I feel for small publisher, I really do. It is tough to drive sales with a tiny or even non-existent marketing budget. They turn to the next option, trying to get newsagents to hold onto their products long enough to drive some sales. Your Local Wedding Guide Melbourne is a good example of a publication facing challenges. The issue out on Wednesday has a five month on sale! Yes, five months! The publisher is enticing us to keep the product on the shelves for the full five months with one month delayed billing. Check out the note Victorian newsagents received on Wednesday – click on the image to see a larger version. It says Extended terms: 30 days!!! It then tells us to display for the full five months!!! If this title is not paying its way, especially in expensive shopping centre newsagencies it must/will be early returned. To leave it on the shelves losing money would be bad for business. Why don’t publishers and magazine distributors understand that? Because it does not suit their bottom line is the answer.
For small publishers, their marketing budget is often the cost of getting stock to newsagents. With respect, don’t expect us to become your bank and marketing department. Our space is valuable and ought to be respected.
PS. This is the small format title I blogged about yesterday. It does not even fit traditional newsagency fixtures.
From the other side (as a small publisher (WHITE magazine)) when we started it was very difficult. We had a shelf life of 6mths. Lucky for us most newsagents gave us a go, our sales have continued to increase and we have now changed to a quarterly magazine. Readers demanded it and I believe it keeps them more engaged and buying more magazines. Our sales have increased even though we have halved the shelf life. WIN WIN WIN!