Coles is offering 30% off the price of iTunes cards in return for a $50 grocery spend.
This is another example of one of the supermarket duopoly getting favoured treatment for a product which other retailers sell more of.
Shame on the parties involved in allowing Coles to have this offer as it only serves to make the duopoly stronger and thereby stifle competition.
The media and social media coverage following what I’d label grubby spiteful reporting in The Daily Telegraph yesterday about Seven Network personality Sam Armytage helped drive interest in The Australian Women’s Weekly late in the on-sale for this issue. I’m happy to see we are down to our last couple of issues.
For years newsagents begged newspaper publishers to set cover priced that were more realistic for the product being sold. News was the worst at rejecting this for well over a decade (the Tele in Sydney was $1 for 13 years I think) and Fairfax not much better. As sales of the print product have fallen, both publishers have been regularly increasing cover prices. The latest announcement, today, from Fairfax in Victoria lifts the price of all editions of The Age:
I contributed a chapter about the newsagency channel to A Companion to the Australian Media. Pre-publication orders are available now: Companion Order Form . Here’s more about this publication:
A Companion to the Australian Media is the first comprehensive, authoritative study of Australia’s press, broadcasting and new media sectors. This multi-authored, edited volume will be an essential reference work for media organisations and practitioners, media and communications academics, tertiary students, and libraries. The Companion is all the more timely given the restructures and fractures being faced by the old media, and the emergence and challenges of new communication technologies.
Australia lacks an authoritative reference work on, or history of, its media. The development of ‘new media’, the rapid uptake of new communications technologies, and the burgeoning of journalism, media and communications courses in Australian universities points to the centrality of the media and communications in contemporary Australian life, and the gap in the market that will be filled by A Companion to the Australian Media.
The Commissioning Editor, Professor Bridget Griffen-Foley, will commission and bring together new work on the history and contemporary practice of media corporations, outlets, practitioners, industries, audiences, policy and regulation in Australia. Beginning with the contemporary media landscape and working backwards, the Companion will provide coverage of all the key aspects of the Australian media – newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the internet – since the launch of Australia’s first newspaper in 1803.
I’m grateful to have been involved in this project.
Australia Post has been doing more clever stuff as it recasts its business with a stronger digital focus. The latest announcement – about its digital mailbox – further demonstrates why newsagents who want an over the counter bill payment solution for the channel are out of date in their thinking. That ship sailed years ago and here’s how Australia Post is focused on a more mobile and digital future:
Australia Post opens up its MyPost Digital Mailbox to Android smartphone users
With more Australians wanting greater convenience and choice when it comes to mail delivery, Australia Post has launched the beta release of MyPost Digital Mailbox for Android devices to the public. The Android App is available now at https://play.google.com/store?hl=en (search for MyPost Digital Mailbox). And Australia Post invites user feedback at apdm.consumer@gmail.com.
It joins the Apple iPhone App and of course the laptop or desktop options of accessing your MyPost Digital Mailbox. Whichever way you access it, MyPost Digital Mailbox gives you the power to receive and pay most bills and store important documents securely online, all in one place.
Organisations like Telstra and AMP, utilities that include Sydney Water, Goulburn Valley Water and Shoalhaven Water, myGov, and local councils across the country, are choosing to use the MyPost Digital Mailbox as a billing and statement service.
The online free storage also lets you keep records that you might need for tax or when you are travelling, and lets you manage important paperwork securely and much more efficiently. By putting all your important paperwork in one secure place that you can access anytime, anyplace where there’s an Internet connection, you can streamline the process of managing an important part of your life, at the same time freeing time to do other things
To find out more and to open your free MyPost Digital Mailbox from Australia Post, visit digitalmailbox.com.au.
Sure I have issues with Australia Post – in particular their government owned stores that continue to compete with small business newsagencies. Outside of that though, kudos to them for their work in recasting their business model.
Newsagents who want a bill payment solution to offer through our channel should spend their free time wishing for something more relevant to today.
We early returned this bundle of Wheels and Motor because I don’t want to be part of what is oe a campaign by Bauer to push down magazine revenue. I have seen no evidence that these discount magazine packs from Bauer drive incremental sales in newsagencies. I am having far more success with a whole of business loyalty program.
We have the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens with weekly newspapers, next to weekly magazines, at the counter and in this aisle end display. It’s all part of our usual first week on-sale push for what is our top selling monthly magazine. It always responds well with strong sales. We pull back after the first week to two locations.
This month we are also promoting Better Homes and Gardens at the counter with this display unit from Pacific. The unit is part of a promotion through their Nexus newsagency marketing program. I like that it’s compact and can be used in multiple locations.
I am appalled by the advertising I saw being used by Philip Morris in the Philippines earlier this week promoting Marlboro cigarettes.
DON’T BE A MAYBE BE> Marlboro reads to me like a pushy message, a demand almost. Like if you don’t smoke Marlboro you will be a maybe and who wants to be a maybe? Not Filipinos who fight to break of subsistence living and dream of being more than a maybe.
