South Australian newsagents I spoke with at the Ancol Trade Expo in Adelaide yesterday were upbeat about business despite the uncertainty surrounding newspaper distribution caused y the News Limited ‘study’ into the future model of newspaper distribution.
Many newsagents now realise that they need not wait for news to decide since they can make decisions themselves about the future direction of their own businesses. It was good to hear of the proactive plans of some newsagents. It was also good to hear people ‘owning’ their future by embracing change before change hunts them down.
My only criticism of the day is that I would have liked to see magazine publishers and distributors represented.
Neither publishers nor smart phones have the accumulated masses to take newspaper advertising online in the dollars they are after. Publishers are in a real quandry as the market that has smart phones are not interested in their brand. Conversely the market that has interest in newspaper brands by and large do not have smart phones. Lookout for publishers attempts to hook people into apps that display their products. A warning to advertisers though, do your homework before signing up as you may be bitterly disappointed with the takeup of apps for Newspaper brands. Newsagent retail and delivery sales are gold for publishers right now. The problem for publishers is that many within their hierarchy are old school and addicted to intimidation of newsagents rather than partnership building. Fairfax’s current result would come as no surprise to those within the industry.