I like the multi-title header from Bauer promoting four of their titles. I like the Aussie pitch. I also like the listing of the mastheads on the backing card as this guides placement. The only challenge with header cards like this is the space they steal form the titles behind.
Further to my posts about the ATO handling of the tax pack matter, here is the text of a complaint lodged by one newsagent with the ATO:
I am a newsagent – you have, without consultation, added 100’s of hours to my working schedule. In doing that you intend to compensate me $8.00.
Many of my customers don’t have a PC.
Many of them don’t understand the Internet at all.
They do not want to spend an hour on hold waiting to ask for a tax pack to be sent to them.
Your move is out of step with community needs, your compensation is below minimum wage and is insulting in the extreme, your decision to do this without consultation and at the last minute is offensive.
You have placed my staff and I at the forward edge of angry customers, your actions are directly affecting my businesses reputation and potentially a percentage of its earnings.
I am disgusted, I am angry, I am appalled at your treatment.
I need 1000 tax packs
or
I need some significant compensation for the 100s of hours of work, calming customers and explaining the new procedures to them.
Sums it up very nicely I think.
I have just pre-recorded a long interview with Steve Austin of the morning program on 612 ABC Brisbane today. We covered News Limited’s T2020 trial, the 80 cent price hike for the Adelaide Advertiser, the ATO Tax Pack situation, Australia Post corporate store competition, politician engagement and the migration of print to digital.
One of Steve’s questions was what’s the future of the newsagency? It’s a tough question, one I feel optimistic about as regulars here would see.
If you’re in Brisbane try and catch the program. I am not sure when this morning the interview will run. I’ll look for a link later in the day.
I was moved to write this open letter to John Stanhope, Chairman of Australia Post, after reading the article in The Australian Financial Review yesterday on page 22.
Dear John,
The feature article about you in The Australian Financial Review yesterday says that a big part of your job is persuading politicians that the rules around Post’s obligations need to be loosened – to align with a world in which “there is a younger generation, many of whom wouldn’t have written a letter, let alone post a letter.”
Really? You want the rules changed because the world has changed? You want your shareholder to protect you even more?
Hmm, let’s see how this goes – you go talk to your sole shareholder, the federal government, and ask them to change the rules to suit you, so you can pay the dividend they require. The conflict is obvious.
I am surprised you want regulatory change as that has not stopped you doing what you want in the past.
It’s a changing and unfair world John. As your organisation has though your actions in opening retail outlets close to newsagents and expanding into non post related traditional to newsagency products, taking revenue from small family businesses and leveraging your government protected brand to achieve this.
I say Australia Post has abused its protected position to compete with small business newsagents through your corporate stores. Ink, book, cards, gifts – all sorts of items being sold by the post office. I have written about this here many times.
One of my own newsagencies faced stiff competition from one of your government owned stores. We were price compared by your public servants on more than one occasion for the purpose of competition. This government owned and protected retail business was trying hard to take sales from us.
And now you say the rules need to change to protect you.
The rules should not change, not in isolation. You can’t have it both ways – protected when you want and given more flexibility when you want. If there is to be a review of the rules under which you operate your whole engagement with the act needs to be assessed and publicly debated.
But before we have that debate we need to look at your ownership. Having the government owned business competing with commercial businesses is unfair. You need to get out of retail – sell them to local newsagents at a price that accounts for the damage you have done over the years. You need to sell off your commercial courier business.
The government should only own and operate services that are not otherwise commercially viable yet which are considered an essential services for the community.
I accept you have challenges with the old print post model. They’re not new, they have been coming for ten years at least. I’d say this is why you have targeted newsagents in your corporate retail businesses over the last six to eight years. We were a soft target and you got away with taking our customers by using your monopoly.
John, what you have is a bloated retail network getting special treatment because of government ownership and taking special treatment by, in my view, operating outside the Act. It’s not a level playing field comparing the treatment of a government owned Australia Post shop and a newsagency in a shopping centre.
It frustrates me that the AFR gives you such excellent coverage when the backbone of retail in Australia, small business retailers, struggle to get issues of concern to them exposed in the media.
I hope the politicians refuse to change the rules under which you operate.
If you want to talk about this call me on 0418 321 338. I’d welcome the opportunity.
Mark Fletcher
I was happy to see Vintage Made magazine arrive in-store as it’s another magazine connecting with all things vintage – like Vintage Caravan magazine.
What is interesting about these vintage titles is that we have access to gift and homewares products that serve the same shopper. These are opportunities for us. In fact, this is a good example of where magazines can help us grow other parts of our businesses.
