I have received letter from the Herald and Weekly Times, my local News Ltd company, inviting me to extend my distribution agreement for a further twelve months. I expect that other newsagents have received similar letters. This extension of time is most likely due to more time being needed for News to assess the preferred future structure of newspaper distribution in Australia.
I will accept the extension gladly. However, I’d like the year to be used by newsagents as much as News to determine the best road forward.
I’d like a success based agreement with News which rewards me for above average sales growth. Treat me like a business person and not an ‘agent’. Release me from the shackles of current retailing rules. Put some money on the table for real and consistent sales growth. Let me prove what I can do and allow other proactive newsagents to do the same.
Such an investment by News would, in my view, deliver better results than they have achieved recently by putting newspapers in to McDonalds and Big W.
I have five strategies I would implement right away if I were allowed, strategies I am sure most retailers would like to use if they were not hamstrung by a contract and associated rules which have their genesis decades ago when the distribution and retail of newspapers was tightly regulated under an ACCC authorisation.
If I am right and can achieve above average growth for News Ltd newspapers then I become more valuable to them. Surely there is less cost to the company in gaining greater sales from their newsagent channel than placing their product in other retail channels?
If I don’t achieve above average sales growth it costs News Ltd nothing. On the other hand, if I am successful they will reward me for my success and have some learnings to pass on. All I want is to sell more newspapers. Oh, and not have News Ltd appointing more stores near mine to compete while I prove what I can do.
Is News Ltd prepared to unshackle newsagents so they can achieve their full potential? I hope so. This next year is the perfect opportunity.