A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Here’s why I think plenty of newsagents are done with diaries from the magazine distributor

It’s diary and calendar season. For years this was a strong time of year for newsagents. We used to love it, because we didn’t know any better.

It still can be. But I’m seeing more and more newsagents ignore diaries and calendars supplied through the magazine distributor. They’re giving the space to other products, and to diaries they buy direct.

I don’t blame them one bit.

Half the margin, same amount of work

Good diaries from direct supply arrangements can earn you around 60% margin.

Diaries and calendars through the magazine distribution model earn half that. Sometimes less.

Then there’s the time. Product arrives on the distributor’s schedule. Someone has to check it in, display it, and later process returns. That’s labour you pay for, on a product that earns you half the margin.

When you have limited space and limited hours, the choice is easy. You back the products that pay you properly – products over which you have supply control.

This is financial disrespect

I think the magazine distribution model for diaries and calendars disrespects newsagents.

It treats your shop as shelf space to fill. Your business needs a return on that space, and the model doesn’t seem to care whether you get one. It asks you to give prime seasonal space, staff time and counter support to products that pay you a fraction of what the alternatives do.

Newsagents have noticed. That’s why these products aren’t getting the space and support they once did. That’s a sensible business decision, nothing more complicated than that.

What I’d do in your shop

  • Compare the margin on distributor-supplied diaries with what you make from direct suppliers. Your POS software will tell you. Your gut might not.
  • Your seasonal space is some of the most valuable you have. Work out what each metre earns, and give the best spots to whatever earns most.
  • Put direct-supply diaries and calendars up front and promote them.
  • You don’t have to give your best space to a product that earns half the margin and costs you time. Cut it back, or say no.

If a product pays half as much and takes the same work, it shouldn’t get your best space.

To publishers: take note

If you publish diaries or calendars and reach newsagents through the magazine distributor, this part is for you.

Newsagents are done with this financial disrespect. Low margin product, delivered through a model built for magazines, will keep losing space to suppliers who pay retailers properly.

If you want newsagents to back your product, pay them a margin that makes it worth their while, and deal with them directly. I think you’ll find plenty will give your diaries and calendars the space they used to.

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Newsagency management

Do you want to sell more greeting cards or not?

Greeting cards are the most profitable product in a newsagency, yet too many retailers ignore them, expecting the supplier to do the work. Well, supper not doing the most important work needed – they are not working at growing demand for cards.

What are you doing to get more people buying cards?

For most retailers, the honest answer is not enough. It’s nothing in fact. If that’s you, you’re part of the problem.

We fill the fixture. Actually, many newsagents don’t – they let the supplier do this. We reorder. Actually, many don’t – they let the supplier do this too. We wait. We act as if growth will come by itself. It won’t.

Card sales grow when retailers work at them every day. That means doing things differently.

Host events in-store

Give people a reason to come in and spend time with cards.

  • Card-writing evenings before Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
  • A young guys event where they are trained how to choose a card, and maybe have a beer with you.
  • Hand-lettering or calligraphy sessions with a local artist.

Events build the habit. They also bring people into your shop who might not otherwise visit.

Educate people

Many people don’t buy cards because they don’t know what to write, or they’ve never seen why it matters.

Many people don’t know when to send a card.

Teach them. Post tips on social media about what to write. Put a small guide near the fixture. Talk about why a card lasts for years when a text message is gone in a minute. Speak to local schools and community groups. SHow off your most unique cards.

If we don’t explain the value of a card, nobody else will.

Stock cards younger people want

Your range has to appeal to people in their 20s and 30s. That means humour, pop culture, clean modern designs, local artists and blank cards that let the sender speak for themselves.

If your range only suits your oldest customers, your card business will shrink with them.

Stop displaying cards the old way

This is the big one.

For decades we have displayed cards the same way. A long wall of pockets, sorted by occasion and relationship. Row after row. It looks like every other card fixture in the country.

Younger shoppers find it overwhelming and dated. It is time to stop.

  • Display face out on tables and smaller stands.
  • Group cards by style or mood, not just by occasion.
  • Put cards with gifts, so the card and the present are bought together.
  • Create feature spaces that change often and give shoppers something new to see.

Make the change

None of this is hard. All of it takes effort.

The retailers who do the work will grow their card sales. Those who keep doing what they have always done will keep getting the same result, or worse.

Choose one change now. Do it.

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Greeting Cards

Change your newsagency without losing the people who matter most

“If I change my business too much, my regulars will stop coming. Soon I won’t have a shop.”

I hear this often. It is a common feeling, and it comes from a good place. You care about your customers. You know their names and what they buy. You do not want to let them down.

We all like what we know. We like the space where we feel comfortable. That is human.

Plenty has already changed

Change has been happening in your shop for years. It is easy to miss because it happens slowly, a little each week.

Over-the-counter newspaper sales keep declining. Most magazine titles are declining too. The exception is special interest titles, which continue to do well. Lottery customers are moving online. The shoppers coming through your door today are not quite the same as those of ten years ago.

So the question is not whether to change. The change is already underway. The real question is whether you guide it, or let it guide you.

You do not have to choose between old and new

Changing your newsagency does not mean turning your back on your regulars. You can make the shop fresh and relevant to today, while keeping the products and services that matter in your location.

That might mean keeping your newspapers near the counter, while giving more floor space to categories that are growing. It might mean keeping the special interest magazines your customers love, and trimming titles that no longer sell.

Your regulars are more likely to stay when the shop feels busy and alive. New shoppers bring energy. Energy brings everyone back.

This is why I say there is no single approach. Every shop, every town and every community is different. What works in a regional main street will differ from what works in a city shopping centre.

What we do know

There is no coming back for the newsagency channel. There will be no return to the days of around 5,000 shops that looked almost the same.

That is not a reason to worry. It is a reason to plan.

The growth categories are clear based on the evidence we have:

  • Gifts
  • Collectibles
  • Play, including toys, games and jigsaws
  • Clothing
  • Books

These are easy categories for newsagents to add, with the right backing. You already have the skills. You know your customers, you know retail and you know your community.

You do not have to do this alone

Yep, this is a pitch. I am a Director of Stride Retail Pty Ltd. It helps newsagents transform. Yes, we changed the name of the newsXpress Pty Ltd business to Stride Retail Pty Ltd last month as our own distancing of the newsXpress business from the newsagency channel.

We can look at your shop, your location and your current range with you. We can help you work out what to keep, what to grow and what to try. We do this at a pace that suits you and your customers.

