A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: December 2010

Customers helping customers – the Christmas spirit in a newsagency

A customer asked for help in choosing a car magazine as a gift in my newsXpress Forest Hill store last week.  She didn’t know much about cars and wanted to make sure she purchased a gift which would be liked.

Another customer offered to help as he was a car magazine enthusiast.

The two customers talked for ten minutes about cars and the car magazines we had on offer.  They worked together to make the selection for the Christmas gift.  They were a delight to watch.

We were most appreciative of the knowledgable assistance given by the customer who stepped into help.  He was glad to have the opportunity.

This true story is not unique. I bet it happens many times each day across the newsagency channel.  People come to newsagencies for magazines because we are the specialists – like the lady looking for a gift. People with special interests come to newsagencies because of our range, our browser friendly attitude and because the environment is personal.

This difference – range, customer comfort and personal service – is vital to our entire channel.  We owe it to each other to do our best in these areas as they reflect our point of difference.

We rely on the two customers in my story – the lady looking for a magazine as a gift and the guy who shops in newsagencies because of the range and the browser friendliness.  We need to do more to attract and keep them.

The Christmas spirit is on show in many newsagencies right across Australia.

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Customer Service

Using the lottery counter for impulse purchases

counter-opp.jpgI saw this in another newsagency this week and share it here for others – placing roll wrap and giftwrap tape just below the lottery serving counter.  Click on the image to see a larger version of the photo.  While doing this is probably against lottery company rules, I’d expect many of their representatives to turn a blind eye for Christmas – especially if you are promoting their lottery products outside the usual area in a reciprocal move.

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giftwrap

Talking about magazines

I recorded a podcast for mediaweek magazine late yesterday, looking back at magazine performance from this year, the impact of the iPad and some other issues of interest to newsagents from 2010.

Click here to access the podcast – it’s free.

Brenden Wood (moderator), James Manning (Editor of mediaweek magazine) and I had a good conversation.  It was an other opportunity to talk about the difference between the newsagency channel and other channels when it comes to selling and supporting magazines.

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magazines

Not happy to sell this book

fat-book.JPGNetwork Services sent out this book, Losing the last 5kg by Susie Burrell, to newsagents yesterday.  It’s a book!  With a magazine margin!  With display challenges!  Unlike my previous blog post, I an NOT HAPPY to sell this book.  It has no local community, no newspaper or magazine connection.  There is no reason for it to be sent to us other than for Network Services to make money.   We rely in magazine distributors to be fair in their dealings with newsagents.  The distribution of this book is, in my view, grossly unfair.  It is an abuse of the trust newsagents place in Network Services.

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Book retailing

Happy to sell this book

tyler.JPGWhile the margin is awfully slim, I am happy to promote this book, Tyler, from the Herald Sun.  It tells the story of Tyler Fishlock, a story which has grabbed the hearts of Victorians thanks to coverage in the Herald Sun newspaper and on radio 3AW.  Just having the book on the shelves near the newspaper reinforces the difference between a newsagency (with a heart) selling newspapers and the coffee shops, supermarkets, petrol and convenience outlets which will not have this book in a prominent (expensive) position.

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Newsagency opportunities

Donna Hay sales lift

donna-hay-xm.JPGThe latest issue of Donna Hay magazine is selling better than the previous issue in my stores.  While the previous issue had a better looking cover, in my view, this issue is easier to purchase – it is not sealed in a plastic bag.  Yes, the oven mitt gift with the last issue was a premium gift and well targeted to the Donna Hay customer.  However, people like to browse food titles.  The delicious looking dishes lead to aspirational purchases.  While some of the sale s kick I am seeing with the current issue relates to Christmas purchases, I do think that the browser friendliness of the issue is a key factor.

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magazines

Price stuff up with Sportsman

sportsman.jpgThe latest issue of Sportsman out today has two prices on the cover: $7.00 and $5.50.  Customers are expecting the $5.50 price.  Some newsagents have not been told by their distribution newsagent about the price increase.  It makes me wonder what communication was provided by the publisher.

My view is that this issue as to be sold for $5.50 and that distribution and retail newsagents need to be compensated by the publisher.

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Newspapers

Delivery delays frustrate Herald Sun iPad app experience

hs-ipad-dec10.JPGI have given up using the Herald Sun iPad app. It is too slow. I want immediate access. Waiting more than a minute to download is too long, especially when I can get the New Zealand Herald, the benchmark newspaper iPad app in my view, in a fraction of the time it takes do download the Herald Sun. The New Zealand Herald has more content yet access is much faster.

On the Herald Sun iPad app itself, it is no groundbreaker. The experience is out of touch with modern apps. They say they wanted to keep it simple. If I want a simple access to news I would buy a newspaper. I have an iPad. Give me an iPad experience. That’s one reason I have this device, the experience.

