A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: July 2009

Promoting food magazines

fhn_food_july312009.JPGWe are enjoying success with food magazines so we decided to leverage this with a display at the front of our newsagency, where people entry to purchase lottery tickets.  We have have included a selection of titles from the Better Basics (which is almost sold out) to the monthlies and a selection of ACP Cookbook titles.

We will leave this display up for the weekend and assess its value to us on Monday.  We like to change this display at the front of the newsagency regularly as it is a window on the business.  We choose the categories to promote based on sales movement we see.

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magazines

VTAC Guide out now

fhn_vtac_2009.JPGThe VTAC Guide went on sale in our newsagency this morning – an in newsagencies across Victoria.  We have a display next to our main newspaper stand – it will remain here for a couple of weeks.  We are opportunistically chasing impulse business in addition to destination business for this title – hence the prime location placement.

The cover of the VTAC Guide has excellent visual cut through, better than recent years.  This is another reason for prime-location placement. We are expecting good sales.

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magazines

Looking for money in That’s Life

money2.JPGIn the rush of the Powerball jackpot yesterday I noticed a customer working through each copy of That’s Life we had on display, looking for copies which had cash – as part of the weeks giveaway with the magazine this week.  My initial thought was to go and ask her to stop.  However, I decided to not approach her until it became a problem for other customers.  She was not damaging the titles and was careful about putting them back neatly.  Also, I did not know her financial situation.  I reasoned that if I stopped her I’d need to take action on the many browsers we see each week reading magazines.  I don’t want to be that newsagent who barks at browsers.  I like people reading magazines and enjoying our retail space while they do it.

Thinking about it now, I’d like to know her story.  It’s a brazen and potentially embarrassing thing to do – to hold the money wallet to the light looking for a note.

It is amazing what you see in a newsagency some days.

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Customer Service

I found a bagged magazine customer!

I know I go on here about bagged magazines (they are not browser friendly and waste newsagent space), especially the junk from Express Publications.  Yesterday, one customer bought three packs of bagged Express Publications magazines.  I asked her why.  They were for a gift and they knew the person liked crafts.  The purchaser was not into crafts – she said she had no idea what magazine was good or not so she went for volume.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that one magazine was current the other two were ranging from old to ancient.

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magazines

Barnes & Noble moves on digital strategy

Last week, Barnes & Noble (reportedly the world’s largest bookseller) launched its digital book strategy.  This week, the bookseller launched free Wi-Fi in its stores.  These are significant moves by the bookseller – primarily against online store Amazon and their Kindle readers.

This latest move shows how serious Barnes & Noble are in pursuing the sale of digital editions of books.

Barnes & Noble, like all of us bricks and mortar businesses face the challenge of remaining relevant against online businesses.   Devices like the Kindle in the US and iPhone are changing how people access and consume content which they previously accessed in a printed form.

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Book retailing

Powerball $80 Million Jackpot day

Based on sales already this week, I expect today to be a monster day not only for lottery sales but also for other product we are pitching around the lottery offer.  We are most fortunate to have another opportunity like this so soon after the OzLotto jackpot and to have additional lottery kacpots to sell – like the Oz $20 million and the Saturday Lotto $20 million.

Gifts, magazines and books are all benefiting from the bonus lottery traffic.

Newsagent suppliers would be well advised to stay away today from newsagencies with lotteries.

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Lotteries

Some newsagent suppliers hold back sales

Some suppliers get in the way of achieving sales in newsagencies because of their rules about how and where they want their product displayed. I wish they would trust that I want what they want – their products sold as quickly as possible. Having a go at a newsagent because of a breach of the rules and with no regard to the sales achieved disrespects the role of the retailer.

It is extremely frustrating and demotivating to be treated as a process worked by these suppliers. They need to understand that newsagents have more financial risk in selling their products than they have as employees for the supplier.

Some days, I want to yetll, get out of the way and let me be a business person.

their excuse is that not all newsagents will do the right thing.  So, their response is to treat us all as the lowest level.  We miss out.  They miss out.

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Newsagency challenges

Railway Digest a hit magazine

railway_digest.JPGRailway Digest is bucking the trend of many magazines from what I can see.  Sales for this very special interest magazine are strong.  In our case, we have a sell through of in excess of 90%.  With a $9.00 cover price, Railway Digest is nicely profitable for us.  Our success is, in part, due to careful placement of Railway Digest along with all of our other railway magazines.

We discovered strong interest in this segment some years ago and were careful in placement and expanding the range.  Now, we have some hero titles like this one.

We use Railway Digest as a beacon for our other railway titles.  We do the same in other magazine segments, especially in special interest areas where we want to be known as the go to location.  Special interest customers will travel further to satisfy their interests.

So, despite the gloomy talk here and elsewhere about the challenges of magazines, there are success stories.  Newsagents are better placed to leverage these than any other magazine retailer.