Change works best one careful step at a time. Start with one small step this month. Your regulars will come along with you.

Reach out: help@newsxpress.com.au

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newsagency of the future

GNS Board votes to sell the business to management, and newsagents should read the message carefully

On 7 October, the Board of GNS Wholesale announced it had agreed for its operating business and assets to be sold to a company owned by CEO Paul Yardley. Shareholders still need to approve the deal. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.

This is not a crisis, and I do not see it as one. It is a sensible step for a business facing structural change. For newsagents, though, the announcement deserves more than a quick read.

What the announcement says

The Board is plain about the market. It says office supplies and stationery have been “changing structurally for several years” as digitisation reduces demand. GNS has responded by diversifying into new products, customers and channels. Its current corporate structure limits access to new capital, so the Board looked at its options and chose a management buy-out.

My side note here would be that GNS has failed to lean Ito the growth in stationery that we are seeing stationery for pen collectors, avid journalers, paper collectors. Shops like Choosing Keeping in Londan and Paper Tigre in Paris have lead the way. I suspect GNS did not lean into this because its customers did not. Millgram in Australia stated there, but it feels adrift right now.

Paul Yardley talks about serving “independent retailers and commercial resellers”. He talks about a broader range, more efficient operations, taking cost out of the supply chain and growth “through consolidation where it creates value”.

The word newsagent does not appear once.

Why this matters for newsagents

I am not criticising GNS. Its leadership is doing what good businesses do. It is reading the market, accepting decline in traditional categories and moving towards where future revenue will come from.

That is exactly what I have been urging newsagents to do. I have written before about the need to decouple from the newsagency channel. Our businesses can no longer rely on suppliers, structures and categories that were built around the traditional newsagency model. Those foundations are shifting, and they will keep shifting.

When a key supplier to our channel says its future lies in diversification and a wider customer base, it confirms the direction of travel. Suppliers are adapting. Newsagents need to adapt too.

What I suggest you do now

  • Review your floor space. Look at sales and margin per square metre. Give more space to categories that are growing and earning good margin.
  • Look at your supplier mix. Do not rely on one wholesaler for a whole category. Explore direct relationships and newer suppliers.
  • Reduce reliance on declining categories. Magazines, newspapers and traditional stationery will keep shrinking. Plan your space for that now.
  • Build on gifts and destination categories. Greeting cards, gifts and specialist ranges give shoppers a reason to visit and a reason to come back.
  • Think about how shoppers see you. A shop known for curated gifts and local service has a stronger future than one defined by a legacy channel.

A calm and practical response

Change in our supply chain is not new. What is new is how clearly the change is being spelt out. The GNS announcement is honest about the market. I think we should be equally honest about our own businesses.

The newsagents who will thrive are those who evolve on their own terms. Start that work today.

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newsagency of the future

Cost cutting could be the wrong move for your retail business

If you are keen to cut costs in your retail business, I am writing this for you.

I get it. Cutting costs makes sense. You can see the cost. You cut it. It’s gone.

If only it were that easy.

Governments do this. They come to power promising to cut costs. Then they find the cuts hit vital services, or hurt the community in some other way. Business is no different. A cut can deliver a short-term gain and long-term pain.

My advice is that you ask a different question first.

Before cutting anything, I think retailers should ask: am I using the resources I already have properly and profitably? In most instances I see, they are now.

Take the software you run your shop on. Only rarely do I see retailers use it to:

  • stop buying badly
  • cut theft
  • bring customers back sooner.

Each of these is an easy win with good software. Each puts money back in the business.

There is a false saving in cutting costs.

I have seen retailers switch to cheap, generic software to save $100 a month. On paper, it looks smart. In practice, that software often can’t help with buying, theft or getting customers back through the door.

Meanwhile, the retailer who uses their software properly could make $500, $1,000 or more a month from smarter decisions. That’s not a saving. That’s new money.

Some retailers, of course, don’t care. They want the $100 saving because doing some work to make much more money diesel;t interest them. These people should not own a business.

Now: the low-hanging fruit trap.

When cash is tight, it’s tempting to grab the low-hanging fruit. Cancel a subscription. Drop a service. Move on.

Too many retailers do this and miss the bigger opportunity. The money is usually in using what you already have, better.

Three things I suggest you try if costs are a concern for you.

  • Run a slow-seller report. Stop reordering lines that haven’t sold in 90 days. Quit dead stock.
  • Check refunds, voids and stock adjustments for patterns by staff member and time of day.
  • Look at your loyalty data. Find the regulars who haven’t visited in a month and invite them back.

If your software can’t do these things, that’s the cost conversation worth having. Not the $100.

Disclosure: I founded Tower Systems, which makes retail software for newsagents and other independent retailers.

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Newsagency management

The surcharge ban is not why prices are going up

Turn on the news or scroll social media and you will see the claim that businesses are lifting prices because they can no longer surcharge card payments.

That is not what is happening.

Look at what small business retailers are facing in 2026:

  • Labour costs are up 5% this year.
  • Rent is up 5%, often more, this year.
  • Insurance is up 10%, often more, this year.
  • Energy is up 10% and more this year.
  • Freight to land stock in-store is up between 25% and 100% this year.

Every one of these feeds into a price decision. And every one of these has increased this year.

Labour and rent are the biggest costs in a retail business. Together they often make up more than 25% of total costs. When both rise in the same year, most shops cannot absorb it.

Then there is freight. Shoppers never see it. But if it costs a third more, or double, to get a carton of greeting cards or gifts onto the shelf, that cost has to go somewhere.

None of these costs arrive on their own. A retailer might wear a rent increase one year and an insurance jump the next. In 2026 they all landed at once. Most independent shops run on thin margins, and there is only so much a business owner can cut from rostering or trading hours before customers notice. At some point the price on the shelf has to move.

Losing the surcharge does cost retailers money. I accept that. It is still the smallest of the factors behind any price rise I have seen this year.

The news outlets running the surcharge story are showing how little they understand about running a shop. It’s lazy reporting.

if you’re a journalist and prepping a story on the removal of the  EFTPOS surcharge and its impact on price rises, do your job – ask questions, find out what is really driving price increases.

I have spent more than 40 years working with independent retailers. I have not met one who lifts prices without thinking hard about how customers will react.

My advice to retailers is simple. Know your cost increases line by line, so that when a customer asks why something costs more, you can give them a straight answer.

