Australian Newsagency Blog

Fairfax published a coupon in The Border Mail, The Illawarra Mercury and The Newcastle Herald last Saturday which, if redeemed at a newsagency the next day, gave the customer the Sun Herald for $1.00. This 44% discount is significant. It is interesting to see a promotion aimed at driving retail sales.

Most cover price discounting is around subscription offers. Maybe the Sun Herald on Sunday had a big home delivery push - I haven’t seen the newspaper. Given that newsagent commission on the discounted copies was maintained at a pre discount rate, Fairfax grossed 55 cents per copy. This is a 59.25% discount off their usual gross.

Given the inefficiency of newspaper sales in newsagencies - around 70% of all newspaper sold are sold alone - I’d prefer to see a newspaper publisher drive sales of their product by partnering on a deal which also drive sales of another product in my business. Ideally, the partner product would be a stationery item - at least something away from the convenience line. That said, if the only option I have is a deal like the one tried last week then I’d embrace it and try and build something myself around the pitch.