Author: Mark Fletcher

I am grateful a newsagent drew my attention to an article on page of The Australian Financial Review yesterday. Baking giant’s profit crumble on page 27 is a timely read as what Goodman Fielder has experienced with Coles and Woolworths, Australian magazine publishers could also experience as bread and magazines share some common aspects.

Here is what the newsagent wrote to me about this:

The comments in the AFR today regarding Goodman Fielders result (page 27) and the steps this company is taking to recover from a huge drop in profit due to oversupply and massive returns of bread sound just like magazines. I wonder how much push came from the supermarkets or is the effect on Goodmans bottom line the driver. Maybe we can learn something.

We see supermarkets driving some activity with magazines around discounts and bundled deals – all pitching the titles at below their cover price.

I wonder if there is pressure for this to increase – offering discounts, bundles and other promotions. Supermarkets are more active in the magazine space than at any recent time.

The only way we newsagents can address this is to be a unified channel of value to magazine publishers. I suspect, however, that the behaviour of magazine distributors toward newsagents is s barrier to that happening.

We are promoting the Men’s Health Cover Model Muscle mini magazine with our news, property and money titles swell as with men’s health related titles elsewhere in our mag department. It’s the right time of the year for the title. We’ve suggested it as a Valentine’s Day gift to some.

I love the look of the latest issue of Cosmos magazine. It stands out among the sea of colour of the magazine department. we have the whole front cover on display – to leverage the terrific cover.

If you put this in the old-style magazine pockets some newsagency shopfitters still make you will lose the benefit of the impact.

Here’s a tip, put Diabetic Living next to your newspapers and you will increase sales. We do it regularly and succeed in getting destination newspaper shoppers purchasing Diabetic Living. Easy.

While I am thrilled to see Something Sweet Collection advertised on TV, I don’t understand their use of the N logo. They use one of at least three quite different N logos in use. I’d guess than less than a third of all newsagents use an N logo and that less than 10% of retail newsagents use the N logo in the DeAgostini ad – making its use redundant.

The N is not representative of this channel. It stands for nothing and is backed by no discipline. It’s value is represented by poor and undisciplined uptake by the channel.

I’d like to know who advised DeAgostini to use the N logo – whoever it is got it wrong.

My other frustration is that the N logo is placed to be recognised but the word newsagents is on a pale background and lost.

Despite a sell through of between 40% and 60%, the allocations experts at Bauer Media sent us an extra 40% of the current issue of Yours magazine. I shake my head and wonder what I have done to deserve such a fine from the company. What a ridiculous waste of paper and time.

I’m finding One Direction is not selling magazines like they used to. Right now, however,we have four titles with One Direction on the cover – so magazine editors disagree. Maybe sales will pick up. I’d like to be back at the peak when we could sell 150 copies of a 1D featured title. How is the band performing for other newsagents?

Teaser headlines on the cover of magazines are important in encouraging browsing. The folks at UK magazine Chat must know who they want to attract. I say this because of the headline: YUK! It’s raining snot. Again – I’m not my customer but I did notice the cover!

The cover of O magazine looks surreal. You have Oprah Winfrey draped across the cover in a pose with a lion. Odd. It looks like the cover of a romance novel. But, hey, what do I know – I’m not the customer. But it is working because I noticed it.

The cash promotion running with That’s Life is a rerun of a promotion run many times in the past. It’s a hit. Customers engage. We make the most of the opportunity with the full cover on show – so shoppers can see the cash promotion.