Check out A Blog About Magazines and the discussion on magazine covers. They mention the competition for attention in a newsagency and that publishers could be better off creating simpler covers like frankie. frankie stands out because it is simple against a sea of intensive covers.
Victorian newsagents received notification last week of cover price changes coming for The Age and significant changes in the structure and quantum of fees paid to distribution newsagents for home delivery. These changes are part of the significant changes being lead by Fairfax as it restructures its business in response to changes market conditions.
The changes coming in Victoria are similar to but not identical to the changes brought about recently in NSW. It is the difference between the approach in the two states which is challenging implementation inVictoria.
Further to my post yesterday, check out a video published by NANA two months ago following a meeting with News on the future of newspaper distribution.
I like fertility magazine, the new mini mag from Pacific Magazines. I like that it’s small and easily placed on the counter as an impulse line. This is where we have it in-store. We also have copies placed above pregnancy magazines in a small acrylic unit.
The $1.95 price point is good, playing into it being an impulse item at the counter. Above $2.00 would be a challenge.
I like the idea of single topic mini mags as a way of driving incremental business on impulse at the counter … as long as a bunch of publishers don’t do this and we become cluttered.
We have placed Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness and The Ultimate 2012 Olympic Guide with newspapers from this week to tap into the growing interest in the Olympics and the promotion around the two men’s titles.
We will run this for a week, maybe into next week depending on activity.
I was at the Run Melbourne event on the weekend (observing, not running!) and heard one of the commentators spruiking the free copy of The Age for every runner. She went on: remember to get The Age from your newsagent (PAUSE) go to Coles for The Age – probably when she remembered that Coles was a sponsor.
Whereas a chain like Coles can buy positioning, our channel cannot. This fails us. We risk being forgotten not only for newspapers but other traffic-important products we sell.
Newsagents should read page 39 on The Australian Financial Review today. It is a full page article about the changes in distribution of newspapers. The article starts with a report on the events at the NANA awards dinner on July 4, something I covered here the day after. It covers the challenges of newspaper distribution and newsagency management.
I spoke to Will Glasgow, the journalist at the AFR, for more than an hour over several calls. It was terrific to hear someone keen to get to the bottom of such a complex issue which had its roots more than one hundred years ago.
There is plenty which space has not permitted covering in the AFR article which was covered in discussions including…
Newspaper distribution changes are but one of several structural changes impacting newsagents today. Ignorance is not an excuse. The more in our channel who realise that their future in business is solely up to them the better.
Years ago I used waves as an analogy in discussing the changes newsagents face – waves we could see and the freak wave we could not see but knew could happen. I explained that we need to become expert surfers, riding on top of the waves of change. This is true today more than ever even if the waves are more obvious.
Further to my post yesterday about our ink sale, this photo taken from inside my newsagency on Saturday shows just how close the permanent ink outpost of our competitor is. While their offer is different – they mainly do refills – it does not look that different to shoppers as they are promoting to the same shopper we chase looking for ink for their printer. They do this by promoting the major brands … even though selling cartridges for these brands is not their core focus.
I kind of like having a competitor right out the front of our business as it’s a reminder every day we walk in about competition.
I think some newsagents forget about the competition in some categories and are ‘shocked’ when they ‘discover’ competition.
Every department in a newsagency has tough competition in the marketplace. Too often newsagents are not stepping up to this. This could be because it’s too much – too many competitors because our businesses carry so many different items.
Being broadly based, newsagencies face competition from a bunch of businesses. This leads to us taking our eyes of our competitors – because there are so many. This is why I like the regular reminder of a very specific, and close, competitor.
A tough challenge for newsagents is to pitch their businesses competitively. Now more than any time in our past.
I am surprised by the quantity I received of the state of origin title, DYNASTY, from ACP. I’ll be lucky to sell one copy as sales of rugby related titles in my store show. Since ACP has sales based replenishment I should have been sent two, maybe three, copies and then topped up as I sold them. This would be been much fairer than getting eleven sand probably returning two thirds.
We are promoting the title but the reality is that state of origin interest in our part of Melbourne is low and interest in the Broncos QLD state team even lower. No offence – just the facts.
We are promoting the latest issue of Men’s Health magazine with this display in our men’s magazine area as well as prime placement with our sports and fitness titles. The Olympic themed issue issue is sure to sell well, especially as we get closer to the games in London.
In addition to this display and good placement, we will give the title a week with newspapers.
We are also contemplating an Olympics themed display. Men’s Health would certainly be part of this – it’s a terrific magazine … sells well for us and we’ll jump at any opportunity for further promotion.
Now, in in the middle of Winter and between major retail seasons, it is easy to coast, waiting for the calendar to click over and lift traffic and sales. That’s for retail used to operate, especially small business retail. We let the calendar drive traffic and sales. Retail today is different. Now, more than ever before, we have to get our chasing traffic and sales.
