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

Month: October 2013

Tatts Coles Express trial to move beyond trial

I’ve been told that the trial of Tatts product sales in some Coles Express outlets has been so successful that Coles and Tatts are planning on rolling out across the Coles Express network in Victoria. What happens beyond Victoria will depend on state based legislation – certainly in NSW and QLD.

I’m also told that Tatts / Coles wanted to achieve $10,500 in sales in each trial site and that this is being achieved.

The other information just shared is that Coles outlets are required only to provide space for two A1 posters as corporate image support for Tatts.

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Lotteries

WHO wins The Maggies: Magazine Cover of the Year 2013

whocoverWHO  (October 15, 2012 issue) is the winner of The Maggies: Magazine Cover of the Year 2013. I voted for this cover as one of the judges voting for the shortlist for public voting. It’s a stunning cover for the 20th anniversary issue of WHO. The Maggies are terrific awards, driving reader engagement in magazines by inviting their votes.

The category winners are:

  • Overall Winner & Weeklies Winner – WHO Magazine (October 15, 2012)
  • Business & Trade Winner – The Walkley Magazine (October / November 2012)
  • Fashion, Health & Beauty Winner – marie claire (July 2012)
  • Food & Wine Winner – donna hay (February / March 2013)
  • House & Garden Winner – Burke’s Backyard Magazine (March 2013)
  • Lifestyle Winner – Hitched (April 2013)
  • Motoring Winner – Tarmac (October / December 2012)
  • Science, Tech & Nature Winner – Wildlife Australia (Autumn 2013)
  • Specialist Winner – CHOICE Magazine (February 2013)
  • Sports Winner – Surfing Life (April 2013)
  • Youth & Pop Culture Winner – EMPIRE (October 2012)
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magazines

Magazine oversupply an environmental issue

magjunkThis photo showing unsold magazines from a regional newsagency yesterday is evidence of what I suspect will (or should) ultimately drive change in the magazine supply model.

What is on show in the photo is waste – magazines that have been topped. This newsagency is not required to return full copies so they remove the cover, leaving  this pile of what is now waste to get rid of for themselves and at their own cost.

This is an environmental and economic problem yet the environmental issue is the one that could get action. No matter how newsagents dispose of topped magazines, even recycling them reflects a wastage that could be avoided through a better management of magazine production and distribution.

Multiply this photo by thousands of newsagencies and you can feel the scale of the problem, the trees and ink wasted – and the time wasted in small business newsagencies.

That the magazine distributors have allowed this to continue for decades is shameful.

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Environment

Traffic at the newsagency blog

blogaudienceEvery so often I check the traffic this blog attracts to gauge audience size and to see what brings people here. The latest analysis shows we’re attracting on average between 1,100 and 1,300 visits a day with that dipping on there weekend to between 650 and 850 a day.

People tend to visit multiple pages and stay for a while reading. This information, coupled with the comments published, provide an insight into engagement.

The traffic data is important is if reflects the voice this blog and all who participate here can be for Australian newsagents.

As was seen yesterday, a post I published on behalf of another newsagent can be particularly popular. I am happy to raise topics others want raised – to provide a platform for wider comment. It’s important we all use this as a place to drive change for the benefit of newsagents.

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Blogging

Timely cover on

monthlymurdochThe cover of The Monthly magazine a timely with two books about News and Rupert Murdoch receiving excellent media coverage in Australia right now. We are pitching the magazine with newspapers as well as its usual location. I’d expect it to be especially popular on weekends when our sales of more serious newspapers increase.

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magazines

Dumbo Feather magazine promotes newsagents on Twitter

dumbo-featherIt’s great to see special the publisher of interest magazine Dumbo Feather promoting newsagents on Twitter. Their 8,682 Twitter followers received this tweet. This type of social media engagement by publishers of special interest titles is excellent for newsagents as it plays to our strengths as the go to retailers for special interest magazines.

Folks, these are the magazines we should especially support!

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magazines

Scary magazine supply day on October 31

A newsagent contacted me yesterday reporting extraordinary magazine oversupply planned for their business by Network Services for tomorrow, October 31. In their own words here are their concerns:

Just thought this might be interesting to post on your Blog, Network are saying the last day to submit returns for this month is Wednesday 30th .My concern is there is a lot of stock coming in on Thursday which they just confirmed with me via phone can be submitted but probably wont appear on this months statement.

