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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Mood Rings – an excellent newsagency basket builder

I’m thrilled with sales of Mood Rings as part of our impulse purchase offering. The sales success reinforces our experience that retro / nostalgia products sell.

First developed in New York in the 1970s, Mood Rings will bring back memories for many baby boomers – they tend to be the ones who notice them on the table first. They are a perfect impulse line for the traditional newsagency shopper.

We have placed our Mood Rings carefully in the centre of an impulse purchase display and placing other items appealing to the same shopper next to them.  Stock turn is excellent. When we have the display at the front of the newsagency it attracts shoppers who would not usually shop with us.

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Gifts

Sunday marketing tip for newsagents: tell your customers what’s new

The sign board in the photo is simple yet effective. In using colour, the retailer draws your attention to what’s important. The sign is in the doorway but sticking out enough for you to notice it.

We could use the same approach outside our newsagencies – announcing the latest magazine issues, listing what’s new in-store, promoting special offers.

We could use this type of sign to bring to the front of the shop products and opportunities passers-by would not know we sell. However, I think the best immediate use would be to promote magazine stories you know shoppers in your area would be interested in. I say this because you only have a couple of seconds to grab attention.

I like it a lot – it’s simple, effective and low cost. Better than blackboards I’ve seen.  An easy to promote our businesses to passers-by.

Click on the image for a larger version.

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marketing

Sunday newsagency management tip: know how to report your own GP

Too many newsagents I speak with rely on their accountants or other advisors to report on Gross Profit.  While most know GP by many items they sell, few actually check GP achieved from sales until someone does it for them. Often, by then, it is too late.

Given the challenges newsagents face – slim margin on too many lines, high rent and flat sales for too many – it is vital that newsagents regularly pull a Gross Profit report from their software. Tracking this is important as we reengineer our businesses.

There are no excuses for newsagents not knowing how they are tracking with Gross Profit. If you’re not sure, ask your software company as they will have the best advice for you.

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Management tip

Newspaper front page cover-up disrespects community feelings

I was disappointed to see News Limited run a post it note ad stuck over the story on the front page of the Herald Sun yesterday. This is a story close to the hearts of Victorians and to have it treated this was is disrespectful.

On many copies I saw, the headline – JUSTICE FOR JILL – was partially obscured. So much for reporting justice.

I was also disappointed to see them advertising a home delivery / digital access offer. Why would I want a product in my shop damaged in this way with an ad promoting to my customers that they source their newspaper elsewhere?

I suspect many retail newsagents removed the sticker.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Support for the convenience channel over newsagents

I am concerned about the move by some suppliers to support the convenience channel over the newsagency channel.  In Victoria, for example, Myki (transport tickets) were available in 7-Eleven ahead of newsagents and now Myki tickets feature in 7-Eleven ads.  Tatts completed a direct to point of sale integration with 7-Eleven when they told me that they could not do any such integration because the government agreement precluded it.

It is concerning to see 7-Eleven get such arrangements in place ahead of newsagents. We were the natural home of each of these products.  Now, 7-Eleven has a better and more relevant offer for convenience shoppers. This, coupled with their significant expansion in fuel, makes them our strongest competitor in this convenience space.

In the magazine space 7-Eleven is ahead of us too. They have control over their product mix and quantity.  I suspect they are paid a promotion fee for counter offers.

In the telco recharge space I suspect they are treated differently too but I con’t be sure.  Better margin maybe?  Rebates?  I am confident they are on a deal with Apple on their vouchers.

Does any of this matter? That depends on whether you see your newsagency as a convenience business or a destination store.  I’ll be covering this fundamental question in the Newsagency of the Future series.

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Ethics

Sales opportunity with Australian Property Investor

The Hot 100 issue of Australian Property Investor featured on Today Tonight last night.  This is a perfect reason to promote it with newspapers or at the counter today.  I’m told there will be more media coverage ofor what has become a top selling issue of this magazine.

Check where you have Australian Property Investor, make the most of the media coverage.

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magazines

One Direction still strong for magazine sales

The latest One Direction related titles are selling well for us. We have extended the timing of the display to sell through the school holidays.  The sales indicate that for us at least this boyband has some time yet before they expire sales wise. Thankfully, we were able to get extra stock of Girlfriend magazine as the feature of the display.

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magazines

Excellent advice for retailers (and newsagents) in assessment of Bauer shutting magazine titles

Valerie Khoo has contributed an excellent piece at SMH.COM.AU on a lesson for all small business owners – retailers and newsagents – in the recent moved by Bauer to shut magazine titles. I’d encourage everyone to read this article. Regulars here will remember I’ve written about similar things myself.

We all need to clean our own houses as Bauer is doing and we need to try and do this with the eyes of a new owner. That’s the essence of Valerie’s article.

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Newsagency management

QNF set to merge with ANF

Nine years after it was first proposed by the ANF, the QNF has today announced the calling of a Special General Meeting to vote on the merging of the QNF with the ANF, as a division of the national association.

