newspaper reporters and commentators have to say: Steve Johnson writing for the Chicago Tribune, Catherine Holahan – BusinessWeek, Saul Hansell – New York Times.

While US newspapers and commentators are taking the eBay move into free online classifieds seriously, newspapers and newsagents here appear to remain ignorant of the threat of online classifieds. Well, that is not quite right. Newspaper publishers have positioned themselves well in the paid online classifieds space. Fairfax has also positioned themselves well in the free classifieds space with Cracker.

Newsagents who are yet to notice what is happening online.

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Online classifieds

Driving impulse magazine sales

real_living_jul07.JPGEvery week we, like most newsagents, diligently put up the promotional material from publishers on aisle ends and elsewhere. While I am certain the effort is important, an immediate sales kick to match the labour and real estate investment is not always evident.

The Real Living display this week is different. We have noticed a significant sales kick. I’d say this is in part due to the free organiser and in part due to Real Living being more of an impulse purchase. We display each issue next to Notebook in a high traffic area yet Real Living does not perform as well as Notebook.

Seeing the sales kick this week makes me wonder why publishers don’t push titles like Real Living more as opposed to the higher selling destination purchase titles. While newsagents can do this in-store, we need materials such as extra posters and other materials to enable us to create appropriate retail theatre.

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magazines

Supanews franchisee in need of help

Corie and Tammy Schwarzl are about to commence legal action in the Federal Court against Supanews Retail Group in an effort to resolve a dispute they are having following the take over of their Supanews franchise at Westfield Tuggerah (NSW) by Supanews Retail Grroup.

The Supanews Retail Group now controls the store and the Schwarzls have not, to my knowledge, been compensated for this.

The Supanews Retail Group was formed late last year in a joint venture with Pacific Equity Partners-owned A&R Whitcoulls Group and the Gaskin family owned Supanews. ARW Group operates the Angus & Robertson bookstore chain (over 170 locations in Australia), the stationery and book retailer Whitcoulls (70 stores in New Zealand) and casual lease retailer Calendar Club.

The planned court case, as prepared by the Schwarzl’s lawyers, will claim unconscionable conduct, misrepresentation and breaches of the franchise agreement against Supanews Retail Group.

The poanned case will also draw attention as to whether the Schwarzls ought to have been appointed franchisees.  Corie has cerebral palsy and has been unable to find gainful employment.  He and Tammy purchased the business on the understanding that he could valuably contribute buying himself a job effectively.

I mention the impending legal action against Supanews Retail Group here because there may be some who wish to support the case financially.

I am supporting the case because I would like to see the Supanews franchise model put under the scrutiny of the Federal Court.  Such scrutiny could bring greater transparency to the benefits or otherwise of the Supanews model for existing newsagents, newsagent suppliers and prospective newsagents.

If you would like to financially support the case, please forward your cheques to their lawyer:

Paul Kean
Macedone Christie Willis – Solari Partners
Lawyers
Suite 1, 16 Gibbs Street
MIRANDA  NSW  2228
Ph: (02) 9528.9133
Fax: (02) 9525.6537

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Newsagency challenges

Successful cross promotion

I am often asked by newsagents how it is that Tattersalls allows us to sell newspapers at our main lottery counter. The photo below shows a promotion we are currently running at our main newspaper stand.

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This type of cross promotion works. Newspaper sales benefit. Lottery product sales benefit. Thankfully, suppliers of both understand the commercial benefits even if we do bend their rules.

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Lotteries

Lost magazine sales

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This promotion in the Herald Sun on Monday of the Industry Super Funds superannuation guide – The 50 Crucial Answers You Need – worked a treat. We have been asked by at least 20 customers now for the pocket guide. The distribution experts at NDD, distributors for the title, decided to not send us any. It seems they are making scale out decisions to my newsagency based on comments made here. (I’ll have more to say on that next week.) Had NDD checked with us we would have asked for 50 copies. My newsagency is in an area dense with self funded retirees so the book was always going to sell well. We have chased copies but NDD sale they have none left.

To the folks at NDD, given that you read this and decide what I want based on comments here – talk to us about new titles like the folks at Gotch do. You will find that we say yes to most.

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magazines

Outlook predicts flat growth for papers and magazines

Reuters is reporting that the PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook expects: combined spending on Web advertising and fees paid by U.S. consumers to Internet providers to reach $78.4 billion by 2011, up from $47.2 billion in 2006, a 10.7 percent average annual growth rate. An amazing growth forecast. The report (cost US$995) does have some okay news for newspapers and magazines. They expect 3.6% growth in magazines in the Asia Pacific region between 2006 and 2011 and growth of 3.4% for newspapers for the same period.

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magazines

Fifi and Dora lead holiday push

fifi_dora.JPGWe are using the FiFi and Dora partworks released this week to headline a pitch for school holiday attention – this is the first wee of a two week break for schools around us. We have the stock front of the shop in a high traffic area – near our other partworks which continue to sell well.