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Newsagency management

Five Australian inventions that changed the world, now on coins

This coin release that’s exclusive to newsXpress is also packed with education opportunities since each coin shines a light on an Aussie invention. Schools are loving the educational aspect of this.

Retailers have been provided with educational material to compliment the coins – giving students excellent learning materials.

The stump jump plough, 1876

In the 1870s, South Australian farmers were trying to plough land full of mallee stumps. Rigid ploughs stopped dead or snapped, and digging stumps out by hand cost more than the land was worth.

Then a bolt broke on Richard Bowyer Smith’s plough near Kalkabury on Yorke Peninsula. The loose blade lifted over a hidden root and dropped back into the soil. Richard and his brother Clarence turned that accident into a plough with hinged blades that rode over obstacles and kept cutting.

Farmers laughed at first. The plough went on to open up millions of hectares across South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. The stump jump principle is still used on farm machinery today.

The jaffle maker, 1949

Hot sandwiches had one problem. The filling dripped out the sides.

In 1949, Bondi doctor Ernest Smithers registered a design for an iron that sealed the edges of the bread and locked the filling inside. He also coined the name: the jaffle. By the early 1950s, Australia had jaffle fever.

In 1974 Breville took the idea electric. Its Snack’n’Sandwich toaster sold 400,000 units in its first year, and in Britain toasted sandwiches became known as “brevilles”.

The black box flight recorder, 1956

When planes crashed in the early 1950s, investigators often had little more than wreckage to work with. David Warren, a chemist at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories in Melbourne, had lost his father in an unexplained air crash in 1934.

He proposed a crash-protected cockpit recorder, and by 1956 his team had a working prototype. Australian authorities rejected it. The British took it up instead, and in 1960 Australia became the first country to make cockpit voice recorders compulsory.

Today every large passenger aircraft carries two recorders. They are painted bright orange so searchers can find them.

The baby safety capsule, 1984

Newborns once rode home from hospital on a parent’s lap or in a loose carrycot. Adelaide seatbelt engineers Bob Heath and Colin Nagel changed that.

Their Safe-n-Sound capsule, launched in 1984, held the baby facing backwards and lying flat. In a crash, the bassinet pivoted so the force spread across the baby’s whole back rather than its neck. Rear-facing travel for babies is now standard advice around the world.

WLAN, 1992

In the early 1990s, indoor radio signals bounced off walls and garbled fast data. CSIRO engineer John O’Sullivan had earlier built signal-cleaning tools while searching for exploding black holes. The black holes never appeared, but he and his team realised the same maths could fix indoor wireless.

CSIRO patented the method in 1992. It became part of the Wi-Fi standards used worldwide and earned more than $430 million for Australian research.

The coins

The collection includes eight designs:

  • $1 Stump Jump Plough
  • $1 Jaffle Maker
  • $1 Black Box Flight Recorder
  • $1 Coloured Black Box Flight Recorder
  • $1 Baby Safety Capsule
  • $1 WLAN
  • $2 Bright Ideas coin, featuring all five inventions
  • $2 Bright Ideas proof coin

Shop the Bright Ideas collection at Mint Coin Shop

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newsagency marketing

From jaffles to flight recorders: newsXpress celebrates Australia’s Bright Ideas

Today, newsXpress and the Royal Australian Mint launch the 2026 Bright Ideas coin collection. It celebrates five Australian inventions that have become part of everyday life here and around the world.

Five inventions, five stories

The collection features:

  • The stump jump plough
  • The jaffle maker
  • The baby safety capsule
  • The black box flight recorder
  • High-speed Wireless LAN (WLAN) technology

Together, they span more than a century of Australian innovation. South Australian Richard Smith patented the stump jump plough in 1876. Defence scientist Dr David Warren invented the black box flight recorder in 1953. CSIRO developed high-speed WLAN technology in the 1990s. The jaffle maker and the baby safety capsule went on to become familiar parts of Australian life.

Each invention started with someone who saw a problem and set out to solve it. A farmer needed a plough that could handle stumps and roots. Air crash investigators needed to know what happened in the final moments of a flight. Scientists wanted faster wireless connections. These are practical, down-to-earth ideas, and that is what makes them so Australian. Bright Ideas puts those stories in people’s hands, on coins they can keep or share with family.

What I like about this collection is that people can relate to it. Most of us have made a jaffle, used wireless technology or travelled with a child in a safety capsule. Few of us know the Australian story behind them.

A special $2 Bright Ideas coin featuring all five inventions is going into circulation. Customers paying with cash at participating newsXpress stores could find one in their change from 8:30am AEDT today, Thursday 8 October 2026.

There is something a little bit special about finding a commemorative coin in your change. I expect plenty of customers will be checking theirs over the coming weeks.

Participating newsXpress stores also stock the Bright Ideas collector range:

  • A five-coin collection presented as a folder for the coins and coins in a tube
  • A seven-coin collection – presented in a beautiful collector box
  • A $2 proof coin – in box

The full set of designs is:

  • $1 Stump Jump Plough
  • $1 Black Box Flight Recorder
  • $1 Jaffle Maker
  • $1 Baby Safety Capsule
  • $1 WLAN
  • $1 Coloured Black Box Flight Recorder
  • $2 Bright Ideas circulating coin
  • $2 Bright Ideas proof coin

A local celebration

newsXpress stores are part of their local communities. Bright Ideas gives each of them the chance to share a little Australian history and ingenuity with their customers, one coin at a time.

Visit your local participating newsXpress store and check your change. You could find a Bright Ideas $2 coin. Find Bright Ideas retailers here and see what retailers working together looks like: https://www.newsxpress.com.au/stockists/brightideas

This program, exclusive to newsXpress, will drive net new traffic to participating stores.

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Newsagency opportunities

Your sales data has answers. Are you asking the questions?

Most newsagencies are sitting on years of sales history that’s not used.

Picture two newsagencies in neighbouring suburbs. Similar size, similar mix, similar rent.

In the first, the owner spends a slow afternoon behind the counter, then reorders whatever sold last month.

In the second, the owner exports uses AI to create orders based on what’s selling over time. They also use AI to spot trends and look for allied products. They then cull products and suppliers that aren’t performing.

The second business is growing net profit while the first one is treading water.

be like the second newsagent. Smart. Making fact based decisions. Chasing profit.

