The latest newsagent sales benchmark study reports a 7% unit sales decline for magazines and a 4% unit sales decline for newspapers in Australian newsagencies in January 2010.
Comparing unit sales for these and other key newsagent categories, the newsagency channel’s only sales benchmark study analyses sales for January 2010 compared to 2009 on a same store basis.
Deeper analysis within data for the magazine department shows weekly titles are at the core of the decline. This must concern newsagents as the weeklies are key to magazine department profitability. In some newsagencies, the weekly titles decline was in excess of 20%.
The other result of interest is the decline in special interest magazine titles. Previous sales benchmark studies have reported this as one of the strongest performing categories. The january study shows it as vulnerable. I’ll wait for further study to see if this is a one-off.
Within the newspaper department, foreign newspapers continue to buck the trend, reporting unit sales growth of 3% for January 2010 over 2009.
As previous newsagent sales benchmark studies have shown, newsagencies in rural situations fared considerably better than their city counterparts.
The good news is growth showing in new (for newsagents) departments such as Ink, Gifts, Calendars and electronic voucher product. There is plenty of evidence of newsagents successfully shifting focus to new money areas and away from more traditional products. These departments are upsides for newsagents and anyone considering buying a newsagency.
While the decline in core products is a concern, it must be noted that this is a comparison for one month. Trends can only be considered when comparing longer periods. I decided to look at January as a result of discussions with a couple of newsagent suppliers who wondered about performance given anecdotal evidence they had seen.
I undertake this sales benchmark study through my software company, Tower Systems. The 135 participating newsagents are a small but reliable and compliant subset of the 1,650 strong community of newsagents using the Tower software.
my weeklies are in free fall and they are still going down down…
grazias from selling around 60 copies to less than 20 copies thanks to $6 price tag, well done.
could it be that with a lotto super draw every month no bodies got any money left. do we really need anothet one in march or is it just me that thinks they are overdoing it. might be different in larger townsand cities, but in smaller towns we have to keep hitting the same people every time, especially with shop syndicates.
Cant say i had that experience however im in a tourist location and despite requesting an increase in my supplies to cope with the seasonal trade the distrution companies pretty much ignored my requests. So I could of sold alot more publications same with my sub agents if only I had the supplies to start with. I frequently reordered during the holidays mostly weeklies however had my order cancelled because no stock was left or extra deliveries werent made because of holidays.
Despite the tough numbers in january there are steps we can take. It’s up to us.
Rick I think the lotto draws are a bit of an excuse.
Jennifer, I’d complain in writing to the ACCC. It sounds like the distribbutors have stopped you making what you could.
my magazines are up about 7% . i do agree with rick they are getting carried away with all these super and mega draws . they have made the 20 million seem like nothing because just about every week there is 20 million on offer i think they need to up the prizes at least to 30 or even 40
My magazine sales are down by 5%, newspapers the same but cards up by 4%. It bis good to have something to compare to.
Keep giving us benchmark figures as they are very helpful. because of the numbers I think it is time to get into selling ink.
i agree with rick about the lotto sales are still ok but there is getting to many to close