Rumors continue to fly around about the soon to launch iPad only newspaper from News Corp. The latest is that The Daily is to cost 99 cents a week – according to AdAge. That seems high to me for a US digital newspaper. Remember, their prices for newspapers are lower than ours.
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Apple grabbed more than 7% of the global PC market in the last quarter in terms of unit sales. Extraordinary.
Yes, this is a fast growing new distribution channel.
ACP Magazines has made accessing digital magazines easier with the launch yesterday of an iPad app for its magshop subscription service. The Australian has a report on this move.
ACP could not ignore the growing digital channel so I understand their move. Hopefully newsagents take note and realise that the world is changing.
It’s galling seeing media outlets calling this a digital newsstand – it only has a fraction of the range available form a newsstand like your average Australian newsagency.
Playboy content without the nudity will be available in the iPad from March according to an announcement by Playboy. Yep, another story showing the growing penetration of the iPad and tablet channel.
Sales of G and other Green issue magazines do not appear to reflect the strong voter support for Green issues as seen in the recent federal election. Data I have seen indicates little or no sales growth. I expected to see something given the extraordinary vote surge between federal polls. It makes me wonder if the voter surge is people wanting others to do the work for them or whether it is a pity vote – pity the environment. While it could be argued that magazine sales are not a fair indication of community engagement with an issue, I would have expected that sales G and other green related magazines would provide a fair indication. I am left wondering, why sales of green titles are not surging.
Groupon is being hailed as the next big online ‘thing’. It attracts business from companies which would otherwise have used traditional media to reach consumers.
Groupon launched in 2008. It’s a deal-of-the-day website that is localised to major markets in the US, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, the UK and a bunch of other countries. It offers one Groupon each day for each of the 150+ locations it serves. Businesses use the service as they would advertising except that with each Groupon there is a clear call to action.
The company just completed another round of funding which has resulted in the business being valued at around US$4.5buillion. Not bad for a start-up from 2008. We are going to hear a lot more about Groupon and the look-alike companies in this offer a day space.
I have been signed up for Groupon for a while. The deals which come through, while not available here, are fascinating.
Zoupon is an Australian site which plays in the same deal a day space.
In a related story, Amazon last week launched an iPhone App which offers daily deals. This and Groupon are examples of new channels for promoting specials and sales.
We are promoting the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly with one of our in-location displays. These work a treat for AWW in our stores.
We will leave the display as shown in the photo in place for two weeks.
AWW is also on display next to the Herald Sun newspaper and this will stay in place for the first week of the on-sale. Typically, in the first week, we can see 25% or more sales come from stock located next to the newspaper.
I was talking with a newsagent yesterday who was surprised to hear that I treated ink as part of the Back to School offer. Given the volume of printing at home for almost all levels of schools, ink is a natural focus for any Back to School campaigns. Now is the time of the year to help parents stock up.
We are enjoying an excellent boost in ink sales thanks to our price competition with the majors – while still maintaining a good margin. We are promoting ink by offering a good range of brand name ink on display in an accessible location with easy to see pricing.
I’d encourage every newsagent to include an ink offer as part of their Back to School pitch – but don’t do the usual drop your pants approach to margin.
What’s your pricing policy on desk calendars? With newsagencies the only retailers left with these in stock, we have an opportunity to reflect this in our pricing. I am not suggesting price gouging. No, I am suggesting a sale price which would up to, say, January 7 and then regular pricing which could be 10% to 25% higher. The majors rarely carry items like this beyond the initial drop off in sales – they are volume stock movers after all. These desk calendars will continue to sell in good numbers in newsagencies for another month and then enjoy slower sales for another couple of months. Our priced today are 10% up on two weeks ago.
Douglas Fraser writing at the BBC blogs site offers an interesting perspective on the impact on UK newsagents of pressure from disruption from digital platforms. His post agrees with others that newspapers will play a more analytic role in the future and less of a breaking news role.
The latest issue of MOJO magazine with a young Bob Dylan on the cover is another example off what I wrote about a couple of days ago … the value of special interest titles. There are enough Dylan lovers out there to help drive sales of this special issue. As I noted, we need good foot traffic for these special interest issues of music and other magazines to work. When we see a title like this which we know will have special interest appeal we show off the full cover and place the title in a good location.
