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Is Newspower offering free membership?

It’s been put to me that several newsagents have been given free membership with Newspower. One reportedly received a year for free while another three months. If true, this would be of interest to all Newspower members as the savings to them would be considerable. The reports I have heard relate only to Newspower businesses in Victoria.

Newspower is owned by the industry associations and GNS.

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  1. ken

    FREE !!!!! where do I sign. Now I just cant wait for my FREE TOWER SYSTEM. who says things are grim in this industry.

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  2. rick

    Not related, but shame to hear that GNS have centralised their call centres into Sydney. Have lost some great staff in Brisbane that I have been dealing with for years, they had great knowledge and experience with stationery. Wishing Marion and Christine all the best. A lot of knowledge that has now been lost, I dread having to deal with a national call centre, rarely is this a happy experience trying to get past the automated system.

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  3. Peter B

    Why would you pay them as you get NOTHING in return anyway!!

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  4. Mark Fletcher

    I didn’t post this to make Newspower a target for an attack.

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  5. Mark Richardson

    Is this a response to membership numbers falling ?

    If I were a Newspower member I would be asking if this is happening and if so I would want and expect a reduction on membership fees.

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  6. shauns

    If its a free trial what’s wrong with that ,good on them but its a matter of keeping them after the free period ,its all good to impress for 3 months or 12 months but to keep them there the newspower of has to be good . I am always in 2 minds about joining a group ,maybe a free period would lock me in for good , unfortunately I don’t think newspower would be for me either way .

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  7. murray

    Rick, have Christine and Marion been made redundant ?

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  8. Peter B

    Sorry Mark, just stating a fact.

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  9. Mark Fletcher

    Peter I understand. Newspower management contacted me today expressing concern about the post and denying knowledge of free membership. Hence my reminder.

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  10. Alex Stewart

    Rick, Murray,
    I would be more than happy to discuss this with or anyone who would like to understand this further. It’s fine to comment but please withold judgement until you understand firstly the rationale and secondly how we intend to manage this. Our call centre is in Sydney, not Mumbai. You will not be let down by what has occurred.
    Please send me an email Alex.stewart@gnswholesale.com.au with your contact details and a good time to call-I’m more than happy to discuss.

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  11. Dean S

    PeterB, Newspower gives you “nothing in return” is your opinion, which of course you’re entitled to state, but it is not fact. It is my opinion Newspower is value for money.

    If Newspower did or are offering a free period, as a member, I have no problem with that.

    As Mark said “Newspower is owned by the industry associations and GNS”, it should also be noted that Newspower is a not for profit organisation and all funds received go back to members in the form of marketing and promotions – of course staff do get paid as well, they’re not volunteers.

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  12. Mark Richardson

    Dean S

    When I was in Newspower I repeatedly asked for a profit and loss statement as I was curious to know where Newsagents monies were going . On each occasion they refused to provide that information.

    I think its a reasonable request and Newsagents should know. So as for non for profit well I never found any proof of that

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  13. Darren

    Mark,
    as a former long-serving, and by all accounts diligent, Board Member of ANCOL, who hold a couple of seats on the Newspower Board, you had access to Newspower’s financials and you know for a fact that Newspower are an industry owned not for profit marketing group for Newsagents.
    Why would you come in here and lie ??

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  14. Peter B

    Dean S, I acknowledge that due to the diversities and different demographics in the newsagency channel that Newspower can provide benefits to some newsagencies.

    In our business in a shopping centre, we could see no benefit as we were proactive on a path to drive GP up, which meant scaling down agency departments with low margin and that included the low margin Newspower promotions.
    As you say Newspower is only a marketing and promotion arm of GNS(Ancol), and had no long term benefits across the whole of business.
    In not being involved in the mid year and Christmas promotions we actually increased $ sales over the counter, we believe because we are a convenience stop for stationery purchases and not a destination as officeworks are.
    Sales at back to school were down but mainly due to Target opening in the centre.
    We now are a destination shop for branded gifts with high margin year round which Newspower could not help us with.