How can they scale out magazines on the last day of the month and then say you probably wont get a credit for any excess ? Is this legal?

Their excuse was with so many returns being submitted online their computer systems cannot process all the data in time to guarantee the credit appears on Octobers statement.

How become Gotch accepts returns via exchange it on then last day where as Network.

I would be interested to know how other Newsagents handle this.

The only way to fight magazine oversupply is through a structured legal process. Until newsagents do this they will continue to be treated as they have been.

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magazine distribution

Classy clocks selling well

gibsongiftsWe’re selling these classy  clock gift items from a $99 stand from Aldi and placed next to the sales counter. The smart looking price tags placed next to the items are helping drive sales. It’s important to use price cards / signs that match the quality of what you’re selling.

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Gifts

Bacon makes anything taste good

baconBacon makes anything taste good said a very wise person. Check out the bacon-themed candy I saw on a trip to the US earlier this year. This range reflects a specialisation that surprises me. Talk to a bacon fan and they will want to know where to get this in Australia – as I found out when telling someone about this recently.

I’d give this range a go. Sadly, I can’t find it from any supplier here.

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Gifts

Australia Post to expand its waiting room?

The federal government is reportedly considering expanding the services of Australia Post outlets to include some customer-fcing Centrelink service. I’d be happy if this happened as it would extend the services focus of Australia Post retail outlets and extend the people waiting in what some call the waiting room – the lines can be so long.

Focussing Australia Post owned outlets as government service delivery centres would help newsagents as we have been the target of unfair competition from Australia Post’s corporate stores in recent years as they have pushed harder into areas we used to dominate. The more Australia Post employees are tied up delivering government services the less time they have for selling cards, stationery and ink.

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Australia Post

men’s style magazine oversupplied by Bauer

magsmenstyleDespite not even coming close to selling out, Bauer has increased our supply of men’s style magazine. Their wastage of our time and money is most frustrating since they have data showing that we will not sell the extra copies. The last issue had a sell through of 36% and the one before it just 28.5%. Why Bauer thinks we need more stock of men’s style is beyond me. We will promote the title and leverage the Lana Del Rey cover but I doubt we will achieve what they expect – an 18% increase on their previous oversupply. Doing this late in the month is appalling.

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magazines

Magbook junk from Network Services

magbook-junkWe are early returning the bagged discount Ultimate Fitness Pack Magbook bundle from Network Services yesterday. That they didn’t have the courtesy to remove the labels from previous newsagencies where the titles failed to sell makes this pack unmerchantable in my view. Network should know better. They wouldn’t get away with this with Coles or Woolworths. Shame on them.

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magazine distribution

Connecting with Halloween through food network magazine

food-network-october-2013Newsagents should check their shelves for the food network magazine. If you have the Halloween issue and you have a Halloween display place the magazine in the display. This themed issue is an excellent opportunity to show the title off to people who would probably not know that you stock this. It also broadens the reach of your Halloween display and offers a more practical engagement with the season. With the major supermarkets actively engaged in promoting Halloween – including Coles selling halloween carving pumpkins – promoting magazines that connect with the season makes sense.

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Newsagency management

Too much Elle?

Several newsagents have contacted me to say they have been oversupplied the latest issue of Elle with little regard to launch issue sales. This is not my experience with supply but to a reasonable level based on Issue #1 sales data. That said, Elle sales will need to grow considerably to warrant permanent space allocation in my newsagencies.

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Magazine oversupply

Just read: Breaking News: Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession

murdochbookI’ve just finished reading Breaking News: Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession by Paul Barry. This is an excellent book – I highly recommend it. It documents the facts of the dreadful phone hacking scandal and contemplates the future leadership of the new split News businesses. The author, Paul Barry, extensively documents his sources. His writing style is that of informed reported more than commentator.

Anyone criticising this book as a hatchet job against the Murdochs would be wrong. It is well-researched and well-written. There are no cheap shots against the Murdochs. There don’t need to be since the evidence relating to the phone hacking is damning.

Breaking News: Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession documents how News Corp. has leveraged its power to the detriment of the community which it serves and how the company has not held itself to account to the same standard it uses when targeting politicians it does not support.

