I heard from a newsagent in a major regional town in NSW this week who regularly receives newspapers at their shop at around 10:30am. What used to be 6am delivery is so late that customers are stopping purchasing the newspapers.
Part of the problem is the late delivery ion papers top a distribution depot. The main problem, though, is they supplier to the retail newsagent does not prioritise that last step delivery.
Despite calls and emails, publisher representatives appear to have little appetite for resolution. Now, if anyone says speak to an association, this should not be necessary. The publisher is already well aware of the problem. Their care factor is zero.
I feel for newsagents who are trying to serve their local communities and who face disinterest by newspaper publisher reps in getting papers consistently delivered on time.
This is a mental health issue as much as a customer service issue. The mental health of some newsagents is being challenged by late papers and the failure within newspaper pu listing businesses to have a process through which this can be reasonably addressed.
Here’s what I think should happen – newsagents should obtain the direct mobile number for a senior newspaper circulation executive and hand that out to any customer who complains about late papers. This would lead to the problem being resolved.
have the publishers created a system that they knew would fail ?
leaving open an entirely new direction for distribution ?
could the end result be something like the Coca Cola situation,
where Coles etc are their wholesaler
As of September, papers will not be delivered west of the Great Dividing Range. Newsagents were notified by email. Surprised Newsagents were advised at all the way News Ltd conduct their business communications.
Hi Russell – Do you know the boundry of what areas this will affect? I have heard of one one Town areas far north West in NSW and others but this looks to be large scale.