I get it. Standing still feels comfortable. It’s what you know. You don’t have the money to do anything else. You don’t know what else to do anyway. So, you stand still, smile, take payment, wish them a good day and stand still waiting for the next customer. You do what you have to do to keep the doors open and toe lights on. And you do what suppliers tell you because you like having a plan,. But it’s all about standing still, because that’s where you’re comfortable.
The problem is the world is not standing still with you. Plenty in the newsagency channel aren’t standing still with you.
Newspaper sales fell 13% last year. Magazine revenue is contracting year on year. Lottery players are being pushed online — not by accident, but deliberately, by the people who run the lottery everywhere except WA. These are not temporary dips. They have been heading this way for years, and there is nothing on the horizon that reverses them.
A business standing still in a declining channel is not holding steady. It is losing ground at a pace that can feel like nothing, until one day the numbers make it impossible to ignore.
I have watched this play out many times. The newsagents who came through it well mostly started moving before they had to. Not a full overhaul. Not a rebrand. Just one deliberate change made while they still had cash flow and mental space to think clearly. Then another. Then another.
The ones who waited until the numbers forced their hand had a much harder time. Less room. More pressure. Fewer options on the table.
Here is what I also know. Most newsagents standing still are not standing still because they are complacent. They are standing still because nobody has shown them a credible first step that fits their situation. The advice they get is either too vague to act on or comes attached to a supplier wanting an order.
here’s the thing:
If you have floor space allocated to a category that is declining, measure what it is actually earning per square metre. Not what it used to earn. What it earned last month. If that number is low, you have a decision to make about what replaces it — and there are categories with real consumer demand that most newsagencies do not stock yet.
If you have not looked at your average transaction value in the past six months, look at it. If it is flat or falling, your existing customers are not buying more. That is a product mix problem, not a foot traffic problem.
If you do not know which 20% of your range is generating 80% of your margin, finding that out is the most valuable hour you will spend this month.
None of this costs money. It costs attention.
You do not have to change everything. But changing nothing, in a business where the core categories are structurally declining, is a decision with consequences. It just does not feel like one because the consequences arrive slowly.
If you want a conversation about where to start — specific to your store, your situation, your numbers — reach out directly. No pitch. No agenda beyond helping you find a way forward.
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Mark Fletcher is the CEO of newsXpress and founder of Tower Systems, a POS software company serving independent retailers across Australia. mark@newsxpress.com.au | 0418 321 338