Woman’s Day and Who Whitney Houston specials

Newsagents in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland (but not FNQ) have an opportunity tomorrow to drive incremental business with the special edition of Woman’s Day covering the passing this week of Whitney Houston.  We have prepared for the opportunity by deciding to place the special issue at the counter, next to newspapers as well as next to the current issue of Woman’s Day in our women’s weeklies section.

Who is out tomorrow nationally with a Whitney Houston feature as well. Friday is the usual on-sale for the title. We will have Who placed next to the Woman’s Day special at the counter and with newspapers as a Whitney fan is likely to purchase both titles.  Who is a strong seller for us and certainly a traffic generator on Friday and the weekend.

Special issues like what we will see tomorrow present newsagents with an opportunity to not only drive incremental sales but to also compete successfully with other retailers of magazines. Supermarkets, petrol outlets and convenience stores all operate off planograms. This limits how they can respond to special issues.  Our newsagency channel does not suffer from this rigidity. We can demonstrate the importance of our channel to suppliers through our actions tomorrow.

FOOTNOTE: Newsagents may need to check with their software company for handling the Woman’s Day special issue as the data will be out of cycle for the usual. Newsagents using newsagency software form my Tower Systems company were emailed advice early this morning.