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magazines

Lovatts crosswords tap into snuggies

lovatts_snuggies.JPGSnuggies are all the rage for people who actually like them to those who get a laugh from the how religious-sect like they look in the TV commercial.  Lovatts have tapped into the interest by offering Duvet Suits as prizes to competitions in their latest BIG Crossword magazine.  I see this as being a bit of fun and could help draw attention to BIG from those who may otherwise not look twice at the title.

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magazines

Hallmark card promotion popular

fhn_free_cards_jul27.JPGThe Buy 5 and Get One FREE greeting card offer we are running in association with Hallmark is proving to be very popular – considerably more so this year than last year.  Customers are delighted with the offer, a couple even headed back into the card department to qualify sooner for their free card.  Indeed, the customer reaction is most encouraging.  Like any loyalty offer, the goal is to sell more product.

There is no point in rewarding customers for doing what they would usually do in the set period of time  – hence the importance of this being a limited time offer. This campaign runs five months.  We are chasing a good lift in card sales and from gift sales as a flow-on.

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Greeting Cards

The challenge for music magazines

fhn_musicmags.JPGSpinning in the Grave is an excellent article by Jonah Weiner on Slate.  Weiner focuses on music magazines and offers a useful perspective as he was a senior editor at Blender magazine until a few months ago. The article is relevant to newsagents because it thoughtfully assesses the changes impacting the segment.  Rather than saying online is taking over, Weiner presents reasons for the decline of music magazines.  I see the challenge in sales figures – the music category is experiencing a rocky ride.  Even free CDs and other giveaways are not driving sales as they used to.

New York Magazine covers this story too.  Be sure to read the comments at the end of their piece.

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magazines

Powerball 80 Million jackpot countdown

powerball_80million.JPGWe are making it easy to pitch the up-sell of the Powerball 80 Million jackpot with a menu of ticket options.  This is something to which we can refer in a sale including non-lottery items.  We point to the options when we ask if they would like a ticket in the draw, this lets them see the value of the question we are pitching.  Just asking if they want a ticket could be meaningless to someone who does not play powerball.  Sales reflect the success of the mechanic.

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Lotteries

Chooks as covergirls

fhn_burkes_jul27.JPGI like the front cover of the latest issue of Burke’s Backyard as it separates the title from other gardening titles.  So our customers can see the sexy chook cover girls we are pitching Burke’s Backyard at our newspaper stand and on the flat next to Better Homes and Gardens.  These cuties are lost in regular magazine fixturing.  Kudos to the folks at Burke’s for playing with the gardening magazine look like this.

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magazines

Oprah and her magazine

o_o_oprah.JPGThe cover of O The Oprah Magazine reads…

OPRAH’S PRIVATE MOMENTS: We gave her a camera, she gave us a snapshot of her perfect lazy Sunday.

I think it should read:

MY PRIVATE MOMENTS: I gave myself a camera, I gave my staff a snapshot of what I think will help sell my magazine.

Maybe I am getting cynical. The feature does seem a bit silly – O is her magazine after all.

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magazines

Lottery jackpot season continues

OzLotto did not go off tonight meaning that next Tuesday the first division prize is $20 million.  This is on top of the Powerball $80 million this Thursday and the saturday Lottto superdraw of $20 million.  All these jackpots are greate sales but challenging in terms of competition between the games.  Given the TV, radio and print coverage, we are focusing on the Powerball jackpot as this is what is bringing more traffic in.

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Lotteries

Google, Australian newspapers fighting

GOOGLE is facing the greatest challenge yet to its might in Australia as two of its largest media customers threaten to pull their business over the internet company’s decision to enter the real estate listings market.

This is the opening paragraph of a story from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.  The opening paragraph could easily have been: News Ltd and Fairfax face a tough challenge from the move by Google into real-estate advertising.

The SMH article raises the prospect of the publishers boycotting Google.  Hmm, newsagents have suffered poor treatment at the hands of publishers many times over the years.  I wonder how they would have reacted had newsagents boycotted them in an effort to resolve a dispute.

The Inquisitor also has a good report about this story.

Google, or the Internet more widely, has won the battle of advertising platform of choice for real-estate, motor vehicles and employment.  This was won several years ago.  Any action by newspapers today to block or slow the migration will be futile.

The AIM Group in the US, has recently published a report on the state of classified advertising there. The report includes the results of a poll claiming that nearly 6 out of every 10 real estate agents polled think newspaper advertising is useless.   I’d note, however, that the US situation is quite different because of the entrenched position of craigslist, the (mainly) free online classified site.  While craigslist is here, it is yet to gain the same traction it has in the US.

This is why newspapers and newsagents need to find traffic and revenue from non classified advertising sources.  It is why I invested $750,000 in Find It a free online ad portal designed to drive traffic to newsagencies.  I pulled the plug on Find It mid 2008 due to lack of engagement from newsagents and their associations.

