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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Back to School survey results

50.8% of those responding to the Back to School engagement survey over the last three days indicated that Back to School is not an important season in their newsagency.

24% of respondents said that their Back to School commitment is increasing for 2013, 33.1% say there will be less commitment and 43.0% say their commitment will remain unchanged.

While the 122 survey responses represent a small sample size, I think the results do represent the sentiment of the channel more broadly. I say this based on discussion of this topic with many newsagents right around the country.

While Back to School is an important season, more newsagents are opting out having, I think, become disillusioned with the season.

With more schools and school groups chasing price deals and margins shrinking to unsustainable levels, newsagents are left to take on the season in the hope of attracting shoppers who may stick around through the year.

Competing with Big W, Officeworks and school booklist specialists is purely a margin game. Customer service is rarely considered. Supporting local jobs is also rarely considered. How slim are we prepared to go to win a Back to School customer? For the average newsagency business this is a significant challenge.

I pulled out of Back to School in one of my newsagencies a few years ago when a financial review showed I’d need 300% increase in sales just to break even in the face of high shopping centre costs.

I know of some newsagents who are tremendously successful with Back to School. The most successful tend to fall into two camps – managing school contracts in a warehouse operation run outside the newsagency and a long-term and well-known shopping centre based outpost.

I decided to run the survey to provide newsagents with an opportunity to register their view. I also wanted to give suppliers an opportunity to hear what the channel thinks.

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Newsagency management

Celebrating Women’s Health 5th birthday

We have been promoting the Women’s Health 5th birthday issue with prime placement in the usual location with health titles for the magazine as well as prime placement in among Cleo and Cosmopolitan. We will maintain this co-location through the on-sale, chasing extra purchases.

Five years is a terrific milestone, Women’s Health is an important title for us.

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magazines

Free eBook offer from The Australian

In print edition of The Australian today is a code providing access to a digital copy of John Howard’s autobiography Lazarus Rising. It’s a good given, well targeted. Smart, too, to connect readers with the digital platform.

I was surprised to see that readers at the website need to subscribe to get the code – given that free copies of the newspaper are so widely available.

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Media disruption

QLD Newsagents miss out on a Melbourne Cup newspaper deal from News

News Queensland has written to QLD newsagents encouraging them to promote a Melbourne Cup deal to local pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, RSL’s, Surf Clubs, Golf Clubs or Bowls Clubs in their area. While distribution newsagents will benefit from the promoted deal, retail newsagents miss out. Many retail newsagents will run Melbourne Cup related promotions yet they are not offered an incentive to make a Sunday Mail or Courier Mail offer as par of this.

News Limited continues to ignore and disrespect retail only newsagents. these businesses can play an important role for newspapers if only publishers worked harder at developing relationships with us.

here is what News sent to newsagents along with a flyer:

Are you interested in picking up some extra sales for Melbourne Cup?

I have attached a form that you can use to approach any local pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels, RSL’s, Surf Clubs, Golf Clubs or Bowls Clubs in your area who may be interested in receiving either the Sunday Mail or Courier-Mail  from Sunday 4th to Tuesday 6th at 50% off.

How does it work?

a)      Approach business and sell in offer (minimum 30 papers per day)
b)      Fill in paperwork then fax to QN on 3666 8643
c)       QN add these supplies to your stock for you to deliver on the required day
d)      You invoice the venue at 50% off RRP
e)      QN will credit your account.  You will earn sub agent commission on each paper sold.  There will be no returns.

I understand why they are promoting through this season to these businesses. It’s their loss that they don’t have a plan for retail newsagents too.

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Newspapers

One Direction opportunity

The One Direction story on Sunday Night on the Seven Network last night is an excellent reason to get the Girlfriend One Direction part series into a high traffic location. The interview reinforced the marketing power of the boy band – something we can use to sell magazines.

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magazines

Stunning Cosmopolitan Bride display

I love this display created y the team at one of my newsagencies to promote sales of the latest issue of Cosmopolitan Bride magazine.

I like the detail reflected in the display, how they have provided a wonderful backdrop that holds up the magazine as the hero and connects with the prize opportunity available with this issue of the magazine.

Click on the image for a larger version.

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magazines

Newsagency marketing tip: refuse to believe what you hear

The continued talk of tough time in retail frustrates me just as talk from others saying their newsagency is doing it tough because of the decline in print media. There are enough newsagents enjoying success out there to tell us that it’s possible to be doing well right now, it is possible to be enjoying year on year growth.

