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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Reports WH Smith to acquire Supanews

I have heard from two sources that Supanews is to be acquired by WH Smith with the acquisition set to be completed by the end of this month. Franchisees were advised by Supanews late yesterday.

Supanews is a franchise business with some corporate stores but with the majority of the group operating as franchisees. This acquisition will be the first of a newsagency related business in Australia by WH Smith.

Newsagency channel observers will not be surprised as Supanews has been in play for some time and the intention of WH Smith to grow its retail presence in Australia has been evident since their acquisition of Wild Cards & Gifts early in 2014 and then the the acquisition of carcass of the Kennys Cardiology business in mid 2014.

There has been movement in Supanews recently with corporate stores closing or being sold for what I am told are good deals. This appears to have been in preparation for acquisition.

Unrelated to the Supanews acquisition are reports of further acquisition activity by WH Smith in the newsagency channel. I have been unable to confirm reports put to me.

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Newsagency challenges

Day of the taste cookbook collection

Day one of the taste cookbook collection promotion from News Corp. is almost over in Victoria. We’re out of today’s free cookbook and have been for a couple of hours. We were given plenty for our stock of papers and the extra papers we collected at lunch time but not enough for the Coles customers coming across asking for the cookbook. We gave a few out to these customers but from lunchtime sent them looking for the distribution newsagent as we needed cookbook stock for our newspaper customers.

This looks like it will be a popular promotion. It’s certainly been promoted heavily by News Corp in the Herald Sun, online and in-store – even in retail only newsagencies which is good.

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Newspapers

Moving from print to digital for books

While I have completely switched from print to digital for news and special interest magazine content, I have continued to only read books in their print form. I read a lot and the print experience provided time away from a screen. I like the ease with which I con interact with the book and appreciate seeing shelves full in my home office.

As an author I have experienced book publishing in the digital and print formats. I found the digital experience better for the data provided on engagement and download.

A few days ago I discovered a new book that I wanted to read urgently. The print edition would not be here until next month. Wanting it now, I bought my first digital edition of a book. Within seconds of purchase it was on all my devices: laptop, iPad and iPhone. The reading experience so far is better than last time I checked it out in an Apple store – years ago. If it continues this well the only thing I will miss is the reminder of books I’ve read on the shelves.

As technology evolves, more people will migrate from print to digital for all sorts of content. Reasons for sticking with print will fade as technology improves. Retailers relying on print for their future need to watch the trends with books, newspapers and magazines. Each of these three are being impacted at different paces. Newspapers are on the edge of the cliff, books are playing nearby and most magazines are some way back. However, they are all closer to the cliff than they were a year ago, two years ago …

I did not expect to enjoy digital book reading as much as I am. I only bought this particular book out of urgent necessity. I’m glad to be discovering an unexpectedly enjoyable experience.

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Book retailing

Frozen the hero of the season

frozenI saw a good example of the power of the Disney Frozen brand Thursday when visiting a newsagency. The two stands of Frozen product in the photo were a magnet for kids and those buying for kids.

Placing the two stands together is a smart move as together they are more visual powerful than if apart.

Some newsagency marketing groups are offering their members access to Frozen product from plenty of suppliers – five at least. This allows those stores to sell a strong story that competes with the majors.

Price is not an issue as the bottom feeding deep discount stores are not heavily into this brand yet.

If you are do not have Frozen products on your shop floor you are certain to be missing out.

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Gifts

Are you ready for the Taste cookbook newspaper promotion?

Newsagents should be ready in their newsagency software for the Taste cookbook promotion from News Corp. They have access to a stock file to make tracking the Taste stock items easier. If you don’t have it setup already contact your newsagency software company. Tracking it is important because with such a slim margin making a mistake can be expensive.

For newsagents with the Tower software click here for to access the knowledge base advice. Other software companies are welcome to publish links to their advice here too.

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Newsagency management

Inspiring visual merchandising

vminspireIf ever I want inspiration for visual merchandising I go to The Works in hawthorn, on Burwood Road, newer my office. There you can see what their buying and VM experts consider to be best practice for the season.

Yellow is in. We have access to similar products – recreating this display or something like it is easy for newsagents in the gift and homewares spaces.

I’m posting the photo as inspiration.

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visual merchandising

Newspapers spending up

dailyadsThe money (ink and paper) being spend by newspapers promoting their various subscription packages must be considerable – more than at any time I cal recall. While some ads promote the newspaper and digital products, more often they promote digital products only. Either way, digital is the focus over print yet print is the medium used for the pitch.

All newsagents need to factor this into their own planning.

