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Magazine sales up 39% in the lead up to Christmas

Our magazine unit sales grew 39% in December to the close of business December 24 compared to the same period last year.

To put this in perspective, store traffic grew 9% in the same period.

What is most interesting is that Special Interest titles grew 136%. They now account for 18.54% of all magazines sold, up from 12.23%. Special interest titles are important in that they are mainly titles which no other retailers carry.

The other favourite category of mine is Crosswords. Sales are up 74% and this category accounts for 9.43% of total magazine sales. Crossword sales are important as they deliver us a habit based shopper. I love habit based shoppers … they are the foundation of any good newsagency.

We are working hard to reduce our overall reliance on major titles while growing their sales at the same time. Sales of Women’s Weeklies titles grew 8% this year compared to last. This is excellent in a market recording an average decline of 5%.

But let me come back to the traffic increase of 9%. The magazine sales growth speaks to an extraordinary increase in sales efficiency. This is the result of planning and hard work. While we are frustrated with the magazine distribution model, we work it hard … the results are in the numbers.

So, for all the doom and gloom some people talk about, we can make our own success. I put some of our success down to the complete magazine relay I undertook three months ago. While there are other factors, our sales graph shows this as a key contributor to our most recent sales growth. Every newsagent can kick start magazine sales with a well planned and aggressive relay.

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  1. Luke

    So the acp stand out the front did not effect sales or in fact it might have added to sales.

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  2. Mark

    Luke, nothing to do with the ACP stand as it was there for a week out of the month.

    No, our success is our success to own.

    Regardless, I don’t see how an ACP Magshop representative standing out the front of the newsagency yelling that they have great subscription deals at their stand could help our sales.

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  3. allan wickham

    Mags up 6% here which i am reasonably happy with. Standout performers include Crosswords 22%, Motoring 30%, Music 31% and Food/Wine 30%, a nice mix overall. Interesting to note Adult down 45% and Womens Interest down 21% not sure why (yet). Got to be happy with any increase really but must agree with Mark on relaying your mags……it does make a huge difference and allows you to interact more with customers you might not normally do so with.

    Cheers
    Al

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  4. Angelo

    The cynic in me says that by putting up a Magshop offering out the front of a successful newsagency would make more sense than a poorly performing one.
    In other words your newsagency is obviously a “go to” for mags and lets feed off that foot traffic.
    Notwithstanding the above, great results Mark!

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  5. Luke

    From my point of if I was walking past and someone was pushing mag subscriptions it would make me think of mags and then when I saw the newsagent I would be more inclined to go in and look if not buy. Same as calendar outpost, not all customers like supporting faceless outposts but it reminds them of what they need. I would think it was like tv ads, even if it does not promote your shop direct it reminds people of what you sell.

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  6. Mark

    Luke they were’t there long enough to do that. They did this twice to us, each time for a couple of minutes. Also, they way they did it was no promotion of us at all. You had to be there.

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  7. Luke

    Fair call Mark, I was thinking it was for the last week leading in.

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  8. June

    Alan, my husband tells me every December that we are down with our weekly women’s mags (and monthlies) and my answer has been the same for 33 years- WOMEN ARE BUSY DOING ALL THE SHOPPING, ALL THE COOKING AND ALL THE PREPARATIONS THAT GO WITH HAVING XMAS SO THEY DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ.

    You only have to hear the blokes in the shop on Xmas eve telling us that they haven’t purchased anything yet to know that Xmas is very time consuming for women (hence the downturn in mag sales)
    and don’t bother to tell me off please anybody, because I am not anti-male but that is just how it is in the main. I guess
    there are a few exceptions but I don’t see too many.
    An example – man comes into my shop last week with child in pusher – buys 2 x papers and 2 x mags. HE HAS A DAY OFF.
    Woman comes into my shop to purchase
    Xmas cards to go home and write (all day job) and she has two children with her who are tired and crotchety after visiting
    FX etc so tell me when she is going to sit
    down and have a little read????????
    Do you get my drift now Alan?
    Have a happy new year everyone!!!!!!! but
    don’t forget next year the mags will be
    the same as this year!!!!!

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  9. Vicki

    No arguments here June. Thats exactly what we see too.

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  10. Luke

    sounds like santa missed June’s house this yr.

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  11. Max

    And the reason for women doing all the Xmas shopping?
    Simple, really. They care about it all.
    Most men don’t. They just want it to be over.

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  12. Jarryd Moore

    June,

    Can’t resist playing devils advocate 🙂

    It would be difficult to make the argument that because one chose to spend their time performing an unnecessary task (i.e. writing out Xmas cards) that they had less time to perform another task (i.e. reading magazines). Both people from your story had equal time, they just chose to spend it differently.

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  13. Brendan

    Mag sales were up for us up 16% and this looks even better when our sales both value and number were down 8%. Just goes to show how important mags are becoming to us. Now to fix up that traffic problem although post Christmas traffic seems to be normal.

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  14. June

    I just love stirring you all up. Interesting that my support came from a woman – thanks Vicki.
    Santa does come to me every year – I have 8 gorgeous grandchildren aged from 16 down to 1 and I know how lucky I am.
    Jarryd do you have a wife and does she send Xmas cards??? Please don’t tell me
    you FB everyone for Xmas or email your entire address book with a Xmas message because I love reading your messages here
    and I want to continue to like you in 2012.
    Happy New Year everyone!!!

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  15. Paul

    Upto the 24th I was down 3% in Mag dollar sales but actually even in units sold – presumably people are buying cheaper magazines here.

    All other departments except for confectionary were up by double figures (38% cards and wrap for example) and I saw 2% more people through the door. Post counter was also up considerably.

    Will see what sort of difference a new magazine relay makes early next year.

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  16. allan wickham

    June, i like your theory on why Womans mags are down but dont you females have the capacity to multi-task????? 🙂

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  17. hz

    we only got 24 hours in a day though allan !!

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  18. Jarryd Moore

    June,

    No June, no FB messages, emails or wife … its far worse … A FB status update, text messages and unattached 😀

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  19. Peter

    Congratulations Mark, considering the state of magazine circulation and retail in general, that’s a pretty outstanding result.

    Get that growth again next year and I’d say your wasting your abilities in a news agency.

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