A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

Author: Mark Fletcher

The unnecessarily large Blueshyft stock file

XchangeIT has sent newsagents a large stock file for the Blueshyft services product. The approach being taken here is 100% in the control of Blueshyft and XchangeIT. It is an approach that I and experts at my newsagency software company have disagreed with from the outset.

I make this point today because a newsagent has told me they were told Tower helped create the process leading to the large file with 1,000s of entries. Tower did not help create the process. As recently as a week ago was advocating to Blueshyft they find an alternative that represented best practice in terms of retail data management.

While the world will not end and newsagency computer systems will not grind to a halt, these systems will be loaded with junk data as a result, and there are consequences for junk data.

Anyone focussed on serving the needs of newsagents would not agree to this.

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Newsagency challenges

CWA’s Ruth magazine

FullSizeRenderIt was good to see the CWA’s Ruth magazine getting star treatment at the newsagency at airs airport yesterday afternoon. The fixture with the title sits in front of the magazine fixture and really does make the feature magazine it holds the hero for that stand.

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magazines

Promoting the local newspaper

IMG_0503I’m in Cairns today and share here the pitch from the Cairns Post. Overtime I am here I check out their building in the centre of the city as they continue to promote the local paper, while other newspaper offices too often promote only digital. I love the focus on local news here – locals tell me this helps drive sales to tourists.

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Newspapers

Handling the News Corp election offer

Screen Shot 2016-06-07 at 6.39.06 PMNewsagents need to manage the News Corp bundle offer so that sales data flows to News and the company is able to measure engagement. There has been some confusion with communication from XchangeIT and News Corp.

To serve the need of newsagents in any state or territory, my newsagency software company Tower Systems published advice Sunday and Monday.

Newsagents ought to check with their software company in order to run this promotion the correct way. If they do not do this it could impact measurement as well as proper compensation.

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Newspaper distribution

Promoting the Pacific Magazines $150,000 giveaway

13383396_1016014221839286_1184919593_oHere is one of the ways we are promoting the Pacific Magazines $150,000 giveaway in-store. This tactical placement in the front part of the store is vital as is promotion at the counter and in with magazines in their usual promotion.

Pacific runs promotions such as this as they work in achieving sales growth. This is why I encourage newsagents to engage.

This is a newsagency channel exclusive promotion. It is an excellent opportunity if you compete with supermarkets.

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magazines

Lottoland ad campaign in full swing

Lottoland has ads running on fee to air TV as well as commercial radio. The ads have the same breezy feel of riches opportunity you get from Tatts ads. Here is the TVC:

No wonder Tatts has launched The Lott to enable it to run a national marketing campaign. I think the challenge for Tatts will come from brand recognition. Lottoland is more immediately undetrstood than The Lott. My experience is the moment you have to explain a brand is the moment you lose a chunk of thee people you are seeking to attract.

Online/mobile is the next frontier for lottery sales without a doubt in my view.

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Competition

Mastercard tells customers to use for a newspaper purchase

MastercardCheck out the outdoor ad from Mastercard sent to me by a colleague. Without reference to newsagents Mastercard is telling people in the streets it is okay to use Mastercard to purchase a newspaper.

With some newsagents making only 12.5% from the sale of newspapers and some Mastercard transactions costing 3% of purchase price, it is no wonder plenty of newsagents will not accept Mastercard for a newspaper purchase.

The folks at Mastercard ought to consult with small business newsagents before they run a promotion such as this.

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Newsagency challenges

News Corp. to close seven local papers in Victoria

News Corp. is closing the Melbourne Leader, the Berwick Leader, the Brimbank Leader, the Free Press Leader, the Hobsons Bay Leader, the Melton Leader and the Wyndham Leader from July 1 as reported by Mumbrella. While not a direct impact for most newsagents, the news is another example of the challenges for print newspapers and a reminder of the need for newsagency businesses to attract people with new products.

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Media disruption

More on the Newsagency of the Future workshops

I have been asked about the content planned for the Newsagency of the Future workshops set to start on June 14.

I will share trend data on all key product categories and explain why you can believe these trends. I will also explore trends outside the traditional – what are working and what are not.

Because change is imperative, I will outline an approach to change that I see working for newsagents, discussing capital, space and mindset … explaining how they combine to drive success and failure.

Most important of all, I will take time on real world individual situations any newsagent in any situation will relate to. Here are the dates organised so far. Click on any city to go to the online booking page for that event.

There is no cost to attend.

With the help of the video production team at Tower I will film a version of the session in the studio and make this available to all newsagents. I’ll do this after Hobart so I can address common questions asked through the sessions.

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Newsagency challenges

Where do you place Smith Journal in the newsagency?

I received this note from the circulation manager of Smith Journal with a plea for help from newsagents:

frankie press wants to see Smith Journal, our magazine for those with a curious mind, re-positioned in newsagents. So we are starting a re-positioning campaign on Monday with issue no. 19.

Historically, as the “brother” title of frankie, Smith Journal was positioned with frankie in the Women’s Interest category.

More recently, we are seeing Smith Journal positioned in the Men’s Interest category with GQ, Men’s Style and more muscle magazines like Men’s Health and Men’s Fitness.

From our recent reader surveys we know that Smith Journal has the highest crossover with like-minded titlesMonocle, The Monthly, The Economist and National Geographic. Smith Journal even receives regular editorial endorsement from Monocle.