Coasting in the middle of Winter is the last thing any of us should be doing. Here are nine easy and cheap to implement ideas for promoting your business this winter:
None of this is brain surgery or all that innovative. many of the ideas have been pitched here before at different times. My point is that right now, in the middle of Winter, we need to act to drive traffic, to make our shops warmer and more appealing … to get our communities talking about us.
For not much effort we could see a nice lift in traffic and sales.
We wanted to clear out some of our older ink inventory but rather than discount those with approaching expiry date we decided to run a sale for the weekend only – to tap into the end of the school holiday traffic and to move stock. We are running an across the board 20% discount on ink and are promoting this in the front of the store and in-store with simple posters which compete for attention.
The sale has also been timed to fit with our plans to reconfigure ink to better suit the brand preferences of our shoppers. These have changed over the last year and we need to reset our inventory commitment to the brands to reflect this.
Too often newsagents leave stock for too long. We prefer to track performance and make necessary decisions along the way to move what is not moving. It’s what our competitors do.
We engaged with Diabetes Awareness Week – which ended yesterday – by promoting Diabetes related titles in store. We try and stay on top of all opportunities like this as engaging with them reinforces our relevance to special events, and community awareness campaigns. Competing magazine retailers don’t do this so it’s a commercially rewarding point of difference for us.
Newsagents will be promoted as parcel collection points to online retailers at the Online Retailer conference and trade exhibition in Sydney next week by Parcel Point, the parcel pick up service company hundreds of newsagents have already signed with.
Promoting Parcel Point at the Online Retailer conference is the next step in the process of building awareness of this network and another step in driving awareness of newsagents as being relevant to the bourgeoning online retail world.
Parcel Point is a pure commercial venture being run on commercial principles. That is – for online retailers, logistics businesses and newsagent parcel pick up outlets all to profit.
Since Parcel Point was launched in May this year, hundreds of newsagents have signed up. It’s free and easy to get started. The obligations are simple. I put up a Q&A if you have questions. I encourage more newsagents to get on board to create a parcel pick up service which is compelling to online retailers and logistics businesses.
What do I do next?
I was sent several back issues of ManSpace magazine, a title I had not heard of until the publisher contacted me. It’s a look inside the world’s best garages, sheds and man caves. I have it out on the table at the office and the guys love it – they like that it treats them seriously, especially about the topic of their own space in the home.
ManSpace is distributed by Gordon & Gotch. I’d encourage newsagents to hunt it down it you want to have a magazine for guys which is not soft porn, about gardening, music, geek stuff or sports.
ManSpace really is in a niche almost all on its own. It feels a bit like Smith Journal but for an older guy … longer format articles. Intelligent. Something you’d be proud to be seen reading. I like it a lot and I’m not a man cave guy.
I am sure there are other special interest magazines out there like this which we should carry to become more the magazine destination store.
Connection Media is the publisher. They’re Melbourne based.
PPB, the administrator of Darrell Lea has advised that they should have financial information ready by early next week for parties interest to get the first view of the state of the business.
With 127 newsagents saying they would financially and operationally support a bid to purchase to Darrell Lea, there appears to be interest in being part of a bid. Whether this can be engineered is another thing.
My understanding is that there are plenty of parties lining up for a tilt at the iconic brand – so many that it could be a bidding war. If that happens money will undoubtedly win.
The NEWSAGENCY OF THE FUTURE: START HERE workshops are on next week and more than 100 have booked already for the free sessions.
This is a completely new workshop for newsagents only (no suppliers) with new content specifically targeting options for newsagents who want to restructure their businesses for the future (and today). The dates so far are:
The workshop will run for two hours with plenty of Q&A time. It will cover specific traffic generating and basket building ideas for newsagents in shopping centre, high street and rural situations. I’ll look at strategy and tactics.
Through my work with my newsagency software company I know that too many newsagents do not back their business data up every day and too many do not have current virus protection. Both situations are dangerous for newsagents and their businesses.
Backing your data up every day is essential. No excuses. It can be done without human intervention and without the need to load a USB stick or other media.
Keeping your virus software (and virus definitions) current is essential. No excuses.
The problem is that I hear too many excuses. Newsagents looking for help to recover from a hardware crash without any data backup have no one to blame for their situation but themselves.
This is business management 101.
There is a significant cost to the channel from newsagents who do not backup daily and or do not maintain virus protection.
Pacific Magazines has launched a new iPad App for Men’s Health magazine. It’s pitched as offering enhanced content for magazine readers. It’s priced at $6.49 per issue for 12 issues. This is good – they are not favouring the digital platform price wise.
mediaweek yesterday published details of the App including…
In addition to the editorial content of the August print issue, the Men’s Health app also features behind-the-scenes footage of cover star James Magnussen’s shoot, video clips – and exploding pizzas.
Karen Deveson, Publisher, Pacific Magazines Healthy Lifestyle Group, said the launch of the app offered a new way for Men’s Health readers to engage with the brand.
“The Men’s Health iPad edition is an incredibly dynamic extension of the brand, and one which allows us to bring our core pillars – fitness, style and expert advice – to life in a way that can be consumed on-the-go,” Deveson said.
