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The NSW newsagent association shows it’s out of touch

Today’s Australian Financial Review has a report into the closure of Taylor Square Newsagency and implications for our channel. Misa Han interviewed the owner of Taylor Square, myself, the owner of newsXpress Bell Park and Greg Handley, the President of NANA, the NSW / ACT newsagent association.

I am disappointed at what Greg Handley is reported to have said.

Newsagent peak body estimates more than one in three newsagencies may face closure if Coles and Woolworths enter the lottery market.

“Newsagents cannot match Coles and Woolworths with their bargaining powers. They could do the same thing with what they’ve done with vegetables and say you get $1 milk if you buy lottery tickets,” Newsagents Association of NSW and ACT president Greg Handley said.

“It’s not that it’s protecting newsagents, it’s for small business. The rationale behind it is to keep a process that where those people have paid good money on a fee for the right to sell the lotteries, they made the lotteries products very profitable for the NSW government and in the process the NSW government got a lot of money when it sold that to Tatts.”

Mr Handley said newsagents typically rely on lottery sales for somewhere between 20 to 85 per cent of their profit.

What a defeatist message. It’s a dinosaur view about the extinction of our channel, a view I do not share. Hardly had a perfect opportunity to show leadership for newsagents and instead used the we deserve protection argument. Between the lines in his argument is a call for newsagents to quit NANA and invest their money in more proactive pursuits.

I had a long interview with the journalist. She wanted to fully understand the issues and look at this from multiple sides. I am happy the optimism I hear from so many newsXpress newsagents is reflected in the article.

I also wrote here about the closure of Taylor Square Newsagency this morning.

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Newsagency management

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