Memo to Your Brides Guide publisher from a newsagent

We received the Your Brides Guide yesterday for the first time and I’m ready to early return the lot. However, as it’s a full copy return and bulk, I am going to give it a couple of weeks before I freight it back to Network at my cost (which sucks!!).

While the title comes with three months delayed billing, that does not give it any rights.

The publisher says, in a note with the title, Your Brides Guide is a High value publication with low space requirement. No it’s  not. This title has a high space requirement. It does not fit in traditional magazine fixturing. Either I create something new or I place it with wedding gift lines off of which I make more than twice the gross profit.

The publisher says open up a copy in your newsagent and watch sales go through the roof. Really? First off, the business is a  newsagency not a newsagent. The owner of the business sis a newsagent.  You say sales will go through the roof yet offer no evidence to support your claim.

The publisher claims Almost $7 earned per copy sold.  Based on shopping centre rent and given the space requirements of the title – especially if I open a copy like they want – I would need to sell two copies a week just to pay for the space it would take. The earnings comment from the publisher shows little understanding of the operating costs of many newsagency businesses.

For this title to be of any real interest I need to be making at least $14.00 per issue and preferably more.

More newsagents will reduce their magazine focus if the numbers continue to fail like they do for Your Brides Guide.