Last month I blogged here about how successful music cards are in the United States. The new range from Hallmark, while too small, is selling very well in our Sophie Randall store. Once browsers open a card and hear the song they smile. Some play it again – that’s when you know you have them. It’s good to hear people interacting with your products. I’m confident this range would work well in newsagencies.
New technology launched today allows all newsagents to sell phone recharge and other electronic voucher products direct from their point-of-sale computer, without the need for a complex long-term contract.
Developed exclusively for newsagents by Tower Systems, eziPass works on computers with broadband internet access.
eziPass supplies the same Touch suite of products as offered by major banks and retailers. Excellent commission is provided – up to 33% extra commission on some mobile recharge products.
“Newsagents told us they wanted an alternative to the Bill Express / DialTime contract and a simpler, more robust, operation at the sales counter,†commented Mark Fletcher, Managing Director of Tower Systems.
“We only agreed to become involved if there was absolutely NO margin or commission for us. The last thing newsagents need is another middleman making money from what is already a slim-margin business.â€
eziPass has initially been launched to existing Tower Systems’ customers. And within the coming weeks, Tower expects to provide a free copy of the eziPass software to all newsagents.
Vouchers for more than 30 telco products are part of the launch range. Tourist attraction tickets, flower deliveries, magazine subscriptions and tollway passes will be added in coming weeks.
“eziPass provides a low-risk, low-overhead option for newsagents considering whether to extend their Bill Express / DialTime contracts,†said Mark Fletcher. “There is no lease to pay, no long-term contract to sign and newsagent bank accounts are swept once a week – greatly assisting cash-flow.â€
Tower Systems was founded in 1981 by Mark Fletcher. Today, the company serves in excess of 1,400 newsagents nationally – more than 50% of all newsagents with a computer system. It wholly owns one newsagency and is a major shareholder in another.
Touch Networks Pty Ltd provides over 200 products and services and is available over EFTPOS terminals and retail point-of-sale systems.
The Financial Times has decided to make access to its online content free of charge. This follows the about-face at the New York Times last month. As Eric Sass says at Media Daily News:
And in late September, Fitch Ratings issued a report endorsing free, ad-supported content as the most profitable approach for newspaper companies.
There you have it, cover price matters no more online. Make it free, get eyeballs and charge advertisers. This should not be a surprise to newsagents. The cover price of newspapers has not kept pace with CPI. In some cases, 10% in 10 years – while advertising has jumped more than CPI every year.
The more news is available online free, the more over the counter customers will migrate online. This is another disruption to the newsagent model which we need to understand and plan for. Publishers love the online model as it eliminates much of the cost of distribution – the only reason they have a cover price for the print edition.
Elaine and Geoff Munro from East Geelong Newsagency kindly sent me three copies of Sunday’s and Monday’s Geelong Advertiser – my family are mad Geelong fans. They didn’t want any money – such is their support for others in the broader newsagent community.
Compare the generosity of Elaine and Geoff to the relatively new newsagent who sent a magazine to another newsagent needing a copy for a customer – they charged the recipient newsagent full retail plus postage.
It is more newsagents like Elaine and Geoff we need in this channel.
This is the display we have created at the counter to promote some of the British magazines we carry. It looks better in person than my my poor photo shows. Headed The Best of British we have printed some flags to highlight the promotion.
In the day the display has been up we have sold some of the featured product – it is too early to tell if the sales are impulse or not.
While not a glitzy or sexy retail display, we think this promotion will work as it speaks to our demographic in a subtle way – and is located right at the counter.
We’re doing this because we want to promote the British connection across multiple magazine categories – not because a publisher is paying us promotional dollars. This is an important difference between small and big business when it comes to magazines, a difference some publishers are yet to grasp.
Time this week has a style and design magazine stuck on the back. It is frustrating that this is bigger than time – making the resulting double look a bit messy on the shelves. While the editorial and production folks for the Style and design issue probably have the size they want, the main Time product suffers – it’s too big for the usual location in our shelves and looks messy. The other side of this offer is how we display the product. Time is not a big seller for us so we’d just focus on the weekly and not the bonus title. None of these issues are big deals – just things we wish had been thought through.
This is a surprising deal from Nextra – 50% off John Sands and Ink Group cards for a week. While I’d expect Sands to be rebating newsagents at full retail, it is the message to the consumer which I question.
