Two months ago I wrote about the unjustified increase in supply of Luxury Travel magazine by magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch. The title has failed to work, it did not sell. It has spent the two months on the shelf, taking up a pocket, not selling a single copy. And, yes, we gave it time in the best spot in travel titles.
While the magazine geniuses at Gordon and Gotch will no doubt say that there is a reason they increased my supply from 2 copies to 5 and that I am wrong to complain here, they will have no evidence to support their position. They made the wrong decision to increase my supply. Indeed, it looks to me like a cash grab – they had spare stock and had to place it somewhere since I suspect they make more money shipping magazines out than holding them in the warehouse.
Magazine publishers wondering why newsagents early return their stock need look no further than this blog post. It is this type of unjustified magazine oversupply which causes some newsagents to struck back, early returning product without looking at sales data.
Fix whatever caused the unjustified oversupply of Luxury Travel and you take a good step toward fixing magazine oversupply.
Let’s look at the consequences of the Gotch behaviour with this title. They increased my supply from 2 to 5. They supplied on the last trading day of December. They got their distribution fee and they will get their return fee. They also got my cash for the extra 3 copies for a while. There are some newsagents who think this is the key game of magazine distributors – cash management.
All I know is that Gotch has failed yet again and no amount of spin from the top of the company can excuse this appalling and on-going behaviour. The evidence speaks for itself.
Mark,
Maybe you should have been dumb and early returned them.
I say that tongue in cheek (kinda).
I hope publishers read this and get an understanding of why newsagencies somtimes make decisions based on anger rather than data. They are not necessarily dumb but they are angry. The space can often be utilised with products that have a better return.
Less mags and more diversification. Not good for magazines in the longer term. They are self destructing in my view.
I did think about it Leon but I kept them to see if the geniuses at Gotch knew something I did not know. It turns out they did not know anything.
I certainly hope that publishers read this and other posts about unjustified increases in supply as it hurts our businesses and their sales.