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

Month: April 2021

Pitching The Saturday Paper and why someone doesn’t shop our channel

If you are on Twitter and stock The Saturday Paper, this thread is worth commenting on. Newsagents responding to threads like this can help guide people as to where to purchase. The thread I link to below bones on quite a bit with people saying where they access the title.

Further in this Twitter thread is this:

I responded:

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newsagency marketing

Kudos AFL record

The AFL record is the one magazine that consistently pitches newsagents on social media posts as a retailer where you can purchase the title. Every issue.

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magazines

Excellent toy growth in 2020 … opportunities in 2021 for newsagents

I am grateful to have been provided a copy of a comprehensive report (from March 31, 2021) into global and Australian toy sales in 2020 comparing to 2019. The data assessed in the repot is pulled from a large pool of toy and toy related retailers in Australia and globally. The assessment itself is undertaken by the NPD Group, a research and analysis company.

The results are extraordinary. While I won’t share the report here, I can share this high level page that speaks to the terrific growth in toy revenue in Australia compared to the rest of the world in 2020 over 2019.

Deeper in the report is a list of top performing brands, some of which plenty of newsagents stock. This information and other information nearby is what we can leverage to further grow the toy category in our businesses.

Of particular interest are the Christmas results and the move, in 2020, to toys and games of >$50 in value. This is the fastest growing sub-category for the Christmas season. It interests me because too many newsagents focus on low price point toys while shoppers are happy to spend up on higher price point toys.

Looking at the results more broadly …

  1. Global Trends 
    1. 8/13 Countries grew sales revenue.
    2. Australia achieved strongest growth: 22% as shown above.
    3. Q4 growth was excellent.
  2. Australian Market 
    1. +22% Growth.
    2. 12out of 13 super categories grew revenue.
    3. Unlicensed Toys Grew +21% .
    4. Licensed Toys Grew +26%.
    5. 10 months of consecutive growth (adding $256m to Toy Industry).
    6. Consumers move to bigger box items > $50 items
  3. Christmas performance 
    1. +16 grow revenue/
    2. Unlicensed Toys grew 19%.
    3. Licensed Toys grew 11%.
    4. 12 out of 13 super categories grew.
      – 5 categories grew faster than the total category.
  4. Looking ahead into 2021 and considering early indications.
    1. Toys / games remain strong.
    2. Online in toys and games is growing faster.
    3. Movie licences are back.
    4. Puzzles and Games need to be watched / managed / promoted.
    5. Collectibles are showing a strong start to the year.
    6. Shoppers are looking for newness.

The toys / games / puzzle and related categories are good for newsagency businesses. They can make a terrific contribution. I know of newsagents doing more than $150,000 a year in these categories and achieving a 50% or more gross profit – making the GP value of the categories considerably greater than the contribution from newspapers and magazines combined.

Am I saying newsagencies should become toy shops? No, not at all. But … considering the cards we sell, doing well with toys / games / puzzles makes sense in our businesses.

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Newsagency opportunities

Free taking your retail business online workshop

This Thursday @ 10:30am Melbourne time I am hosting a free Taking your retail business online workshop. Here is the link for accessing this interactive session:

https://zoom.us/j/93218516369?pwd=QW4wR0lFT1F1ZWtzQmFHK2ZxamY3dz09 Meeting ID: 932 1851 6369 Passcode: 636934 Booking is not required.

I’ll cover every question and topic people attending want including: where the shoppers are, what they are looking for, how to get online, how to attract traffic, handing shipping, back office efficiency, niche retailing and how to treat your online business as a start up.

Too often I see people think having a website created for your business is all you need to do to tap into online riches. In this session we will explore the real work, the on-going work that is critical to success online. We will break it down from a local small business retailer perspective.

This is not a sales workshop. It is designed to provide you with information that you can use regardless of who develops your website and regardless of where you are at in your online story.

Everyone is welcome to participate.

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newsagency of the future

The growing empty office space question – for high street retailers

Discussions about empty office space and empty CBDs are growing, which is good. In the US, the conversation is more advanced than here in Australia, with Twitter, parts of Microsoft, Pinterest and plenty of other companies permanently adopting the work from home model or, at least, a far more decentralised model, it’s no wonder property developers are listening and engaging.

Here in Australia we are seeing insurance companies, banks and other usually centralised businesses adopting work from home more.

Scott Galloway has written about this recently. His piece, We (might) Work is well worth reading if the topic of the future location of office work interests you. It includes this…

The wholesale abandonment of office space has been among the most striking fallouts of the pandemic, and it will have profound effects on the way we live and work, long after the virus has been tamed. In New York, new office space is coming on the market 59 percent leased, down from 74 percent pre-Covid. San Francisco went from its lowest-ever office vacancy rate to its highest in the same year, and office rents are set to decline by 15 percent. The worst may be yet to come. Analysts predict that commercial vacancy rates will rise from 17.1 percent in 2020 to 19.4 percent in 2021, besting the previous high of 17.6 percent in 2010. And, as $430 billion in commercial and multifamily real estate debt matures in 2021, lenders will be forced to reconcile the effect of the pandemic on their investments.

Why does this matter to newsagents? How, where and when people work plays a role in the performance of high street retail and with the bulk of our channel on the high street, a decentralised workforce matters to us. It can play into what we stock and the services we offer.

There are plenty in our channel who see the work from home moves in 2020 as an aberration, they expect things to get back to normal. I am in the camp of what is normal anyway … every day, / week / months is a progression from the last, there will be no getting back to normal. Online, more people working regionally, less office centric CBDs … these are all connected issues, issues that the pandemic has sped up, issues that impact retail, issues from which we can benefit.

