Further to my post last week about the New Idea $1 a week subscription offer, Bauer media has been running such offers for a while. Their most recent was a Woman’s Day $1 an issue offer.
As I have written recently, offers such as this are a slap in the face to newsagents. The 77% off cover price and free delivery are compelling to price-sensitive shoppers.
Weekly sales churn indicate readers of these weekly titles are price-sensitive. Whereas in the past 65% of purchases on a Monday would be Woman’s Day and New Idea togather, today, that number is often under 30%. I think this is because people are more conscious about what they spend on this type of content.
The more intense price sensitivity today is a key reason for us to be frustrated with and concerned about the $1 subscription offer for the weeklies.
Another difference today compared to years ago is that today there are no borders between types of consumers. By this I mean all offers are more accessible to all people.
For example, a subscription offer pitched to a specific target group to attract their engagement is easily promoted more widely in the mainstream community. Newsagency shoppers are aware of the $1 an issue subscription offers. Indeed, I know of several instances where customers have pointed to the $1 offers recently put about in commenting how much money newsagents make.
A sub offer of, say, up to 50% is okay in my view. I understand it. I don’t like it but I understand it. 77% off with free postage is nuts. It disrespects us and those who shop with us. It speaks to an important focus for the publishers, the same publishers often telling us how important we are to them.
They are panicking because New Idea, Woman’s Day and the other weeklies are dying a quick death. They are not relevant anymore in today’s marketplace. People get their goss fix online and look to physical magazines for strong content. Unfortunately Bauer is the stable of all the titles that were relevant 20 years ago but not now. They have not transformed their titles to be relevant today.
Offering their product for $1 not only trains their customers to devalue their offering but also makes the retailers who stock their titles act aggressively against them when making future business decisions.
My sales were from 600 copies a week to less than 30 copies a week. They are good for cutout for school project though
have stopped supporting bauer media. it seems they are interested in supermarket and forgotten newsagent. newsagent should focus less on people who dont support them and get in different products in shops.