A colleague at my newsagency software company shared a story about his 85 year old grandfather using an iPad for the first time over Christmas. Within a few minutes of being shown the Herald Sun iPad app he was reading the newspaper and loving the experience. The real test came when he wanted to do the crossword. Again, he loved the experience, declaring the iPad a hit.
The experience turned someone who figured that the older readers would be the hardest to convert from print to digital into a believer that digital has no age barriers. The question from those who watched the 85 year old was not a matter of if newspapers would end but when.
While I do see challenges for newspaper sales in the near-term, I see less challenges for magazines, especially special interest titles and magazines which offer valued content. We are making the most of traffic today to connect with shoppers in new categories and to become known in these. Our focus is on key occasion shopping and habit based shopping. These are two excellent opportunities for newsagents.
So, while I recognise that print readers will migrate, we are adjusting the business to ensure relevance and, indeed, drive new traffic.
Is anyone else sick of hearing the same stories over and over again. Newspapers are dead blah blah blah. This is why I only look at this blog once a month if lucky now as it is the same old story.
Mark – we all get that newspapers are declining and that we have to focus on growth areas (which successful newsagents are doing) but I think it is time that you let that story go and move on.
So what that an 85 year old was using an Ipad. Age is no barrier anymore and has not been for along time.
Time for some new and fresh stuff on your blog or you will keep just getting the same comments from the same people time after time.
Mark, we all know that you are an IPAD fan. But I wonder whether Grandfather has a new IPad for Christmas, or was he just being “sold” the idea of the IPad by his tech-savvy young relative who has one? We all know there is an impact, but I suspect Grandfather does not own one, has no intention of getting one and will continue to buy papers as long as he is around.
Bruce, my understanding is that there was no selling involved. FYI, I would not call myself an iPad “fan”.
Chris, There is plenty of fresh content at this blog. Of the almost 10,000 posts here, 209 mention the iPad.
I’d also not that this blog attracts new readers all the time.
If you don’t like a post skip over it.
There will be some newsagents who look at what has changed sometime in the future and say: why wasn’t I told. Hopefully, me banging on about change encourages newsagents to be more entrepreneurial in their approach.
if you dont like a post…. dont read it.
if you dont like a blog….. find another one…. or start your own.
if you hate too much stuff, see your doctor
While some will migrate to the IPad (or what look to be some of the better tablets that are being released in the next few months) and stay there , other won’t. I had one of my late fifties , professional customers cancel her papers after getting an IPad. Three weeks later she was back in to get her papers put back on as she just found that she didn’t enjoy the same experience on the Ipad as with a paper and its tactile feel. It’s just horses for courses !
Are newspaper companies pushing customers to other forms of the news, when they do not increase our supply in peak times? We can change our supply on Connect only to have execs change it back, with little consideration of our demographics. When I rang I was told to ring my area rep, (who is on holidays!)
Paul,
The argument that some people will always prefer newspapers, while valid, only leads us to the problem of critical mass. Newspapers need large circulation numbers to make their business model work. The point at which most newspapers become financially unviable will come well before many people choose to migrate to an electronic platform.
Interesting. Here is the converse. Our 14 yo daughter was given a KOBO for Christmas. SHe is an avid reader and already has 15 or so books downloaded. We were browsing in a Dymocks this morning and she was just as excited and absorbed as she usually is about the various offers. She has worked worked early mornings over the break and was quite prepared to spend the money on real books despite knowing she can buy the same titles on line for half the price. The definitive stament being: “I like to see nice books on my shelves”.
The newspaper companies dont seem to care anymore. Over the Xmas period with newsagencies closed, the newspaper company (that does the delivery round for this area themselves) did not increase supply for the subagents by even one paper. The whole area was out of papers by 9AM and they refused to deliver more. If they think thats good business then they deserve to fail.
Kevin,
The same has been said about CDs (that people like to have a collection they can see and display) and letters (that people like to feel the paper and have a physical record). Both are dead or dying, because the advantages of their digital counterparts eventually outweigh the benefits of the old medium, and the nostalgia that goes with it, to the point where critical mass comes into effect. As fewer people buy CDs they become more expensive to produce … which drives more people to downloads … which drives more music stores out of business … which reduces the availability of CDs … which drives even more people to downloads … and process continues exponentially. The same can be said for the future of books, newspapers and magazines.
Jarryd, that’s not entirely true in regard to a media source dieing out.
Vinyl records were declared dead years ago with the advent of the CD, yet this year has been the biggest selling year for vinyl records globally in 20 years as theyve started to come back into demand (higher quality fidelity than CDs apparently ! ). CDs haven’t infact become dearer to produce with dropping demand, they’ve actually become cheaper due to improved production technicques. What has driven CD prices higher has for a large part been all of the “middle men” and the record companies drive for higher profit. Indeed many musicians signed to labels make less than they would have years ago unless theyre one of the top artists. (I have a friend who worked for a major label).
Personally I can’t see books dieing out any time in the near or even mid future.
Magazines and Newspapers I do agree with you in regard to and believe that they do have a very finite life span. The question is what is that span ? What will the publishers do to extend the life of the model and squeeze more cash out of it ? When will the all important advertising dollar drive them to fully migrate to the new (electronic) medium on a sole basis of production ?
