A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Month: February 2017

Newsagency of the Future: 2017 a free workshop for newsagents

2017 looks to be a defining year for newsagents and their suppliers. While there are considerable challenges there are wonderful opportunities.

At this free workshop I will outline a path forward for newsagents, a path that relies less on print media traffic, a path that insulates the business against the inevitable migration of lottery purchases online.

Already this year I have been to four valuable trade shows / conferences: Atlanta Gift Fair, National Retail Federation conference in New York, Toy Fair in Nuremberg and Paperworld in Frankfurt. Next week I am at the massive Spring Fair in Birmingham and in the following week Toy Fair in New York.

Understanding overseas trends ahead of when we will see products in Australia provides an advantage. This, coupled with the latest benchmark data and other economic data provides opportunities for mapping a path ahead for city and country newsagents.

I have been able to schedule the workshop events so far. Please click on the link to book:

Each session will run for around two hours with time for Q&A.

I am confident you will leave the session with practical things to do in your business in pursuit of a more successful 2017.

I started the Newsagency of the Future workshop series in 2004. This year’s session is the most important yet I think. At the session I will explain why.

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Newsagency management

Leveraging the Roald Dahl interest

We have been leveraging the TV campaign by News Corp. promoting the Road Dahl books sold with newspapers by promoting other Roald Dahl product.

This image is a Facebook post we used. We have done more in-store with these terrific jigsaw products.

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Gifts

We were hacked

On Saturday someone started trying to hack this site.  In all, close to 2,500 attempts. They got in several times and changed the most recent blog post.  The security weakness was found in the WordPress platform we use. It has now been fixed.

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About us

Is your website mobile friendly?

Different studies (including from Telstra) in Australia tell us that around 80% of retail purchase related web searches being done on phones and / or tablet devices.

I see similar data for retail business websites I have where I track the type of platform from which users access the sites.

If your weskit is not mobile friendly it is probably seeing a major drop off of traffic once people experience this.

Mobile friendly means the site resizes for access from a mobile device.  A mobile unfriendly site looks awful. No wonder shoppers quit and do not proceed to purchase or further enquiry.

Online retail is brutal. You have a few seconds and even that is too long for some browsers. You have to show from the opening screen that you are mobile engaged and able to serve shopper interest.

I mention this today because there are plenty of newsagents relying on websites that are not up to scratch. these websites should be taken down until they are mobile friendly.

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Newsagency management

Magazine circulation audits no longer

Mediaweek has a terrific report on the withdrawal of magazine print circulation audits by major publishers.

The common reason for the decision cited by the publishers in their individual statements was that the circulation data is no longer relevant as it fails to reflect the multi-faceted audience that the brands now have.

I’d agree that print circulation does not provide the complete masthead engagement. However, for many of us involved with magazines the print circulation, especially in terms of year on year comparison, is important. This is very true for newsagents as it is only the print product with which we connect.

Newsagents can see their own numbers. For plenty of us having access to the national print figures was helpful.

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magazines

A web error or an indicator of the future for The Age

I wanted to look at subscription options for The Age a couple of days ago. I started here, on the home page and clocked on the box on the top left corner.

It brought me to here, a page for subscribing The Sydney Morning Herald.

This is either a content management system error or an indicator of future plans at Fairfax. My suspicion is it is a content management system error, a mistake.

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Newspapers

Sunday newsagency management advice from Mary Tyler Moore

Inspiration can come on many forms and from many voices.

Back in the 1970s Mary Tyler Moore was a force to be reckoned with on television around the world. She smashed through the glass ceiling, creating successful TV shows, producing them and starring.

Mary fought against the odds, she confronted extraordinary competition. She won on her own terms. Here are some quotes from Mary Tyler Moore, published by Huffington Post, on the news of her passing. Some of these quotes are relevant to our businesses today.

