I was shocked at news from a publisher recently about the number of newsagents who early returned a new title the day it came out, without even giving it a shot on the shelves.
Newsagents backed their own opinion over the considerable research of the publisher. Sales in newsagencies where the title was promoted show that newsagents were wrong to early return the title without giving it a go.
I cannot see any reason why would you early return a title on the day of launch and weeks before you would need to return it to avoid being billed – i.e. before the end of month cut off in the month in which it went on sale.
Seriously, why would you do this?
These newsagents have sent the message to this publisher and other publishers that the newsagency channel is not the channel of magazine specialists.
Supermarkets do not early return. Newslink stores do not early return. 7-Eleven stores do not early return. Okay, they do not have the same terms or title volume as us. I’ll go back to my point, it would not have hurt newsagents to try this title for three weeks at least.
What do you think publishers make of this when they get together. They look more carefully at these other channels of course.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not against early returning. No, I am only against early returning on the first day of sale of a new title or early returning to a point where return below your average sales of a title and thereby deny your business of absolutely certain revenue.
These newsagents who early returned this new title have made our whole channel look bad. I could understand this publisher pursuing a supermarket only model with their next new title launch. This is a serious consideration for them … thanks to the newsagents who allowed this new title to be sent back without justification.
We are our own worst enemy sometimes. While some may have an excuse, I don’t see any which I could accept.
This title could have sat on the shelves for at least three weeks before being returned in advance of the end of month cut off. There was no cash flow need to send it back the day it was released. Okay, you could argue about space but even then I’d say not given what we now know – that this title sold well.
I don’t know what we can do about this issue as we newsagents are only as good as our worst operator, sadly. This is why groups with disciplines will emerge and separate themselves from the newsagency shingle.
I am not about to name the title. It could be any one of several with a number of launches over the last two months – there have been plenty including partworks. How would it be if we lost partworks to supermarkets? Dreadful!