Given what I can access on the website for the Herald Sun, the iPad app, in my view, does not deliver value.

The app for The Australian was better than that for the Herald Sun when I last subscribed. But it too needed work. News Limited needs to truly innovate if they want to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of iPad and other tablet users.

I don’t plan to renew my Herald Sun iPad subscription.

What I would really like to see is APN release a new iPad only newspaper app in Australia based on their New Zealand Herald app platform. That would be a game changer for newspaper apps in Australia.

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Media disruption

Christmas gifts selling out!

merry-giftmas.jpgWe still have fourteen days to go and Christmas gifts in our catalogue are selling out.  What a terrific season!

The app magnets, m-cups, Hallmark recordable storybooks, bears with speakers in their feet (seriously), dolls and the doggy bank have all been hits.  The flyers distributed to homes have driven new traffic.  The gifts themselves have driven excellent impulse business in-store.

Margin on some items is excellent while on others it is good.  No matter, banking the margin is the key issue, as I noted in a blog post a few weeks back.

While I do bang on here about magazines more than any other product category, Christmas is a season which separates newsagents.  It tests us as buyers, visual merchandisers and retailers.  It is when we can leverage our good magazine, newspaper and greeting card traffic into other business.

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marketing

Strong bonbon sales

frank-bonbons.jpgWe are seeing excellent bonbon sales this Christmas. Well up on last year. We are well into double digit growth. Indeed, our bonbon sales are another reason we are enjoying what we thought would be a flat Christmas. This has probably been helped by our sourcing of a broader range of bonbons than in previous years. It has been useful to buy outside traditional newsagency channels. This is the only change to our bonbon approach – we are displaying them in the same way as we always have.

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Newsagency opportunities

Promoting marie claire

frank-mc-dec10.jpgWe have been promoting the latest issue of marie claire with this column based display at our Frankston store. In addition to this feature display facing our dance floor, we have the title located in our women’s magazine section. Like all good feature displays, it is easy for our customers to purchase right off the column. We choose titles for these displays based on what we see as their opportunity for cut through. This so often depends on the cover.

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magazines

Christmas theft advice for newsagents

I first published this advice to the 1,700+ newsagents using the newsagency software from Tower Systems a few weeks ago.  I publish it here because of  the concerning number of recent thefts in newsagencies.

With sales up and cash in the business up, Christmas time is the time for newsagents to be more vigilant than ever in managing cash. From taking care at the counter in customer interaction to ensuring honesty of employees, now is the time to revisit processes to ensure that the business is protected.

  1. Use employee initials or codes for each sale. Yes, this adds time to each sale. The benefits far outweigh the time cost.
  2. Require that the amount tendered be entered for each sale.
  3. Run refresher training on handling giving change to customers.
  4. Remind your team about counterfeit notes.  (See my blog post yesterday on this.)
  5. Give out receipts for all sales over, say, $5.00.  This helps you avoid disputes down the track if someone asks for a refund.
  6. Be on the lookout for over the counter scams by customers – scams around change given or getting free mobile phone credit.
  7. Take a zero tolerance approach to end of shift balancing.  All too often I see newsagents turn a blind eye to cash being out by $50 or even $100.  Good Point of Sale technology when used properly can help you drive zero tolerance.
  8. Do spot cash balancing during the day, at random times.
  9. Use stock control for high at-risk items such as cigarettes. This will quickly identify a theft problem. Indeed, you should use full stock control for all stock items.  Ideally, you will use stock control for everything.  Not managing stock on had in an invitation to be ripped off.  No excuses.
  10. Talk to Tower Systems about theft check options within our Point of Sale software and the FREE Theft Check Service for newsagents.

Yes, some of these measures take time. The financial saving from greater vigilance to the business could be considerable. Christmas in retail is a time of higher than usual risk.

Take care. If I can help in any way, please contact me.

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Newsagency management

Julian Assange to help sell Time magazine

assange-time.JPGThe Julian Assange cover of Time magazine presents newsagents with a perfect opportunity to achieve excellent incremental business with this title.   We have it placed prominently with newspapers.  His arrest in London and the controversy around the WikiLeaks have ensured that Assange is easily recognised.  This is another example of the attention we need to give to magazine covers.  Covers like this one on Time magazine can drive sales.

Other retailers of magazines are unlikely to be tactical in placement based on a cover.  This is another way we can demonstrate our point of difference.

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magazines

Performance car heroes … seriously?

perf-cars.JPGWe received Performance Car Heroes yesterday for the first time.  The only way to fit this title in our trimmed down magazine department is to take another title off.  I decided against that and early returned Performance Car Heroes.  Had I been asked if I wanted this title I would have declined in our current location.  What happened here with this title is a perfect example of anti competitive behaviour.  Newsagents are the only magazine channel treated in this way.  The lack of flexibility we have makes us less competitive.