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Newspapers

More special interest magazine publishers support newsagents

fringemagsHere more examples of magazine publishers supporting newsagents as the go to retailers for their titles. The screen grab is from Twitter this week. It shows how the two publishers are specifically promoting our channel.

While Australian Boxing Legends and Stage Whispers are not volume sellers, people who purchase them are valuable to us as these titles are unique to us, they reflect a point of difference.

Australian Family Tree magazine is another special interest title promoted on social media and actively pushing newsagencies as the businesses from which to purchase the title.

These special interest titles are more important than ever for us. We need to support them and be more aware of how they are supporting us in social media.

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magazines

Relay gives a lesson in retail product placement and promotion

bookfrontRelay stores at airports in Australia are always worth a visit. They are in traffic rich locations and need their displays work at drawing people into the store. This display at their Canberra outlet is on the corner of the lease line.

I stood across from the store for five minutes and saw four people walk across to look at the promoted book. One purchased.

The relay approach is simple to follow: make the product the hero and tell people who the product is the hero.

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Book retailing

Bauer exclusive deal with Woolworths

bauermagsstandI got to see the Exclusive to Woolworths gift with purchase stand from Bauer first hand this week. It’s impressive in terms of the stand itself and the gift. While I am not a consumer of the promoted titles, I expect the promotion to work for Bauer and Woolworths.

This practical and shopper focussed offer is what Bauer should promote in newsagencies and not the Connections points program. Giving Woolworths a competitive advantage will not end well.

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Competition

News Life Media supporting supermarkets

newsmagsstandThis stand promoting a range of News Life media and the terrific gift with purchase of any of the titles which I saw in Woolworths gives the supermarket chain a valuable advantage over newsagents for the promoted titles. The stand is Woolworths branded – making me think this is a offer exclusive to them.

Note: I had to pout four titles in the stand for the photo as the pockets were empty – such is their lazy approach to managing magazines.

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Competition

Do you have this Cleo gift with purchase

cleosuperIn Woolworths earlier this week I noticed this Cleo packed with a terrific gift of LeTan wash off tan for summer. It’s a good gift with purchase for the target Cleo reader this time of the year. I am not sure if this is a Woolworths or supermarket only deal.

Anyone else get it? I didn’t.

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magazines

Another slim newspaper stand

anotherstandIn what is becoming a series, here is another slim newspaper stand. This time at the news and gift outlet at Launceston airport. It has a small footprint and is strong – allowing it to hold the heavier Saturday newspapers. Flexible too – it could hold more titles with more shelves installed. You low the deal: click on the image for a larger version.

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Newsagency management

Newsagents – beware duplicate barcodes

Network Servcies has two titles out this week with the same barcodes. This is a dreadful error by the publishers.

03/11/2014 – THE CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE
Bipad 3748 Issue 201401
Correct Barcode 9780992584955

06/11/2014 – GUIDE TO THE CRICKET WORLD CUP
Bipad 3817 Issue 201401
Correct Barcode 9780992584948

Make sure you handle this according to advice from your newsagency software supplier otherwise your returns credits could be affected..

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magazine distribution

Newspaper remote area publishing fee

In Launceston yesterday I discovered from newsagents that Fairfax charges a Remote area publishing fee for The Age, the Melbourne newspaper, which is printed locally, in Launceston, for Tasmanian customers.

This seems like an odd charge to me. Fair enough if freight was involved but it’s not. It’s a fee for using a local printing facility. I would have thought that this benefited Fairfax.

My understanding is that the fee is one reason sales of The Age in Tasmania are down.

I’d like newsagents to share other charges they see from publishers for local printing of interstate papers or freight applied for shipping such papers in.

While not the same as is happening in Port Lincoln about which I wrote last week, it’s similar in that publishers are recouping more costs now their products are not as popular.

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Media disruption

Terrific newspaper stand from News Corp. at Coles

newscstandI love this newspaper stand from News Corp. which I saw at a Coles in suburban Melbourne a couple of days ago. It’s space efficient. strong, flexible and easily relocated. Very smart.

I like this stand more than the stands I have seen on offer to newsagents in recent years from News and Fairfax. If publishers were to offer something as efficient as this to retail newsagents I am sure we should see better engagement by that channel.

Click on the image to see the stand in more detail. Notice the strong construction, flexibility and marketing at the top.

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Newspapers

Welcome Women’s Weekly Health Diary traffic

healthdI love it when a customer comes in and asks specifically for an item, something that has driven them to us. This is happening regularly at the moment for the Women’s Weekly Health Diary. I appreciate the traffic for the product – generated in part by good and wide promotion of the product recently.

One customer shared a but much Saturday saying I get all my magazines at Coles now and I thought they’d have this there. I smiled, thanked them for their business and pointed out the discount voucher they now had from us for spending on magazines from us.