I keep reading up on this topic of office space use overseas as I think it helps to inform decisions we can make today, for our future.

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newsagency of the future

Nine Media fails newsagents on Easter supplies

The hack of Nine Media meant the company had to request quantity orders from newsagents via email. For some, though, that was a waste of time. They were not supplied what they ordered, not even close, and sold out by early morning. A missed opportunity for this newspaper company that is challenges on several fronts.

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Newspapers

The Easter counter in the newsagency

This Easter counter pitch has been working a treat for us, driving excellent, high value and high margin, impulse purchases. Here is a photo from a few days ago, when we had more stock.

There is nothing newsagency traditional about this product offer at the counter of our high street suburban Melbourne business.

Now, looking at the display in detail, it is the sample of the Easter chocolate that has contributed the most to sales. The chocolate is delicious, creamy and local – three key factors in driving sales for us.

From a time management perspective, taking the display down and replacing it after today is easy.

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newsagency marketing

Employment opportunity: retail manager

I am looking to hire a manager for a retail business. The ideal person will be focussed on a career in retail, innovative retail. They will be self motivated, not bound by channel borders and have a keen awareness of the role of tech in the future of retail.

It is a Melbourne based position. Hands on. I don’t want to share too much detail as it is more about what they might bring to the business rather than what the business might bring to them.

If you know someone who may be interested, please have them email me at mark@newsxpress.com.au.

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Newsagency management

A local British community buys a newsagency to create a community hub

An interesting story at the Shropshire Star on a community buying a ,coal newsagency to convert it into a hub:

Former newsagents brought back to life as community hub
By Charlotte BentleyBishop’s CastlePublished: Mar 20, 2021Last Updated: Mar 21, 2021

A south Shropshire community has announced plans to transform a former newsagents in the town into a hub and bring it back to life.

The Bishop’s Castle and District Community Land Trust has bought 70 Church Street, a former newsagents, for community ownership.

Hope Robson, resident and activist, said she can’t wait to get started on the project bringing the old Stars Newsagents back to life in the centre of Bishop’s Castle.

Thursday marked the launch of the campaign, and the day the front door was unlocked for the first time since August 2015.

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Uncategorized

The Age editor on the hack that hit Nine Media

Here is the text of a note from Gay Acorn, Editor of The Age, to subscribers, in which she discusses the impact and their response.

Dear subscriber,

 

Age staff spent most of last year working from home. Here we go again, not due to a global pandemic this time, but a cyber attack.

The attack hit Nine’s systems early on Sunday morning, disrupting live television as workers arrived and found their computers unresponsive. The Age was also affected, especially our print newspapers, as networks were locked down to protect our systems and data.

The flow-on effects could be seen in our newspapers in recent days – for example, graphics and new photographs could not be used and we reduced the number of pages.

Deputy editor, Michael Bachelard, who was editing on Sunday, says it was a mad scramble to put on Monday’s newspaper. It was a bit like going back to the 1950s, using a digitised version of the same print techniques from that period – a lot of cutting and pasting! Monday night was also challenging but we are now confident we can produce unimpaired newspapers in the coming days and weeks.

I am so proud of our production staff – led by production editor Wade Pearce and Monday to Friday print editor Selma Milovanovic who ensured the newspaper was published in the most difficult of circumstances.

Thankfully, our website and apps mostly remain unaffected and any login issues you may have experienced have now been resolved. We are all working from home now so we can use our own internet network.

Who organised this attack is not yet clear, but it is a wake-up call for businesses and governments that this kind of disruption is likely to become more common. This was a sophisticated attack, which seriously affected one of Australia’s biggest media organisations.

I want to apologise to you for the compromises we have had to make to the quality of the newspaper to ensure its publication and delivery, and for your experience on our website and app during this time. We are doing everything possible to get the issues fixed quickly and we will keep you up to date about any developments. For more information, please see our FAQs below.

Gay Alcorn
Editor, The Age

For anyone in business, what happened to Nine Media is a reminder about the need for good disaster planning.

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Newsagency management

The first newsagency sales benchmark study for 2021 launched

This morning, I kicked off the call for data for the first newsagency sales benchmark study for 2021. I have decided to compare 2021 with 2019, for the reasons I outline below. In samples I have taken already this year, the 2019 comparison provides a more useful analysis for business planning. Here are the details as emailed to newsagents just now:

Q1 2021 NEWSAGENCY SALES BENCHMARK STUDY.
I am collating data for a new benchmark study, looking at sales covering January through March 2021 versus January through March 2019.

Why compare to 2019? Because … 2020 was an odd year. To really understand where your business is at today, we need to compare to two years ago, a more stable trading period.

How to participate.

  1. Please run a Monthly Sales Comparison Report for 01/01/2021 – 31/03/2021 compared to 01/01/2019 – 31/03/2019.
  2. Tick the category box. IMPORTANT.
  3. Tick to exclude home delivery and sub agent data.
  4. DO NOT tick the supplier box.
  5. Preview the report on the screen. Save as a PDF.
  6. Email these reports direct to me at mark@towersystems.com.au.
  7. Read the report yourself and see what it shows you about your business.

I will email the results to all participating newsagents and publish the results on theAustralian Newsagency Blog as a service for all newsagents.

I own and run three newsagencies. Over the years I have had three others. I own newsXpress, the newsagency marketing group.

Here is a video of some of what is offered through the Tower newsagency software:

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Newsagency benchmark
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