Australian Newsagency Blog

Newspapers generate a tremendous amount of traffic for newsagents. The photo, taken yesterday at Forest Hill, shows how we try and leverage add-on sales from this traffic. We have more items around papers than usual because all other display spaces are being used. Usually, we would have only two stands next to […]

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Il Globo, Neos Kosmos and Sing Tao Daily are part of an important category for newsagents. Foreign language titles bring in loyal customers who visit daily or at least several times each week. By intelligently promoting around these titles, and respecting the opportunity their loyalty brings, we are able to make the newspaper […]

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Two interesting news items about e-paper / e-ink this week:

Ryosuke Kuwata, E Ink Corp’s vice president in charge of the Asia Pacific region claims that electronic newspapers could be as close as next year according to Tech On.
Dutch company Polymer Vision has demonstrated the first prototype of a rollable full colour display.

Newsagents need […]

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We pitch Time and Newsweek with our newspapers for at least a couple of days a week. It is real hit and miss though. For years sales of these and other current affairs titles used to be consistent. Now, with their content available online, sales are cover driven - hence our placement […]

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Talking retail reports that Irish newsagents are angry that the publisher of the Belfast Telegraph has taken home delivery away from them in favour of a direct to consumer approach.  The publisher is offering a “modest” fee for home delivery data from newsagents.  It’s all about cutting costs in the supply chain.

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Fairfax launched WAToday online newspaper for the WA market yesterday. WAToday joins Perth Now, an online paper launched by News Ltd last year and Perth Norg, a citizen journalism site service Western Australia.
Not so long ago a publisher wanting to enter the market would have needed printing presses and an expensive distribution infrastructure.  Today, the […]

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The wraparound cover of the Melbourne edition of the Trading Post newspaper is a reflection on the health (or otherwise) of the print publication. It is a four page pitch to buy and sell online, nothing about print.
I guess their decision to partner with Australia Post over newsagents to do their 100 point check […]

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mX, the daily newspaper from News Ltd is set to launch a mobile version of the newspaper according to B&T.  This will use editorial content from the print edition packaged for consumption through mobile devices.

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The Age on May 23 ran a cartoon by Wiley which showed a chap reading the poster in front of a newsstand
Today in The Times. Print media isn’t dead. Go to our website for the whole story.
I thought it was funny and didn’t think much more about it. Gaye Lebardon writing at […]

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Newsagents have been split into two classes by the folks at The Age. Retail newsagents are paid a commission as a percentage of the cover price. Home delivery newsagents, the people who get up in the middle of the night to manage the delivery of newspapers to homes by 6am are no longer […]

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Decades of faithful support from newsagents of the Trading Post weekly newspaper has been “rewarded” by the publisher choosing Australia Post as the partner for its expanded online Trading Post auction offering. Traders will need to go to an Australia Post outlet (and stand in a line for too long) to complete a 100 […]

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Greetje van Tiem, a graduate from Design Academy Eindhoven, presented a project that turns old newspapers into yarn that can be woven into a fabric.  One page results in 20 yards of twine. 

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There is irony in musicians using newspapers to distribute free copies of their work. Both channels (print and packaged music) are in transition as they face considerable disruption from new models. The Sunday Times today in London comes with a CD with 13 music tracks and bonus video. For Moby it’s a […]

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This is a typical newspaper display in London supermarkets from what I have seen here today.  The display of the entire front cover of newspapers on offer makes for a good display.  I don’t see this working in a newsagency with considerable volume - restocking would be too expensive.  But in a convenience store or […]

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Digital World Tokyo has a report and video of the world’s first e-paper newspaper. It looks amazing. The catch is the 15 second page refresh rate - way too slow.

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Roy Greenslade explains where some of the free newspapers in Hong Kong to which I referred earlier this week may be going.   Each newspaper is worth around $A0.026 when sold to a recycling depot.

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The Standard, a free English daily in Hong Kong yesterday demonstrated its strength over the closest English paid-for daily newspaper, the South China Morning Post, with this full page ad on page 21:

They are amazing numbers. 224,128 audited circulation compared to 103,513. This is why we need to be concerned about free daily […]

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Alan Mutter’s analysis of the continuing slump in circulation of US newspapers is sobering.
Based on the record 3.5% drop in daily circulation reported today for the nation’s largest newspapers, it appears that average daily circ this year will be no better than 50 million. If so, that would be the lowest level since 1946, when […]

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It is fascinating watching the commuter rush here in Hong Kong. You soon see how The Standard has become so successful with its free newspaper - excellent locations at all high traffic transit positions. Their people are easy to spot and they are good at what they do. It’s all about fast and […]

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The Standard in Hong Kong is one of the best free newspapers I have seen. It easily beats mX - but it’s chasing a very different market, the early morning commuter here in Hong Kong. Today’s edition is 48 pages. While it has some puff pieces, most of the coverage is real […]

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It is Saturday, I have just paid my second lot of $2.20 for The Age this week. The bumper concept, to this consumer, is a crock!There are sections in the paper today that were there yesterday, I had already read them so I didn’t pick up those sections. I couldn’t help but think of the […]

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The Guardian has an excellent report on the latest expansion drive by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. - they are offering to purchase Newsday - and a view of the growing reach of the company. It’s interesting in the context of News’ expansion in acquiring strong print brands while at the same time expanding online.  […]

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I am grateful to Dr Piet Bakker’s Newspaper Innovation blog for keeping us updated on the growth in free daily newspapers around the world. While the free dailies target a different consumer to that we see in Australian newsagencies, there will be an impact as some overseas experiences show. Newsagents need to watch […]

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It’s been interesting to read news from the Newspaper Association of America conference held in Washington over the last couple of days.  While some publishers are innovating and riding the wave of change others are taking a steady as she goes approach.  What is encouraging is that the discussi0on (debate) is happening.  Too many newsagents […]

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While it’s good to see The Age price increase to $1.50 - coming in May - I wish they would reward loyal over the counter customers as much as they reward home delivery customers.  The difference in price between the two is drawing people out of retail.

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