Month: September 2007

Practical Family History, Family Tree Magazine and Family History Monthly are three of a large range of family tree / genealogy type magazines found in many newsagencies. The range of titles is broad and appeals to a very select group of people who browse my newsagency. What is interesting is that customers interested in the family tree / genealogy category tend to buy two and sometimes three titles in the category at the one time. This makes them efficient customers and helps justify the retail space we give the category. I see categories like this as essential to the newsagency pitch of being the magazine specialists.

Being a specialist means doing more than putting the product out, it means understanding the dynamics of the category, what else is in the shopping basket and what can be done to drive the efficiency of such a special interest customers.

The New South Wales TAFE guide is no longer. Newsagents are only being told when they make some calls to chase supply of the usually annual publication. TAFE has moved the handbook content online which makes sense and is good for the environment. For newsagents, however, the move of the TAFE guide online will mean a significant revenue loss. Many would sell in excess of $2,000 worth of guides a year in direct sales and more in associated business.

It is surprising that there has been no transition. Last year the guide was in print and this year it is only online.

The move of NDD titles to now be distributors by First Fleet, the company which also handles Network and Gotch magazines, is impacting newsagents as this report from one colleague explains:

This morning we received our mags at 5.45am. The driver blamed the fact that they now deliver NDD as well as Gordon & Gotch.

He claimed that the NDD product is not allowed into the G&G & NDC warehouse to be split up for distribution.

They are currently using this Transport Subcontractors own warehouse to split the orders. The product is also arriving late.

Net result, we have had to go out twice to deliver mags to our 22 Sub Agents.

This obviously increases our distribution costs and reduces sales. Wednesday Mags in particular have their highest sales on the first day.

If the Subagents do not get there Mags until mid morning their is a massive sales decrease.

This is the second week that this has happened.

While suppliers cut costs out of their supply chain, this demonstrates a lack of regard for newsagent costs.

Who needs the weekly gossip and star focused women’s magazines when you can access popsugar for free? Newsagents should see how connected (online) people are getting their gossip fix.

Note to magazine publishers – those premium inserts you use to add value too often detract. Take a look at the photo below of how inserts looked on Good Health and Notebook which we received today. Both premium, high quality, titles look damaged because of the promotional insert:

In both cases, the magazines appear to be damaged when it is the insert sticking out from the magazine which is damaged. While we put the damaged product to the back, often more than half total supply is damaged.

If publishers are going to use inserts such as these to promote their titles, they ought to invest in appropriate packaging to ensure the titles arrive in a merchantable form.

We were visited by a merchandiser yesterday who shifted three titles from impulse locations so they could better promote the titles they are paid to promote. I am annoyed because we select titles for these locations carefully. We are going to stop this and require the merchandisers to work with us.

Rail Modeller, Model Rail and Model Railroader are three of the specialist model railroad titles we have in our newsagency. They are what one could call long tail titles. We sell small quantities of these and other model railroad titles yet having the range draws magazine browsers and, overall, browsers buy. The model rail category along with similar categories combines to demonstrate our point of difference and make newsagencies the destination we are.

We focus as much on these model railroad titles as we do our women’s weekly titles. Indeed, we obsess about their display, making sure that all the model railroad titles are in the space allocated and not mixed with radio control model titles or general railway titles. We make sure the titles are displayed full face and even featured on category displays from time to time. Our effort stems from pride in the range we carry.

In a strict cash-flow sense these model railroad titles rarely pay their way. However, once you take into account the overall basket from the visit the benefits of carrying the range is evident.

The model railroad titles are a good reason for newsagents to establish a Magazine Week promotion here – where we promote the depth of our range. We’re the best magazine retailers in the country after all.