  1. “Whatever it is, it’s OK because it’s what it is. Don’t be looking for perfection. Don’t be short-tempered with yourself. And you’ll be a whole lot nicer to be around with everyone else.”
  2. “I knew at a very early age what I wanted to do. Some people refer to it as indulging in my instincts and artistic bent. I call it just showing off, which was what I did from about three years of age on.”
  3. “I’m not an actress who can create a character. I play me.”
  4. “You can’t be brave if you’ve only had wonderful things happen to you.”
  5. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”
  6. “Having a dream is what keeps you alive. Overcoming the challenges makes life worth living.”
  7. “I’ve had the fame and the joy of getting laughter — those are gifts.”
  8. “Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you’re really strangers.”
  9. “You truly have to make the very best of what you’ve got. We all do.”
  10. “My grandfather once said, having watched me one entire afternoon, prancing and leaping and cavorting, ‘This child will either end up on stage or in jail.’ Fortunately, I took the easy route.”
  11. “I’m an experienced woman; I’ve been around … well, alright, I might not’ve been around, but I’ve been … nearby.”

The highlighted quotes are my faves.

RIP Mary Tyler Moore.

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Management tip

The Northern Territory Government strikes another blow against small business newsagents

The NT Government, through its gaming commission, has allowed Collingwood Football Club to establish a weekly lottery. The Magpie Millions game looks and feels like a regular lottery numbers game:

Welcome to Magpie Millions!

Magpie Millions is a fun way to support Collingwood Football Club’s community programs and give yourself a chance to win $2 million every Thursday as well as some great money can’t buy prizes, including the chance to have coffee with a player.

Magpie Millions is conducted as a secondary lottery whereby players have the opportunity to bet on the outcome of a lottery.

Simply open an account and choose six of your favourite Collingwood players and one Collingwood Legend for a chance to win. You can even choose multiple tickets each week to increase your chances – and make sure your team is ready to play every week to be in the running to win great prizes!

So why not join in the fun and you could become a multi-millionaire!

While done in the guise of charity fundraising and using Collingwood guernsey numbers, it really is a numbers game with the numbers drawn as you would see in a Lotto game. The vast majority of the funds go in prizes. Reading through the website there is little detail on what the charities will receive.

This move by Collingwood is another example of the break up of the Tatts lottery ticket monopoly in Australia. More will come I suspect.

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Lotteries

Small business newsagents call for fairness from Lotterywest and WA Premier

I have spoken with several newsagents who were at the ALNA organised meeting between Western Australian newsagents, the WA Premier and Lotterywest. The common feedback has been gratefulness to ALNA for organising the meeting, disappointment that the Premier is unable to provide practical help and frustration that Lotterywest remains unwilling to engage in meaningful dialogue with newsagents.

The meeting was well attended and provided a place for newsagents to express frustration with Lotterywest over their retail revamp and recent commercial decisions that have harmed newsagents.

Here is a press release from ALNA on the meeting:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2 February 2017

Retailers praise Premier but confidence lost in Lotterywest

Hundreds of lottery retailers met with Premier Colin Barnett and Lotterywest chief executive, Paul Andrew, yesterday afternoon, to discuss their concerns over prohibitive costs required for lottery shop fits.

The mandatory installations are required as part of government-owned Lotterywest’s franchise agreement. In some cases, quotes for the shop fits have blown out to over $100,000 – or up to four times what retailers believed would be the case – without a guaranteed return on investment. Lotterywest also have investigations underway to potentially open more than 100 additional outlets across the state.

Lottery retailers, travelled from as far away as Esperance and Coral Bay, to attend the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association’s (ALNA) forum held at Crown Perth, Burswood.

ALNA chief executive, Adam Joy, welcomed the proactive steps taken by Premier Barnett of agreeing to listen to the concerns of lottery retailers.

“Retailers praised the Premier for listening to and recognising their issues,” said Joy. “They also appreciated that he shared his concerns at the meeting about the current relationship between lottery retailers and Lotterywest, as well as committing to discuss with Lotterywest’s board the issues raised in the forum.

