Australian Newsagency Blog

The discount offer for the Herald Sun last Saturday is running again this week with coupons in the free daily mX newspaper each day this week.

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Across the top of the masthead of today’s Gold Coast Bulletin is their offer of a free Roary the Racing Car DVD.  Take this token to your newsagent they advise.  The problem is that newsagents appear to have been provided insufficient stock.  With enough for their own customers, newsagents do not have enough stock to […]

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I was surprised to see the Adelaide Advertiser make noise the other day about their online subscription offer. Smart Edition, as it is called, costs $2 for a single copy - less per copy for a longer commitment.  News Ltd has offered this for some time for titles like the Herald Sun and The […]

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I wish newspaper publishers in Australia supported the over the counter subscription system like the have in the UK.  Read how these subscriptions operate with The Guardian:
How does Guardian and Observer Subscriber work?
The subscription scheme is based on a voucher system. We will send you personalised, dated vouchers for each day of your package. […]

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I’m told that there is a post-it ad stuck on the front cover of the Illawarra Mercury today promoting a home delivery offer. Pay $4.00 a week for six days of the newspaper. The usual price for six days is $7.50 plus a delivery fee. On top of the massive discount, which […]

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Chris Freiberg, a reporter at the Daily News-Miner in Fairbanks, Alaska, created Buy a Newspaper Day the day with a site on Facebook.  It took place on Monday this week.  Editor and Publisher has some coverage on the idea.  I like the initiative.  A check of Google News shows that it did not receive much […]

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While on the Gold Coast yesterday, I saw the coupon being used in the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper to attract consumers to the half-price offer. Prominent in their pitch is a drive for subscription sales. Given the retail only status of some newsagents involved in the campaign, this ultimate goal of taking sales […]

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It has just gone 9am in Queensland and many newsagents have already exhausted all of their stock of the National Geographic DVD which comes with today’s Sunday Mail newspaper. I have heard of customers abusing the newsagent when it is Queensland Newspapers at fault. They should not run a promotion unless they have […]

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Queensland Newspapers made a heap of noise a week ago about the Australia Day promotion they were running in the Sunday Mail. On the 18th they had a spread on page 3 about the free flag they were giving away on January 25 and listed all the things you would be able to do […]

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Beyond the trashing of the mastehad of The Age newspaper today with another of their home delivery subscription offers is the frustration of this type of campaign for a retail newsagent.  They are prepared to give their home delivery customers a 50% discount yet their regular retail customers, who have a lower distribution cost, no […]

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There is plenty of good news we can make about newspapers in Australia, to balance my three posts from earlier this morning.  While none of the items below will ‘protect’ the whole category, combined, they make newspapers interesting for newsagents who embrace them.  We have an opportunity to make business decisions in pursuit of better sales:

Local newspapers sell.  […]

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Circulation departments at Fairfax are confused about the company’s plans for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age over Christmas / New Year.   People from Tower Systems have made eight calls to Fairfax in pursuit of consistent advice on their plans.  The original advice supplied to newsagents indicated that there were several bumper editions for the SMH […]

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Starting sometime this week The Border Mail will be running some adverts that invite new 6 day subscribers. This offer entails the offering of The Sunday Age free with this subscription.
This offer only pertains to new subscribers. If however one of your existing clients would like to take up the offer, they can. To do […]

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newsXpress last month became the first newsagency marketing group to establish a page on social media site Facebook.  The purpose of the page is to provide a link for everyone connected with newsXpress -suppliers, store employees, newsXpress members and others.  Several newsXpress stores have also set up their own Facebook pages.
Social media sites like Facebook […]

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For those looking for the newsagent TV commercial, click on the image below:

The production and airing is being funded by Tower Systems as a contribution to all newsagents. I deeply appreciate a financial donation from one newsagent towards this as well as print space from the Herald Sun and Lovatts for the print version.The […]

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Wired magazine published an article yesterday by Meghan Keane which asks whether the future of newspapers is high-end magazines.  The article was prompted by the launch this week of WSJ, a magazine to accompany The Wall Street Journal.  One only has to look at how magazine inserts here in Australia are used to drive retail […]

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Goal Weekly is a great weekly football newspaper. This Victorian publication is loved by football (soccer) fans. I like it because the publisher actively supports newsagents. Their website lists newsagencies where it can be purchased. What I really like about Goal Weekly is their radio ad, it explicitly says the […]

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This post is an edited version of an article I wrote for the latest issue of National Newsagent.
Home delivery is in play in newsagencies across Australia. Some newsagents are selling their distribution runs while others are walking away. For those keen to exit distribution, there are others pursuing acquisition and creating distribution specialists.
While […]

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We have used the form in the photo to manage Herald Sun footy cards for a few years now. It provides our team and our customers with certainty for the full season of the cards. The structure and rules around the spreadsheet make the cards stress free for us. It also ensurfe […]

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Alan Mutter has a good blog post about the latest campaign by the Newspaper Association of America to promote newspapers in the US.
The creative people behind our local newspaper campaign, being run by The Newspaper Works are taking a similar obscure approach to promoting the newspapers here.
I want to see newspapers promoted as relevant and […]

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In Frankston we have a strong plush offer capping the card aisle with our Easter card offer. Sprinkled in with the plush is an easter themed children’s book distributed by Gotch yesterday. The photo below shows this display.

Behind where the photo was taken is a bold Easter egg display. So, for us, Easter […]

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Underbelly the TV series may be banned in Victoria but not the book.  We’ve taken the opportunity to promote the Underbelly: The Gangland War, the book on which the TV series is based, at one of our counters.  It’s working already - as a talking point and as a sales generator.
Sure it’s opportunistic and a […]

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Just as they did with the free light globe giveaway on Saturday, the folks at the Herald Sun have provided us with excellent point of sale and electronic marketing collateral for Valentine’s Day.
By getting this material early we are able to appropriately dress the store to drive sales. We’re also able to load the […]

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The free energy saving globe with today’s Herald Sun (see coupon - left) is a good offer. Good for the environment and good for newspaper sales.  It;s a smart giveaway which will hlp the newspaper brand as well as the brand of those businesses which embrace the offer.
The folks at the Herald […]

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Thanks to Steven Denham’s blog, I found this image of an ad from The Sun from London last weekend.  The free DVD promoted in the newspaper can only be redeemed from one of three major retailers.  This reminded me of the promotions run in Adelaide by News Ltd’s Adelaide Advertiser where redemption was through BP.
Newsagents, […]

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