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magazine distribution

Oprah should help sell Mindfood

mindfood-oprah.JPGOprah on the front cover of the latest issue of Mindfood magazine earns this low volume magazine prime position with our women’s monthlies.  Oprah’s in Australia in case you have been living under a rock.  Maybe she can help achieve some incremental business for us.  I’ll watch how the title performs – if we see movement by the weekend we will give it some more premium space time.

I am a big fan of newsagents putting out magazines when they arrive in-store.  This way tactical decisions can be made based on the cover or some other opportunity with this issue of a title.

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magazines

Promoting Better Homes and Gardens

better-homes-floor.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens with this in-location display, a six pocket placement with weeklies as well as a stack next to our top selling newspapers.  We will pare back this to two locations after the weekend – the in-location as well as with weeklies.  BHG sells well to the weekly magazine shopper.  Being very tight on space we have to engage in these tactical moves rather than the billboard type displays you see in many newsagencies.

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magazines

A lesson for magazine publishers and distributors

cal-2010.JPGMagazine publishers and distributors could learn a valuable lesson from Australian calendar publishers and distributors.

For years now we (and a couple of hundred newsagents) have carefully selected the wide calendar range we carry.  Each year we achieve double digit growth.  We carry the risk with a firm sale commitment and work the commitment hard by ordering carefully, managing floorstock, refreshing the displays and ensuring excellent customer service around out point of difference.

Calendar publishers are happy.  Customers are happy.  We are happy.

We and plenty of other newsagents are showing that a commercial and respectful relationship between publisher and retailer works.

We are achieving what magazine publishers and distributors say is not achievable with magazines in the newsagency channel. We are demonstrating that we have the capacity to manage our title range and product volume to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Any magazine publisher keen to break out of the out of date magazine distribution model and form a commercial and direct relationship with newsagents should look carefully at the calendar model.  It works.

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Calendars

Beware fake $50 notes

Fake $50 notes have been reported as circulating in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne this week.  Click here for advice from the Reserve Bank on the security features in Australian notes.  The fake I have seen is very good and easily passed at a busy counter.  Take care.

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Newsagency challenges

Leverageing Justin Bieber interest

bieber-calendar.JPGWe are promoting the Justin Beiber 2011 calendar in a high traffic location to connect with the heightened interest this week thanks to tickets going on sale for his first Australian concert tour. Molly Meldrum said on the weekend that the Bieber concert would be reminiscent of the 1960s tour by the Beatles. Who knows? What I do know is that Bieber has plenty of fans and their parents, friends and relatives needs gift ideas for Christmas.  Hence our prominent display of this calendar.

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Calendars

Analysis of the Fairfax CEO departure

Former Fairfax executive Eric Beecher wrote in Crikey yesterday about the sudden departure of the Fairfax CEO Brian McCarthy on Monday.  Eric’s commentary included:

There are two key elements at the heart of what happened at Fairfax yesterday, and has been unravelling for the past 10 years. First, no one knows the right answers to the existential threats to old media because many of the answers have yet to be invented. And second, in order to position yourself to find the answers you need to be competent, knowledgeable, intuitive, flexible and honest about what you don’t know.

Fairfax is none of those things. It is a dysfunctional company led by an incompetent board chaired by a former retailer, Roger Corbett, whose answer to the crisis afflicting newspapers is to sprout generalities such as “revenue streams of the future are all very challenging but we will be working to ensure that we deliver the very best” and “the really important thing is that we provide quality journalism that people actually want”.

Unlike Rupert Murdoch, whose local media arm has not just revelled in reporting Fairfax’s antics for a decade but is ruthlessly turning the commercial screws on their hapless competitor every day, the Fairfax chairman — the de facto “proprietor” in a company without an owner — doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and has no instinct for media at the precise moment that his company desperately needs such a person at the helm.

The truth is that “quality journalism” (whatever that means) or the “very best” is not enough. The solutions to the future of newspapers such as the Herald and The Age lie in their business models, not just in their journalism. And given the rapidity of their decline — each has seen its annual profits fall from about $100 million to about $20 million in the past few years — the solution is almost certainly no longer incremental, but seminal.

None of us knows how the disruption to print media will shake out.  What we do know that the waves of change are far from over.  This is why we newsagents need business and shop fit models which are as flexible as the business model needed for Fairfax and other publishers.

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Media disruption

Fairfax Magazines set for XchangeIT?

I have heard that the Fairfax has purchased NDD’s shares in XchangeIT along with some assets and is working toward implementing XchangeIT support for their portfolio of magazines.  This will take some time to establish as there is considerable IT infrastructure at their end to setup and maintain.  They are also yet to address issues like direct supply to retail newsagents who had direct with NDD accounts.

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magazine distribution
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