When I hear a newsagent saying there is no future in magazines for newsagents I shake my head at the ignorance of the statement. Indeed, in our magazine sales data we can be guided on gift purchasing and calendar purchasing. From these two categories we lift the overall GP of the business. Vintage is hot right now and Vintage Made and Vintage Caravan can help us connect with that interest.
Tour De France titles are selling very well, up on last year’s good numbers. We’re very happy with the results achieved from the counter space allocation – this has been assisted by having access to extra stock.
In fact, I am surprised more titles have not tapped into this opportunity.
A video of the latest Newsagency of the Future workshop has been completed and loaded. It’s a 45 minute version of the workshop I have just completed running around Australia.
I do these sessions to get newsagents thinking about their future in the context of known and unknown challenges. We have to own our situation.
Check out the advice provided to newsagents about the changes to handling of Tax Packs this year. The Australian taxation Office expects us to put up a sign, hand out flyers and answer customer questions. Imagine the response from one of the major supermarkets, petrol outlets or convenience stores to such a request.
The $8.00 payment by the ATO is an insult. It is a pittance for the time we will spend, for the cost of employee time in answering these questions. The payment is below minimum wage – this from an organisation that polices us to ensure we fulfill our tax obligations. Indeed, the ATO is effectively taxing us to do this work for them. This is not fair ATO.
It disgusts me that the ATO treats small business newsagents in this way. I’m complaining to my local federal member to ensure my complaints are heard.
Check out the ad running on large screens in a major shopping centre on the weekend promoting the $50 million OzLotto jackpot. Neither of the Tatts outlets in the centre were promoted in the ad – only Tatts.com. That’s a clear indication of the focus of the company. With the requirement on retailers to support corporate branding I’d expect Tatts to connect with their supporting retailers with this in-centre advertising.
While Tatts could argue that this is a branding campaign and that any retailer in the centre with their branding will benefit, I’d say it’s a call to action campaign and a supportive supplier would have promoted the outlets nearby where a $50 million jackpot ticket could be purchased.
I was disappointed to see this display for Symply Too Good cookbooks in the pharmacy right next to one of my newsagencies.
While Annette Sym has been a supporter of newsagencies and our channel has been a supporter of her products, this apparent move to pharmacies will challenge the relationship. The price point is odd – $15.00 as advertised makes these more expensive than in newsagencies.
The latest issue of Reader’s Digest is a hit with Nelson Mandela on the cover. We are chasing extra stock on the back of excellent sales. Having the full cover on display and high-traffic position placement have been key to driving sales.
The Australian is reporting that Shop Til You Drop is moving to fortnightly publication in October. This could be a good move, one I am some other publishers will be watching.
Newsagents may find the column in The Daily Telegraph penned by Lizzie Renkert, former editor of madison for Bauer, interesting reading. It talks about giving everything and then some to the company and the magazine, the feeling of being cast aside and opportunities outside.
Following the publication of the results of my survey of newsagents about the change to magazine delivery days I have been contacted by more than ten magazine publishers. None are happy with the change. They all express feeling helpless to impact the change. Several are actively working on a change to distributor as a result.
Our placement of the Pink poster book at the front of the newsagency, facing into mall has worked well, selling two thirds of our allocation in six days. Placing it right behind New Idea – with a Pick cover story – was key to this success. We’re very happy getting the poster book as an impulse purchase with New Idea.
Prince Harry on the cover of The Australian Women’s Weekly is helping drive excellent sales. It’s a stunning picture that cuts through. We’re seeing the best sales in a year with this issue and we’re not doing anything out of the ordinary to promote the title. We have it in its usual location plus at the front of the newsagency facing into the mall as well as with daily newspapers. We have ordered more copies as we’re on target to sell out.
The Herald Sun says it’s a local paper, focussing on local stories. They why cover the photo of local hero Cadel Evans on the front page of the newspaper on Saturday with a stuck on ad promoting home delivery? Ridiculous.
I understand retail newsagents removing these stickers as all they do is tell our customers to get their newspaper elsewhere.
I received a text message from a newsagent a few weeks ago advising they were rinning a gift sale to reach $100,000 in gist sales for the financial year. They weere close and wanted to pass their goal.
This morning I got a message advising they had reached $98,718.43 in gift sales, just shy of their goal. The GREAT NEWS is that this is 32% up on their gift sales of $74,784 a year earlier. The FY2011/12 year was up on the 2010/11 results of $45,000 in gifts.
This is truly EXCELLENT NEWS. A husband and wife newsagent team making deliberate decisions and moves chasing growth in a high margin and traffic generating category. What an excellent end of financial year story.
