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What I think about the future of newspaper home delivery for newsagents

I was talking to a newsagent the other day who said oh that’s right, you think newspaper home delivery is dead.  I don’t think it’s dead, actually.

While I don’t see much upside in newspaper home delivery as a stand-alone operation or a smaller scale operation as it has been in the past, I work with newsagents who are building larger and successful home delivery businesses.

Indeed, I have signed off on considerable investment by my newsagency software company in a new suite of enhancements in the newspaper distribution facilities in our software.  I would not be spending into six figures enhancing newspaper distribution software if I did not consider there was upside for my newsagent colleagues and my software company.

So, my actions answer for me.

Yes, there will be mass consolidation of newspaper distribution businesses over the next two years. The reality is this has been going on, quietly, for the last few years. I know newsagents running warehouse operations that have grown through acquisition. These are good businesses.

The wash up is that newsagents running loss making distribution businesses as well as retail businesses can concentrate on what they do well.  I am hopeful that a result from this will be better retail newsagents.

While there is no obvious upside in the future of print newspapers, there could be considerable upside in a professional locally based distribution business.  It’s this opportunity that gets me investing my own money in better newsagency software.

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Newsagency management

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  1. Jenny

    Anyone else noticing a marked increase in Fairfax subscriber cancellations recently?

    3 likes

  2. Gregg

    Jenny,
    We have a couple of cancellations in the last 2 weeks from Fairfax, but our shop sales have gone up. I have aready sold out of SMH (12.45)which for the last two weeks i have done returns (Qty ordered same last two weeks). On the DT, sales have decreased over the last two weeks. So both have a price increase and it seems so far SMH readers are not concerned, but still cannot get my head around the sales decrease for DT.

    0 likes

  3. Dean

    I undertsand that Fairfax are cancelling cheap deals, which accounts for some.

    Also I have heard but not confirmed that Fairfax is advising subscribers that if they stop their paper while they go away, their subscription will not be extended. They justify this on the basis that they can still access their free online subscription, which they may or may not utilise or know about.

    0 likes

  4. Richard

    We have seen an increase in News cancelling subscriptions without talking to the customer first. The policy seems to be cancel first. Same customer twice had to get the call centre to listen to the recording before admitting it was their mistake.

    0 likes

  5. Miles

    The customer was lucky to get through to the call centre. The waiting times have become 30 minutes or more, recently

    1 likes

  6. shayne

    Fairfax also seem to have stopped sending faxes. Had a lot of customers complaining that their paper wasn’t stopped/restarted lately. Went on connect and found a heap of stops & starts that we didn’t even know about.

    1 likes

  7. h

    A very dear customer of our died three weeks ago , and his brother came in to pay up his account. He owed nothing, but had a subscription ……………. so far my staff have been on hold a total of almost nine hours on 13 week days, trying to get through to subscriptions. We are keeping a log with huge amusement, because until we cancel, we still get the credits. Not Politically Correct and Honest I know, but to be fair, our time is money also (I might actually earn 45 cents for hangng a phone off my ear for three weeks LOL). I am facsinated to discover how the huge new city distrbution centres handle this stuff, do you guys have a special hotline or something, or do you sit on the phone forever like we do to handle the deaths, the relocations, the special teacher who live in the country but get a $10 deal in the city etc etc …

    As for checking the websites : lost cause, I have no time in my day, when we do have time at about 5am when the delivery guys have left the building and between the early customers, I can’t log on due to server overload.

    Good luck Shayne, we are training our (few) remaining customers to let US know as well as FFX if they have a holiday stop,
    takes years but they know we can do what they want if they tell US, not just FFX.

    1 likes

  8. Jenny

    h, are you sure you are calling the correct phone no! Never had a problem getting thru to Fairfax, just Nationwide lately. We need a dedicated Newsagency line!
    In the past our policy has been to suggest Fairfax subscription to new SMH customers to save them money, but now we are just taking them on at the normal rate so as not to risk losing them to digital.

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  9. Ricky

    H: why do you sit on the phone ? If they’re subscribers it’s their responsibility to contact the publisher for stops & starts. The publisher contacts you (by fax or on connect) and then you adjust your run lists. If you have a customer who is too helpless to do this for themselves then put it on the fax to the subscription office. No need to waste your valuable time waiting on hold. This is just another example of newsagents overservicing penny ante customers for no return. Bring on T2020. The sooner the better.

    4 likes

  10. Jenny

    Ricky his customer can’t call, he is dead!
    It is nice to phone on behalf of the family in these unpleasant circumstances, we always do if they want us to, but I think h needs to call his rep if he is spending so long on the phone and getting nowhere. Maybe as well as a newsagent only phone line we could have an email address just for subscriptions queries.

    3 likes

  11. ricky

    hahah, good one,Jenny ! I think that particular customer fits into my “helpless” category.
    Actually we prefer dead subscribers to dead full freighters. With our aging demographic and high % of nursing home deliveries we can wait months for deceased estates to settle final accounts.

    3 likes

  12. h

    I just got paid $49.95 from a bankrupt account THREE YEARS LATER ! Lucky I remembered we used to have such an account, it was removed from my system !
    Starts to make up for the lawyer who left town abruptly after Xmas owing me $200.

    0 likes

  13. peter stewart

    we had an issue with a lawyer paying his mothers newspaper bill delivered to the nursing home. he no pay, so I no deliver. then you get the abusive phone call.

    had the same problem with a well known politican. he came into the shop with his cheque book and wanted an argument. “but it’s only 140 dollars” he said, I replied with “yeah but it’s my $140”

    6 likes

  14. Jenny

    Never stop a nursing home delivery for non payment, I just can”t do it. That might be me one day!
    A few phone calls and my precious time chasing payment is always successful but it certainly cancels out any profit made.

    0 likes

  15. CHRIS

    H,

    We are a large distributor and have the same issues with trying to seek clarification for some subscribers…. nightmare… no direct line here! I would be interested in getting your contact details to further this discussion if you’d be happy to?

    0 likes

  16. June

    Jenny, you just made me laugh out loud.
    This blog often makes my day bearable.
    I refer to No 10 item.

    0 likes

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