Questions worth starting with

  • Show me my top 20 and bottom 20 products by gross profit, not by sales.
  • In which weeks of the year do I regularly run short on cards?
  • Here is my roster and my hourly sales. When am I overstaffed, and when am I short?
  • Here are my recent Google reviews. What do customers praise, and what do they complain about?
  • Here is a month of my Facebook posts. Which product areas am I ignoring?
  • Then ask a follow-up. The first answer is rarely the best one. I find “Why do you think that is?” and “What would you change first?” usually get you to something you can act on.

AI gets things wrong, and it does so with complete confidence. Check any number before you act on it. Keep customer names, emails and loyalty details out of anything you upload.

It also won’t fix the floor. It might tell you the card wall underperforms on weekends, but someone still has to refresh that wall and help the customer standing in front of it. Independent stores win on their people, on the way staff greet customers and suggest products. Data can show you where to focus that effort. It can’t do the work.

I hear plenty of concerns about AI from retailers, mostly around copyright, energy use and jobs. They’re fair conversations to have.

Sitting it out is a business decision too, though, and it has a cost. The gift shop up the road isn’t sitting it out. Neither is the online seller in your collectables category, or the franchise group with an analyst at head office.

You don’t need a course or a consultant to get started. Set aside an hour this week, export one report and ask it three questions. Then write down one thing you’ll change.

Next week, try a different report.

A small shop can’t outspend the big players or undercut them on price. It can know its own business better than they do. An hour a week with your sales data is a cheap way to start.

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AI

Games and Puzzles Are Up 38%: The Toy Opportunity Newsagents Should Grab Now

Australian toy sales grew 10% in August 2026 and are up 12% for the year to date. Games and puzzles were the biggest dollar gainer this year, up 38%. Trading cards and jigsaws suit newsagency space, price points and shoppers. I think now is the time to give them more room.

The latest Australian toy sales data, collected for the Australian Toy Association, is good news for August 2026. Toy sales grew 10% for the month and are up 12% for the year to date. Globally, growth is stronger again at 16%.

I’ve been saying for a while that toys, games and puzzles deserve more space in newsagencies. These numbers back that up.

The biggest dollar gainers for the year to date were:

  • Games and puzzles, up 38%
  • Building sets, up 16%
  • Explorative and other toys, up 55%
  • Action figures and accessories, up 11%
  • Vehicles, up 8%

This list is ranked by dollars added, not percentage growth. That’s why explorative toys sit third despite growing 55%.

The top properties in August were Pokémon, Hot Wheels, Marvel Universe, Star Wars and Magic: The Gathering. Licensed toys now account for 47% of all toy dollars.

The fastest-growing properties compared with August 2025 tell an even clearer story: LEGO Pokémon, KPop Demon Hunters, Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and The Hobbit.

Look at that the good news in the second list. Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, The Hobbit. Strategic trading card games grew 24%, driven by Magic: The Gathering, The Hobbit and Riftbound. Cards are a big part of the games and puzzles story.

Many newsagents already sell Pokémon cards. Plenty sell jigsaws and puzzle books. We have the counter, the foot traffic and the customers.

What I think many of us lack is commitment. Cards get a small spot by the register. Jigsaws sit on a bottom shelf, spine out. That’s not good enough for a category growing at 38%.

The average toy price in August was $19.19, down slightly from $19.47 a year earlier. That’s a newsagency price point. It’s a gift, a reward or an impulse purchase, not a trip to a big-box toy store.

Christmas is about 12 weeks away. Here’s where I’d start.

  • Take space from magazines. Magazine sales are in structural decline. Every metre you free up can work harder for games, puzzles and cards.
  • Make a new category: puzzles, games, trading cardstrading cards a destination, you choose. Invest space and capital.
  • Back the licences. With 47% of toy dollars going to licensed product, stock the properties kids and adults are asking for.

Toys are growing, and games and puzzles are leading the way. For newsagents looking to replace declining categories, I think this is one of the clearest opportunities we’ve had in years.

The shops that commit space now will do well this Christmas. The ones that leave cards by the register and jigsaws on the bottom shelf will watch the sales go elsewhere.

Source: Data collected for the Australian Toy Association, August 2026.

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Newsagency management

The first newsagent ChatBot is now even smarter

A little over a month ago, newsXpress quietly launched the second generation of AI ChatBot made for newsagents. The first generation was launched many months ago.

This ChatBot is unique and completely self serve. In creating it I have leveraged years of experience in the software space and years owning newsagency businesses and being involved with newsXpress.

In the weeks since launch of the second generation, the knowledge of the ChatBot has radically expanded.  It covers more topics and goes deeper on previously known topics.

How it works

The ChatBot uses closed-loop AI. It answers only from what it has been trained on, so it’s designed not to guess.

You ask a question the way you’d ask a person. You don’t need to learn any special commands.

Here’s some of what it has been trained on:

  • Wage rates under the current Retail Industry Award
  • Classifying employees based on the work they do
  • Managing a difficult employee
  • Dismissing someone within the law
  • Steps to take if you suspect theft
  • Insurance policies to consider
  • Checking your EFTPOS rate
  • Negotiating with your landlord
  • Managing cashflow
  • Selling your newsagency
  • Improving your business
  • How your business compares to others
  • New products and which suppliers stock them
  • Where to find mental health support

It covers a lot more than this. You can also upload a report and ask it what it sees.

How we built it

The work started years ago, when we built a searchable knowledge base for newsXpress members.

In 2025 we expanded that knowledge base and reviewed and updated every article. This year we reviewed every article again, sorted them into categories and wrote new ones.

We then connected it to Fair Work, the Retail Industry Award and other public resources, so pay and employment answers come from the right source.

It’s our own knowledge base though where the real value-add lives.

Before launch, we asked it hundreds of questions and checked each answer for accuracy and usefulness.

What I like about it

Most of what newsagents ask are questions they’d otherwise ring about, or not even ask at all. Now they can get an answer after close, on a weekend, or whenever the question comes up.

I also like that it sticks to the source material. When you ring someone, you get their experience along with their opinions. For questions about staff, money or selling the business, a straight answer from the right source is often what you need.

Using it also builds confidence with AI tools, which helps elsewhere in the business.

I think this is where small business support is heading. It lets us help more members at a lower cost.

If you’re a newsXpress member, try it with a question you’ve been meaning to ring about.

…

Oh, and newsXpress is now known as Stride Retail Pty Ltd.

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AI tools

Government action on illegal tobacco is finally working, for now

For years I’ve watched illegal tobacco shops open on the same strip as newsagencies. They undercut everyone. They treat fines as a business expense. They keep trading.

They bring risk to the street.

