The latest magazine sales audit results released overnight covering January through June 2013 compared to 2012 show a decline in sales around what I have reported here in the newsagency sales benchmark study.
Overall magazine sales are down around 8%. Car magazine sales are down on average well into double digits, girl magazines, Dolly and Girlfriend and both down more than 12%.
The Australian Woman’s Weekly has achieved what I’d call a good result, down 1.4%. In this market I expect Bauer would be happy.
Better Homes and Gardens has also achieved a good result with no change. Pacific would be happy with that.
As I wrote earlier today, frankie is the shining light with growth of more than 10%. This is interesting since frankie plays close to the Dolly and Girlfriend space.
In the weekly space, the results are not great but not a disaster considering the overall market situation: Woman’s Day down 4.2%, New Idea down 4.4%, Take 5 down 8.9%, That’s Life down 12.2%, Famous down 14.4%, NW down 6.9%,OK! Down 7% and Who down 8.9%.
I would like to see data comparing titles performance in the various retail channels and even comparing individual businesses in the newsagency channel. I’d like to see if there is migration of the magazine shopper from one channel to another. I’d also like to see how shoppers respond to the different tactics newsagents use in the category.
I have used the magazine club card loyalty program since mid 2004 and for years this helped achieve a better than average result. In February this year I switched, cold turkey, to a unique discount voucher program that front-ended loyalty. My basket data shows that this program has generated considerable incremental magazine sales for us, sales I am certain we would not have achieved.
So, I’d like to see more thorough store level analysis so the channel can understand the success of the various tactical programs being used by newsagents. I’d be happy to share my data, for the good of the channel, to see how what I do stacks up.
From where I sit the evidence is pretty strong that shoppers are over the old points based approach. They prefer a dollar value discount as a reward for above average behavior.
It would be a mistake for newsagents to see the audit numbers and feel encouraged to retreat further from the category.
I am certain we can increase magazine sales by churning shoppers from one retailer or retail channel to us. While it’s hard work, sales are there for the taking.
Mark, you haven’t mentioned home magazines – home beautiful, house & garden, real living, how are they performing? And also food and craft titles.
Click on the link Mark included Jenny.
Thanks Brendan. The brain is having a day off today.
Yeah some good numbers in that category.
Mark, for my own information I’m going to compare the performance of these titles in our store for the corresponding period. I’ll send you the spreadsheet once I’ve completed it. Fell free to use it as you see fit.
Bauer must be panicking or more newsagencies have shut their doors??
Just brought in my labels for next week
from Network and the increments are upwards of 10% to 25% on magazines which HAVE A RETURN FACTOR ALREADY
SO THERE IS NO REASON FOR THE INCREASES.
Bauer obviously say “we have 4 closures this week so send the same amount of product out and share it amongst the idiots who are left in this industry”
That is how we are being treated.
I have family in Caltex SS and they have a planogram which MUST be adhered to or they won’t pay their bills so some companies are being treated differently from others- namely newsagents.
I am going to do the same as Brendan and compare my sales to this report. Without even looking though I think my sales are going to be much the same.
Some very interesting drops arent there ? Some kids mags like Mania and Girl Power are down, has Mum and Dad run out of money?
Nearly all “Trader” type titles are way down, are people buying boats, cars etc online?
Lads mags down, zoo gets a mention but Picture and people dont, is this another category lost to the internet…? (LOL!)
Quality Mags (like Frankie) seem to be rising to the top, does this show that people will spend their hard earned on a quality mag?
Lots to ponder……
Im interested in knowing how your collectables ie footy cards, sports cards, kids cards/stickers/albums are performing YoY and what that segment is worth.. Ive done some ridiculous numbers this year and am looking how to display them better in the new year to further that growth
Best report for this comparison? I’m having trouble finding one unless I save the Category and Segment repost as a spread sheet and insert some formulas to work out the percentages. Is there a better report?
I’m with June.
Bauer/Network are pumping up the quantity allocations with no rhyme or reason at the moment. This signals their desperation to me. The only way to protect oneself is with constant early returns, because attempts at changing standing orders are a joke ( Ok, I did have one “win” , got one title cut from 12 copies to 11 (I had requested 12 down to six, since I am selling 3…..)
Jeff, we are the same with AFL footy cards ( I don’t bother much with anything else, we are in the country so the city trendy stuff (ie Clover cards) don’t translate to us here) 30% inc this year on last. We only ever operate on word of mouth and face to face sales, to build up trust and interaction. I think the demand should be as good next year, only display we have is a full box of cards on the front counter for the kids to rifle through ! Now if the supplier of these cards quadruples quantities next year and floods the market and gives them away free at the supermarket checkout everywhere, then of course we will suffer a sales reduction. So, we are at the mercy of the suppliers behaviour. Who knows what they are thinking.
Same as partworks – two times in a week we have been ranted at by subscription customers who have checked their credit card bills and realised they are paying postage for their tractors/military vehicle/fighter plane whatever. Well, we can get them the item, but no extra binders, display units, dolls house lol etc etc. Swings and roundabouts !! Customer is stuffed either way ! How wonderful to put the customer between a rock and a hard place, and remain all powerful – all the partwork provider needs is a constant source of new suckers ! ! Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me……… caveat emptor, ethics and morals are a shadow of what they were in the past. I would not do a handshake deal with many of my larger “commercial partners” next week.
Lots of small retailers and even big retailers (Target) are having a tough time. Sales are down everywhere so it is only natural for one of our categories to be down. The fact that Frankie has seen YoY growth says to me that the magazine market is still there. It is just about relevance.
We have downsized our shop and this year I was worried about AFL trading cards but I kept ordering more and have
been unable to get any for the last 6 weeks????????.
Customers simply don’t understand “there are no more unfortunately”.
Why do we run out all the time?
If xchangeit is working then GG know
EXACTLY what we have sold and surely if there are NO RETURNS we should get a natural increment.
That said I have sold double the amount of trading cards from the previous year even though the shop is half the size.
The look of horror on the kids’ faces is so
upsetting when they realize they can’t get
any more (not to mention me crying because of the lost turnover).
If GG are going to handle them they need to life their game or we will simply have to go direct to the publisher and let them know how it works – badly.
“they need to lift their game” should be
read not life their game” sorry – bad
editing
HI June, Ive had the same trouble with the AFL Team Zone game cards (the yellow ones). Not sure if it is G&G or the supplier not providing enough. Regardless it is so frustrating and I have lost so many sales over it. The Select AFL Cards (red ones) have been constantly available and Ive sold well over 50 boxes of those, even if I had to wait a week on backorder though NDC.
Red ones sold very very well, Jeff,but the kids WANTED THE YELLOW ONES.
Talk about frustrating.
I would love to know the shift in consumer buying trends in comparison to the latest audited figures. What percentage of each title is being sold:
(a) through retail channel and it’s breakup of news agency, convenience and supermarket sales.
(b) through subscription – via direct subscription and internet sites
(c) if the figures also include sales of the titles in a digital format.
In our stores I have seen a large downward trend in titles which are heavily discounted through subscription. It appears the huge subscription discounts offered on those titles have over the past 3-5 years significantly eroded sales at the retail level.
Amand unfortunately the publishers will not provide this data. I am confident we can grow magazine sales for ourselves. It’s hard work but doable.