This ad is a taunt that I think is designed to play into the unique psyche of Filipinos.
This type of advertising for products that cause cancer and many other health problems is appalling. Smoke these things and maybe you’ll get cancer. Hmm, I don’t think that’s what the MAYBE in the ad means though.
Shame on Philip Morris.
Coles is also offering an amazon deal for the bundle of The Australian Women’s Weekly and Australian House & Garden for $9.95. As is printed on the bag – it’s a $4.95 saving. This is extraordinary.
I am told Coles receives margin at the full cover price of the two titles – but don;t have any evidence supporting the claim.
This bundling of these two premium and respected titles makes them look cheap and the marketing desperate.
It also, as with the other deal in my earlier post today, drives magazine shoppers to Coles and away from local newsagents. Is that what Bauer wants?
Coles is offering a range of Bauer titles in a three for $10 deal that I expect will hurt newsagency magazine sales where they compete directly with Coles. If the titles offer value why the need to discount and if there is a need to discount why only in one channel?
I am yet to see any evidence of this type of discounting driving sales outside of transit location.
ABC MD Mark Scott yesterday sent this tweet to his 59,400 Twitter followers showing him having a sit down meeting with Peppa Pig.
Sales of Peppa Pig items – cards, wrap, plush, stationery etc – are strong thanks treating the brand as a hero.
With GP of 50% and more and with the traffic it generates, Peppa is a valuable brand to have.
Should Peppa have the time I’d, too, gladly set aside time for a business meeting.
Here are all the responses to the third question on my newsagent association survey from the weekend. The third questions asked: If you are not a member of an association what must they do to get you as a member?
I edited out one response as I considered it defamatory and I am publishing this post – as opposed to comments here which are published by the commenter.
Kudos to Network Services and their publishing partner for giving newsagents the opportunity to set their own supply for the RSPCA trading cards. That Coles and Woolworths will not have this product and the free gift of a pack on Woman’s Day next week makes the opportunity compelling.
The most important aspect of this is that newsagents set their supply – as long as Network adheres to that.
Here are the results of the newsagent association relevance survey I ran Sunday through yesterday.
Of the 225 respondents, 163 (75.81%) said they were a member of an association and 52 not.
Of those currently a member, 63.31% (107) said they were not getting value for money from their membership.
The third question contains the most valuable data – what newsagents who are not part of an association want from an association for them to consider joining. I will publish that list here shortly.
Last week I tried the cashless butcher I wrote about in May. Now that they have made the transition I wanted to experience it first have.
I’d note: they are really cashless. I tried to pay with cash and they said no. In fact, I’d forgotten to bring a card and had to go back to the office to get one. In the ten minutes I was there over two visits I was the only one who asked. I think this is due to the local clientele and the excellent signage they have in-store.
The photo shows the Tyro payment station facing the customer. They have three of these – in front of each register.
It’s a busy shop. The move seems to be working well for them.
Given the average low denomination transaction value in newsagencies and the higher traffic count I suspect a cashless move like this is not ideal for our type of business. However, as our shopper mix changes, which it will, and our average sale value increases, which it will, this is a move that could work for us at some point.
We have had the next range of Itty Bittys from Hallmark in store for a couple of weeks and already we have ordered more stock. Our sales are being driven by placement off-location: with cards as well as at the counter.
Dorothy, the Lion and the Tin Man are the most popular. I’ve seen plenty of customers add them to the basket.
A bonus is customers purchasing the set. I’ve seen this happen a few times.
The success of the new Itty Bittys is a reminded of the importance of well-known brands in driving sales for us. These brands are far more valuable than cheap un-branded product. Cheap does not always mean banking good margin dollars.
We have seized the opportunity of Creative Christmas cards being in-store early and have placed it with weekly titles for the next couple of weeks. It should sell well from here – justifying the prime position we have allocated.
Card making magazines are popular for us. This title is an opportunity to attract a new shopper.
Ros Reines from Sydney Confidential in The Daily Telegraph recently claimed to 17,500 Twitter followers that some newsagents don’t put out magazines each day. I responded and found out it was two newsagents in Bondi. Reins has not responded to other questions I’ve put.
A professional journalist would check the facts before publishing. I want to know if Reines checked the facts. What was the title being sought out? Were staff in the businesses asked? Was the title some place else and not in the usual location? Was the comment based on unopened bundles? If so, these could have been extra stock.
If the newsagents in question did not have titles out that should have been out, shame on them for their treatment of the products and for their damaging of our reputation.
Right now, however, we don’t have the facts and Ros Reines is not responding.
This is not a gossip piece like you find in Sydney Confidential. This is a sledge against a small business channel, a sledge that needs to be responded to.
Please take three-question survey on newsagency association relevance. I’ll publish the results later this week.
Here’s the note we received from our landlord on the announcement of the raising of the security threat level. My first thought was the note was an overreaction but on reflection it makes sense to me. I’m glad they sent it.
I’m posting this note here to show newsagents operating outside a shopping centre the sorts of things landlords remind their tenants about at times like this. I hope the reminders in the note are useful.