ALNA, on behalf of lottery retailers, have held discussions with Lotterywest for over 18 months raising the issue of costs for the mandatory shop fits. Retailers have also raised concerns about the commercial viability of this investment, especially when the gross margin for lottery product sales is only 8 per cent before costs.

“Our retailers have been frustrated that these concerns have not been adequately listened to by Lotterywest. These are the small business people of Western Australia who feel their voice isn’t being heard,” said Joy. “Especially at a time when the Western Australian economy is struggling and other Government owned bodies like TAB provide detailed return on investment analysis to their outlets.

“Retailers at the meeting were disappointed in Paul Andrew’s outright refusal to suspend and review the model that is creating such angst. Even after such a significant portion of all Western Australian lottery retailers were in attendance to seek a solution.

“These are mum and dad family owned small businesses that are the backbone of the Western Australian economy. They are throughout regional areas and are the lifeblood of the community. Their viability is important to these communities and the local people they employ.

“Our members want to find solutions with Lotterywest for their businesses. They want assurances they are being heard and that Lotterywest will work with them and review the model. We hope constructive discussions will still occur.”

Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association is the peak body representing lottery agents, and retail and distribution newsagents.

The CEO of Lotterywest on Thursday wrote to WA Lotterywest outlets about the meeting and related media coverage:

ALNA meeting – The West Australian article

You may be aware of an article titled Lotto revamp angers sellers which was published in today’s edition of The West Australian which you can view here.

The article outlines a meeting that the Premier, our Board Chair Heather Zampatti and I attended yesterday which was hosted by the Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) about our Retail Transformation Program (RTP).

I want to clarify content covered in the article and reinforce the reasons behind RTP and our support to the retail network.

We are committed to running a successful lottery to maximise funds returned to the WA community – something we’ve been responsible for since we were established over 80 years ago.

Our retail network is an important and valuable part of Lotterywest. Your stores remain our main distribution channel.

The way our customers engage with lotteries is changing as technology and retail evolves. To ensure your stores remain relevant and contemporary in an increasingly highly competitive market, Lotterywest has invested $30 million in RTP.

We have engaged regularly with retailers since 2013 and your feedback has been an important part of RTP.  This has included approximately 50 formal engagement and consultation sessions with retailers, retailer reference groups, staff, players, shopping centres, landlords and leasing agents, in addition to various informal one-on-one meetings. We will continue to do so.

As a result of your feedback we are developing additional signage to optimise external visibility and brand presence at retail stores. This may include new signage items or additional digital screens installed.

We are also looking at ways to keep you more informed and up-to-date on RTP. While we currently use InTouch and direct email, we are developing new ways to make information more easily accessible in a central location. We’ll continue to keep you updated on these improvements.

I also want to address feedback on our Retail Distribution Strategy. As you know we commenced a program for network expansion following third party geodemographic research. This strategy is to complement our traditional retail channel and optimise sales.

Your feedback is valuable to us so please feel free to contact our Customer Services team. You can also review some background on RTP below.

Thank you for your continued support and hard work.

Regards

Paul Andrew
Chief Executive Officer
Lotterywest

Background

  • RTP is dedicated to modernising the Lotterywest network’s retail presence and providing contemporary ways to play lottery games through the best available lottery technology.
  • RTP is delivered through three main stages of signage, shopfit and technology.

Signage:

  • New signage will be installed by the end of March 2017.
  • We’ve allocated $2.9 million to supply and install Lotterywest signage – the majority of costs are covered by us.

Shopfit:

  • We’ll contribute $2.2 million to existing retailers who install the new shopfit by the end of September 2019. This represents about 30% of the estimated costs for the manufacture of the Lotterywest shopfit component.
  • Other support we offer includes a dedicated shopfit team to support the process.
  • We’ve also negotiated and secured bulk purchasing and supply of materials required for your shopfit.

Technology:

  • New technology is scheduled for installation later in 2017.

  • We’ll cover all costs associated with new technology and have allocated $16.5 million.