    There is obviously Newspower benefit with the marketing in some locations, but are the limitations of Newspower holding back the real untapped potentials of newsagencies?

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  15. Mark Fletcher

    It is nonsense in my opinion to think Newspower being not for profit is anything special. The only way to make any assessment on >em>not for profit would be to look at the books for all the groups to see if any distributes profits to shareholders. It could be none do. Without this information any discussion about the status of Newspower is moot.

    That said, Newspower holds itself up as offering a commercially focused service to newsagents. It is on the provision of these commercial services that it should be judged as should all businesses operating in this space.

    Newspower being not for profit is not relevant.

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  16. Mark Richardson

    Darren read my previous post a detailed profit and loss was never revealed to me ,one thing I don’t do is lie .In SA all of on Newspower funds go into an account which Ancol as a shareholder in Newspower administer. But these funds are Newspower’s and as I said previously I requested a P&L from the Newspower CEO the Newspower Chairman and The Ancol CEO all refused to provide a detailed P&L. If you want to put you surname in you post I will be happy to phone you and discuss the matter. Pretty gutless to call someone a liar when you won’t even disclose who you are

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  17. Darren

    Mark R,
    Please read my previous post (name not withheld), where I do not call you a liar, I purely and simply point out that your ridiculous statement regarding yourself, a long-serving and diligent board member of ANCOL, finding no proof of Newspower being a not-for-profit Marketing Group for Newsagents run by key industry stakeholders is a lie.

    I never said, nor will I ever say: “Mark Richardson is a liar”, as I have never found any proof of that.

    Thank-you for the gutless compliment, I think most people think I’m a little fat.

    As for surnames, I have never hidden my name or written in here under any alleyarse, any pseudoechodym or nomedeplumee.
    You could assume that my surname is withheld due to questions over the legitimacy of my conception taking place within the confines of my parents marriage contract, but that may or may not be true, and if you ever repeated it, well, that would lead to a situation where I may or may not call you a liar.

    Your last bit of childish oneupsmanship is the most interesting thing I read in your response, and has me a little worried for you, as we both already have each others phone numbers.

    I tell you what, if I haven’t heard from you by Tuesday, I will give you a call.

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  18. Peter B

    Darren…………from newscorp?

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  19. Mark Fletcher

    Darren uses the email address dazcook2@bigpond.com. Two weeks ago a Darren Cook, Sales Manager at ANCOL SA Newsagents Co-operative, viewed my Linked In profile – around the same time ‘Darren’ commented on this thread. Three IP addresses used by ‘Darren’, 139.168.194.235 and 58.170.58.152 and 58.170.195.10, are located in South Australia according it IP-Tracker.

    This is the evidence I have.

    Darren, here is the problem with your comment on June 27 at 6:45PM directed at Mark Richardson: Why would you come in here and lie ??

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  20. Peter B

    Ahhh………that Darren.
    Good that you comment on here Darren but in your professional position you should really identify yourself.

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  21. Darren

    Ohhh Peter B – give us a break, will you.

    It’s OK for YOU to write in here without full disclosure of your “professional position”, as too with shauns, murray, rick, ken – and they are all ONLY from this blog topic.
    But – it’s NOT OK for me?
    So now there is a witch hunt because a private citizen who cares about this industry dares to speak out against the messiah.

    I hope Telstra send this reply from another IP address Mr. Fletcher – that WOULD be hilarious

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  22. Mark Fletcher

    Darren your use of the term messiah is offensive. There is no messiah here, only opinions you can embrace or ignore at your choice and without judgement.

    Any commenter is welcome to write what they like including sharing their own suggestions, insights and ideas for helping newsagents. It is unfortunate when some people come here only to complain and criticise and name call.

    Who you are matters because it provides context for some recent comments.

    Darren, here is the problem with your comment on June 27 at 6:45PM directed at Mark Richardson: Why would you come in here and lie ??

