The Complete Aussie Guide to 4WDs has been a dud title for us – zero sales in eight weeks. Rather than persevere in an over-serviced category, we are returning 100% of what we received early. We have carried the cost of this stock, funded the real-estate and labour and now will cover the freight cost of shipping the failed stock back to the distributor.
This title is not alone in delivering such a poor result nor is my newsagency alone in experiencing this. I suspect that at any point in time the newsagency channel has millions of dollars of magazine titles on our shelves for which a single copy will never be sold.
I want to control what I receive. I can with Gordon and Gotch and it works well for me, for Gotch and for their magazine publishers. The control gives us a stake in the outcome. If they offer me a 4WD title I need to be sure since all of our available space is allocated and given that the category performs at a less than average rate. I make decisions on the whole category and not just on what one distributor sends me.
Hi Mark
We are a tiny newsagent in the scheme of things but we returned all copies of these complete guide series.
At the rrp they are not in the ball park of what our customers will spend.
cheers
Steve