Governments have finally worked out that seizing stock doesn’t stop them. Closing the door does.

The closures are real

Queensland moved first. Last December I wrote about Operation Major, which put three-month closure orders on 148 stores in a 10-day blitz.

South Australia has closed 100 stores and seized around $50 million worth of product.

NSW can now issue short-term closure orders of up to 90 days and long-term orders of up to 12 months. In April, 23 retailers on the Central Coast were shut for 90 days in one operation.

WA had six stores ordered to close within days of its new laws taking effect.

And here in Victoria, inspectors and police can now close a business on the spot for up to 90 days. Footscray and Richmond stores were among the first to be shut, and Tobacco Licensing Victoria said it would publish a list of closed businesses. I like that. Public lists change behaviour.

Landlords are now in the frame, and this is the part I think matters most.

In Victoria, landlords can kick out tenants who breach tobacco licensing laws. Queensland has gone further, creating a criminal offence for landlords who knowingly let illegal tobacco be sold on their premises.

Once the property owner carries the risk, the easy shopfronts start to disappear.

It isn’t fixed yet

Some operators are already working around closures. NSW Health has flagged sellers using QR codes and social media to keep trading after a closure order.

The price gap is still the core problem. While legal and illegal product sit so far apart on price, there will always be someone willing to take the risk. Enforcement has to keep coming back, again and again.

I’m pleased to see this. It’s the first time in years the risk has sat with the people breaking the law, not the retailers following it.

Why I care

Illegal tobacco shops don’t just hurt those who sell legally. They bring crime to our shopping strips, and Melbourne has seen firebombings because of it. That puts every neighbouring business and its staff at risk.

If you see illegal tobacco being sold near your shop, report it to your state’s health department or tobacco regulator. The powers are there. Let’s make sure they’re used.

They’ll fine other ways

The organisations behind the illegal tobacco trade are organised and sophisticated. They will evolve;ve, as they have done. For now though, the progress by authorities is good to see.

14 likes
Social responsibility

The ATO’s credit card decision hurts small business cash flow

The ATO will stop taking credit card payments after 30 November 2026 and I reckon it’s a dumb move. At the very least, the timing for such a m Ove is off.


For small businesses that sometimes use a credit card to pay tax when cash is tight, that is one less option.

Debit cards will still be accepted. That changes how you pay, not what you pay from. A debit card uses money already in the account. A credit card buys you time.

Think about a newsagency in the lead-up to Christmas. Stock has to be bought in October and November. Rent, wages, supplier accounts and tax can all fall due before the Christmas sales arrive. For some retailers, a credit card has covered that gap for a few weeks.

I am not arguing that credit cards fix an underfunded business. They don’t. They cost money. Anyone using one to pay tax needs to know the fees and have a realistic plan to clear the balance.

But many retailers who pay the ATO by card are not in trouble. Their problem is timing. Taking the card away does not bring Christmas sales forward. It does not push the rent back either.

The ATO says the decision follows the RBA’s review of surcharging. It says the community should not carry credit card merchant fees. I accept there is a public cost. I would like to see the same weight given to the cost for businesses that relied on this option.

If you have a payment plan linked to a credit card, act now. Change the payment method before your first instalment due after 30 November. If you don’t, payments may fail and the plan could fall into arrears or default Review your cash-flow forecast for the months ahead and talk to your accountant.

The ATO should reconsider. At the very least, it should offer a practical transition that deals with the funding gap. The tax still has to be paid. Retailers have just lost one of the ways to pay it on time.

Let’s look at 2026 so far: award wages up 5%, rent up 5%, payments surcharge removed at a cost to business of 1%, utilities up 5% and more, insurance up by around 10%. It’s challenging. For some, being able to pay tax by card meant they had more time to manage their cash position.

8 likes
Newsagency management

Australia’s biggest news voice paid no tax here, again

News Corp is the largest commercial news organisation in Australia. Its mastheads include news.com.au, the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian and The Courier-Mail. Industry audience data shows that News Corp Australia held the number one news publisher position for every month of 2025, according to Ipsos iris rankings. In a recent month, its network reached 16.6 million Australian adults, or 78.1% of those aged 18 and over. adnewsmediaweek

That reach brings enormous power. News Corp does more than report the news. It decides what makes the front page, which issues dominate the week and how they are framed. All too often, it goes further and tells us what to think.

Its mastheads are rarely short of advice for us – dvice about our values, how the country should be run and about who is doing the right thing.

So it is fair to ask what News Corp contributes in return. In my opinion, the company does not make a contribution to match its voice.

Australian Taxation Office corporate tax data released this week gives the answer. In 2024-25, News Australia Holdings Pty Limited, the Australian holding company of the Murdoch family’s News Corp, reported total income of $1.89 billion and taxable income of $310 million. Its tax payable was nil.

It is the tenth year in a row the company has paid no tax here.

News Corp is a foreign company, incorporated in the United States. I am not suggesting it has broken the law. Losses carried forward and tax offsets can legally reduce a tax bill to zero. But paying nothing year after year is a choice. It is a striking choice for an organisation that spends so much time telling Australians how to behave.

GST does not change the picture. News Corp collects it, but customers pay it.

Small businesses in Australia, like newsagents, no front page to set the national agenda, and no global structure to move profits through.

Influence brings responsibility. The organisation with the loudest voice in Australian news should be willing to pay its share for the country it speaks to every day.

Until it does, readers are entitled to weigh its lectures with that in mind.

And, look, while you’re here, newsagents are treated poorly by News in my opinion, making around 12% from each newspaper sold from which we pay payments processing costs, labour, rent, product theft and all the usual business overheads.

4 likes
Social responsibility

Well done RBA and those who have cheered you on, you’ve just taxed small business lottery retailers.

It’s October 1, 2026. Surcharging to recover costs associated with how a customer chooses to pay is banned from today.

I am angry about what the ban on payment surcharges does to small business lottery retailers.

I am angrier still at the cheering. Commentators, lobbyists, media outlets and politicians of all sides have lined up to applaud the RBA for a move that hurts small business.

A real business cost is being dumped on retailers who work on a fixed, tiny margin, and we are expected to join in the applause.

From today, the major card networks’ no-surcharge rules take effect under the framework enabled by the RBA’s changes. Lottery retailers who have used surcharging to recover their payment costs lose that option. They keep the bill.

This move by the RBA is a tax on these local small retail businesses. The government does not collect it. A policy decision imposes it, and it comes straight out of the money they use to pay their bills and themselves.

