Australian Newsagency Blog

The New York Times has a sobering report about book sales in the US from the Book Expo America, the industry’s annual convention which ended Sunday in New York.
I found the report interesting on a couple of fronts: the evolving challenge of print and the reliance of the channel on mega brands - Dan Brown […]

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The Book Seat is selling well for us again this year - demonstrating that there is good business in book related sales.  We are promoting it along with our book sale - our demographic is ideal.  The book seat is a mini bean-bag on which books rest while you tead them.

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REDgroup Retail plans to sell books online from its Angus & Robertson and Borders businesses. REDgroup Retail owns Supanews.
The majority of newsagents I speak with do not have an online strategy.

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Our Book Sale at Forest Hill is working very well.  Customers love the offers in the flyers - they always do.  Book sales are very easy to run when you partner with a good supplier and back by investing in external marketing.  This is another excellent way to draw new customers to the business.  Books, […]

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Newsagents ought to be watching the moves at Borders, Waterstones and Barnes and Noble.  They are busy evolving their models, redefining their businesses.  Barnes & Noble just bought Fictionwise, an e-book retailer.  Borders is launching a new e-reader.  Waterstones has done a deal to be the exclusive retailer for the new Glen David Gold novel, […]

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The latest version of the Amazon Kindle reader, announced a few days ago, has capacity for 1,500 books - a home library full.  People are buying the Kindle - more than 300,000 sold in the US last year - for more than reading books.  The Kindle provides access to newspaper subscriptions, magazines and more than […]

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We have Underbelly A Tale of Two Cities on our shelves for $17.95.  We have priced the book to be within reach of the Coles price.
While we would prefer a higher margin, we are happy to see it sell and for our business to be seen as being a reasonably comeptitive on price for such […]

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As part of our consideration of a reconfiguration of magazine space at Forest Hill, we have stopped using the two display shelves on the perimeter wall around the magazine department and above around a third of our magazines for discount books.  This space used to be used for magazines.    We have been able to accommodate the magazines into […]

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I have heard of plans to supply books and book-like product to newsagents through traditional supply channels.  From what I understand the offer (in its present form) is unlikely to be as competitive as that put to traditional bookshops.  Current release books need to be provided on a sale or return basis at 45% margin.  […]

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The announcement by Borders in the US of an agreement with HarperStudio to buy books on a firm sale basis instead of the usual sale or return basis is a significant move in book retailing in the US.
If magazine publishers and distributors in Australia offered firm sale with better margin, some newsagents would embrace the opportunity.  These […]

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Borders in New zeal and and Australia has published a catalogue listing some books at above their recommended retail.  The same catalogue offers that they will match any price which is better than theirs.  Borders would have known that their above recommended retail prices are higher than just about every other book retailer.  This is […]

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Just as you enter Dymocks at the IFC Centre in Hong Kong, next to the counter, is a bold self-service facility from where you can purchase and download digital books to a range of devices. It looks much better and brighter than my photo shows. The display is in the best position in […]

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In the reports about a delay to the launch of the Amazon Kindle in the UK is the news that Amazon expects to have sold 380,000 units this year by year’s end. The Kindle is an incredibly disruptive device - it enables the download of books wirelessly from the Internet.
You can also sign up […]

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Dr John Tickell is a nice bloke. I appreciate his knowledge and enjoy listening to him. His new book, how to put $3,000 in your pocket guaranteed, has been sent to newsagents on terms which will not help us profit even close to the promise of the title. The margin […]

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The announcement by PMP that their Gordon and Gotch magazine distribution division has purchased book distributor Scribo is interesting. With more newsagents selling books it may be that the Gotch folks see good synergy. If newsagents are to be a focus it will need to be on book retail terms and not magazine […]

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We are running the newsXpress Father’s Day Book Sale at Forest Hill and it is working a treat.  The Father’s Day themed books are selling well as are the other more general books.  The sale is supported by professional catalogue which makes selling easier.  We have the sale tables on our dance floor with our […]

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This is a photo of a window display at a Whitcoulls shop I saw in Auckland yesterday. This is not the same shop as referred to in my previous blog post this morning. The Father’s Day pitch in the window was about every dad having his day. I didn’t feel connected with […]

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Following a post here a few months ago a newsagent decided to add discount paperback books to their range.  In July they achieved $1,500 in sales using spare fixturing they had in their back room.  They are projecting a bottom line benefit of more than $5,000 for the 2008/09 financial year.  Discount paperbacks can be […]

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We have just finished the third week of our book sale at Frankston and Forest Hill and it is working a treat in both locations. Sales have been excellent, especially through school holidays. What we are running is the newsXpress book strategy.
While we have had success putting books on a table […]

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The stand in the photo is very successful. The return on the real-estate and stock is excellent, above many other departments. Our discount novel customers are loyal and efficient - more than 50% of sales include items from at least one other department. Most customers are regulars in buying books and they sometimes […]

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We setup book sales in Frankston and Forest Hill yesterday and as these things usually go, customers were buying stock as we opened the boxes.  In each store we did close to $500.  For a Tuesday without any external marketing this is good for setup day.

We know from our experience that the best way to […]

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The announcement yesterday to the NZSX by A&R Whitcoulls about their takeover of the Borders assets sheds some light on their plan:
A&R Whitcoulls Group Managing Director, Ian Draper, said that the Borders business is complementary to the Company’s existing assets, offering a different format from Angus & Robertson in Australia and Whitcoulls in NewZealand.
“Borders’ […]

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If CNN Money (and a bunch of other news services) is right, A&R Whitcoulls, the business owned by Pacific Equity Partners and which owns Supanews, is set to acquire the the Borders Australian, New Zealand and Singaporean businesses.  The implications of this move for newsagents is significant and I am sure will be felt for […]

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Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO, is reported as saying that 6% of titles sold by Amazon.com are for its Kindle e-book reader.   That is a significant shift from print in the short time Kindle has been out.

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Joe Wickert has published a review of the new Borders concept store in Indiana.  What sounds interesting about the model is their use of technology kiosks for to sell music and other products.

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