This is good move, one Victoria and NSW/ACT should follow. Newsagents spend too much money on disconnected and conflicted representation.

Why didn’t this happen nine years ago?  Egos got in the way.

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Newsagent representation

Cool stationery vital to getting newsagents back in the stationery game

As Smiggle and Typo stores in Australia show, funky sells, cheap funky especially. For these items, price and funkiness trump quality. The success of Smiggle and Typo attest to that. They have taken plenty of our social stationery sales.

Yesterday I got to see several stationery businesses and saw some funky stationery lines creeping into the traditional stationery offering.

The photo shows a notepad and pen set I saw at a Staples store in Boston. Very cool indeed. And selling quickly!

We need to be in the space and be in it well. Not so much Smiggle as they own young kids. We need to be in this funky stationery space for older shoppers – with stationery people will purchase on impulse and often as a gift … like this cake-slice-like notepad and pen set.

Suppliers who help newsagents get into this part gift part stationery part fashion space should expect to do good business with our channel.

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Newsagency opportunities

Opportunities for newsagents in latest Australian Traveller magazine

Newsagents should check out the locations covered in the latest issue of Australian Traveller magazine.  The feature, 100 Incredible Travel Secrets of Australia, is already receiving excellent media coverage.

Read the Checklist and see if somewhere near you is listed. This list has local promotion opportunities as well as other opportunities. EG Kyneton is featured – newsagencies nearby should promote this widely.

Australian Traveller continues to sell well. For us, it’s our best performing travel title. We place it with travel titles and with women’s weeklies. Co-location is essential if you want to achieve the best sales possible.

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magazines

Is the closure of the Fairfax Monday to Friday newspapers inevitable?

Check out this paragraph from Stephen Bartholomeusz’s piece about the latest restructure at newspaper publisher Fairfax:

The next big decision will come when the printing of the metros moves to the regional presses and the Chullora and Tullamarine plants are shut down and sold. At that point Hywood will have to confront the decision as to whether to continue printing the loss-making Monday-to-Friday papers or to shut them down and move to a digital-only presence outside the weekends. It appears a forgone, albeit very painful, conclusion.

The current daily sales of the Fairfax dailies is lower than US titles that have either gone 100% digital or stopped printing on some days.

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Media disruption

Brilliant Easter Bonnet Parade

I spent hours roaming the Easter Bonnet Parade on Fifth Avenue on Sunday. It was a treat to see amazing creativity at work. Just about all the Bonnets were home made using materials many of us sell in our newsagencies. It was inspiring to see what people created.

The parade is no real parade in that’s it’s not an organised march. People mingled and posed for photos … very un-New York … people relaxed and enjoying strolling the streets.

It was inspiring – to work on something like with local newsagents at the heart of promoting it. I know some do this very well already. But why not more? It’s something we could own for the community to enjoy.

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Fun

Too many free magazines will hurt magazine sales

I am concerned at what feels like a trend more magazines in Australia being given away as gifts and add-ons to the purchase of other items. Maybe it’s just me but it feels like I am seeing more single issues and mini free subscriptions being given with other purchases.

Publishers I speak with say they do this to get their title sampled by people bot currently purchasing the title. While this may be the case, I’d prefer to facilitate the sampling through a retail network that supports and benefits from the sale of magazines.

Publishers need to value their titles more. Give fewer copies away. Discount subscriptions less. Sell them through fewer retailers. Publishers of good content will find that shoppers seek them out. Magazines with less valued content will need to give copies away, discount subscriptions more and have them placed in more retail outlets.

I don’t want to see Australia go the way of the US where heavily discounted subscriptions and product tie-in deal account for a sizeable portion of circulation.

Some giveaways don’t make sense. This is particularly the case in the US. It cheapens the magazines.  I purchased a couple of tickets to a broadway show on Saturday and immediately after my credit card was processed, a screen popped up advising that I could select three titles and for each I would receive a three month trial subscription.

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magazines

Frustrated with the Street Machine Mystery Triple Pack

I have been contacted by several newsagents about the Street Machine Mystery Triple Pack – received from Bauer this week. Between them, they were unhappy that it is thick – more expensive to display, discounted – challenging the premium magazine offer and a mystery – likely to lead to being opened in-store.

This is the kind of package Bauer should ask newsagents if they want to carry it. It’s our retail space, our labour and our money for the stock at risk.  This mystery pack is outside the usual and therefore should be approached differently.

The Bauer (Network) accounts department has a reputation for being the toughest and rudest in the newsagency channel. I’d agree with that. Often, despite having a security bond covering debt, they chase newsagents aggressively – hurting people who felt helpless in controlling magazine supply.  It is unfair, in my view, that they do not provide newsagents with reasonable mechanisms with which to better manage our level of indebtedness, better controls for stopping a title like Street Machine Mystery Triple Pack before it is sent to us.

