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

Month: July 2009

Universal Magazines listens to newsagents

fhn_complete_wedding.JPGUniversal Magazines demonstrated this morning that they have listened to concerns expressed by newsagents here and elsewhere.  They have changed newsagent terms for Complete Bride magazine.  Billing is now delayed by two months, supply is split into two deliveries, newsagents no longer have to return full copies and supply allocation is now more finely tuned to sales.

These are welcome changes.  I hope other publishers take note.

The changes improve newsagent cash-flow relating to Complete Bride magazine.  They also dramatically reduce the cost of returns – given the weight of the title.

Newsagents should be encouraged by the moves made by Universal for they demonstrate that a publisher is able to significantly alter their terms and distribution arrangements to better serve newsagents.

While it was initially a rocky road with Universal (and their lawyers), the result is good for newsagents and hopefully good for them.

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magazine distribution

Old imported magazines

fhn_old_tennis.JPGThe US Tennis magazine which came in this morning features a Wimbledon preview.  It is out of date already.  There is a case for magazines with dated content to be air-freighted. Out of date magazines like the current issue of Tennis make us look out of date.

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magazines

The Age trims interstate editions

The Age has announced that from July 18, interstate editions will no longer be supplied with the classified advertising inserts: Domain, Drive and My Career.  They say that this decision has been taken because “most interstate consumers don’t need or use those sections”.  Newsagents I have spoken with say that half their customers want these sections. The Q&A issued by The Age indicates that they will not reverse this decision.  Click here for a copy.

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Newspapers

Book sale in full swing

fhn_book_sale.JPGOur book sale is in full swing and delivering good sales.  Being at the front of the newsagency, it is is drawing in passers-by  and adding to the basket of shoppers in-store.  Book sales like this, managed well, deliver an excellent margin on good sales – lifting the overall margin achieved by the business.  While we try outposts from time to time, we prefer an in-store offer because of the lower labour and real-estate cost.  We are supporting the sale with a flyer featuring many of the titles we have on offer.

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Book retailing

New mobile recharge collateral

rechargeyourmobilehere.jpgTower Systems has released artwork for new in-store collateral promoting mobile phone recharge.  This is available to users of the Tower eziPass electronic voucher platform.  The plan is to release further new collateral heading into Christmas – so that the offer remains fresh.  Mobile recharge is a good impulse purchase opportunity in newsagencies and fresh collateral is key to that.  The artwork is available to paticipating newsagents without cost.

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marketing

More newsagents benefit from electronic returns

The trial of the new XchangeIT platform and associated initiatives by magazine distributors has expanded this week with more newsagents engaged.  Being able to process returns, regular and supplementary, electronically and receiving an electronic confirmation almost immediately cuts magazine management time and improves cash-flow.

This is the most significant magazine management change (opportunity) for newsagents in years.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Good Food magazine

fhn_good_food_jul13.JPGThis new promotional display space we created next to our Darrell Lea stand is being put to good use this week promoting the latest issue of Good Food magazine from ACP.  We are using this ‘found’ space to display titles which are located nearby: food, home and living, health and gardening.  It has worked well these past few weeks with the new issue of Good Health.  Hopefully, we will find more customers for Good Food as sales are not where they need to be in our newsagency – despite its good value.

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magazines

Easy to display Women’s Health

fhn_whealth_jul09.JPGWhen it launched I made mention of how easy it is to display Women’s Health – that the while background on the cover helps it stand out from the mosh-pit of colour in a newsagency.  It remains one of the favourite titles for us to display because of the break it provides from all the colour elsewhere.  The simple yet bold cover design certainly helps with visual cut through.  We have the latest issue on an aisle end where it stands out.

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magazines

Promoting New Idea at the counter

fhn_new_idea_jul13.JPGWe are promoting New Idea at our prime counter position this week.  We made this promotion choice because of the McCafe Chocolate croissant and coffee giveaway connected with this issue of New Idea. 

We prefer to promote titles in this location which have a giveaway associated with them which we think will resonate with our customers. At least 75% of our title choices work well.

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magazines

Promoting Home Beautiful

fhn_home_beautilfu_jul09.JPGWe are promoting Home Beautiful out the front of our newsagency, near our main lottery counter, this week in a very different use of this promotional stand.  This is a test as Home Beautiful sales are okay for us but flat.  We want to see if this location achieves some growth.  We will leave the display up for three days and keep it longer is sales warrant.

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magazines

Promoting lottery tickets online

powerball_30_mil.jpgClick on the image to see a larger version of the front page of The Guardian website which I saw this morning – when I access ed the site from Victoria.  Acorss the top is a Powerball ad.  The ad was pulsing – making clicking this compelling.  The ad took me to the Golden Casket site which offered me a selection of Powerball numbers and all I needed to do was enter a Queesnland address to register and purchase.  While I understand the desire of lottery companies to drive their higher margin online sales, I wish they would proactively promote the retail network from their website.  We promote their brand freely in our stores after all.

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Lotteries

XchangeIT EDI compliance training for newsagents

My newsagency software company, Tower Systems, is hosting a free online training workshop for newsagents on the new XchangeIT standards tomorrow – July 14.  This is a repeat of the training already undertaken by hundreds of Tower newsagents.  Any newsagent is welcome to participate.  The workshop will cover the what you need to do to access EDI returns, including supplementary returns – and thereby access faster credits for returns.  Please register through the booking page at the Tower website.

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newsagent software

Huge drop in US consumer magazine ad pages

Folio reports a 29.5% drop in consumer magazine ad pages in the United States in the second quarter of this year.  Erck Sass, writing at MediaPost comments about how 2009 looks:

At this rate, 2009 is shaping up to be the worst year for consumer magazines since 1932, when total revenues dropped 30%.

