Jeff Jarvis, respected blogger (BuzzMachine), journalist and commentator, is boxing up his iPad and returning it to Apple. watch the video and find out why.
I am posting this to offer balance to the hype surrounding the iPad. While I agree the device has a way to go to change mass behaviour, the hype indicates it is interesting plenty of people.
I am curious as to whether newsagents track the success (or otherwise) of displays, especially magazine displays. A check over the last week with a bunch of newsagents suggests that fewer than 5% of newsagents track the performance of displays.
A simple check of sales for a title on display once the display comes down and a comparison of performance for the week against the average of the same week for the last eight issues will quickly show if the display paid for itself.
I expect that newsagents will discover over a few months which titles respond well to displays and which do not. This information can be used to guide choices regarding displays.
The core outcome newsagents must want from a retail display is sales in the newsagency, not in another store, but in your newsagency. This is why careful tracking of the success of a display is crucial.
While an attractive display may win praise of prozes from a publisher, if it does not generate incremental sales in your newsagency then the labour and retail space investment is not worth it.
That’s Life Reader Recipies has been a runaway success for us, selling 40 copies in a couple of weeks up to last night. We have it placed with That’s Life and at the counter as shown in the photo. It had worked very well as an impulse purchase because customers know the brand (clever of the publisher to use the That’s Life colours) and it is priced well.
Placement at the counter has been the best move. I am sure that had we left this title in regular magazine fixturing it would not have sold as well. Customers need to see the bright full cover.
Given the success of the title we are using it to sell other titles – like the calorie counter shown in the photo. However, when placing this and other titles at the counter, we are careful to not clutter the space and confuse the message. Newsagency counters are often too cluttered. Less is more as they say.
The iAd platform announced by Apple this week gets closer to delivering to publishers and would-be publishers (and other App builders) the commercial opportunity they want to develop content models on mobile platforms such as the iPhone and the iPad. The Marketbeat blog from the Wall Street Journal has an excellent round-up of opinions about the iAd platform.
A smart iAd ad could be signficantly superior to a print ad. It could be interactive, more tailored to the reader and enable immediate action. And that’s what these devices are all about.
Previously, you’d go on a holiday, take phones, come back, have them developed and catch up with friends to show the photos off. Using the iPhone, photos of your holiday are easily published immediately you take them using your iPhone. It and other devices have changed behaviour around photo sharing. iAd can do the same for interacting with ads.
We are promoting the Australian Women’s Weekly / Good Health double pack in a dump bin near the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle. We chose the location because we had no space next to or near either of the titles in the pack – thanks to an extraordinarily heavy week of magazine supply. Disappointingly, the publisher did not provide any marketing collateral. So, we went with the dump bin idea in a high traffic area. Shoppers know that dump bins contain value based offers so the location makes sense.
We are promoting the 50th anniversary edition of Donna Hay magazine this weekend out the front of our newsagency.
The stunning cover on the magazine and the high quality poster material (better quality than usual for magazine posters) makes for an attractive display. I have high hopes for a good sales bump as a result.
We plan to leave the display in place until Wednesday. We also have a pocket of Donna Hay in with our column of food titles next to our weeklies as well as a flat stack display in with our regular food section.
My post last month on the Gotch magazine supply adjustment initiative has generated plenty of interest and questions. Click on the image to see the computer screen through which newsagents can easily and directly adjust Gordon and Gotch supply quantities from the Point of Sale screen. Recent supply and return data is there to help guide the right decision. Once a new supply quantity is entered, an email is sent to a special email address setup at Gotch for this purpose.
I know of newsagents using this facility to increase as well as decrease magazine supply. A confirmation email is sent by Gotch.
While we would all prefer no over or under supply, problems will occur. The real test is how these are resolved.
Coinciding with the recent newspaper home delivery fee changes announced by the Herald and Weekly Times is an adjustment to what constitutes late delivery of newspapers to distribution newsagents.
This adjustment means, I am told, that newsagents are now less likely to be compensated for late newspapers, that newsagents will have to carry more cost themselves for late newspapers. The costs can run at over $100 an hour depending on the size of the business. This is a considerable sum for a small business with slim (newspaper publisher controlled) margins.
If what I have heard is accurate, newsagents will be frustrated at being given a boost with one hand while the other hand takes money off the table. The new terms for the late payment fee means it will be paid less than previously.
Publishers need to be commercially responsible for late delivery of newspapers. Given their zero tolerance approach to services provided by newsagents it is only fair that newsagents have a zero tolerance flowing the other way.
All it takes is a couple of extra copies of a magazine to each newsagent and a publisher significantly increases the size of their scale out and, depending on the return cycle and their distributor agreement, significantly improves cash-flow. Magazine distributors are happy since they get paid per item then shift.
