Some newsagents meet in an ANF organised meeting in Adelaide today to discuss plans by Advertiser Newspapers to take over collection of payment for all News Limited product home deliveries in South Australia – subscription as well as direct to newsagent accounts.
While the meeting appears set to attract between 60 and 80 newsagents, I am disappointed that the ANF did not open the meeting for all newsagents. Any association claiming to national suppliers and arms of the government to represent all newsagents cannot afford to turn its back on all newsagents.
The ANF has made mistakes in their handling of the Advertiser changes so far. They acted on poor advice from people who stood to gain from the changes. They had not done due diligence before indicating support for the plan.
The ANF can remedy the situation by listening to newsagents and representing all views. They can turn around their mistakes on this matter by serving newsagents ahead of worrying about how they may look. I don’t mind that they made a mistake – as long as they deal with this and fix the situation and stop trying to control what newsagents say.
I found it extremely irritating that I could not attend today’s
meeting simply because I am not
an ANF member. I have always
been a firm proponent of the newsagency industry and even
though I no longer have a round and only have a retail shop I have 32 years of experience in this industry and it disappoints me to not be able to articulate some points on behalf of other newsagents about whom I care
enormously. I can only suggest that the ANF have pre-judged me
because I have been very vocal about initiatives (or lack of) by the ANF in the past, and they have decided that this hugely important meeting will be a “closed shop”.
Most of our distribution agents in SA work huge hours and don’t always attend meetings (which they should) and some are of the
opinion that the ANF will do the work for them but there are so many questions I would like to ask of both the Advertiser and the ANF, and they have ensured that I do not have that chance.
Not being a member of ANF prevents us from attending pertinent meetings that impact on our lively hoods. But apparently it doesn’t prevent ANF from faxing my business bitching about NANA and QNF. Do me a favour ANF and loose my fax number. Because I lost yours years ago.
I don’t have an issue with the preliminary meeting being for ANF members only. There will be subsequent opportunities for non-ANF members to give their feedback I am sure.
I think the ANF want to get their message out to the true believers first, without turning it into a slanging match.
I think it is fitting that the ANF has member meetings only for that is the perfect way to respect the minimum membership making sure at the same time that it is the maximim membership. QNF and NANA I am sure are delighted that the don’t “spread the word”
My point is that if the ANF wants new members then they need to show how they operate. Opening the meeting up would have provided that opportunity. Instead, it was private and they berated newsagents – demanding silence.
So how did the meeting go ??
Fletcher obviously doesnt know.
meeting only for ANF members, so cant image many people would know, as not too many ANF members left anymore
I believe there are only around 30ish members in SA so would be only fair to say that it is NOT representative of SA even though we have a branch of the ANF here.
I have heard nothing about what the outcome of the meeting was or whether or not it was the usual “fait accompli” where the agent was TOLD what the decisions were before he/she had even scanned the agenda.
That is how News Ltd has always handled newsagents and it is a bullying intimidatory tactic.
The meeting left out (totally) the retail/dist. people and assumed that all distribution people had rounds only. The retail/dist people were aghast at not having their customers coming into their premises to pay their accounts and purchase other goods but this was totally ignored.
Obviously, when we have a director in SA for the ANF who is a distribution only agent, it is a bit hard for him to be cognisant of retail issues. I think ALL ANF DIRECTORS should have experience in ALL aspects of newsagency otherwise they simply do not have a handle on the whole of the issues.
June your details of the meeting are incorrect, retail newsagencies where represented including Graeme Hand who gave a speech and the matter of traffic to stores brought up more than once.
You guess on the numbers of agents in the ANF and the meeting is way off as well.
Grrr UGH
A blow – in on holiday wants 3 papers tomorrow, one on Sunday, and one each day til Wed, delivered. He was very happy to give us a lot of instructions on how he would like this to happen.
And we can only charge a weekly fee of 80 cents for that privilege.
No wonder delivery customers so often have such a bad attitude towards their friendly local newsagent. They see our time and labour as worthless, which it is, because publishers also consider it to be worth nothing.