A 1% fee can take 10% of the margin

Take a retailer who processes $100 in lottery sales by card and earns $10 in commission. A $1 payment processing fee takes 10% of that commission.

A commentator sees a 1% fee. The retailer sees a tenth of their income on those sales disappear, before wages, rent, electricity, insurance and everything else it takes to keep the doors open.

The real figures vary. Commission rates differ, payment fees differ, and so does the mix of cash and card. But this is how a fee that looks small from the outside can eat around a tenth of the gross margin on the lottery sales concerned.

If you think that is trivial, try taking the same cut to your own income. Then tell a small business owner to stop complaining.

“Put your prices up” is a useless answer

The ACCC says businesses can recover payment costs through their overall pricing. What use is that to a retailer who does not set the price?

Lottery ticket prices are fixed. Changing them requires approval from state regulators or governments, as The Lottery Corporation pointed out in its submission to the RBA. A retailer cannot adjust the price because the merchant bill has landed on them alone.

Charging more for something else in the shop? I do not accept that either. Why should the customer buying a greeting card pay for someone else’s lottery transaction?

Yes, the RBA’s package lowers the interchange fee caps. Good. A lower cost is still a cost, though, and whatever is left has to come from somewhere.

The cheer squad

It frustrates me how readily the small business owner’s income is treated as the easy answer. Let them absorb it. Let them work out how to make ends meet. Just do not let them spoil the good-news story.

The commentators, lobbyists, media outlets and politicians cheering this on have had their moment. They got the headline about savings at the counter. Not one of them has to find the money.

So own the consequence. You cannot celebrate the saving for the customer and ignore the retailer paying for it. If you backed this, you backed the cost that comes with it.

To the RBA and the ACCC: a lottery retailer on a fixed margin deserves a better answer than advice to recover costs through prices they are not allowed to set. These are real businesses. They are more than an awkward footnote to a tidy policy announcement.

You can all sleep well tonight. For the retailers facing the arithmetic above, the result is effectively a tax of around 10% of their gross margin on card-paid lottery sales. They can stay up working out how to cover it.

Well done, all. What a way to back small business.

A note to the politicians: when the next election rolls around and you say small business is the backbone of our economy, your laziness on this surcharge ban will show what you really think – that you don’t care about small business.

12 likes
Social responsibility

Card surcharging ends tomorrow

The EFTPOS pitches keep coming, so here is my warning, again.

Getting ready for the new rules and choosing a payment provider are separate decisions. Do not rush either.

What changes tomorrow

From 1 October 2026, surcharging is generally prohibited on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa debit, prepaid and credit cards, unless an exemption applies. American Express is also removing surcharging. Your card costs remain, so cover them in your pricing.

Interchange caps fall to 8 cents or 0.16% for debit and prepaid, and 0.3% for consumer credit. These cap interchange, not your total merchant fee. What matters is your actual bill.

Who makes money from the pitch?

The promoter may be paid if you sign. That could be a POS company, a group earning a referral fee or a comparison service. It does not make the plan bad. It does mean the interest should be disclosed.

Four questions before you sign

  • Who gets paid, and how much? Get it in writing.
  • What will it cost from 1 October? Use your actual transactions and include every fee.
  • How do interchange cuts reach me? For cost-plus, ask what is passed through and what margin is added.
  • What happens later? Ask about introductory rates, fee changes and exit costs.

Urgency is not an answer.

My position

I have no financial interest in this. My business Stride Retail Pty Ltd (newsXpress) does not make anything whatsoever from EFTPOS recommendations or transactions.

I want retailers paying the lowest practical total cost.

What to do today

  • If you surcharge: Switch it off on terminals, POS and online checkout. Update signs and brief staff.
  • Check your margin: Adjust prices where needed.
  • Get claims in writing: Then check your October statement against what was promised.

Who makes money from the recommendation? A good deal will stand up to that question.

2 likes
Newsagency management

A good story isn’t evidence

I read a marketing post last week from the founder of a well-known Australian brand. It’s a well-told story, slick, emotive. But, little on detail.

It goes back to his first business years ago, products sold on pre-sale. About $10,000 in orders came in before the stock landed. Then the container was held at the border for inspection, and 400 customers waited for weeks while he emailed them one by one.

When the stock finally arrived, he packed 500 boxes by hand with a free candle in each. He drove them to post offices in a ute. Some turned him away.

After that, business took off. $200 on the first day. $10,000 in the second month. About $1 million in profit in the first full year.

The post finishes with an offer. If your brand turns over $30,000 a month or more, you can apply for his paid one-on-one mentoring network.

Now, here’s the evidence I’d want to see before signing up for what he’s selling.

A P&L. The $1 million profit figure is a key hook in the story/ There is no evidence it is true.

The numbers don’t fit. He says profit, not revenue. To make $1 million profit at a decent margin, you’d need several million dollars in sales. Getting there from $10,000 a month in under a year is a big jump, and the story skips over it. I’d like to hear how that happened. Evidence matters.

I’d also want to know the photo with the post shows the actual shipment. There is nothing in the photo to show it is real and about his business.

I’m not saying any of this is made up. New importers do get their goods inspected, and plenty of businesses have a rough start and come good. My point is narrower. When a story is used to sell something, the seller owes you more than the story.

I’ve seen this formula before

Courses, workshops and mentor programs are often sold using a proven narrative: a struggle, an emotional low point, a big number, then the offer.

It works. You finish reading and feel like you know the person. You don’t know their numbers though, and the numbers are what you’d be paying for.

The pitch is made to sound like getting access is hard to get. It’s the psychology of rarity, fomo, they are leveraging.

There’s no price in the post, either. You apply, and they tell you whether you’re a fit. That application is usually the start of a sales conversation. I’d rather know the cost up front.

Scale isn’t always the answer

The pitch is about scaling. I’m sceptical of that too.

I’ve watched retailers chase growth and end up with a bigger wage bill, more stock on the floor and less money in their pocket. Sales went up and profit went backwards. It happens more often than people admit.

The newsagents I see doing well right now mostly went the other way. Some audited their labour and found close to 20% of staff time going on tasks that didn’t need doing. Others put through 1% price rises on price-controlled lines, or reset the counter for impulse purchases. It’s unglamorous work, and you won’t see much of it on social media, but it shows up in the P&L.

Before you pay

The people I see making money from courses and mentoring are the ones selling them.

If you’re considering a course or paying for a mentor, ask for evidence of success. Ask to speak with two or three recent past clients who aren’t on the testimonials page.