Google is not facing a challenge.  Newspapers face the challenge.  By association, newsagents face the challenge.  Newspaper publishers and newsagents show no sign of understanding this yet.

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Media disruption

Poor parenting on show

A young girl, probably around six or seven, sat on top of the Australian Women’s Weekly flat stack on the weekend clumsily flipping through a copy of New Idea, licking her fingers before turning each page.  The girl’s mother was standing across from her asking when she will be ready to get on with the shopping. The girl told her mother she was busy.

The mother could see the girl was disrupting a busy part of our newsagency.  Her look to me was one of what can I do?

I am sure that this scene plays out every day in newsagencies and other retail businesses.   It is a scene of poor parenting in my view – the child is disrespectful of my property, disrespectful of fellow shoppers, rude to her mother and being a brat overall.

I didn’t say anything because the shop was busy, I was serving and I didn’t want to make a scene.  In hindsight, I should have at least left the counter and asked the girl to get off my stock.  Actually, the mother should have done this.  Indeed, she should probably have stopped the girl reading New Idea.  I have nothing agaist the title but do feel it is not ideal for a six or seven year old.

While the whole scene played out in a few minutes, it weighed on my mind for a couple of days.  I wonder if parents today do let kids get away with more today than previous generations.  The mum was clearly controlled by the child.  Back when I was a kid…

At least the mother was there.  We are regularly used as a creche by parents who have to stand in line at the Post office opposite or mums who go next door to have their nails done.

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Ugh!

Ben 10 partwork series in newsagents now

fhn_ben10_jul27.JPGThe Ben 10 partwork series launched yesterday is an excellent opportunity for us to appeal to a young demographic. The popular Ben 10 character is well known here.  Newsagents should take a moment and research Ben 10 online – the more we understand the appeal the better equipped we will be to promote the partwork. The partwork series includes new missions, comic strips and character fact files  – we certainly need to understand what all this means.

What is most interesting about the Ben 10 series is that it includes a unique trading card collection.This is more than a usual partwork.

The key to success with Ben 10 is to get customers to commit to a putaway – paid for in advance for at least three or more issues.

The key to failure of achieving the full potential is inadequate scale out management from issue 1 through to at least issue 6.

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magazines

Tapping the appeal of Twilight

fhn_tvw_jul27.JPGWe are showing the front and back covers of the latest issue of TV Week magazine on our shelves this week.  The back cover promotes a feature of Twilight posters.  I am certain this will drive incremental sales.  While this move may seem small, it’s easy and costs nothing.  It is another example of the value looking at what we sell.

I want every sale of TV Week and other magazines possible, hence the micro management I blog about here.

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magazines

Promoting Woman’s Day and free Allens lollies

fhn_wd_jul27.JPGWoman’s Day gets our prime counter position this week thanks to the free pack of Allen’s lollies which comes with every issue of Woman’s Day we sell.  We know we are the only retailer of Woman’s Day out of five in our shopping centre to have this offer so it makes sense to promote in a prime location.  We are using a recycled acrylic unit next to Woman’s Day to show off the free lollies – this is easier than handing them out with each purchase.

Before newsagents say they did not get this promotion – is is exclusive to the top tier of Connections newsagents.

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magazines

Promoting the half price Zoo this week

fhn_zoo_jul27.JPGPromoting Zoo magazine is a challenge this week as it is a feature title in the ACP Connections marketing program yet sells at a low volume for us.  We have higher volume titles which will deliver a better return from premium magazine display space.  Our solution is to pitch Zoo next to the Herald Sun for the week.  While not a pretty display it is opportunistic.  We expect to sell out of all of our stock – especially given the less than half price offer.  This is a good example of where I’d like newsagents to be rewarded for results more so than a pretty display.

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magazines

Taking on more magazines

fhn_britishweeklies.JPGGiven the success we have with British weekly magazines, we have expanded our range to include several more titles.  Gordon and Gotch has been particularly helpful through this process of identifying titles and providing a process through which we can test them in our store.

Newsagents tend to take what they are given and complain about getting too much stock.  While I complain about this as well, I also look for opportunities for expansion of the magazines we carry.  The process is easy, especially with the folks at Gotch who can list titles by segment and let you determine your supply quantity while you feel your way.

I like pulling new magazines to our businesses rather than relying on the push system.  We see opportunities based on what sells from other departments and also from customer feedback.

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magazines

The rising cost of mail

Jeff Jarvis writing at his BuzzMachine blog outlines why the cost of mail in the US will continue to rise.  Jeff”s post fits with the application by Australia Post for an increase in the standard letter rate in Australia.

That said, there is a huge difference between the US Postal Service and Australia Post.

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Australia Post
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