Month: February 2008

Australia is no the only place reporting circulation falls for some high profile magazines. The lads mags category in the UK has experiences a fall according to Sky News. Zoo and competitor Nuts both reported falls in circulation, 12.5% and 8.4% respectively.

The falls in the UK and Australia present an opportunity for newsagents to reassert ourselves as the magazine specialists to publishers and consumers. That’s what I’d like to see happen. Our specialisation in magazines is a tremendous asset if the publishers choose to engage.

By engage, I mean support with newsagent exclusive offers, more appropriate material for in-store promotion, external promotion of the channel to boost consumer awareness and, reward for year on year growth. Treat us like entrepreneurs and I am sure that the results will make it worthwhile.

I love the magazine stand in the photo. Sent out to support the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, it enables us to promote this title in various locations around the newsagency.

Getting titles away from their usual place is good for business. This week we have it next to weekly newspapers, behind foreign language newspapers. Next week it will be somewhere else.  Each move finds new browsers.

Given our constant moving of stock, including magazines, a unit like this makes the task easier and helps us provide a fresh retail experience.

We have three F1 titles on the shelves now. One is the regular title and two special editions. This seems overkills to me. We have a certain amount of space allocated to racing titles and we have had to lose one title early to accommodate one of the special editions.

Maybe I am sensitive about this because I am far from a fan of formula 1 racing – I think it’s a waste of money and Victoria would be better off without the drain on our public purse. I don’t see any economic benefit other than corporate types getting suppliers to pay for a day of noise and booze.

On the magazines, maybe they will sell. I suspect that the F1 brand is over represented and that the special editions pull focus from the magazine itself.

I helped a customer find Women’s Day this morning. She could not see it. The photo below shows how the masthead for New Idea this week pops.

While people more skilled than me will have other analysis at their fingertips, given that most newsagents have fixturing like mine, I suspect ease of finding the title is part of it – especially for older customers.

Bauer Consumer Media, new owner of Emap UK has closed two magazine titles: NW and First.  Times Online has the details.  First is sold in Australia so it’s handy to know of its demise.

Digital photography is the category we are featuring in our counter display this week. We have changed our approach and gone for six titles with two pockets allocated to each. We felt it looked better than what we have been doing. Actually, we are thin on the ground in range so it made sense.

We are really getting into the groove of these displays, thinking a week or two ahead of the category we will push. Others in the business are chiming in with their ideas.

The better the planning the faster we can create a new display an that’s what we are after: small investment and high reward.

Every display we have done this year has been worthwhile in terms of sales. It’s almost like there is no such thing as a dud category if you display it right and have magazine titles which support each other.

What I like most about the display is that we are showing off our depth of range beyond the popular titles. This is our point of difference.

Even though it was a challenge to display on regular magazine fixturing, the free Gillette Fusion shaver on the front has driven an excellent sales result for the current issue of FHM magazine. It’s the perfect add-on gift.

We have had more success selling this issue of FHM at the counter than in its usual spot with men’s magazines.