Reading the story again, they got through the worst of it on their own, with a ute and a lot of late nights. I think that’s the most useful part of the post, and it’s free.

6 likes
Ethics

Good retail advice puts the retailer first, even when the truth is uncomfortable

Good retail advice is not always the advice you want to hear. Sometimes it means being told that the rent is unaffordable, that your negotiating position is weaker than you think, or that continuing on the same path could cost you more than making a difficult change.

This is not about being negative. It is about taking the retailer’s future seriously.

A business facing a difficult lease situation provides a useful example. The owner wants relief from an unsustainable cost, but there are also unpaid obligations to address. Discussions are going nowhere, while the pressure on the business continues.

It would be easy to say the landlord needs to be more reasonable. That might be true, but it is not enough to help the retailer decide what to do next.

Useful advice has to go further. What does the business actually earn? What can it afford? What needs to change, and what happens if the other party will not agree?

Start with the facts

Being on the retailer’s side does not mean agreeing with everything the retailer says. It means being honest about the whole position, including the parts within the retailer’s control.

If there are arrears, confirm the balance and get advice on a realistic written arrangement. If the cash flow cannot support the proposed payments, say so. A promise made to relieve pressure today is not a solution if it creates a bigger problem next month.

The same discipline applies to the trading figures. Separate sales from commissions, understand gross profit, and account for the full cost of occupying the shop. Include a proper return for the owner’s work rather than treating their time as free.

A busy shop can still be a poor business for its owner. The question is not simply whether money keeps coming through the register, but what remains after the costs of earning it.

Advice should turn that information into decisions. Set out what is affordable, put proposals in writing, seek responses by clear dates and investigate alternatives while discussions continue.

Another conversation is not necessarily progress. Know what outcome is needed and how long the business can afford to wait.

Your needs belong at the centre of the decision

The landlord has an asset to protect. Suppliers want orders, service providers want their outlets maintained, and customers want the convenience of a familiar local shop.

Those interests are understandable. They are not a reason for the retailer to accept a business that no longer meets their own needs.

Your income matters. So do your savings, your health, your family and the time you have available for a life outside the shop.

Putting those needs first does not mean ignoring debts, contracts or responsibilities to employees. It means getting appropriate advice and dealing with those obligations without assuming that you must keep sacrificing more of yourself to preserve the business unchanged.

This is also a test for anyone advising a retailer. Would the advice be the same if the best outcome meant losing a customer, a tenant or a colleague?

It should be. Advice that puts the retailer first must leave room for an outcome that does not suit the adviser.

Be prepared to make the tough decision

A better lease may provide a path forward. A smaller shop, a different location or a changed business model may also deserve serious consideration.

Each option needs proper costing. A relocation is not a plan until the costs, likely trade, necessary approvals and ongoing commitments have been checked. A rent-free period is not enough if the rent that follows remains unaffordable.

Selling may be an option. So may an orderly exit, with professional advice on the financial, legal and employee obligations involved.

These are not comfortable conversations, particularly when years of work and personal identity are tied to a shop. But the time and money already invested cannot, on their own, justify committing more.

Being prepared to leave is not about making threats in a negotiation. It is about understanding the alternatives and deciding what you will do if an acceptable agreement cannot be reached.

I want independent retailers to succeed. That means wanting a worthwhile outcome for the person behind the counter, not simply another year with the doors open.

The best advice helps a retailer see clearly, act responsibly and make a decision they can live with. Sometimes that means rebuilding the business. Sometimes it means choosing a different future.

2 likes
Newsagency management

What Happens to the Newsagent Who Does Not Decouple

If you have happened across this post out of context: I have been suggesting to newsagents for some time that they need to decouple their business from the newsagency channel given the decay of the channel and the disrespect with which it is help by news outlets and others. Staying as a newsagency its not an option in my opinion.

I have written about why to decouple and how to decouple. This post is about the path where you change nothing.

Not decoupling does not feel like a decision, and I think that is the trap. Nobody sits down and chooses decline. Every day you’;re busy doing what you know, only looking at the next step. The reorders go in and the lottery counter pays the bills. From the inside it feels like stability.

Let me show you what it actually looks like, from a real shop I reviewed recently. I will not name it.

Just under a million dollars through the till, in a wealthy village where the cafes are full every weekend. Sounds healthy. Underneath, 41 per cent of gross profit came from the lottery counter, at ten cents in the dollar. Add papers, magazines and agency lines, and more than half the shop’s profit was controlled by companies that do not know the owner’s name.

The gift department, in one of the best gifting towns in its state, sold nineteen dollars a week. Not a typo. The garden category, in a town full of acreage gardens, did twenty-seven dollars for the year. Nobody decided any of that. It happened one reorder at a time, over years, while the lottery counter quietly paid the bills.

Play it forward a few years and the exposure starts collecting. The Lottery Corporation that controls that counter told the sharemarket recently it is reviewing retailer commissions. Papers will stop at some point, and publishers will not consult you first. Australia Post reshapes its network on its own timetable. Every one of those decisions gets made in a boardroom you will never sit in, and the shop that has not decoupled absorbs each hit straight in the profit line, because nothing else in the building grew while there was time and money to grow it.

The traffic leaks away alongside the profit. The paper customer ages. The ticket buyer drifts online. The shop never built its own reasons for people to walk in, so when the inherited reasons fade, that is that.

Then comes the part I think about most: the exit. At some point every owner wants to sell. Nobody is queuing to buy a newsagency, and a shop earning most of its profit from declining agency lines is not a business a buyer can imagine owning. It is a job, attached to a lease. Many owners in this position do not sell. They close, and walk away from decades of work with a discounted value of the fixtures.

I want to be careful not to overdramatise, because the reality is quieter than that. There is no single bad year. Just a slow leak, and by the time it is obvious, the money and energy needed to transform have usually leaked out too.

The shop I described still has time. So does yours, probably. One afternoon with your sales data tells you which path you are on.

3 likes
newsagency of the future

Grand Final Eve: The Public Holiday Challenge for Small Business Retailers

Today is a public holiday in Victoria. Grand Final Eve. A day off so we can all get ready for the football.

I’ll leave the debate about whether it should exist to others but note that Victoria’s small businesses fund a holiday for an event that has not yet happened.

Okay, I can’t leave the debate. I think this public holiday is stupid, not warranted. It was brought in as an election stunt, and of course people voted for it. Ugh! Small business retailers carry the cost, especially those where most of what they sell is at prices not under their control.