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Diaries

News Corp. should check before it tweets

Screen Shot 2014-11-04 at 2.43.49 pmI was pleased but concerned to see News Corp. promoting newsagents with its tweet this Sunday gone promoting the free tote bag in support of Shop Small, the American Express promotion: FREE tote bag with the paper at metro newsagents today. Support the locals.

My first concern related to the Amex connection. Amex is not small business friendly. They have no place promoting small business because they suck crazy fees from us. The Show Small campaign is more about getting small retailers to offer Amex than it is about supporting small business in my view.

My second worry was the supply of the bag itself. Sure enough, the News Corp. supply chain failed us.  We did not get the bags – making the News Corp. tweet irrelevant to my newsagency. #fail

I like that News Corp. wants to support retail newsagents. It needs to sort out its communicate channel so bumps like this do not occur in the future.

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Newspaper distribution

Diary sales in the newsagency up 160%

diariesOur 2015 diary sales are up 160% compared to sales of 2014 diaries to the same time last year. This is off a good base.

The one change this year over last is the placement of some diaries in front of newspapers and magazines. We have the space for this placement following the removal of two magazine fixtures a few weeks ago.

While Collins diary sales are up it is our fashion diaries that are benefiting the most. They are located on the other side of the table – out of view in the photo.

We source diaries from several suppliers covering business and personal needs. Stock starts out on the floor in August and builds in September.

Our experience this year is that placement is key to driving diary sales.

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Diaries

Why the re-issue of the Ashes magazine?

magsreissueDid you receive the reissue of The Ashes magazine? This old title has had its day and reissuing to newsagents as happened this week is a space and money grab.

Had we been asked I suspect many newsagents would have said no thanks, been there, done that.

This is a perfect example of how magazine distributors make newsagents less competitive than supermarkets.

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magazine distribution

Reaching out from the magazine shelves

magsfstWe are promoting the latest issue of Feast magazine with a simple acrylic fixture that places copies of the title in front of the magazine shelves – it makes it stand out ahead of other titles. This issue of Feast with the yellow cover is perfect for featuring from the crowd in this way.

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magazines

Australia Post trades off government protection

apsavingWhile other retailers in shopping malls are required to open Public Holidays, Australia Post corporate stores are not. Today, Melbourne Cup Day, Australia Post avoids the crazy penalty rates while retailers competing with them are hit by the cost. This situation is a benefit available to Australia Post solely because of their protected status as a government owned business. It is a perfect example of government ownership and protection providing them an unfair competitive advantage.

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Australia Post

Basic retail advice: if you have a front window in your newsagency use it to attract shoppers into your shop

windowfacingoutIn you have a front window to your newsagency use it as a window and not as the back wall of a storage cupboard as one newsagency I saw recently does.

The photo shows what you see from the outside of the shop looking in.

There is no appeal to people walking past the window of the newsagency in the photo, none whatsoever. This window is a missed opportunity. 

There are two things wrong with this newsagency window: the products in the window are not placed to appeal to the passer-by and you can’t see into the business. It’s a window – you ought to be able to see through it to something enticing.

The use of this window is a fail on two counts, a missed opportunity for this business.

Landlords consider windows a feature. They factor having a window into the price they set for the space. In this case, the newsagent could be paying a premium for storage space that is more likely to turn people off than entice them into the shop for a browse.

The best way to leverage the value of a window is to take everything off it – all magazine posters (you should never put magazine posters on your windows) and stickers as well as any products placed inside the window. Clean it and take a look inside. If you like what you see, terrific. If not, make sure what people see through your window is ideal.  Once it is, you can then figure out how to use the window itself, if you want to.

A good window and what you can see through it could be the most important marketing you have for your newsagency. It is important to get it right, to ensure it is relevant and to keep it fresh.

This is basic retail advice. Getting your window right could boost traffic and sales with little capital investment and who doesn’t want that?

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Management tip

Fitting more magazines into the fixtures

weeklymagsI was asked last week in response to my post that we had cut 250 magazine pockets and no titles how we fitted magazines. This photo shows how we fit in UK titles. In the top row we have eight titles in three pockets. This is more efficient.

carmagsThis photo shows how we are fitting in more car titles by placing titles over each other. In the lower row we have four titles taking up two pockets – still very efficient. We do this with food, UK, music, photography, cars, motorcycles and craft sections – not not all of craft.

This approach works best when done in segments where shoppers will look for the titles they are after and where the full cover is not as vital.

It is important to note that we give titles displayed in this way time in the spotlight with a feature placement elsewhere – to try and reach people not currently purchasing the special interest titles.

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magazines
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