Following my post about Spearfishing Downunder, some newsagents contacted me to advise of gross oversupply. They were angry at the magazine. Something had gone wrong in the switch of the title from IPS to Gotch. Talking with the publisher and seeing their approach, it is clear to me than newsagents should go direct to the publisher in any situation of oversupply.
Gotch told one newsagent to top and trash the 28 excess copies of Spearfishing Downunder they received by mistake. Besides the waste of the small print run title, this is no way to mix an oversupply based on a genuine mistake. They should have picked up the extra stock. The publisher could sell it. Telling a newsagent to throw away 28 copies and claim a credit is, in my view, like theft against the publisher.
By telling the publisher about an oversupply situation, the newsagent could well be advising the publisher about a situation of which they were unaware. A good publisher will engage and get to the bottom of what happened. This could work for everyone. If we don’t go to the publisher then mistakes and poor behaviour may continue.
We were not oversupplied but we are glad it has gone to Gotch as we do not deal with IPS. As this was a good seller previously it has been displayed in a high traffic area and have already sold a few copies which is helped by the outstanding cover which makes it stand out.
Mark i do understand what you are saying but Publishers have to start accepting responsablity about over supply , they employ the distributors to send out stock so they need to fix this problem on there end . Stop printing so much dam stock ,it is quiote simple , if you give GG 100000 mags to deliver then they will deliver them , they ar not goiing to store thgem are they . give them 80000 to deliver and they will deliver just the correct amount
Im with Shaun on this one. Its not like G&G have much of a say, if they get 100,000 copies that they are paid to distribute then they ahve to distribute them all. Its the publisher that decides print qty not the distributor….
Hey Mt T. Welcome to the blog. I wish you’d tell us who you are. I can see you’re from PMP from your IP address. So who are you?
On your comment, Gotch enters into the contracts which ultimately result in what newsagents are supplied. You say on your website that you are distribution experts. All we want is for you to show that you deserve to be called distribution experts.
Craig Davison says Gordon and Gotch does not oversupply. Your comment indirectly acknowledges you do and that it’s the fault of publishers.
MrT i thought i was on my own on this one . Every one including myself is always to keen to blame the distributors (i do it a lot) but when you sit back and think about it ,it makes a little sence that the publisher has to be the one to blame also
i would like to hear from one of the publishers on this one
It seems that our correspondent from within PMP does not want to respond. Mr T?
Nor does any other publisher
Shaun publishers have had plenty to say on this topic here in the past. I am more interested in the anonymous correspondent from within PMP.
Is it not the responsibility of the distributor to advise publishers the quantity required to service the market? It seems newsagents blame distributors and distributors blame publishers – and no one is to blame.
Tim ,we shall never know the truth
At the end of the day we have to blame the distributor because they are the ones we have the account with ,they are our supplier after all and not the publisher . What is really annoying is when the publisher then blames us for returning the ones that do not sell . Do not print the extra magazines ,it is
That simple . The amount of double packs we get just prove that these publishers over print every run .print what you sell not what you want the circulation numbers to look like because these are false numbers and it only happens for advertising dollars
To put some perspective on this topic, how many newsagents received NONE of this title? I am one for starters and I think that I recently had a customer enquiring about spear fishing mags.
While the publishers would have a great say if not full control of the size of the print run they would not decide who gets supply or how many they receive.
If some are getting too many copies and others such as myself none it indicates that over printing is not necessarily the problem but lazy/poor distributorship probably is. Put yourself in the publishers position and realise that the distributor should have a far better idea of how many titles of a category each newsagent can handle as they collate or should collate this sales for all titles in a category and have data the publishers cannot possibly have at hand prior to deciding the size of a print run.
I am currently cancelling overseas puzzle titles received from G&G (unless sales are regularly good). While it is a strong category and we give it generous space more titles arrive than we can handle so I want to stick to local publications where possible.
Mark, is there an email address we can contact Gotch on to specify our stock requirements for this category??
I just want to clarify and sorry about the delay in responding. I’m not pushing blame solely to publishers nor an I saying oversupply does/doesn’t happen. My point is more that a distributor should not be held solely accountable as they need to distribute the copies given to them.
Mr T, distributors are our suppliers, we are their customers. In terms of our relationship, they are the only party commercially accountable to us.
How about letting us know your role in PMP?
There is too much histrionic complaining to and fro between distributors and newsagents on the issue of oversupply .
Surely if you are handling the magazine arrival process diligently then any over supply can be corrected before it impacts on cash.
There’s nothing wrong with giving new titles a go, nor is there anything wrong with having another go, in a different way , with slow titles from the past. There is also nothing wrong in sending back duds. It’s a frequent and routine business decision that is an essential part of being a newsagent.
Frankly our biggest frustration is under supply. If we have an edition of a title that runs hot getting back up replenishments is often tricky.
This is what I’d prefer to see more discussion about. The fact that distributors don’t seem to appreciate the connection between content and sales potential is a big part of this.
By the way I’m a newsagent.
I agree with you totally Kevin but please consider that over supply of another outlet is likely to be the reason you cannot get enough stock of same titles when you sell out.
My post #13 ……. if some are getting too many copies and others such as myself none it indicates that over printing is not necessarily the problem but lazy/poor distributorship probably is.
Oversupply does have a number of consequences not the least of which is lost sales for under supplied agents AND the publishers.
Mr T,
Distributors have the ability to control the amount of stock they both receive and distribute.
It is my understanding that they generally control the terms of the contracts with both publishers and newsagents.
While they cannot control the number of copies printed by the publisher, they can control the amount they accept to distribute. If a publisher asks them to oversupply (which may possibly be illegal) without reasonable explanation or consultation with the retailer then it is the distributors responsibility to reject the request.