We also know that 23% of Smith Journal’s readers are female (and growing).

To improve discovery of Smith Journal in newsagents, and in turn grow sales, we want to see Smith Journal re-positioned in newsagents’ General Interest / Current Affairs categories, more appropriate categories for where our current and potential readers are shopping.

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magazines

Excellent opportunity for newsagents with Pacific Magazines promotion

image003The $150,000 magazine promotion from Pacific Magazines starts today, exclusively in newsagencies that are part of the Pacific run nexus marketing program.

Newsagents should get behind this promotion as it offers a point of difference over supermarkets and other retailers.

All participating newsagents should be supporting this in-store and on their various social media outlets for the entire run of the campaign.

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magazines

Sunday newsagency challenge: check your GST

Newsagents control the items for which they collect GST in their businesses. The setting per stock item determine the GST reported as payable when you are preparing your Business Activity Statement. One newsagent recently was shown that they made a mistake in their stock file. They have been overpaying GST to the government for several years.

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Newsagency challenges

Sunday newsagency management tip: tips for efficient Facebook posts

Facebook is an essential marketing and communication platform for any business these days, especially in local retail. Unless you manage your time, it can take too long. Here are my tips for efficient use of Facebook:

  1. Do a week of posts in one sitting.
  2. Plan them. Be sure of what you want to say before you start.
  3. Use the schedule function to post date posts. This helps you do all the posts at once and thereby reduce the time you spend doing your posts. As noted in point 1, do a week of posts in advance.
  4. Write with a theme for a week. This can help you write with a purpose.
  5. Keep posts brief – people will scroll on in a second or two unless you ran their attention.Use one or two photos, no more than four.
  6. Always write in a certain voice. By this I mean write personally so people get to know the business through the posts.
  7. Have fun.
  8. Be yourself.
  9. Check for messages at the very least daily. Respond to all messages.

Being efficient with your time helps you create more efficient posts and this will be reflected in your content and, ultimately, engagement.

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Management tip

News Corp. federal election bundle offer

image[1]News Corp has a bundled shopper offer with capital city titles and The Australian to run from June 13 for three weeks. While I have only heard about about this out of Queensland, the company pitches these nationally.

I like the offer – it is clever and timely. Around elections is when people are more engaged with newspapers. Newsagents can use their newsagency software to manage the offer.

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Newspapers

Off targeting by Fairfax

IMG_0419Clicking on the TMZ app (entertainment news) on my iPhone and this ad for the Australian Financial Review appeared on the full screen. I am surprised Fairfax would target a TMZ user. Also, I have no Australian news or business news apps on my phone so there is nothing suggesting I consume Aussie or business news on the device.

My takeaway is that Fairfax is running a broad online campaign to attract subscribers from anywhere. As for the Fairfax App being free, while it may be, their paywall policy tells me content is not free – unless there has been a change.

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Newspapers

The importance of new traffic drivers for newsagents

One of the most important goals for any newsagent is to attract new traffic into the shop. This is a considerably challenge as it requires you to think outside what is usual for what one would see in a newsagency.

In my work with newsXpress I am regularly engaged in the discussion about finding new traffic. Here is a video I shot in house Friday of last week to try and explain the need for new traffic and how to leverage this for the newsagency business as it transitions.

While the video is part of a suite of training and guidance for newsXpress members, I felt it could be useful to others in the channel.

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Newsagency management

Lunch Lady issue #2

IMG_0375Issue #2 of Lunch Lady looks terrific. I received a copy earlier this week and have had a good look through it. Lunch Lady defies categorisation as it is part food title, part family title, part lifestyle – and much more actually.

For me, Lunch Lady  is a magazine we need to promote outside the usual locations in the newsagency, to draw attention to the unique opportunity it affords. It is also a good title to promote on social media.

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magazines

Questions about Bitcoin in the newsagency

Many newsagents have asked me about the pitch from Blueshyft to bring Bitcoin transactions to newsagencies. This is on top of their Ladbrokes betting account offering.

Neither is for me in my own newsagencies as they are agency offerings and I see no future in agency related activity. Commission is small. People are giving you money but not for good margin product. Counter space is taken and time too. I think both are distracting for the goals I have for my newsagencies.

Everyone has to reach their own conclusion as to what is right for their own circumstances. I know of newsagents who are keen for agency related business. All power to them, sincerely.

My newsagency software company has done everything necessary for the software to work with Blueshyft, at no cost to newsagents or Blueshyft – I am not allowing my personal view to get in the way what newsagents might want. I never have and never will.

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Newsagency management

Suncorp fails a newsagent on customer service

A newsagent has had internet issues causing them to not have access to Suncorp EFTPOS for many days. They were sent a new router and while this got one terminal working, the support people at PC EFTPOS, the service provider for Suncorp, could not get the other working. They fobbed the issue off, telling the newsagent to call their software company. That was my software company Tower Systems.

Even though Tower did not supply the router nor the PC EFTPOS software and given Suncorp and PC EFTPOS had done, in my opinion, such a useless job, a Tower IT guru fixed the problem in a couple of minutes, for free.

It frustrates me that Suncorp makes a lot of noise about their amazing rates. Those rates count for nought in their terminal is down and they cannot provide even basic customer service to get it up and running.

You are welcome Suncorp.

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Customer Service
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