I think it’s a choice we can make: to trade above the talk of those who would have you join them in a cloud of negativity.

The thing is, chasing growth is hard work, relentless work. It’s risky too. The keys are to be accountable for your situation, pick yourself up from any setback and ignore those who want you to think you should perform as poorly as them.

I know a bit about this from my work with newsagents in trouble. I’d be happy to talk m with and help any newsagent who reaches out.

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marketing tip

Newsagency management tip: get real data on magazines

I have been thinking about the comments from newsagents on my post on Friday about an alternative billing model for magazines. I know from my work with newsagents for many years that most do not look at their own magazine performance data – data that could have been used by them to address the magazine supply issue.  If you want to get an accurate understanding of the performance of magazines i your newsagency run your MPA Magazine Performance Report and or the Magazine Sell Through Rates Report. Both will provide a factual view of the performance of magazines in your newsagents. I’d be happy to discuss reports you produce.

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magazine distribution

Terrific newspaper book collection giveaway news to customers

We, like many Victorian newsagent,s have been handling the giveaway with the Kid’s Mini Book Collection with the Herald Sun this weekend. The bag together with the book make for a nice premium gift.

From what I’m told though, most people buying the newspaper did not know about the promotion. Oops. It’s a pity as this is the type of promotion that pitches the newspaper in a good light.

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Newspapers

US Postal Service to trial same day delivery

I mentioned here months ago that same day delivery was the next big thing in online shopping. There was further evidence of this this week with reports that the US Postal service is to trial same day delivery for online retailers.

We have print media disruption and retail disruption challenging the traditional business model.

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retail

Promoting Dog’s Life magazine

We decided to promote the latest issue of Dog’s Life magazine from Universal Magazines with newspapers for the weekend. We know we have plenty of dog lovers shop with us – based on calendar sales – and this is a title that rarely is given time in the spotlight. The bonus gift with the issue and the nice looking cover should give is some incremental sales for the few days we have it in this valuable space.

Newsagents need to do more of this – chase sales. We’re retailers after all. Too many of us see magazines as a chore. I understand why. It needs to stop.

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magazines

Promoting frankie magazine

We are promoting issue 50 of frankie magazine at one of my stores with this terrific display created by one of our team members. I love how they used the cover as the background and incorporated the calendar and diary in the display.

We’ll give frankie two weeks in this prime, front of shop, location and it will reward us by attracting shoppers we want and delivering sales.

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magazines

Magazine trading term opportunity: pay only for net sales

I met with a small magazine publisher yesterday to discuss how they could build a stronger and more mutually viable relationship with newsagents. As is often the case in discussions with magazine publishers, the conversation turned to early returns and the lost sales so often shown in the data.

Now before newsagents jump on this saying early returns are the only mechanism of control they have (and which i agree with), the conversation yesterday was specifically about early returns that cost sales – returning to a point where you have significantly less stock on the shelves that your recent average sales or returning to a level where you do not benefit is network-wide sales uplift because of a cover story feature or some other reason.

Early returning of magazines is at a point where some publishers are left wondering whether the newsagency channel is the appropriate channel for the sale of magazines.

Magazine range is our only point of difference. Lose this and the future of the channel will be seriously challenged.

In the meeting yesterday, the publisher asked how newsagents would respond to a model whereby they paid only for product sold … once a title is returned they would be billed for net sales.

I’d appreciate comments here on this issue. If you had a title with an on sale of one, two or three months and did not have to pay for stock sold until you processed your returns, would you keep the title on the shelf for the full on-sale?

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magazine distribution

Scary cardboard cut-outs popular for Halloween

Leatherface, Freddy, Jason other life-size cardboard cutouts are selling well for us this Halloween. They are also working well at attracting shoppers to the broader Halloween range.  We have them located on the lease line, at the front of the business.

For any newsagents interested, we sourced the cardboard cut outs from: Alternative Distribution Pty Ltd in Victoria – 03 9334 5857. FYI, I don’t have a deal with them.

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Gifts

Tapping into Window 8 interest

With Window 8 from Microsoft around the corner we are tapping into consumer ninterest by making sure that we have Essential Guide to Windows 8 with the full cover on display and in the best location within our technology magazines. This is the kind of title likely to be purchased on impulse by browsers.

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magazines

Tapping into Pokemon love

We have made sure to place the latest Nintendo magazine and The Ultimate Guite to Pokemon next to each other since they are certain to appeal to the same shopper. We can drive sales for a title by placing it away from its usual location – depending on the cover.

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magazines
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