Looking at data for a selection of newsagency businesses in the city and regionally, unit sales of newspapers over the counter declines 8% in January – May 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
While the data pool is small, the businesses have been a good indicator for years as to what is happening nationally.
It’s challenging to compare with publisher data because they don’t report audited sales the way they used to.
I mention it today to encourage newsagents to look at the data for their businesses, to calculate the gross profit value of newspapers and consider this in the context of the value of the space they occupy and the labour involved. If your newspapers are in a higher valued position in-store and the grow profit contribution is declining, move them to a less valuable location and use the freed space for higher margin products you are likely to gain a sales boost from given a better position.
Where you place product in your shop should be based on a the financial value to you. That’s why I say look at your data.
In one shop I was working with recently, they moved newspapers from prime position front of store to a lower cost location part way down the shop. There was no negative imact to newspaper sales from the move. They are making more money fro the space newspapers used to occupy.