Thank you to the 117 newsagents trading under a variety of shingles and in a variety of settings (rural, regional and suburban high street) who provided sales data for this benchmark study. The only connection is that they use newsagency software from my POS software company. Their transparency will help many in our channel.

Print media decline has retail newsagents looking elsewhere.

2023 was a tough year for over the counter newspaper and magazine sales. The majority of newsagents, however, did not let that hurt the bottom line, they replaced the revenue declines with growth from better margin categories.

After comparing data from the businesses in the benchmark dataset here are the averages for business performance measurement points and categories, comparing the whole os 2023 with 2022:

• Revenue: Up 2%.
• Sales transaction count: Down 8%.
• Basket value: Up 9%. This is an incredibly important number.
• Items per basket: Up 5%. This is an incredibly important number.
• Average item value: Up 4%. This is an incredibly important number.
• Greeting card revenue: Up 1.5%.
• Magazines unit sales: Down 10.5%. This is an unfair measure because of the big difference between businesses, bigger than for any other category.
• Newspaper unit sales: Down 10%.
• Toy (incl. plush) revenue: Up 5%. 33% of those in the study have this category
• Gift revenue: Up 18%. The bigger growth in gift revenue came from businesses doing more than $50,000 a year in gifts.
• Book revenue: Up 24%. 10% of those in the study have this category.
• Fashion: 65%. 8% of those in the study have this category.
• Stationery revenue: Up 9%. This is also an unfair measure because stationery now includes plenty of gifting items as it has changed.

The traditional newsagencies with minimal gift, toy and plush products are the ones facing the existential challenge. Some of these newsagents rely on newspaper publishers and other legacy suppliers for advice. That is proving to be a mistake.

If you want better results it is up to you to act.

There is no one size fits all solution, anyone who says there is is wrong.

The first step is to understand where you are at, from the data evidence in your business. next, you need a plan. Then, you execute with clarity and commitment, and draw on the support of others who have done this.

I own newsXpress, a marketing group supporting newsagents. newsXpress helps with this. If it interests you, please email help@newsxpress.com.au or call Michael Elvey on 0400 331 055 – he’s not a sales person, he’s part of the team encouraging success.

Mark Fletcher
M | 0418 321 338
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-fletcher-tower/