I saw several example of small supply increases on Wednesday this week which are not supported by net sales.
Hot Rod is the first title – we sell a couple of copies. Our sales and return data does not support any increase yet the magazine distributor’s system thinks we can carry extra stock. I am sure there will be some reason. A reasonable response will be that it’s only one or two extra copies. Well, if they are not going to sell, why send them?
Mindfood is another example of an unjustified supply increase. In this case, I suspect that the increase is publisher driven – that’s just a hunch though. Beyond getting a couple of extra copies we will not sell, we have more stock than a single pocket can hold. This takes extra space and increases our costs.
Foreign Affairs is the third title for which we have received what we consider to be an unjustified increase in supply. I have gone back through our supply and return data and cannot see any reason for this move by the distributor. More cash being drained.
These are just three examples. Indeed, there were plenty on Wednesday this week – sucking cash out of newsagencies. Every extra copy sent must be justified. This is not done, leaving us poorer in cash-flow terms.
Magazine distributors need to understand the damage these small creeps in supply is doing to the newsagency channel. I am seeing magazine bills increase while sales are flat or falling. This is unsustainable.
One way newsagents respond is early returning – and not necessarily of the new title. This is all about managing cash. Smart newsagents look for other titles from distributors causing the problem which can be returned to balance cash flow and space. The problem is that since we have to pay to return stock we still have a cost which hits us.
To distributors reading this:
Look at your systems and consider carefully the impact on newsagencies of every extra stock item you send. Look at this as if it was your money and your business. Would you put up with this?
Would you accept a supplier sending you something which all sales data indicates you will not sell and then expect you to pay for this on time and under the threat of not receiving other stock, very popular stock, if you do not pay the account on time? What is the size of your magazine bills to newsagents today as a ratio of overall magazine sales? Are your bills declining in line with sales?
Newsagents are keen for dialogue on this. Not the one way statements of the past. Genuine dialogue. Every copy of a magazine which you send and which is not supported by sales data as likely to sell has a considerable cost to the retail network on which you rely to stay in business.
The team at our newsXpress Forest Hill store cleverly displayed the entrants in our Easter colouring competition around a display of products designed to appeal to those looking at the entries. This was a smart way of showing off the talent of the entrants (attracting eyeballs) and subtly (or not) driving a commercial opportunity for us. I was impressed when I saw what they had done – we are a business after all.
If you have less newspapers and more of these [iPads] … it may well be the saving of the newspaper industry.
That is Rupert Murdoch quoted in plenty of news outlets this morning including Fast Company. He called the iPad a glimpse of the future. Murdoch was speaking at the National Press Club in Washington. The Australian also runs this story today – read it here. Their report also reports that Murdoch expects 8 or 9 competitors to the iPad within a year.
This is a very strong endorsement of iPad type technology as an alternative channel to print by Rupert Murdoch, an endorsement which newsagents need to read and understand.
Newsagents can experience unexpected costs when magazine publishers switch distributors. Take Vogue, the latest issue is from through Gotch while the old issue is through NDD. Our NDD returns for the month have been processed so we now have to hold the unsold stock for a month. The alternative is to do a supplementary return but the labour and delivery cost of this is not worth the amount.
This is another frustration with the magazine distribution model which adds to our operating costs. Publishers should think of this before they switch distributors and allow for the costs we face.
Schapelle Corby continues to sell magazines as this week’s Woman’s Day shows. We have the title in its usual locations and sales are ahead. Customers mention her when they buy the magazine. Regardless of their view of her guilt or innocence it is that they have a firm view which, I think, drives sales of magazines with her on the cover. We don’t have many Australians who can consistently generate a sales kick like Schapelle.
We are promoting Money magazine in our business area with a new style display (for us). We have adjusted titles near Money and given it double pocket space and sacrificed several pockets for the poster above the two columns of stock.
This display can be seen by people walking from our newspaper stand to the counter. It also draws attention to Money from this aisle and the next magazine aisle, our busiest. It also draws attention to other business and finance magazine titles nearby.
Money magazine is not a strong enough title to be given the best location at the front of the store for a week. However, it should support the additional space we have allocated to the display in the business section.
Brad Colbow has published a video at Vimeo yesterday in which he demonstrates how three magazines look on the iPad. While it is very early days for the device, already content is looking interesting on this device.
iPad Magazine Art Direction from Brad Colbow on Vimeo.
We are promoting Marie Claire magazine in the middle of our busy women’s magazine aisle this week. That’s right, not at the front of the newsagency or on a power end.
We wanted to change things up and find new ways (for us) to promote magazines in-store to drive better sales outcomes.
The Marie Claire display is in the centre of the aisle, high above a double commitment for the title. It stands out not only in this aisle but in the entire magazine department and even beyond, toward the front of the store.
