Newspaper publishers are missing opportunities to grow their businesses by not directly engaging with retail newsagents. They will engage directly with supermarkets on promotions as well as convenience stores, petrol outlets and coffee shops. But not retail only newsagents.
While I understand the challenge they face navigating the distribution newsagent relationship, by standing behind this wall, as it is in some cases I hear about, they miss sales growth opportunities.
There are plenty of proactive retail only newsagents keen to work with publishers on growing sales. I know because of the direct feedback I had to my post here past week on this topic.
The next step is up to the publishers. Do they want to grow sales in the retail newsagent channel? If so, engage!
I agree, but can’t see this happening. The publishers wouldn’t want to upset the distribution agents ; who else would deliver their papers for unfair reward?
The publishers want to sell lots and lots of papers, there is no more popular source to buy your paper from than a Newsagent. The publishers need to remember that just because the agent no longer distributes, to the public they are still a newsagency, not a sub agency.
There is a vast public perception difference between the local service station and a newsagency when it comes to selling papers. If the servo is out, OK, if the newsagent is out, the public rightly get upset.
As a non distributing newsagent I no longer have control over my paper numbers, and for the third Monday in a row I will sell out by 1PM.
The publisher could sell a lot more if they engaged the non distributing agents.
Perhaps we could retain our access to the supply numbers over the Internet – it costs the publisher nothing but we could maximise our sales potential.
Perhaps we could be given an entry on the group email address so that we might at least attempt to get our supplying agent to raise the numbers.
Perhaps we could be treated differently by the publishers to the servo and/or the corner shop.
I would love to sell more papers, I’m being limited by the current system because I cannot get access to what I need (no cost to the publisher) to maximise my sales.
Ditto Brett
Maybe you could ask for your run back and be a delivery agent and make all the decissions in the world on how many papers and freebies you get …but just remember all the sleep you loose while out on the road loosing money just to have the right to get a supply of papers
Everything commented here is spot on HOWEVER as far as the publishers are concerned it is all or nothing, either you are a delivery newsagent or you may as well be a servo.
We are blessed that the newsagent that serves as our supplier gives us the right amounts of papers and helps out with promo stock but with only 12.5% commmision I no longer look to papers to give me my income. For this small return I refuse to give up prime realestate and spend any time promoting the titles. We have converted our header stands into promoting other lines and have removed all signage that promotes newsapapers from within and outside our business in favour of more productive advertising.
Only when publishers give me fair return on my investment will I treat papers like I once did.
Newspapers used to make up 25% of my trade but now only make up less the 7%, but our overall shop sales has increase by 20% since we went retail only. And I don’t miss the early starts or having to go in on public holiday’s because it is too expensive to pay drivers.
Unfortuately being a distributing agent is not without its own set of issues. Despite setting our requirements via the internet on a daily basis, we are still spontaneously cut back with no warning or reason. CM decides its sending out to many papers one day and all of a sudden you are getting much less than you require. Delivery drivers are then faced with decisions on who to cut back and who not to.
For those that are “sub-agents” you may find that your supplier newsagent is also faced with this issue.
Fine tuning supply and demand is a difficult thing. Determining how many papers will sell in a day is not an exact science. Too many papers and your left with the all time consuming returns process too little papers and your left out of pocket causing frustration for your customers.
Please spare a thought for those of us who are distributing to you, we do our best to service you but sometimes it is like the publishers are against us too!!
More engagement is definately needed and I think it is needed with everybody.
B i have the same problem every monday they cut me back to half of my supply without fail
Shaun, the seem to just like to play games with us. One day it will be Aus’s, next day CM and then fairfax get in on the game and will cut back Fin Rev! Sometimes I wonder why I bother to continue to waste time working out exactly what we need?
Ditto – especially during holiday periods.
Worse, News go so far as to say that they “disallow” us to adjust our own supplies online, and we have to contact our rep for him to do it for us. Daily. Any margin we have on extras are therefore eaten up with faxing costs . Most annoying.
As for subbies getting to benefit from ‘engagement’, with half the margin, they would need some pretty good input from the publishers. It’s hard enough for primaries, so it’d take a big incantation to the fairies to invoke some sense. What the publishers forget so often is that the space they demand in our stores for their product is a huge investment, particularly for the likes of corner shops, so it has to be worthwhile before we even think of letting them have a bigger chunk.
In order for the wish to come true, primaries need to be treated better first, even though publishers can come to the party with sundries rather than discounting procuct. It’s hard to pass on good things when we’re sadly lacking them in the first place.
HI Shaun You right on the money .Pay nothing get nothing
Noticed in Franklins Supermarkets (NSW only) at the weekend that if you spend $5 or more you get a FREE copy of the Daily or Sunday Telegraph.
Do the newspapers do this with newsagents? $5 spend in newsagents wouldn’t be hard.
Niall this is what publishers do, chase the supermarkets and ignore us. Mark is right when he says that publishers should engage with newsagents.