Australian Newsagency Blog

7 Comments↓

• 1 Ken Burgin on January 24, 2008 12:03 AM

  FYI - Walmart purging 1000 magazine titles http://www.nypost.com/seven/01182008/business/cleaning_the_racks_368974.htm

• 2 James Tuckerman on April 12, 2008 5:13 PM

  Hi Mark,

  I’m an independent publisher and just discovered your blog. Tremendous!

  I’m constantly trying to think of ways to support our friendly newsagent owners.

  In fact, I just ran a blog of my own that I hope will support retail sales (http://editorsblog.anthillonline.com/wordpressmu/).

  I’d like to suggest a section or tagged series on advice for publishers.

  It’s hard sometimes for publishers to enter the mindset of a newsagent owner (if they visited your blog, I suspect their eyes would be opened).

  Anyway, keep up the good work.

  James

• 3 mark on April 12, 2008 6:43 PM

  Thanks for the comment James. I have a blog post half completed on independent publishers - advice for them and for newsagents. When I post I will be sure to establish a new tag. While some aspects of independent magazines are frustrating, they are important to our future and we ought to more effectively embrace them.

• 4 James Tuckerman on April 17, 2008 2:57 PM

  Thanks Mark.

  Speaking from the trenches, we fear the loss of independent media, I assume, the same way that independent newsagents watch the large chains with trepidation.

  I’m fortunate enough now to have reasonably high sales. But the early days were daunting, living in constant fear of range reviews from the big players or confusing ‘little guys’ (calling our magazine Anthill didn’t help).

  The ABC ran a short story on us in 2006 (http://www.anthillonline.com/article_detail.php?id=414), where you can see just how humble our beginnings truly were.

  If newsagents stay independent, there will be a greater chance of more niche titles making their way to the shelves, which always has draw backs (many don’t sell, frustrating for you guys) but the upside is greater commercial creativity, a broader array of opinions and a smarter country.

  I’m not sure that magazines can stay vibrant and creative if the newsagent channel is homogenized by a few.

  So, I watch your blog with fascination and respect.

  Best regards
  James

• 5 jim on May 7, 2008 8:56 PM

  Hi Mark,

  there is just few voice about bill express from newsagecny. Could you put the following into your blog?

  Bill Express unfair Agreement Hit Newsagent

  More and more newsagents get angry at unfair change of contract by Bill Express. Bill Express started taking $500 per/month from their pocket.

  The newsagent sale mobile phone recharge card and pay bills through Bill Express platform and at the end of the day, the profit from this platform is far from cover its rental charge which is $495 per month plus GST.

  The post office have more advanced bill pay system. The rental cost is around $200.00 per month but including POS system and post office bill pay system nearly can pay any bill.

  Why newsagent signed up with Bill Express at first place? The reason is very simple. Bill Express had told most newsagents that the system is free after the market subsidy.

  The subsidy was removed from February and advertising rebate removed from March too. Now newsagent have to pay $495 per/month rental fee for a system that can only generate or make $5~$15 commission pre/month.

  I wonder what sort of Agreement that newsagent with Bill Express. Is it a ‘Agent Agreement’ or it is a ‘Rental Agreement’. If it is later, why newsagent rents a big plasma screen to display Bill Express Advertise at its own cost?

  Any Business trading should fair. This is the essential business rule for our society.

  If Bill Express keep doing like this, newsagents will draft away from Bill Express. That is why newsagent wants to stop paying Bill Express.

• 6 VAUGHAN LAWRENCE on May 28, 2008 6:56 AM

  Hi Mark,
  Atrocious behaviour this morning by magazine distributors. No notification of the massive delivery problems this morning. Beechworth will not recieve magazines until 11.00am this morning; the only reason we know this is because we contacted our delivery driver who notified us. At Seymour store i would not have a clue when they will arrive, so we just sit here and twiddle our thumbs. Two issues, one; lack of communication by distributors which needs massive attention, two; what has caused this hold up that all magazines from three distributors is held up??
  Vaughan
  NewsXpress Beechworth
  NewsXpress Seymour

• 7 Shannon Cooper on June 19, 2008 8:23 PM

  Hi Mark:

  Love the blog (and was interested to read James Tuckerman’s comments- I love Anthill), as a person who is interested in small business, and I have been a subscriber for over 18months now.

  Anyway thought you might like this http://magcloud.com/Home

  Cheers,
  Shannon

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