While space was tight, we found a way to make it work. We will monitor results closely and compare sales with what we achieved for Marie Claire when we promoted it out the front of the newsagency.
Is it just me or did others receive considerably more magazines today than usual for a Wednesday. Based on sheer volume (across the two bggest suppliers), our supply was up 50%. This threw out space and labour requirements. The only was we could accomodate the unexpectedly high volume is to return some existing titles early.
It is interesting to see the variation in newspaper home delivery fees just approved by News Limited:
I wonder if the News Limited executives setting these pay rates for newsagents would have accepted the same level of increases newsagents have achieved over the last, say, ten years. I’d also be interested in researching what a News Limited employee gets paid for an equivalent unit of work to delivering a newspaper every day.
As for the variation, it is intriguing. While there will be argument that it reflects different conditions, I’d suggest that in most rural and regional areas the conditions are quite similar.
Computerworld reports that Apple sold 300,000 units of its iPad device on the frist day of release – including presold units. This is more than for the first day of release of the iPhone. The mixed reviews since the release are not unexpected – again look at what followed the release of the iPhone. Content is what will make or break this device. Watch for a wave of publisher announcements over the next month.
We moved Better Homes and Gardens from the prime counter display to the air stand in front of the newspaper display. This move was necessary because of space demands. However, rather than not promote BHG in our impulse purchase zone, we have given it this position with newspapers – a hot spot in the zone. We know from past experience that BHG responds well for us if placed here.
The point I want to make with this blog post is that it’s important to think about where you move a title on once one display has come to an end. Doing a display for a week followed by nothing, especially for a popular title like BHG, is not necessarily good for business.
Calls for a ban on adult magazines from retail have been rejected by publishers. As a newsagent selling these titles, I’d note that our approach adult and retaled titles is quite different to supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol outlets. Newsagents are the professional magazine retailer in the retail mix. Adult titles are usually in a separate and monitored area of the shop whereas in petrol and convenience outlets adult titles are in a more public area for every shopper to see and browse.
It is rare that you see the titles mentioned is media reports, Playboy, Penthouse, People, The Picture, Zoo and Ralph, in a high traffic area in a newsagency for all to see. The experience in convenience stores and petrol outlets is completely different.
Newsagents and their employees watch the magazine department for inappropriate behaviour including theft, opening magazines with free gifts and reading adult material. Children in the adult magazine section of a newsagency are far more likely to be watched and moved-on than in other retail outlets selling the titles.
Those calling for nanny-state type restrictions ought to research the difference between magazine retailers before they call for yet more regulation which restricts our freedom.
We are promoting the Winter Favourites cookbook from ACP Magazines in prime position at the front counter this week. This title has performed very well for us in recent years but we know from experience that we have to do the work to drive sales. This is why we created our own marketing collateral (by copying the cover) and gave the title the best impulse purchase location in each of our newsagencies – at the counter between two busy registers.
As the photo shows, we are using one of our Just In! bookmark to show that this is a new title, just in. We use this bookmark sparingly to draw attention to titles shoppers may not first notice when browsing.
None of this extra effort is recognised in the cookie-cutter approach to magazine promotions and this is frustrating. I see newsagents and their employees regularly innovating outside the structure of publisher marketing programs without recognition. This comment is directed at all publishers.
While the best recognition is sales, I’d like to see greater focus on innovation around promoting titles. After all, you won’t see any innovation from supermarkets, petrol outlets or convenience stores.
Our bet on the book about Susan Boyle has paid off with 70% of stock sold in just over a month. The most successful location proved to be next to People’s Friend and in with our range of UK magazines. While that should not be a surprise, we did try the book first at the counter and while we sold a couple of copies from there, it is this location with the magazines which worked best for us. We put it out at $19.95 from day one, a decision designed to show us as competitive with others carrying the book. I was happy for a lower margin knowing that it would be the impulse item.
We are promoting the latest issue of Prevention magazine in its usual location with health titles as well as with newspapers this week. We kept the stand supplied with the launch of the magazine last year and use it from time to time to refresh interest in the title. We have found that placing with Prevention next or close to our main newspaper stand works best for us. We will leave the stand in the location in the photo for the next week before moving it to the side where it faces the card department.
We have placed Madison at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle. The free Model Co make up bag should work well for us in this location. We also have the magazine double-pocketed in its usual location.
This location at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle is working well for us. We pocket count and track what sells from here as well as the usual location for the title.
I can’t stress enough the importance of experimenting and measuring the results. If something works, keep doing it. That said, we do change location for this display unit with Madison from time to time – to keep us fresh as much as the offer for our customers.
We will leave Madison in this second location for a week.