The discount might grow sales but will it add to business? At best, I’d expect it to pull card sales forward of when they might otherwise be achieved. People only so many birthdays, anniversaries and the like to buy for in a year. This 50% discount will not increase the buying occasions. But maybe the folks at Sands and Nextra know more about card buying habits than I do.
Nextra has a good Card Club. I think it would have been smarter to better promote this since it supports the habit basis of card purchasing. The Card Sale locks out this loyalty promotion – read the small print on the poster.
I’d rather leave these chunks discounts to the likes of Target, K-Mart and others. They are known for category wide discounting. Newsagents are more known for card quality and range than price. If someone really wants to buy a card on price they will more likely go to the Reject Shop or similar.
One only has to look at the investment moves of major media players like Kerry Stokes to get a feel for the future. Distribution is the key, hence the interest in Unwired and possibly Austar. In the meantime, many newsagents struggle with the question of whether to install broadband.
How are the Stokes moves related to newsagents installing broadband in their businesses? Both moves say something about how the respective operators view the future. Stokes sees that distribution is the key. Newsagents, by their slow uptake of broadband, do not.
Newsagents ought to get live with broadband. Beyond that, they (we) ought to take careful note of moves by the Stokes, Murdoch and Packer. We need to reconfigure our business for a future where information and news are accessed more online than in print. This world, when it arrives, will impact our current model.
Senator Helen Coonan speaking on the 7.30 Report on ABC TV last night:
…we clearly couldn’t have the conflict of being both the owner and the regulator.
This from the same Communications Minister happy to be responsible for regulating the government owned Australia Post.
Australia Post, holder of a postal monopoly in this country, also owns 865 corporate stores which compete with small business newsagents in the stationery category.
This same government deregulated the distribution of newspapers and magazines in 1999, stripping newsagents of their monopoly without compensation.
Australia Post has unleashed considerable corporate muscle against newsagents in the years since 1999. Much of that corporate muscle has come as a result of its Government protected monopoly.
For some background on the Government facilitated Australia Post assault on small business newsagents through its corporate stores click here.
To counter visual noise and draw attention to our ink and toner offer we are experimenting with a frame around our ink product. The Hot Ink border draws attention to ink – I’ve noticred people walking across from the newspaper stand in front. On saturday one such customer walked out with three cardridges when all she came in for was a newspaper.
The frame is make-shift, printed on our copier. Now we can see it works, we’ll make it pretty and robust.
Visual noise is a real challenge for newsagents – we are provided many posters and other materials by suppliers wanting eyeball time. Many of us just whack these posters up without thinking that less is more. By framing like this I hope we can better manage space allocation and drive categories which support our margin goals.
We send credit cards left in our newsagency and not reclaimed for a day or so back to the issuing bank with a covering letter. Not once has any of the banks written to us thanking us and while we are not looking for kudos, it would be nice to have the return of the card acknowledged. Given the risk of credit card fraud of lost cards I would have thought our attention to closing the loop was appreciated.
Which copy of Real Living and Table am I supposed to promote in my newsagency this month? The regular issue or the one hidden in a sealed bag proclaiming 20% off. I know which one customers will reach for first – the bagged copy.
This is a frustrating offer from ACP Magazines. We have Real Living. We have Table. Now we have the real Living / Table combo pack – a new stock item requiring additional shelf space, labour and cash flow.
I appreciate ACP may want to experiment with these deals. I wish newsagents had been consulted first and that we were compensated for our investment. The magazine experience in newsagencies is built around browsing. Bagging a magazine like Real Living, which is already struggling compared to Notebook, will not help sales.
Real Living is a feature magazine this week so my question about which version to promote is serious – do I feature the bagged version promoting 20% off or the version people can browse?
This offer sends a mixed message to newsagents and consumers which, I suspect, will not help the title achieve what it needs to achieve.
It is interesting to see the Pink Magazine back in newsagencies as a ‘tip on’ with this month’s Australian Women’s Weekly. I am curious if the move has anything to do with the kerfuffle last year when the Natuional Breast Cancer Foundation decided to distribute only through Woolworths / Safeway.
Pink Magazine is not in all newsagencies – only those tied in with the ACP magazines Connections marketing program.