I am not sure if the TV spend has increased or I am watching more TV but I am seeing more partworks ads on TV than I can recall in years. That these are tagged exclusively to newsagents is fantastic – I smile every time when I see an ad.

The efforts of Gotch and Bissett Magazines to ensure we have enough stock to promote these well is appreciated.

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magazines

Aussie bike site sold to special interest publisher

Future plc has announced that it has acquired the Cycling News website from Knapp Communications for AUS $5.25 million. Cycling News was started by Australian economics professor Bill Mitchell in 1995. He sold it in 1999.

According to the announcement, traffic to the site is booming:

Traffic to the site continues to grow significantly – for the year to June 2006, Cyclingnews.com attracted an average of 30 million page impressions per month, with an average of 500,000 unique users per month. Latest data for year to June 2007 is expected to show a further substantial increase on these figures.

I don’t know about other newsagencies but my shop has four hardcode cycling titles and a raft of mountain bike titles. I see the acquisition as a trend in the specialty magazine space. It will drive advertisers from print to online and ultimately see fewer of these titles on the shelves.

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magazines

News Ltd refuses fee increase to newsagents

News Ltd has refused a request from Victorian newsagents to increase newspaper home delivery fees. The last increase was in July 2005 and that was the first increase in five years. The July 2005 increase did not cover cost increases incurred by newsagents over the five years.

News Ltd controls all the revenue earned by newsagents for the home delivery of News Ltd newspapers. One day News Ltd tells newsagents to act like business people and the next, through a decision like this, they treat newsagents as subservient slaves. News needs to decide what type of newsagents best serve its needs. Maybe the decision announced this week demonstrates that.

In the pages of the Herald Sun we often read about injustice. I best this poor treatment of small business newsagents and their families will not get a run.

The control exerted by News Ltd and other newspaper publishers over the fees charge by newsagents does not reflect fairness or best practice competition policy.

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Newsagency challenges

Digital newspaper delivery

digitalbox.jpgIn a wonderful commentary on change, Scott Walker, associate editor at The Birmingham News has embraced new technology in a package which is a homage to newspaper distribution in the US with this digital newspaper box.

His brilliant invention, made from an old newspaper honour box, a Mac Mini and a flat screen monitor, is a digital newsstand that grabs news pages from the internet to display them where print newspapers used to be.

As Walker says at his blog explaining the project:

Sure, I could get the news on my desktop computer or iPhone (yeah, I wish!), but as a newspaper editor, I’ve got a soft spot for tradition.

Walker goes into considerable detail on how he made the box.

Walker’s digital newspaper box is very cool.

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Media disruption

202 garage sale ads

Our Find It online classifieds site has reached 202 garage sale ads this reflects 13% of the number of ads at the biggest garage sale site in the country. Offering free garage sale ads is a great way for newsagents to promote their community credentials in partnership with Find It.

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Online classifieds

Free gift voucher software

Warning: this blog post is a shameless plug for Tower Systems.

As a Happy New Financial Year gift my software company is giving all 1,400+ newsagents using its newsagency retail management software our new Gift Voucher software FREE. Using this software, newsagents can create and manage gift vouchers with ease. Our trials show it can be used to increase sales without cost to the business.

The free Gift Voucher software offer is available for two months after which the price will be $795.00. All Tower newsagents need do is email our help desk team and they will send it to you.

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retail

eBay launches classifieds in the US

eBay has launched its Kijiji classsifieds business in the US according to this report from cnet. The New York Times slant on this is here. Kijiji is well established in Canada, Germany, Italy and Taiwan.

This is a huge move since eBay owns 25% of the hugely successful Craigslist in the US. Craigslist operates in Australia as well.

eBay owns gumtree which offers free classifieds in Australia.

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Online classifieds

The Age gets better at stuck on ads

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I missed this stuck on ad in The Age on Saturday as it was not on my home delivered copy. At least this time they are not covering the masthead or a headline.

As a retail newsagent I wish I could offer my regular customers a deal like this. All this promotion seeks to do is shift people from being my customers to home delivery – higher cost and less of a return from anywhere else.

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Newspaper marketing

Just titles in decline

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Sales of the various Just titles are flat in some areas and falling in others. Such is the impact of all manner of websites offering more timely service. I took a look at the sales after noticing less browsing on Saturdays – the busiest browsing day of car, bike and parts related titles in my newsagency. I talked with several others yesterday and their sales figures match mine.

I am not complaining. I see it an inevitable change. The challenge is to respond to change over here by driving change elsewhere. Car and related title browsing was habit based for decades. We need to replace the traffic with other habit based business. This is why I and others are focusing on art supplies, ink and toner, beefing up home office coverage and partworks. All are currently strong categories – a strong presence will deliver good habit based traffic.

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magazines
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