News Limited has announced a price rise for the Sunday Telegraph and while newsagents will welcome this, I am sure they would prefer a price rise for the Daily Telegraph. While News has taken care of itself with advertising rate rises over the last ten or twelve years, they have condemned newsagents to be the working poor with no cover price increase in that time.
In the ten or twelve years that the Daily Telegraph has been $1, newsagents have faced many wage rises, rent increases and operating cost increases. Also, in that time, News has pushed its product into more retail outlets, taking traffic away from newsagents.
That News has increased the cover price in line with even CPI is appalling behaviour against small business newsagents and other retailers who sell this product.
Footnote: the timing of the announcement of the Sunday Telegraph price rise is disappointing. many newsagents would have preferred to know of Sunday so that they could let their customers know.
I am surprised, and pleased, about the number of newsagents who have contacted me with news that they received iPads for Christmas. Nice.
It is great hearing about the apps they have discovered and sharing some of my favourites. Better than this, however, is their reaction to the device itself. For most, the reaction is I get what the fuss is all about now … wow!
Once they go beyond the initial discovery, there is the pleasure of the productivity boost for the newsagency business from the device. Great stuff!
We had some help in creating an attractive and attention-getting Valentine’s Day display in one of my stores last week.
Located in a prominent position on the dance floor, this display is easily seen by all shoppers as they enter the store and when they approach the counter to complete their purchase. Our plan is to move the display to the front of the store, facing into the mall for the last two weeks of the season.
We had some help creating the display and its shows with the display drawing excellent customer attention. you know you have a winner of a display when you have a shopper in their70s standing next to someone in their 20s buying off the same stand for the season.
I think Valentine’s Day could be especially strong this year. 2011 has got off to a tough start floods affecting so many in Australia. While I am no psychologist, I’d expect people to be thinking more of loved ones this year.
It is good to see Pacific Magazines go with a different look for New Idea with the alternative flood related cover on the back of the magazine.
Yesterday, we placed the flood special feature cover on display in the regular magazine fixturing and with newspapers. We felt that the emotion of the image would work better than the more traditional cover – especially given the on-going flood challenges in Victoria and the coverage on the news. Sales have been strong as a result.
Next Issue Media, the digital publishing consortium of Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation, and Time, Inc., commissioned research into publishers might leverage the opportunities
presented by digital platforms.The resulting White Paper is a must read for distribution newsagents and those representing them.
Next Issue Media is starting with magazines and plans to have their digital newsstand operating for the coming US Summer – as reported by Paid Content a couple of days ago. Newspapers will make it to this platform.
Music publishers tried hard to maintain control of their distribution channels six years ago with modest success. It will be interesting to see what happens with print.
In the meantime, newsagents have more information now available in the public forum with which to consider their own plans and the context of print media products within those plans. No, I am not saying print is dead. What I am saying to distribution newsagents is – be fully aware of what is happening out there and make decisions which are right for you and your business.
Those representing newsagents in negotiations / discussions with publishers need to be across the Next Issue Media moves and similar moves by others. If any of what I have written here is news to them then I would be concerned.
PS. be sure to watch the videos on the next Media website.
The latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine is selling very well – ahead of average performance when compared to recent issues in my newsagencies. The success with this issue is a reminder of the success we can enjoy with specialist magazines in the newsagency channel. My view is that this issue is popular because of the John Lennon coverage. We have leveraged this by ensuring that the full cover is on display. People who would not usually pick up Rolling Stone have noticed the cover and enough of them have converted into purchasers.
We are lucky to have enough good traffic to achieve the sales we have thus far. High traffic is vital to the health of magazine sales in newsagencies, especially special interest titles.
Magazine publishers and distributors need to understand that good base traffic is critical to the success of special interest titles – like this month’s issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Dilute traffic to newsagencies -by putting traffic generating and high volume titles elsewhere – and you put special interest sales at risk.
While newsagencies are busy places, each product department and category relies on the other to drive business.
