Plenty of newsagencies are becoming something else. Some are turning into coffee shops, some into gift shops, some into toy shops, some into card and stationery destinations, some into something nobody has a name for yet. The owners doing this well share one habit. They researched before they moved.
I want to talk about how to do that research today, because the tools have changed. AI tools, used with care, can help you see opportunities you would not otherwise consider. Used carelessly, they will tell you what you want to hear. The difference is in how you use them.
Start by lowering your expectations about scale
There is rarely one big play available inside a newsagency. I have looked at hundreds of these businesses and I can count on one hand the times a single dramatic move was the answer.
What exists instead is a run of smaller opportunities. A category you have not stocked. A local audience you have not served. A shelf that could earn more. An online channel that reaches beyond your catchment. Add several of these together and you have a different business.
So when you sit down with an AI tool, do not ask it for the big idea. Ask it for twenty small ones. Then do the work of sorting them.
I say this based on years of experience doing this.
There is no channel-wide answer
I think the newsagency channel has ten years or less to run in its current form. Newspapers, magazines and agency lines are on life support. That is not a comfortable thing to write, but pretending otherwise helps nobody.
It means there is no template. What works in a coastal town of 4,000 people will not work in a shopping centre in western Sydney. Each business has to find its own path, and that path depends on inputs only you can supply.
The inputs that matter
Before you type anything into an AI tool, get these clear in your own head. Write them down. The quality of what comes back depends on the quality of what you put in.
Location. Where you are, what surrounds you, who walks past.
Catchment. How far people will realistically travel to reach you. Be honest. A destination store draws from further away than a convenience stop.
Your capacity to change. Time, energy, money, skills. And your appetite. Some owners want to rebuild. Some want a manageable evolution. Both are legitimate. Know which you are.
Floor space. How much you have, how much is earning its keep, how much could be freed.
Reach beyond the shop. What a website, a marketplace listing or a social channel could add. Your catchment online is not your catchment on foot.
Give an AI tool these five things in plain language and it has something to work with. Leave them out and you get generic advice about “customer experience” that could apply to any shop anywhere.
The valuable question is what you do not know
Here is the framing I find most useful. You already know your business. You know what sells, what does not, how the shop runs, who your regulars are. No AI tool will teach you that.
What you do not know is what you are missing. Which categories are growing in shops like yours that you have never looked at. Which local demand is going unmet. What is around the corner that nobody in your town has noticed yet.
That is where these tools earn their place. They are good at scanning widely and surfacing things you had not considered. They are not good at knowing your shop. Use them for the first job and trust yourself on the second.
Some prompts I have found productive, adapted for your own details:
- “I run a newsagency in a regional town of 12,000 people (name the town for reference) with an ageing population and a growing tree-change demographic. What retail categories are independent shops in similar towns adding successfully, and why?”
- “List product categories with strong gift appeal, margins above 50 per cent, low breakage risk and suppliers who sell to Australian independents in small quantities.”
- “What do people in a town like mine currently drive 40 minutes to buy that a local shop could offer?”
- “Argue against my plan to add a large toy range. What am I not seeing?”
That last one matters more than it looks. Ask the tool to disagree with you. It is the fastest way to find the weak points in your own thinking.
Do not trust the first answer
AI tools are confident. That is a design feature, not a sign of accuracy. They make things up, they cite suppliers that do not exist, and they will happily agree with a bad idea if you frame it well.
Treat every answer as a lead, not a finding. Then do three things.
Look at it from a second angle. Ask the same question a different way, or ask a different tool. If two independent approaches land in the same place, that is worth something. If they diverge, dig into why.
Fact check anything that would cost you money. Supplier names, wholesale prices, margins, trends. Verify with a phone call, a trade show visit, a conversation with another retailer. Never order stock based on something a chatbot said.
Ask whether it is commercially sustainable. A category that is hot this year and gone next year is not a strategy. Look for demand with a reason behind it. Demographics, habits, gaps in the local market. Fads are fine for a quick win, but they are not a foundation.
This is the discipline that separates useful research from expensive guessing. It takes longer. It is worth it.
Nothing you find is mandatory
Research is a resource. You decide what fits.
I have watched owners take a long list of options and pick two, because two was what their space and their energy allowed. I have watched others say no to everything on the list and come away clearer about what they wanted to protect. Both outcomes are good outcomes. The point of the exercise is to make the decision with your eyes open.
This is an opportunity, not a threat
I know that is easy to say from a distance. But look at what is happening. Newsagents are becoming gift shops, garden centres are adding cafes and homewares, bookshops are adding stationery and events. Independent retail is reshaping itself, and the tools to research the reshaping have never been more accessible.
Ten years ago this kind of market scan cost money most small retailers did not have. Now it costs an afternoon and some care.
Spend the afternoon. Bring your five inputs. Ask the tool what you might be missing. Argue with it. Check what it tells you. Then make your own call.
That is how you find what is next.
And the goal that I think is important to remember: to discover what you don’t know. That discovery can be gold.