If you run a shop in Victoria, today is about a simple piece of arithmetic. Public holiday penalty rates apply. That means the day has to earn its keep.

Plenty of shops find a strong morning and a dead afternoon, because by 2pm everyone is at a barbecue or the pub. If that is your pattern, trade the morning and close at lunch. There is no rule that says a public holiday is all or nothing, unless you’re in a shopping centre with such rules.

For some shops, though, this is a genuine trading day. If you are near a strip with cafes and pubs showing the build-up, there is foot traffic to serve. Cards and small gifts for hosts. Snacks and drinks if you range them. Balloons, team colours, anything celebration. The theme of the day is gathering, and gathering is a retail occasion. Lean into it in the window this week, not on the day.

Interstate readers, you have a different opportunity. Your Victorian suppliers and reps go quiet on Friday, but your customers do not. Saturday itself is a big one for last-minute party purchases everywhere the game is watched.

If you are closed today, like plenty will be, I hope you’ve adjusted hours on Google, posted about it on your socials and put a sign in your window. The quickest way to burn goodwill is a customer standing at a locked door wondering why.

Whatever you decide, decide it from your own numbers rather than habit. That is the whole game, on holidays and every other day.

Enjoy the football. Carn the underdogs.

3 likes
Newsagency management

Advice on How to Decouple Your Newsagency From the Channel: Five Jobs, Two Years

I have written plenty here about why I think newsagents need to decouple from the channel. The data points to less than ten years of life left in the traditional newsagency. The question I get asked most is how.

Decoupling is not a slogan and it is not a rebrand you order from a signwriter. It’s not restricted to any particular brand of newsagency either.

Decoupling is five jobs, done in order, over about two years. I watch newsXpress members do this work, so what follows is drawn from real shops.

Job one: find the number that is not yours. Go through your last full year and add up the gross profit from lines where somebody else sets the commission and can change the terms without asking you. Papers, magazines, lotteries, parcels, bill payments. That total, as a share of your whole GP, is your exposure. For a traditional newsagency it usually sits between half and three quarters, which shocks most owners the first time they see it. The goal is below a third. One afternoon with your POS data gets you the number.

Job two: make the floor tell the truth. Your floor is a budget. For each zone, note the share of space it takes and the gross profit it produces, divide one by the other, and sort. Most shops find a quarter of the floor producing five per cent of the profit. Quit the dead categories through a proper clearance, bank the cash, and give the space to what earns: cards, gifts, celebration. Put the papers at the back. I mean that literally. The paper customer will walk for them, and on the way they pass everything you actually make money on. Rerun the table quarterly. Move one bay each quarter.

Job three: replace the traffic before it leaves. This is the hard one, and I think it is where most transformations stall. I know of a shop with a terrific mix, gifts leading, print under ten per cent of GP, whose customer count still fell seven per cent last year. Changing what you sell does not by itself change why people come. Agency lines rented us traffic for a hundred years. Now you create it yourself. A loyalty program with real names and birthdays in it. A window that changes monthly, without fail. Small events. Local product, because the honey from ten minutes away brings in people Hallmark never will. Social media about what you unpacked this week. None of it is glamorous. All of it is weekly.

Job four: change the word. Only now do you change the sign. A rebrand on top of an unchanged shop is wallpaper. New trading name, new signage, and update your Google listing category from newsagency to gift shop, because that one field decides what searches you appear in. Check your lease first, since permitted use clauses can trip you up. Tell the story as growth: we have outgrown the old name. And do it while you are trading well. The worst time to rebrand is when you finally have to.

Job five: decouple the owner. A shop that runs out of your head is coupled to one more thing that will eventually leave. You. Document the routines. Give staff real departments with real numbers. Review the figures monthly like a board would. Nobody is queuing to buy a newsagency, but a profitable gift destination with owned traffic and clean numbers is a business a buyer can imagine owning. Decoupling and exit value are the same project.

Four numbers on the back room wall, checked monthly: customer transactions, the share of GP you control versus the share others control, GP per square metre, and the basket. If transactions and your owned share of GP are rising together, it is working.

You are done on the day no boardroom decision made without you can materially hurt your business. That is the whole test.

It starts with one afternoon and your own sales data.

Let me know if I can help: mark@newsxpress.com.au.

6 likes
Newsagency management

30 More Newsagents Are Decoupling From the Channel. Here Is What That Looks Like

Another 30 newsagents are actively working to decouple from the newsagency channel right now.

They are changing their business names, adjusting their product mix, deliberately relying less on legacy products for the future of their businesses.

This is not talk. It is work underway, in shops, right now.

For transparency: these are all newsXpress businesses, and plenty attended our recent conference in Perth, which focussed on decoupling. I am a Director of newsXpress, so read this post with that in mind.

The numbers are the numbers though, and I think they matter to anyone in this channel.

Thirty businesses moving at once is significant. In my experience, change in this channel usually happens one hesitant shop at a time. What we are seeing now is different. It is a group of retailers who have looked at the same evidence, reached the same conclusion, and started the same journey within weeks of each other.

The evidence is what I laid out in Perth. The data points to the traditional newsagency channel having less than ten years left. Papers, magazines and the other legacy lines that once defined these shops are in structural decline. That is not pessimism. It is arithmetic. And pretending otherwise helps nobody.

Decoupling is the response. Personally, I think it is essential.

It means separating the future of your business from the future of the channel. Becoming the best card and gift destination in your area, or the best of whatever you choose, rather than the local newsagency that also sells some gifts. And, what you choose can be anything, since you are not constrained by shingle expectations.

For the 30 businesses on this path, the work is practical. A new name that says what the shop is becoming, not what it was. Floor space rebalanced toward products that earn their keep. New traffic created through categories and marketing the shop controls, rather than traffic inherited from products in decline. It is roughly a two year job, done properly.

What encourages me most is the mindset. These retailers are not waiting for the channel to be saved. They are not waiting for a supplier, a distributor or a government to fix things. They are backing themselves.

I think we will look back on this period as the moment the smart end of the channel stopped identifying as newsagents and started building what comes next.

If you own a newsagency and this resonates, the first step costs nothing. Look at your sales data. Work out how much of your gross profit is controlled by others. Then decide whose future you want your business tied to. Theirs, or yours.

Footnote: The reality is that it is likely there are more than 30 newsagency businesses decoupling right now. The thirty I mention here are the ones I know about.

7 likes
newsagency of the future
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