Last week I published two blog posts about different topics which, in fact, relate to each other. First there was my call to for newsagents to take more care with early returns. then there was my post about the extraordinary volume of bagged titles dished out of Friday.
It is because of products such as bagged, undated and dubious value product that newsagents sometimes make quick decisions to early return product. They strike out since returning product early is the only mechanism of control or attack which they feel they have.
Magazine publishers who are frustrated with early returns need to look at this. Don’t expect newsagents to change their behaviour, even though they do often cut themselves out of revenue. Put pressure on other publishers and the magazine distributors who are party to junk getting into the system and sucking up cash in for form of retail real estate, labour and payment for stock from newsagents.
Publishers, distributors and newsagents who want a viable magazine distribution channel need to resolve these issues … and quickly.
Just received my network bill.
Deliveries $7970, credits $5127.Net $2843.
I recd all bagged titles. I check sales history and keep all titles that have sold previously to maximum sales plus 1. Most bagged issues now come as issue#1 and have no history. All bagged issues require full return- added cost. most bagged issues have longer shelf life than 1 month.
To help cash flow it is important to early return on last return of month. I early return most bagged mags so I only pay for those sold during month and that i am billed for in the same month. My biggest gripe is the extra cost for returning bagged mags in full. The bagged mags mainly come from one publisher who is using our money to sell the same mags over and over. They are not monthlies but annuals and get hauled out every so often. We are dumb enough to return them as full copies which they then send out again in 6-12mths as issue #1 bagged again. Send them back in full but damaged is an idea???
Newsagents north and West of Rockhampton are able to top all returns. We then have the cost of disposal of mags but why can’t this rule apply to everyone?
Mark
Its a crazy system, other departments within Newsagents carry the Magazine Distribution model every 2 or 3 months if one is to pay their bills on time for Magazines.
Publishers and distributors must understand or realise that one cannot pay for example a $2000 per month invoice if one only sells $1000 of magazine stock.
How does the medium to larger Newsagency cope with this anomally, it puts the business and owners under pressure and it is not fair.
The only answer for most Newsagents is to supplementry return to ease the cash flow of their business.
My sense is their has been a shift in the sales outside the top 200 (correct me if I am wrong) sales are decreasing, publishers must be doing it tough – something has to break unless some sensible decisions are made by Publishers / Distributors.
FYI
The news on small business from several sources out today is “Small businesses have racked up $9.4 billion in debts to the Australian Tax Office, new figures show.
The number of people who fail to lodge a tax return stands at four million, while 700,000 set up special repayment plans with the Tax Office in 2009-10. The Tax Office expects 260,000 small businesses to default on these repayment deals.”
Yes a little of track but one should get the drift, I just dont think the majority of Newsagents can carry the Distributors and Publishers any longer. I am not saying Publishers are doing anything wrong, they have a product to sell however in some categorys it is saturated and
you can only sell so much while trying to keep solvent yourself.
I do not have any answers other than to keep supplementry returning, so I can pay my Magazine bills.
Derek,
Im with you 100%. Everything you state is true and I would prefer to order what I know will sell and even add new title that I dont currently have but that would grow my bill as magazines I dont want and cancel keep reappearing after a few months. I am left with little choice but to reduce my magazine space and introduce another line such as books where I am in control of what I order and when. They need to get their house in order as even Woollies and Coles are reducing magazine space and growing cards instead. They are %^&%&^& in their own nests as the old saying goes.
Mark you are right about this and what you have been writing about magazine distribution. I have had a publisher complain to me about early returns. The same publisher refuses to help newsagents fix the issues which cause us to early return as we do. Keep up the good work I read the blog every day.