Having your top selling newspapers in a shelf, display or some other stand by themselves is a missed opportunity for every newsagent. At the very least you need to place at least one magazine next to your top selling newspaper(s) always. We place two. Ever since we started this years ago it has worked a treat for us.
By far the best performing magazine next to newspapers is Better Homes and Gardens. This is especially true Thursdays through Sundays. back in the day we counted what we placed with newspapers, to gather data on what works best. hence our certainty that BHG is the best title here for us. For the entire first two weeks of the on-sale we have BHG between the Herald Sun and The Age. We often hve a second title – but that varies based on what we think will work, changing it at least weekly.
If you don’t have a magazine or two with newspapers at the moment, try it – you are certain to sell more copies of the magazines you place here.
Mark you put me onto this a year ago and I have to say it works for us. We do BHG as you suggested but we also put Top gear and Men’s health there when they come out and have the same success. Great idea!