 I highly recommend it – especially to newsagents.

While the book does not cover the Australian News Corp. assets in any substantial detail, the book informs the reader of practices engaged in by company representatives in the UK. This information coupled with the obvious bias of the News Corp. press here makes an urgent case for diluting the concentration of media ownership.

One only has to recall the coverage in the News Corp. newspapers here over the last few years hunting down the Labor Government of the day and their lack of interest in the latest travel federal politician travel rorts scandal to realise that they are not fearlessly pursuing the truth – unless it suits their agenda.

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Media disruption

An ideal add-on with tattoo magazines

tattoo-aftercareThese Tattoo Goo products present an opportunity to build margin dollars from tattoo magazine traffic. We are introducing them to the business with a promotion at the counter along with a selection of tattoo titles.

Too often newsagents see magazines as a chore. The reality is that the interests reflected in our deep magazine range present us with excellent opportunities.

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Gifts

AWW in Coles comes with a free cookbook

aww-coles-freeThe Australian Women’s Weekly at Coles supermarkets comes bagged with a free AWW cookbook. This is a pretty nice bonus gift, ideal for a promotion in a supermarket. The only downside is the packaging – it detracts from what is an excellent cover featuring Jackie Kennedy on this issue of AWW. It makes me wonder what’s more important – the cover story or the free cookbook? For the longevity of the title it has to be the content.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency management tip: sales ratios to measure your business by

I have developed sales ratio benchmarks newsagents can use to determine what they can achieve in their businesses. I use these in turnaround situations to show an old-school newsagent what they can achieve using data from their traditional business to pivot to a more relevant newsagency business.

These sales ratio benchmarks are different to stock turn and profit guide benchmarks. These sales ratio benchmarks are designed as a minimum achievement guide only. Many newsagencies are performing far better than these:

  1. Gifts to cards: 33%. If your card sales are, say, $100,000 a year. You should be able to achieve $33,000 in gift sales.
  2. Plush to cards: 25%.
  3. Pens to stationery: 33%.
  4. Ink to stationery: 50%.

These benchmarks do not mean that gift sales are recorded as cards or that ink is recorded as stationery or that plus is part of cards. No, they are all in separate departments: ink, gifts and plush. The percentage is a comparative guide. That said, pens, of course, are in stationery – that is the only exception.

On gifts to cards, I know of newsagencies where gift sales are greater than cards and gifts generate more traffic and through this actually drive card sales.

Plush is the ratio I am challenges most on. It’s important to approach plush as not soft toys you sell for young kids. Plush can be sold for anyone of any age. You are not your customer.

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Management tip

Sunday newsagency marketing tip: use brands to promote your business

peppa-pig-newsxpressOur stand of Peppa Pig attracts tremendously valuable traffic for our newsagency. Not only to purchase Peppa Pig product but other product as well.

I watch kids drag their parents and grandparents to our entrance. Once there, it’s a step into the business for other browsing.  I have seen people diverted to look at the Peppa Pig product ultimately purchase from us. I saw it yesterday.

The placement of the Peppa Pig stand is a key marketing activity for us. The success is due to the placement and the excellent sign above the stand. In fact, the stand without the sign would not work as well. While you could argue it works for us since we are in a shopping centre I have seen it work in high street and country town situations.

This stand works far better for us than magazine or newspaper posters would on our lease line. Our range of Peppa Pig product is a point of difference for us. The bonus is the margin.

There are plenty of hero brands we can use to drive traffic. Every newsagent in every situation can use brands to generate new traffic for their businesses.

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marketing

Promoting crossword title for impulse purchase

magslovattscrossWe are promoting Lovatts Holiday Crosswords on a floor display unit at the entrance to our main magazine aisle in our newsagency.

This high-profile placement is designed to boost sales for Lovatts Holiday Crosswords and to increase awareness of Lovatts crossword titles more broadly. Crosswords currently account for 5.37% of magazine sales and we are keen to increase this as crossword shoppers are habit shoppers and they are loyal.

This free standing floor display unit is very effective in driving impulse purchases of promoted titles. We have had to order more copies of Diabetic Living based on excellent sales last week from this same unit in this same location.

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crosswords