I am concerned that key newsagency suppliers and some newsagents are not making the right decisions to ensure the traffic health of our channel.
Newsagents interested in the financial performance and prospects of magazine publishers will find the report in The Australian on Saturday about ACP magazines an interesting read. James Chessell offers context of the ACP business within the overall Nine operation on the backdrop of a possible decision to float the business.
We are promoting the latest issue of Dolly with this aisle end display facing out onto our dance floor. Click on the image for a lager version. Dolly is one of those magazine titles which can respond well to promotion in a high traffic location – especially with mums who buy it for their daughter. This display will be up for a week only given the demand on display space at the moment.
Network Services has published the following magazine distribution update for flood affected newsagents:
Network Services will continue in our attempt to get stock to you and keep you updated with our progress. At this stage we are very pleased to announce we have been able to successfully source alternate transport options for some parts of the state, with a number of weekly titles being flown into the far north to ensure delivery is made in a timely manner.
Details of our plans for Monday’s delivery are outlined below:
Far North Queensland:
We are in the process of moving some stock to you via air-freight in order to bypass flood waters. As a result we currently expect titles to be on-sale Monday close to normal including the key weekly titles – Woman’s Day & TV Week. Please note this is the plan at this point and is subject to the availability of airfreight slots – as you can appreciate capacity is limited & critical supplies have priority. Grazia & NW we expect to be on-sale Wed as usual.Country:
This area is still a difficult one for our trucks and drivers. While some key line haul routes are opening (especially to the North) others remain closed. Additionally there are significant localised closures effecting access to & through key communities. We will deliver all products scheduled for on-sale Monday where possible.Metro:
At this stage you should receive your deliveries on or close to the usual schedule – including Woman’s Day & TV Week.Again we apologise for supply delays caused by recent events. We understand how important supply is to all businesses at this time, it is for this reason we wish to reinforce that supply has not been preferential. All supplies have been and will continue to be shipped to all businesses (regardless of type, size, sales volume) as soon as safe passage is available, the only factors influencing supply at this stage are the availability of drivers and safe access.
NOTE – We are currently attempting to contact all retailers and agents whose business’ or towns have been inundated by flood waters. This is order to discuss how we can best assist you during this difficult time. If you have not yet been contacted we ask that you call our Flood Assistance Hotline on 1300 131 169 and select Option 1.
Tower Systems created artwork for its retail customers and any other retailers to use in encouraging their customers to donate to the Queensland Premier’s Flood relief Appeal. This free artwork is available here. Feel free to use the artwork and share it with others. Every dollar helps.
We have been raising funds in our own newsagencies for several days with tremendous success. We have had customers dropping in coins from change while others have tipped in $20 or $30 from lottery ticket winnings. Most heartwarming indeed.
How nuts is this! The editorial folks at The Age newspaper put in a ton of work in bringing together coverage in advance of the Australian Open tennis tournament this week. Someone in marketing decided to have a stuck on note stuck over the promotion on the front page of the newspaper promoting their Australian Open coverage. The stuck on note is promoting up to 75% off the cover price for home delivery. Marketing beats editorial again. Marketing also beats newsagents – these subscriptions some at a huge cost to the newsagency channel.
These stuck on notes were not on all copies of The Age in each of my newsagencies. We must have got some home delivery stock – the circ. people at The Age would not want existing customers to know that there is a better deal. No, they would rather convert a full fare paying retail customer to a cheap-ass home delivery deal which has a much higher fulfillment cost for the newsagent.
Being the only calendar outlet left in the shopping centre is great for sales. The photo is of most of our range as at yesterday. We will sell out without dropping our price below 50%. Even at this discount we are in excellent shape thanks to great buying. What a terrific calendars season it’s been!
Just as we found with the Victorian bushfires appeal, we are finding our customers responding positively to the collection of funds for donating to the Queensland Premier’s Flood Appeal. From small change to lottery syndicate wins of $10 and more, money is getting dropped in. This is wonderful to see.
We are using a transparent container so that the amount collected can be seen by all. The container is tethered to the counter to protect against theft. Our notice advises customers that we will post receipts to show what has been donated. Customers loved this transparency during the bushfire appeal.