Ad revenue is crucial to the magazine model.  A sustained decline will see more closures.

While analysts continue to say that Australia has dodged a bullet in terms of economic performance, I don’t think we can be certain about this for magazine sales.  Sales are rocky – across all channels from what I understand.

The best operations tactics for newsagents in this tough magazine market are:

  • Keep the display fresh.
  • Use high traffic areas to offer titles customers are less likely to look for.
  • Play to your key points of difference – magazine range and service.
  • Engage with a value proposition.  The Magazine Club Card I created in 2004 continues to drive customer loyalty in the magazine category.
  • Embrace change.
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magazines

Dealing with the tobacco challenge

With the tough new tobacco laws in New South Wales and similar moves announced or being considered for other states, and overseas, I wonder if this is a category we either quite of more fully embrace.  Tobacco products, for many newsagents, are offered but not well managed.  The new laws in NSW require stronger management or exiting the category – selling tobacco products from one sales point in crazy in a retail business like a newsagency.

From what I can see, newsagents have let these changes come into play without much lobbying or the presentation of an alternative to help the government achieve its goals.

Steven Denham writes about the challenges of changes to tobacco retailing in the UK at his Village Counter Talk blog.  He is championing a campaign along the line of the Canadian We Expect ID campaign.

Newsagent associations in Australia need to become engaged on this issue.   Newsagents need to be come engaged.  Tobacco retailing, if you remain with the category, now requires active management engagement.  Otherwise, you face fines for even the smallest infraction.

If, as I suspect will happen, many newsagents decide to quit the category, they will need a plan on how to use the space and cash quitting will free.  Either way, this is an opportunity for newsagents to lead change rather than react.

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Newsagency challenges

Brilliant marketing idea

Shayne and Roslyn Clarke of newsXpress Cooma showed me a brilliant, cost effective and simple marketing idea.  They sponsor the drink coasters at a local club.  This shows their support for the community and puts their brand in front of plenty of people outside their shop – a few hundred dollars well spent.

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marketing

New magazine cover stars

fhn_jackson_kids.JPGThere has been huge interest in the photos of Michael Jackson’s three children.  Customers buying the latest issues of Who and OK! mention them – more so than any other cover I can recall.  Hearing one such comment yesterday, it felt like a passing of the guard.  If this interest is maintained, Paris, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II will be the next big  global magazine cover stars.

Magazines need new global stars.  We need new global stars to drive interest in the magazines we sell.

While I feel for the kids, I suspect that the Jackson engine understands their value to the family business and will ensure that they do their bit to support the business.

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Ethics

Chasing customers in the newsagency

fhn_newspapers_jackson1.JPGIt may seem like a small deal, but moving our freestanding crossword display to next to our newspaper stand yesterday has resulted in additional sales.  We make small moves like this every day. We see the dance floor, as we call this front part of our shop, as retail in motion, constantly on the move.  It stops us and our customers becoming store-blind.  While it clutters the newspaper offer, this is only for a few days.  We need to take every opportunity to remind our customers of what we have.  The sales results tell us the work and clutter is worth it.

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Newsagency management

Quitting Western Union

We have made a decision to quit offering Western Union in our newsagency.  The margin we make is too slim, the new compliance costs too high and the transactions inefficient for our business.

A key goal in our newsagency, like many, is excellent customer service.  This is a challenge if you have a Western Union transaction for a first time user of the service.  It is difficult to provide the Western Union customer excellent service and the other customers shopping with you at the same time.

The issue was brought into focus during the recent lottery jackpots.  Our efficient handling of high traffic fast transactions was interrupted by slow labour intensive Western Union business.  We had to make a decision about what was right for our business.  Our customers come first and this meant that Western Union had to go.

We have not made the decision lightly.  Indeed, we have been considering this for several months, analysing the data, assessing other business Western Union customers brought to us, taking not of traffic impact.

If the commission we made was better we might have continued to offer the service.

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Customer Service

Promoting the newsagency to passers-by

sophie-newsletter-july-2009.jpgClick here for a copy of the July newsletter for our Sophie Randall gift shops.  We have these available in front of the shops and we mail them to our database.  There is a correlation between what we promote in the newsletter and sales.

I am surprised more newsagents don’t produce newsletters and have them available from the front of the newsagency.  We have excellent traffic – shopping or passing by.  Every opportunity ought to be taken to leverage this.

At Sophie, we buy products in specifically to be promoted through the newsletter.  This month, it is the four books we feature.  These are high margin items for us yet still priced competitively.  We look for deals two months or more out.  They must meet demographic, pricing and margin criteria.

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marketing

Timely Michael Jackson feature in Q magazine

q_magazine.jpgThe latest issue of British music magazine Q which we received today will be a collectors item. Not because it is a tribute to Michael Jackson, as it appears from glancing at the cover, but because the magazine was sent to the printers before Michael Jackson died. Paul Rees, the editor of Q posted a statement online about the unfortunate timing including an apology to anyone offended by the content.   Work on this issue was completed a fortnight ago and it was printed shortly thereafter. When news of Michael Jackson’s death broke in the early hours of Friday morning, it was already being distributed. As such, we have had no opportunity to change any of the editorial content within the issue. Such is the risk inherent in producing a monthly magazine – that events may overtake a story that you are committed to. We could sell ten time our usual supply of this issue of Q.

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magazines

Powerball $30 million jackpot opportunity

fhn_pb_30mil.JPGThe Powerball $30 million jackpot is an excellent opportunity for us to leverage our learnings from the recent OzLotto jackpot.  This is what we are doing in our newsagency – we have made upselling easier, introduced a staff incentive and dressed the store to promote outside the lottery area.  We are certain that these and other changes which worked with OzLotto will work for the Powerball $30 million jackpot.

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Lotteries
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