@ Brett. I have the same problem. My paper sales this month compared to last year are up 8% yet the idiots keep trying to cut my supply and have basically halved this Saturdays supply over a “normal” Saturday after I had adjusted it up taking into account the expected footfall and demand for the big lotto this Saturday. I had three Saturdays at one point where they cut my supply significantly and I ran out of the major paper by 10:30am and couldn’t get any more. They’ve completely lost the plot !
Paul,
The argument that Vinyl is not dead is only true if one does not distinguish between niche and mass markets. Vinyl records are still a highly niche market in which product is relatively expensive and there is little economies of scale.
While the cost of producing CDs has dropped due to improved production techniques, a continued drop in sales will inevitably lead to a higher unit production cost than would be achieved if sales were increasing. Regardless, it would have been more accurate for me to say “As fewer people buy CDs the total unit cost from production to retail sale increases”.
The retail price of a CD has not changed greatly in some time. The medium suffers the same problem as newspapers, magazines and books in the sense that if they increase prices in line with increased costs, they are likely to drive more people to downloads and hasten it’s move from mass market to niche.
I think books still have some life left in them but I think their demise will come sooner than many think. They already have a well established digital platform that appears to have breached the technology age barrier and gone mainstream. There are some niche categories of books I don’t think will be replaced by a digital equivalent such as kids books that engage the senses, coffee table books, collectable books, etc, but I see no reason that the mass market segment of the medium will not continue its trend towards the ebook platforms.
On the question of “what will the publishers do to extend the life of the model?” I think we first need to ask the questions ‘Will the publishers try to extend the model?’ and if the answer is yes ‘To what extent will they extend the model?’. It may be the case they some publishers choose not to extend the model very far, it at all, and make a conscious move to pre-emptively move to a digital only format with the prospect of short term pain for long term gain. Unfortanatly there is a very limited information flow from the major print media outlets as to their short, med and long term plans. It puts retailers in a position where they must look towards plans that are in no way invariably dependent on the decisions of major publishers.
I read all the above and listen to the likes of gerry harvey and online purchasing etc and think if all the trends continue will there even be shops let alone goods to sell in them. Perhaps all those shopping centres are doomed to… gone the way of Drive in cinemas and Video libraries. All we will need to buy is an I pod and make all purchases on line. No need for shops. We can have the veggies, milk, meat and bread delivered to the door?????
Wally, I think Gerry is a media tart who focuses solely on what Gerry needs.
Newsagents have an excellent future – if we run newsagents focused on excellent (genuinely excellent) customer service, provide easy local access to products people want and offer value from engagement with us.
if all the shops go, then so will all the jobs and the economy is down the gurgler, so cant see online shopping working so well when half the population is unemployed, and what little cash there is left in the economy is being sent offshore in interenet sales. just cant see that model working at all.
there will always be change, some businesses will flounder, some will flourish. Depending on what you do within your business will have more of a impact on where your business will be in 10 years than any other external factor
Due to isolation and poor delivery services I have had no deliveries for three days over Christmas and will have none on Sun and Mon. Last Fridays mags were delivered yesterday (Thursday). I won’t have another delivery until next Thursday. The die hard – “can’t live without my paper” customers are talking about iPads. I think I probably have lost a few regulars to them this holiday period. On the bright side we have had acouple of days off with the family while they are visiting instead of them having to live in the shop with us while they are here.
carol, how isolated are you? how far from a capital city?
340K north of Cairns – Cooktown. Most northerly town on the East Coast. We are as far away from our capitol Brisbane as Melbourne is away from Brisbane. The Austalian and Courier and Sat Cairns Post are printed in Townsville but thats still about 800k south.
Rick, this is why Australia should focus on innovation and technology and becoming a smart country. I would prefer to buy online from local companies if the were available and competitive on price.
Craig, Rick, it’s why the government should follow the lead from NZ, Vietnam and some other countries and give tax breaks to companies which develop innovative, productivity focused products.
Well that rules out the ipod Mark, as you still have to hold it with one hand and scroll with the other.
Carol, there must be all sorts of different issues related to being that remote. but i guess you dont have to scrape the ice off the windscreen to do the delivery run during winter……. but you probably dont have a delivery run.
No delivery run but we still delivery a few to our old favourites who can no longer make it to the shop- no delivery fee but great satisfaction. I would never have bought a shop with a delivery run. The customer bass is changing with much the same trend you are all seeing. I have a bit of a monoploy because of distance but on line shopping is taking its toll even for back to school.
Ditto for us with the online shopping Carol. We’re no where near as remote, about 400 km from Perth, but as we’re the Post Office too, we see the parcels coming in. Usually its the big ticket items.
Back to school is still big for us though as the local public school use us a lot, the private school uses Woolridges though.
Our delivery run was let go by the last owners and its good to see the oldsters come in for their daily paper and a chat. Gives us a chance to check up on them. A couple, if they don’t come in, we give them a call to check they’re okay as they live alone. Their families appreciate it and it helps maintain that local small town feel that helps us by keeping the locals shopping local.