It is good to see the case WA newsagents have against West Australian Newspapers finally get to court. The Australian had the story yesterday. This battle has been around for years, costing newsagents hundreds of thousands of dollars as they had to absorb increased wages and costs including fuel. No increase for ten years is appalling behaviour by a supplier.
News Ltd, the publisher of The Australian, ought to check its own record, it’s not a whole lot better than WAN. Kerry Stokes, WAN shareholder seeking a seat on the WAN Board, is quoted in the article as offering an alternative to newsagents:
“How about instead of this being just about you delivering papers and getting so much per paper, what say we take a base and we give you a much higher commission for every increased paper you sell?” Mr Stokes said. “So if you sell 1000 papers now, (and then) you sell 1100 papers, maybe we double the commission rate on the next 100. We’ve got to find ways to sell more newspapers and we’ve got to make sure we don’t send our suppliers broke. The system is inequitable.”
I like the sound of that – a supplier talking to newsagents as if they are business people and offering a remuneration based on achievement. It’s about time.
Newsagents are the most important channel to many suppliers yet we are treated as second class citizens through poor trading terms and poor service levels. But we’re not as organised as we could be so we may facilitate some of that shabby treatment.