NDD likely to block newsagents on Alpha magazine
I know from my own experience recently with magazine distributor NDD that they are unlikely to respond to requests from newsagents that they not supply Alpha. I wrote to NDD asking that they not supply certain titles. They threw up all sorts of barriers and eventually refused to give me permission to control the titles I get for my newsagency.
If NDD follows the same approach for newsagents who ask to not be supplied Alpha we could find ourselves forced to take Alpha. It is this lack of control which has led some newsagents I have spoken with to close their accounts with NDD. I guess they have exercised the ultimate control.
It should not come to this. If I am expected to carry the risk of stock in my newsagency then I ought to have absolute control over the stock I carry. It is my money after all. NDD appears to have forgotten that. Just as News Ltd has forgotten that it was newsagents who made Alpha the sales success it is today.