I have heard stories from four newsagents this week where customers have complained that the newsagent wanted to charge for a newspaper which was free elsewhere. It is bound to happen given the growth in outlets where newspapers are given away: airports, gyms, coffee shops, supermarkets. All of these free newspapers are educating shoppers and newsagents are having to deal with this.
My view is that any supplier respecting their product would not give it away as freely as newspaper publishers appear to be prepared to do right now, especially not when they have retailers who rely on newspaper sales for their businesses and who support newspapers and newspaper promotions.
If publishers do not address this and respect retail newsagents there will be a clash.
The best solutions is that publishers stop giving away their product.
Free newspapers (may as well be, no margin), pos and of course in-store display promotions with a chance to win a prize. Unfortunately they have educated newsagents over the years that their time is worth nothing and some of us encourage them by taking photos on the chance of a holiday that we all deserve and could afford if we had the chance to control our margins and they could get their model correct!
Another solution could be to stop delivering them, so that those ‘customers’ would also have to schlep down to the airport, or the supermarket, or *gasp* the newsagent.
Perhaps consumer expectations of the price reflects the quality of journalism!
Today’s newspapers are little more than a daily gossip magazine. There is very litle quality journallism and attention to detail and accuracy have been replaced by quick dealines and dramatisation.