I have heard from plenty of newsagents this week about supply changes forced on them by News. One holiday destination shop was cut back without discussion. In my own case today we have enough of the Herald Sun to last until 9am. These are frustrations we don’t need.
Spare a thought for me every day of the year. We are limited to 22 Kg on the plane. The days there are lots of inserts we get next to no papers.
What’s worse is trying to deal with iServices. I know Mark doesn’t have to put up with it but for the rest of us it’s a complete nightmare. Simply the worst piece of IT crap I have ever attempted to use, a few people at News Corp should lose their jobs for inflicting us with their rubbish.
They increased my Australian, I never sell out lol
What about our regular customers that depend on their normal product throughout ‘slashing time’ – Christmas holiday period. Some of our stock is reduced to zero – changes requested next day comes with no guarantee from News Ltd. Customers expect us to rectify this problem – no excuses. We have no control. Does News Ltd want to sell product in metro through this period? We lose customer confidence and loyalty. Not good for our brand.
Despite multiple attempts, News will not adjust my supply to more normal levels and I have given up for now. We sell out of the Daily Telegraph by 9am each day and then spend all day explaining why to frustrated customers. This morning I have to laugh at having only 4 Telegraphs left over from delivery papers to sell in the shop, but 12 posters with which to advertise them!!
Bruce would you like me to pass this on to their head of retail?
Now that we are no longer a delivery agent (for about the last year and a half) we are having problems with decreasing numbers of Tele’s.
We have gone from 70 to 60 to 55 to 50 to 45. We always sell out and quite often buy papers from IGA (also a subby to this guy) at FULL retail just so we have papers to sell.
We have tried contacting our delivery agent, who’s phone is NEVER on and therefore uncontactable.
We have tried contacting the Tele directly, but as a subby, no one seems to care.
There was a breif period of increase, but they fell to even lower levels very shortly thereafter.
I’ve sent emails and faxes to our delivery agent about cutting IGA’s stock to increase ours. The reason they sell out is because I buy them most days.
We are guessing that the Tele is producing less papers to push everyone to digital.
But if you can help with this Mark, please do…
Mark, why not. Your original post was prompted by complaints from other frustrated Newsagents. News Limited is in the business of news, which includes printing and selling newspapers. Something is clearly wrong with their approach to supply in holiday periods if newsagents are denied enough product to sell.
Email me privately with details that I can pass on to their National Retail Manager. Thanks.
Sorry for a negative comment for the start of the year but the only way we can fix this is to have the ability to control and adjust our own (and our subbies supplies).
Forget speaking to reps it’s not working!
Have requested this so many times but yet again our subs who have opened their shops today are short on papers and one I just phoned has run out already.
It’s not fair on these newsagents or us, we can sell more papers but we need to control the supply for our own areas as we know best.
So many holidayers in our area for the Xmas/NY break, we have been busy all week and today will be the same just a bit later start to the day.
Happy New Year to all, to those lucky ones who didn’t have to do a paper run today enjoy your hangovers, to those like us with an early start celebrate today!
As usual on public holidays we are left drastically short of papers. After doing home deliverys and customer putaways and withholding papers from subagents we are still left with a handful of papers to sell. Cant close though that is a breach of contract so we just have to stand here for 6 hours telling customers sorry we have no papers to sell.
Yesterday we received less copies of the Australian than we require for home deliveries, with none for subagents at all.
Dean it’s crazy. You must stand there and shake your head some days.
News Corp must operate in different worlds depending on what state your in.
In SA, I have an excellent Area Manager who is highly organised for the holiday period. Distribution Newsagents here are provided with a structured program that allows them to request holiday period supplies based upon last years net sales that takes into account any sell-outs.
Once that is locked in, there are also emergency procedures in place for any unplanned demands.
None of my sub-agents have had any supply issues over the holiday period.
Full marks to the Advertiser crew in Adelaide.
The differences between Reps in various states is just weird and reflects poorly on News Corp management in the states that are failing both Newsagents and their own Corporation.
They could learn a lot from the SA Management team re Circulation and Distribution, however for some their world ends at the western point of the Great Dividing range.
Not a single Financial Review for sale today in any of the 5 newsagencies in our area.
Earlier in the week husband phoned Fairfax when he saw supply of Fin Rev on Connect for today was only 60.
Explained needed 160 for deliveries and shops, that’s fine they said your supply is showing 160.
Today we get 60 only so deliver almost 40 and keep rest for tomorrow’s delivery.