Several publishers have had out of the ordinary packs, titles and offers over the last few months that they have put to newsagents on an opt-in basis. This is what I prefer for such opportunities.

To the Bauer folks saying that I have a vendetta against them, I don’t. I had no control over the allocation of this title to newsagents. This post has been written on behalf of newsagents who wanted the issue aired.

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magazines

Bauer to close Madison

Bauer announced yesterday that it would close Madison magazine. This is not unexpected because of the performance of the title. Nor is it unexpected in terms of Bauer cleaning the ACP house. I expect that once they are done shutting and adjusting titles we will start reading about launches.

I hope that Bauer treats newsagents reasonably with Madison supply in the lead up to closure.  I.E. not like Grazia.

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magazines

I hope mX never turns into this

I got to check out a copy of metro, the free newspaper in New York yesterday. It’s a good newspaper. For tabloid readers there’s not much extra in the newspapers you have to pay for. metro is significantly better the mX in the various Australian capitals. While it’s very much an advertising-first platform, the news coverage is more broad, more appealing than what we’ve got in mX.

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Newspapers

Newsagency of the Future series for 2013 announced

I have finalised details for a capital city series of new Newsagency of the Future workshops.

Presenting fresh content with a fresh 2013 perspective, this two hour workshop will present a roadmap for those who want a roadmap, insights for those who want insights and hope for those seeking hope for the future of the newsagency business.

Much has changed in the last year. T2020, retail trends, the economy, newsagency sales, what we sell, how some suppliers treat us. Now more than at any time in our history, the future of our individual businesses is up to us.

I’ll talk specifically about ho to move your business from average GP (28% to 32%) to 50% (and more) GP and why this is essential.

Anyone is welcome to attend a Newsagency of the Future workshop – newsagents, suppliers and others.  You can book booking form or by booking online.

Each workshop is free and will run for around two hours.

Venues will be finalised in the next week. They will be centrally located and should have access to parking.

I will also be organising dates for Hobart, Newcastle, FNQ (either Townsville or Cairns), Albury, Canberra and the Gold Coast.

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Newsagency management

The things newsagents sell

I was in a newsagency a few months ago that was selling a poll for poll-dancing. My sexy little poll was not something I’d ever seen in a newsagency before. My first reaction was surprise.  Then, I thought why not? It fits with some products we sell already – kind of at least. Also, it lends itself to expanding into other areas like costumes. Yeah, why not sell a poll for poll dancing.

I bet across our channel, in newsagencies, we have products other newsagents would be surprised to sell.

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Gifts

Pot, kettle SMH

I am in the US and have been impressed with mainstream media handling of the horrific broken leg suffered by Kevin Ware on the basketball court on Sunday. The Sydney Morning Herald went to Twitter to note that the gruesome injury was all over social media. They should have checked their own site. The Age website had the video. Meanwhile, most mainstream media outlets here in the US did not show the injury. Instead, they reported the shock and seriousness of the injury by showing the reaction of ware’s teammates.

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New media

Newsagents cut rostered hours in response to penalty rates

In the survey I ran over the weekend, 75% of newsagents responding indicated that they cut paid rostered hours on Sunday given the higher than usual labour cost for the day.  This is an example of penalty rates working against employees.  I expect that many casual newsagent employees would have been happy with Sunday rates on Sunday.  120 newsagents responded to the survey.

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Newsagency management

100,000 create new magazines in days of new Flipboard feature

On Tuesday last week, Flipboard launched a feature allowing its users to create and share ‘magazines’. Within 24 hours of the launch, 100,000 new ,magazines were created. This speaks to the tremendous interest in self-curation. With the magazines being sharable it will be interesting to see the reach into the special interest space as this is where I’d expect many to focus. Talk about disruption.

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magazines

Weekend broadsheets from Fairfax a talking point

That the Fairfax newspapers The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald publish in broadsheet format on the weekends continues to be a talking point among shoppers. Most are confused about the different formats. The difference certainly gets people saying which format they prefer. Tabloid is the favourite from what people tell me.

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Newspapers

Gifts for older people attract shoppers

While we have done a lot of work over the last year on serving younger shoppers and those who buy for younger shoppers – as regulars here would know – we have not ignored our older shoppers.

The photo shows one range for an older demographic we have been enjoying success with. These drawer liners, room scents, wardrobe scents and other items are popular with shoppers buying for themselves and with others buying as gifts.

One shopper noticing our range commented to me she was surprised to find we had them. She’s given up finding drawer liners for her mother. Just discovering them in our shop gives us the sale of the liner and a card and, yes, a gift bag. She said she’d tell her friends. Nice.

Beyond serving the needs of an older demographic, this range is beautifully packaged. Placed together it tells a nice visual story. I also like that we can place the range without taking up too much space.

The customer’s comments were a reminder that we serve people of all ages and having products that serve a broad range of need (but still within your USP)  is best for business.

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Gifts
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