Month: September 2007

Newsagents have two sizes of Girlfriend magazine this month: regular and compact. I think they are the same – the regular size is sealed and I am not about to open the pack to check. But they do have the same number of pages so I suspect the content is the same. The compact version is cheaper.

Having two versions of Girlfriend means newsagents allocate more retail space, another title to manage, additional stock cost and additional returns processing. I suspect that these additional costs will not drive sufficient additional sales – but I’m open to seeing how this goes. We are promoting the compact edition next to the regular size.

Not that I want to see Girlfriend promoted outside newsagencies any more than it is, my sense is that the compact edition is more suited to non traditional retail situations where it would work as an impulse purchase – a cosmetic bar or clothing shop maybe. Having it next to the regular edition where regulars shop for the title seems odd to me – but I’m just the retailer.

High Performance Imports is another example of the magazine supply model letting newsagents down. With a sell through of between 30% and 30% we are not cut back – even though the performance of the title is well below reasonable benchmarks. I suspect supply is not cut because of distributor commitments to circulate all stock supplied to them. None of that respects or helps my business. Labour and real estate are abuse by this supply. While Network, the distributor responsible for this title, have improved this year, they have a way to go – in the meantime newsagents lose money on titles like this. What makes matters worse is that if I early return stock, I still sometimes have to jump through time wasting hoops to make sure I get the credit this month.

The sooner Network manage supply closer to sales of these titles – outside the top 200 – then the better for all newsagents.

Newsagents should check their supply or British Homes and Gardens. If they are link me, sales are flat yet supply increases. I am happy to support a title to find new sales but the extra supply with this title does not make sense. The category is well served, space is limited. Magazine distributors ought not increase supply unless sales data absolutely supports such a move. But if you;re a regular here you have heard that from me regularly.

I question the relevance of these British home and garden magazines in Australia. Based on my check today we have too many titles.

UPDATE (29/9): We have decided to create a Best of British display at the counter next week to see how grouping all the British magazines together goes.

Thanks Commonwealth Bank for the free copy of BRW which arrived in the mail at the office yesterday. Don’t know what I did to deserve the gift – I am not currently a Commonwealth Bank customer.

The giveaway made me wonder how many free copies of BRW and other titles are sent out each week. As a newsagent I’d love it if these giveaways came with a pitch of – get BRW every week at your local newsagent! BRW is one of those titles, for me at least, where I’ll read it on impulse so a reminder that a retail purchase at a newsagency may fit my readership choice could work well.

The truck carrying magazines on the Albury run this morning apparently hit a kangaroo, putting the truck out of action and delaying supply of the Wednesday delivery for most of the day. It too k an email from me to a management person within Gordon & Gotch to find out what happened. That was at 1:30pm. Newsagents had been waiting for their magazines since before 6am.

I would have thought that in this era of modern communication newsagents could have been informed sooner than seven hours later.

Given the sales decay of weeklies in newsagencies, the impact of the accident today will not be recovered. Many of those customers will have got their Wednesday fix elsewhere – especially with no visibility as to when newsagents would have the stock.

I don’t know how the kangaroo is doing but I suspect not well.

This stand is proof that you can break merchandising rules and enjoy success.

Last Friday, I setup the stand with one column of men’s fitness magazines and another column with cat and dog magazines. I chose these deliberately as they are located a long way from the counter and not browsed often, they are not high sellers in my newsagency and there do not compliment each other.

In the five days since creating the display we’ve sold more of some titles from the stand than the traditional location. I guess that should not be a surprise – people are happy to spend money if the product appeals. The key is to get that product in front of them. Newsagents need to find display opportunities like this, at traffic points, to use the business itself to drive impulse sales.

The challenge of micro management of magazines is the time required. Rewards are there as sales of men’s fitness, dog and cat magazines from the stand show. I just wish we made more than 25% for the effort.