To provide context, this is a regional mid-size newsagency. While some older categories are declining, they are growing sales and new traffic by being professional outcome-focussed retailers. And they are banking the results. This makes their business more valuable when they decide to sell.
Stories like this make my day.
Measurement is key to the success of any retail business, especially a newsagency in the middle of a perfect storm of change.
Measuring sales, stock, employees and suppliers.
Without accurate and consistent measurement, you are not able to make good business decisions or to hold others to account for their actions.
By measuring you can make better decisions.
Here are some simple rules for accurate measurement in retail:
My making your business data driven you are better equipped to take the emotion and gut feel out of business decisions. This will improve decision quality and accountability and, hopefully, the return you achieve from these decisions.
Businesses which do not measure stock, suppliers, employees and sales accurately often find themselves faltering without knowing why – because they have no accurate data on which to base research.
Yes, I know … this is not new or fresh advice. I publish it today because I’ve spoken with some newsagents this week for whom it was new advice. Please read it and pass it on.
Today I am repeating an idea from two years ago because it’s time.
Christmas in July is growing in popularity in retail businesses. It can provide a good retail focus and sales kick in between major seasons. It is an opportunity to move stock while having fun with Christmas out of season.
Christmas in July is an excellent opportunity for newsagencies.
A couple of years ago we moved in excess of $2,000 in boxed Christmas cards at a 75% margin. Our Christmas boxed cards later in the year were stronger than ever so the July promotion did not pull forward sales.
A Christmas in July promotion could be as simple as a sale based around the season or it could be a fully integrated campaign covering the whole of the business.
Christmas in July is a particularly useful campaign if you sell items which would help with celebrations in the home or if you sell items which work as Christmas gifts. While the opportunity is promoted as Christmas in July, it is a chance to get some early Christmas sales happening – ahead of most other retailers.
Check with your local council or business association as to what they have on – more and more are running Christmas in July events. be sure to check with charities too. A quick search online shows plenty do. Talk to suppliers to see whether they have anything which could help you embrace the opportunity.
Remember, the real focus of a Christmas in July promotion is to increase sales. Every move made as part of the campaign must progress this opportunity.
Christmas in July is an excellent opportunity to get suppliers on board. Maybe they could provide products for you to give away as gifts – I.E. every shopper gets spending over $10 a ‘Christmas’ gift. Suppliers could use your promotion as an ideal time for trialling products and getting your customers engaged.
Events like Christmas in July are all about giving people a reason to visit your newsagency. Making the event fun and relevant to the season (winter) should make it a winner for you.
Check out Crazy Scratch. It’s being promoted in Australia via Google AdWords. You can play with real money. Newsagents need to consider Crazy Scratch and the others in this space when planning capital investment in lottery products.
While governments will seek to regulate cross border sales of lottery products, the internet tends to not recognise borders.
The lottery business game has fundamentally changed.
US book retailer Barnes & Noble are experiencing pressure with sales of their nook falling. These purpose specific devices are challenges because of many other multi purpose devices filling the need of reading platform. I see people reading books, newspapers and magazines on their tables – iPads, samsung and Slate – as well as on their smartphones – maybe soon on watches. In the pressure of what you carry in a bag or handbag, a single purpose device was always going to have a limited life.
Some newsagents were keen to get into the book e-reader reseller space. History is showing it would not have boon even medium-term good for us.
I was surprised to see this suburban newsagency with prime window space covered with magazine posters yesterday. This is so old school. It blocks a view of what’s in-store, what could entice shoppers in. It’s also odd to me that they are promoting these magazines so late in the week, when 80% or 90% of sales would have been done by now.
It’s basic stuff like this that we need to change. Magazine posters on the front window of a newsagency placed like this have no place in today’s newsagency, not if the business wants to live beyond the weekly magazine cycle.
I’d be interested to hear what others think about this.
I was in the US checking out some retail businesses and noticed plenty of magazine titles I’d like to see in my stores. I was particularly interested in titles that appeal to niche (valuable, loyal) interests.
Take geek for example. I can see this working well for us. I’d love a way for us to nominate overseas titles we’d like to support in our businesses.
I was in the US earlier this week and noticed a new type of meal on the run in convenience, petrol and transit stores. The boxes of meals I saw offered three ‘courses’ in packaging not requiring refrigeration.
While I’d prefer a piece of fruit to the over processed food in these boxes, they do illustrate new products being introduced by manufacturers keen to drive sales in a changing marketplace. They illustrate the need to keep evolving I guess.