Unless they send extras tomorrow there will be none available for sale again.
Surely this sort of behaviour is an attempt by the publishers to blame the retailer, you, for the problem, and in turn coerce the customer into switching to online publications.
This repeated short supply is much to common to be a logistical error.
It’s deliberate, and it’s blatant.
Has any publisher got the guts to come here and state otherwise ?
I doubt it.
Lance the publishers say it’s part of a plan to cut waste. There would be no waste if they supplied to the clear need. I agree with you – they are leading people online. You only have to look at the promotion on the front window News Corp’s Adelaide office.
A plan to cut waste ?….and yet they will supply you 30 mags when you sell 3………???
Mark, you, me, and every newsagent in the country knows that excuse is rubbish.
When will they grow the necessaries to face the people they are crapping on ?
They are gutless, sitting behind a desk in an nice air conditioned office, damn gutless.
Do they read places like this ?
Of course they do.
Do they care ?
Of course not, why the hell should they, they have a safe job…………..or do they……..?
The sooner some of those clowns are out on the street the better, then your industry will be able to perform to a profitable level.
You NAs that care, keep at them, and anyone else who will listen, and even those who don’t want to listen.
Clock is ticking……..
It’s all about breaking the cycle of the consumer.
With a perception created to the consumer that your supplies are unreliable, the option of taking up a subscription to either print or digital media becomes more attractive to the consumer.
The value of the newsagent in the supply chain continues to devalue as a result.
It is extremely naive to think that newspaper publishers value the newsagency industry in todays retail and digital market. Publishers are merely using the newsagency chanel until the point when digital readership overtakes print.
Newspapers would not be a great loss, I’d love all newsagencies to get together and tell news ltd that we no longer want their papers, how good would that be, just a dream. Hands up those that think their business would fold if they had no papers, not me 🙂
This is just another example of why more Newsagents see their Associations becoming less relevant.
John I agree with you. There is little of commercial value that an association in its present form can deliver.
I disagree Amanda I think it’s plain simple incompetence.
Just checed our Supplies for the week and next Friday Fin Rev is short again by 100.
Someone has stuffed up our Friday supply and they obviously don’t know how to fix it or they would have sorted it out last week.
Jenny I agree with Amanda. It’s happening too often with little in place to address deficiencies. It’s like the publisher encourages the retail sales decline in favour of other channels. I don’t want that to be the case but there is no other logical explanation.
Spot on Amanda – breaking the cycle and giving the impression that we, as newsagents, are both unreliable and uncompetitive.
We have been out of papers many times over the new year period but I don’t worry about it any more as I am concentrating on other parts of my retail
store.
In the northern burbs of Brissy we have lost our EXTRAS/SHORTAGES ute. For the past few weeks now, if we report a shortage or want extras, News Ltd sends them out on Toll. We have only needed the service once but the papers arrived at 3 pm on Toll. Too late. Looks like shortages will mean a credit now I guess. Fits in with the conspiracy theorists eh.
Jenny,
From my own experience, if a supply error is going to be made, then the odds are it will happen during the holiday periods.
Others,
Quite separate to holiday supply issues, I have seen no evidence at all that News Corp are engaging in any deliberate practice that seeks to reduce supply of retail papers.
On the contrary, in a week or so we will be participating in a localised retail promotion that is seeking to increase retail paper sales.
Any retailer not getting sufficient supplies should hammer their Distribution Newsagent. In the SA model, Distribution Newsagents are equally keen as Retailers to see more papers sold, if not more so.
If anyone has any evidence that shows News Corp actively reducing retail supply to help their digital cause, I would be most interested. Without evidence, it remains just a theory, conspiracy or otherwise.
Dennis a couple of months ago we had our 4 Fairfax accounts merged into 1 and since then we have had a couple of shortage problems. One was the Leunig calendar of which we only received supply equal to the previous year for one account not all four, but we did get extras sent when requested.
Last Friday’s Fin Rev extras that we requested also arrived but not until today!
I think if a publisher wants to can a printed edition of any newspaper they will do it when the time is right for them, I don’t believe they can switch all customers to digital especially the older ones.
I agree with you that News works hard on selling both digital and print, and I don’t believe it’s a deliberate push to digital by stuffing up our supplies.
The differences between Dennis Robertsons post and those by Shane,Jenny and Lance are huge and only confirm that the divide and conquer techniques used by large corporations are working perfectly. How can there be such differences in supply. It shows just how ineffective and irrelevant our representative bodies have become. Right when they are needed most they go missing in action.