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  23. Mark Richardson

    Thank you Mark Fletcher for identifying Darren ,I can now understand why my comments were attacked with such vigour.

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  24. Mark Richardson

    Darren I will be at Blake’s tomorrow until
    12.30pm would prefer to meet with you in person to discuss the matter

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  25. Peter B

    Greetings Darren from newsXpress West Lakes.
    Happy to give you and others my opinions on Ancol, Newspower, ANF, magazines and anything else to do with this industry, free of charge.
    It is fascinating to hear the different opinions in this industry, the opinions seem to unite in that change is required, yet few seem to want to force change, and there is a reluctance to cut the umbilical cord and move on.

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  26. rick

    Darren

    Grow up mate, I stopped carrying on like that in primary school. Don’t bother replying to this post as you credibility is pretty much shot to pieces.

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  27. Gary

    Is this for real. We have an industry in crisis and this is the best you can do. Creating friction between marketing groups. Pathetic.
    Darren, to paraphrase a great movie line, he’s not the messiah, he’s just a very naughty boy. If he didn’t want to “make Newspower a target for attack” then why post this crap.

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  28. Mark Fletcher

    Gary the industry is not in crisis. There are plenty of newsagents enjoying growth as the benchmark results for the June quarter will show.

    If there is friction on this topic it would be because some are claiming to have had access to free Newspower membership.

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  29. Paul

    Mark did you take Alex Stewarts offer up and ask if this is true and the meaning behind it and i agree with Gary why the post shouldnt really bother you what Newspower does

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  30. Mark Fletcher

    Paul, Alex made no offer relating to this. I wrote about this as a couple of newsagents asked me about it. Many posts I write here are written on the suggestion of others.

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  31. Paul

    I would be more than happy to discuss this with or anyone who would like to understand this further. It’s fine to comment but please withold judgement until you understand firstly the rationale and secondly how we intend to manage this
    Comment 10 from Alex Stewart

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  32. Alex Stewart

    Hi Paul,
    My offer earlier in this post was referring to discuss the recent staff changes at GNS that were mentioned. This has nothing to do with Newspower and i also have not had any conversations with Mark on this issue.
    GNS is a shareholder of Newspower, along with the ANF, VANA, NANA and Ancol. It is not a marketing arm of GNS despite being regarded as such. It is a not for profit marketing group for Newsagents owned by both Associations and wholesalers to the industry.

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  33. Paul

    Cheers Alex thanks for the clarification sorry to have misunderstood Mark

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  34. Mark Fletcher

    Thanks for clarifying Alex – that is what I took your comment to mean.

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  35. Amanda

    Newspower numbers are down to 250 “over 800” in 2013 according National Newsagent’s annual magazine….so something is wrong.

    Incidentally none of the other groups have changed in membership numbers too much during this time with all having grown a couple or lost a couple.

    So there is a move away from Newspower for a reason….

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  36. Amanda

    …down to 250 in 2015 from 800 in 2013

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  37. Gary

    There is a big, fat, hairy, ugly, line between being a champion for an cause and someone who deliberately creates discourse to promote their own interests. Take care jumping backwards and forwards across this line.

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  38. Mark Fletcher

    Amanda those numbers for Newspower don’t sound right to me. I have access to a good database that has Newspower at double that. While there has been a significant decline over recent years, I do not think it is down to 250.

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  39. Mark Richardson

    Spoke to Darren I don’t think he will be back on this site anytime soon.

    Apparently as a Newspower rep he is not allowed to comment on this blog.

    Disregarding the fact that what he wrote was rubbish ,I think that suppliers and industry associations should encourage staff to comment on here (providing they identify) themselves.

    Those who do come on here and comment like Alex Stewart I respect.

    Those CEO’s who sit on their hands and forbid any engagement on here I have no respect for.

    3 likes

  40. Mark Fletcher

    Darren needs to own what he has written here. His lords and masters need to let him say what he wants to say.

    2 likes

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