Lotterywest does not have the support of its retail network that it once had. From what I can see, new leadership at the organisation has burnt what was a strong base of goodwill with retailers, resulting in a relationship of mistrust and frustration.

Decisions by Lotterywest in some areas have reduced the goodwill value of small family businesses. The organisation appears unwilling to respond to this, leaving families at risk. This is not a good look for a government organisation.

8 likes
Ethics

Learning about toy trends in 2017

I spent all yesterday at Spielwarenmesse, the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, a specialised toy and related products trade fair. Across the twelve massive halls (I walked 15km) the fair hosts 2,800 toy, game, hobby, plush, collectible and related exhibitors, around a third of whom do not do any other trade show.

Brands represented in Australia through local offices or distributors have on show at this fair a bigger range. This is vital if you want to go deeper than is currently available in Australia.

I know of several local distributors who like retailer feedback for when they are planning what they may or may not take from suppliers at this fair in Nuremberg.

The most valuable outcome from being at the fair for me, however, is spotting the trends in several key categories strongly represented at the fair. It is at Nuremberg that you can see what will be hot through Christmas 2017. Having this information now, in February, can be a competitive advantage and that is why I want to be in Germany at this time of the year.

I saw several break out products that I am sure will be the bestsellers through Christmas. Australian distributors won’t launch them for another month or two by which time production for the second half of the year will be locked away.

Time is everything in today’s marketplace. Having knowledge ahead of others has a value. This is why I invest to be at events like this one in Nuremberg today and Paperworld in Frankfurt earlier in the week.

I appreciate I am not being specific in my comments here. That is deliberate. However, I will say this: toys are a growing category in retail and especially in newsagencies. In 2017, the term toys means something quite different to what it referred to just a few years ago.

Through toys we can attract new shoppers. Most of that will happen from suppliers who are not natural newsagency suppliers, suppliers who are probably not calling on newsagents today.

The best part about toys in my opinion is the brands that offer deep engagement. Do it well and consistently and the value of the customer reaches way beyond the first sale. This is where the retailer needs to be more than a shopkeeper, they need to share the passion and enable to long-term relationship with the brand. This is what specialty retail is all about.

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Newsagency opportunities

WTF Manly Sea Eagles? Lottoland oval?

I am shocked that the Manly Sea eagles appear close to  selling naming rights to Lottoland. Lottoland is an online business that seeks to take revenue from small family businesses in Australia. Look at their ads, that is who they target.

Shame on the Manly Sea Eagles, and Northern Beaches Council, for putting money ahead of local Aussie family businesses.

Neil Bare, the CFO of the Manly Sea Eagles is quoted in The Daily Telegraph article:

“We are a family-run company and it was important to the Penn family to have like-values and like-goals,” he said. And despite the name change, Mr Bare said it would still be known as the Sea Eagles’ Fortress.

This is nonsense in my opinion. He has clearly not seen the Lottoland ads attaching small family businesses. If these are the values of the Manly Sea Eagles shame on them because Lottoland cares less about Aussie small family businesses, meaning the Manly Sea Eagles care less about Aussie small family businesses.

Sure, Tatts is a target of Lottoland. But it is the mocking small business newsagent ads that the Sea Eagles will support if this deal goes ahead.

More broadly, that Lottoland would commit seven figures to naming rights demonstrates their commitment to Australia. My question for newsagents with lotteries is: what are you going to do about this? From where I stand it looks like newsagents are letting it happen

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Competition

Learning about future opportunities in stationery

I have been at Paperworld in Frankfurt this week. Paper world is the largest stationery related trade show in the world. To provide perspective, here is a video I shot in the quad panning around the buildings that hold the event.

This was my first time at Paperworld. It was well worthwhile, on many fronts. I saw new trends, new products and plenty of opportunities.

Most important to me was getting a better understanding of the supply chain, the produce products go through from manufacture to our stores.

