Distribution newsagents are talking about the imminent new contracts from News Limited. There is plenty of speculation in the marketplace including rumours that News is not negotiating the contracts centrally through the ANF and that the contracts will be for one year only.
I don’t have any inside information about the new contracts.
What I do know is that while some newsagents make good money from home delivery, many do not. The inability to charge a price based on the costs of delivering the service stops home delivery being a business.
The drop in real terms of the fee permitted by the newspaper publishers over the last fifteen years is what has caused hundreds of newsagents to walk away from their newspaper home delivery businesses.
While I am on the record saying that newsagents should not enter into new contracts, I appreciate that many will because they want security and because a contract is crucial to their business funding.
At minimum, a contract must provide the newsagent with fair levers which they can use to act as business people in the twenty-first century as opposed to indentured servants from yesteryear.
The future of the current newspaper home delivery model will be decided over the next year. Newsagents who want to remain in the home delivery business must fight for their rights.
While I sold off the home delivery side of my newsagency three years ago, My software company, Tower Systems, serves in excess of 1,500 newsagents, many of whom have home delivery businesses. I care about the health of the newsagency and am committed to helping where I can to achieve a more equitable outcome from newspaper home delivery.
It’s a bane, a pain and in the main no gain however as you say needs to be looked at individually. One to one contracts should take on that meaning.
Next week, I believe is the roll out of the new contracts. I should imagine there to be lots of discussion.
Received our Qld Newspapers contract by Registered Mail just yesterday… yet to read. Should I be engaging a legal professional to check it over?
Wendy,
Your Association by now would have received full copy of the new contracts. Why not contact them as they would have already received legal advice. If you are not a member
then ones years subscription would be cheaper than one visit ongoing with a solicitor (for there is no such thing as on one visit without strings with a solicitor.
Wendy
The Sunshine Coast QNF newsagents are having a regional meeting on Thursday 12th at APN in Maroochydore. The ANF agents are invited too, and their new CEO, Alf Maccioni and Qld Director Paul Martin will be there too.
This topic is bound to be widely discussed, and if you are somewhere not too far away it may well be worthwhile to attend.
The QNF will be happy to forward an invitation.
Great to have the meeting especially for all to contribute. Check out the division of income between the Distribution Contract and the retail contract for those that have BOTH and what would happen if they were separated> I have examined this in detail however I am not going to discuss my possible scenarios on a public site. I would be interested in attending such a meeting when one is organised in NSW.
The Contract has deminished business advantages compared with the previous contract of yr 2000
Why is it that News Ltd can add, subtract, divide and multiply within the contract at any time they choose througout its tenure, yet we as a party to the contract have very little contractual rights at all.
The contract is not in my mind a “fair” contract in terms of the new laws.
What right do they have in telling us we must give them all information about OUR customers when one account can share multiple deliveries from many sources.
Who owns the customer ?
It is all their way.
we are mail contractors delivering papers where do we stand we have been asked to sign a contract through our agent now keep in mind one mail contractor has had a gentlmans agrement for over 25 years and its worked fine. we deliver 158 klms of country roads to mainly dairy farms and the customers get a great service they come to thier box(old milk can) get the mail and the paper for not a great charge now a contract mmm how do you think the farmer will handle the news if we dont sign and he has to drive to get his paper ?and i hope he puts it on his acount each day just to be a pain. we mail contractors would just like it simple as it has been done for years. post turns a blind eye to papers but im not sure it would like us breaching our contracts by entering into a conflict of intrest but hell dont sugest post go in compition with news agents for delivery ?
David, That will have to change with new terms being forced on newsagents which aim to cut costs for publishers. Newsagents will need respond by cutting their costs. They have no choice. Publishers will soon see that this attention on distribution costs will see more people leave the service.
we have had two contractors drop rural road side delivery of papers that probley about 180 papers a day not deliverd now thats over say about 300klms of runs and that wasnt over a contract and one wasnt over price it was over bundle sizes
and those contractors say its mad thier days mail delivery easier and saving time and fuel and not missed by them at all but did the customers complain you bet they did but not to the paper publishers i bet?
made not MAD well ok mad fits too?
we dont have a delivery contact so if we stop tommorow how long will the news agent go out and deliver the papers for before he goes broke or mad ? i cant see it being profitable to do a seperate run keep in mind its not a suburb its a 160 klms to deliver say 100 papers and then its between two agents teritories