News Corp. sent this notice to newsagents yesterday:
10 January 2022
Cover price rise for News Corp Australia publications
Dear Retailer,
Effective Monday 17 January 2022, the Monday to Friday cover price of the following publications will increase by 30 cents to $2.50.
- Herald Sun
- The Daily Telegraph
- The Courier-Mail
- The Advertiser
- The Mercury
- NT News
- Geelong Advertiser
- Gold Coast Bulletin
- Townsville Bulletin
- Cairns Post
- The Chronicle
A full list of all relevant News Corp Australia publication covers prices, retailer commissions and prices to account as at 17 January 2022 is provided below.
We ask that you notify customers of the price change and ensure your systems are updated on the effective date to reflect these changes.
We thank you for your continued support and look forward to continuing to partner with you in driving new sales opportunities.
Newsagents make 31.25 cents from selling one of these papers. The space the a single title newspaper takes in the shop can cost between $500.00 and $1,500 a year. The labour cost of handling the a newspaper title can cost around $3,500 a year if there are no issues – this does not include the cost of selling them. Other costs for the papers (theft, insurance, tech etc.) can cost around $500.00 a year. So, at the high end, that’s roughly $5,500.00 in costs, or 17,600 newspapers sold.
An average newsagency in a good suburban situation will sell 65 papers a day. That’s 23,660 a year, or $7,393.75 in gross profit, from which to fund the costs noted above. That leaves $1,893.75 to cover the cost of selling the papers and dealing with issues, like short supply or late papers.
By deregulating newspaper supply, the money newsagents make from newspapers has been slashed, making them borderline economically valuable in a newsagency business. But, we keep them.
At what point does it become no longer viable for a newsagent to sell these newspapers?
Jonathan that ship has long since sailed. We all hang onto them as a service to our customers and their link to our shingle, not because any of us make any money out of them
Spot on Glenn. The shingle is outdate as well however we are still called newsagents when we are not Agents any more.
Some are doing well despite the newspaper industry and this is what we need to concentrate on.
Enquiry for them is really much higher since the beginning of COVID and continuing.
yes newspapers are a customer service, but that does not mean we should not shine a light on the poor financial arrangements provided by newspaper publishers.
Agree entirely. I think it is important for newspaper publishers to understand they are no longer relevant to most newsagents and we have long since lost interest in their product. That is their own doing.
I also think it is vital for newsagents, especially for those new to our industry, to understand this and know there are many other avenues to create new and sustainable revenue streams and not to be over-awed by the all powerful newspaper publishers. Shining these lights may help to crystalise this for some, and that is good for our industry.