While the products that make up the evolving department of stationery are changing, the opportunities remain strong for newsagents who change with the opportunities. As with so much in newsagency businesses, traditional is not for the future. Suppliers and retailers who are slow to adapt will miss out.

At this event, you could be sharing the aisles with individual small business owners through to buyers from some of the largest retail chains in the world. I certainly gained a better understanding of stationery related strategy of some of biggest competitors.

I don’t plan to go into detail here about the specifics of what I saw.

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Stationery

Roald Dahl promotion roll our haphazard

The roll out of the Roald Dahl promotion by News Corp. is not being done with any consistency nor, for the most part, conviction by the the company. As I mentioned last week, newsagency software companies have been left in the dark yet they are the first point of contact for help setting the promotion up in software.

I am writing about it today because of contact from a newsagent who has spoken to people inside News. Their view is this promotion has little support in several states.

Given the offensively small margin newsagents make and the lack of evidence of any valuable impact on newspaper purchases, I know of plenty of newsagents who would be happy if this is the last such promotion.

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Newspapers

Now more than ever, investing in professional journalism matters

If there is one lesson from the first ten days of the Donald Trump presidency it is that now is the time we need strong and professional journalists.

Trump and too many leaders around the world appear to have little regard for the truth if it challenges their narrative. When Trump is confronted with news reports that disagree with him, he labels them fake news. When he is confronted with the acting attorney general questioning the legality of an executive order, he sacks them.

Journalists and news outlets need revenue to survive. The old advertising supported model does not work today where news consumption is faster than ever before.

Whereas in the print era people spent more time consuming news, today we do this mainly on our phones and other portable devices. We give little time to advertising. This is one reason ad rates are less for digital platforms than they used to be for print.

For years, I have tapped into news on my phone and iPad without paying for it. Easy access to good journalism has meant I’ve not worried too much about the funding model that makes good journalism accessible.

That changed for me with the inauguration of Donald Trump and his obsession with crowd size. News outlets reported what they filmed and photographed. Trump attacked some reports with how now often used phrase, fake news. Of course, it was not fake news. The images were factual.

While politicians have criticised the media and journalists in the past, it feels like we are now in a time where it is more than criticism. It feels like there is a genuine threat to accessible independent journalism.

Whether I am right or not about the era we are in, I am at a point where I want to pay to support good journalism. I want to do this more than buying the odd newspaper. It is like helping to fund people who do good work you believe in.

My plan is to subscribe to at least one Australian news outlet, one overseas and a third, most likely an independent fact checking service. Here is what I want from the organisations I support:

  1. Fact based fearless reporting.  Truth, independence, impartiality and humanity.
  2. Publishing of news and not regurgitation of press releases from businesses and politicians.
  3. No bias or agenda setting like we see from the News Corp platforms in Australia. Sure, run campaigns – but they must be fact based and not representative of the ideology of elders of the publishing business.
  4. No click bait headlines leading to junk stories.
  5. Clear separation of commentary from news.
  6. I want news, not content I am likely to like. I don;t want a site to learn my interest and only play to them.

I don’t see any subscription decision as permanent.

Having looked at what is out there, the biggest challenge is Australian news outlets. It really comes down to The Guardian and a Fairfax platform – The Age or The Sydney Morning Herald. The Guardian is light on for Australian content and the Fairfax titles online carry a bit of junk. But I have to start somewhere. The final decision will include considering their respective tech platforms on mobile devices.

Overseas, I am leaning to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

Outside of the pay services, I am an avid user of Twitter for staying up to date. I review those I follow every month or so, adjusting to keep by feed fresh and challenging.

For the third organisation I am looking at several in the fact checking space. This will take some time as it depends on the future of the ABC fact check unit.

A strong independent media is vital to democracy. In too many countries right now the facts are being hidden or held back on matters that are important. The truth is not always pleasant, but it is the truth and we need to be told. This is the role of journalists.

Some will say I should have been contributing to journalism before now. To that I say fair enough – however, at least I am there now and ready to contribute.

17 likes
Ethics
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