“The app is one of the finest in its class, and we look forward to bringing our readers continued innovation and exclusive content with each month’s issue.”
We are loving the launch of the The Ultimate Marvel Graphic Novel partwork this week. The product,collateral and TVC combine to make this a visually stunning and high-profile launch.
Check out the display created by one of our team members. This is fantastic. Click on the image to see a larger version.
I’ve seen the TVC and, yes, it tags newsagents. Folks this product is exclusive to us and we all should be making the most of the opportunity. That’s what we are doing with this display at the front of the store, facing into the mall.
Touch Networks published the following information to newsagents today. I publish it here with their permission.
Misinformation is being spread in the retail marketplace as to the electronic products and services available through the Touch system and the costs associated with Merchants’ use of Touch Networks’ systems.
It is important to your decisions that Touch Merchants know the facts about our products and services so I have provided the following information for you to help you increase your pre-paid mobile and other electronic products sales.
1. Touch Networks’ electronic products and services are enabled via a software upgrade to your existing Bank EFTPOS device or via your POS electronic cash register, no additional hardware is required and there are no minimum contract terms, transaction or hardware rental costs incurred by you from Touch for providing Touch products and services for your Customers.
2. There are no telecommunications costs incurred by you when you sell a Touch product. All communications are supported through a toll free number dialled by the EFTPOS device or performed through your existing internet service.
3. Touch Networks offers the leading brands in pre-paid mobile and broadband recharge services and calling cards as well as tolling products, fishing licences and a range of popular gift cards from leading brands including iTunes and VISA prepaid cards.
4. The Telecommunication Companies set Merchant retail commissions. These commissions may be increased when starter packs are also promoted and sold to your Customers through your business.
5. The Touch Customer Care Team is based in Melbourne and provides 24/7 Customer support to all Touch Merchants.
6. Touch Networks publishes a 40 page quarterly magazine* which includes:
- Exclusive FREE $2 SIMs from leading brands
- The exclusive Touch Merchant Loyalty Program
- Exclusive Promotions
- Updated POS material such as posters, wobblers and decals
- A3 Calling Card Rate Card
7. Touch Networks provides exclusive marketing programs for all Touch Merchants.
These programs include:
- The FREE Touch Merchant Loyalty Program+
- A FREE Touch Multi Logo Light Box^
- A FREE Pre-Paid SIM Display Unit packed with $110 of $2 SIMs^
8. Touch Networks provides a range of promotional material for in-store display. All leading brands are promoted through:
- A4 posters – available now
- A5 decals – available now
- Wobblers – available now
- Flags – available August 2012
- NEW branded counter mats – available August 2012
9. Touch Networks is not associated with epay Australia. ePay Australia is a separate company owned by the American multi-national Euronet and is a direct competitor to Touch Networks in the distribution of some electronic products such as mobile phone recharge vouchers.
Touch Networks values your business and it is important that you have full confidence in the services we provide; therefore, if you require any further information relating to this letter you can email me at jo.wenzel@touchnetworks.com.au and I will respond to you promptly.
With tobacco product sales declining, newsagents need to carefully assess their position and know when it is time to quit the category. In the latest newsagency sales benchmark study I have data from some newsagencies experiencing 30% (and more) year on year declining sales.
The decision about when to quit tobacco needs to be approached in the same way you’d approach it for any product. This involves considering:
While we would usually talk about what we can do to grow sales of a category that is challenged, with tobacco this is complicated by the regulations in place. Hence the need for newsagents focus on when to quit – or if not that, at least considering their position in relation to tobacco.
I can see plenty of newsagents in the latest benchmark pool who ought to consider this on sales numbers alone. The cost, space and other factors would make it uneconomic. They can easily see what is sold with tobacco products to assess the likely impact on the business.
While my query here is more about the financial justification for selling or not selling tobacco products, there are other reasons including public health. This is why I stopped selling tobacco products in my first newsagency in 1996. Researching this issue I found an interesting report out of California on the movement among retailers on tobacco products.
No matter where newsagents stand on the issue of public health and tobacco products, they need to ensure that the category is paying its way for it to re=main in the business.
I received a letter from the publisher of Inked magazine yesterday highlighting that they now had in excess of 44,000 Facebook fans. The letter outlined their goal to grow this by 10% to 15% every 4 – 6 weeks. If you cheek out their Facebook page you;ll see them regularly promote newsagents as the go to retailers for the title. The more magazine publishers engage with Facebook as the place to promote us the better.
The Facebook engagement for promoting Inked is impressive and it made me wonder whether newsagents have a similar target – to grow social media engagement by this much every 4 – 6 weeks. I know some newsagents chase this. The challenge is that many mix business and private content. If you check our the Inked page you’ll see how well they nail their message for their target community.
I love the display created by the team at my Knox store promoting the Girlfriend Bieber title along with Girlfriend magazine itself,f and a couple of other Beiber related titles.
We have this right at the front of the shop as our centre is frequented by teen girls using school holidays and after school. Also, Bieber will be on TV next week for the final of Australia’s Got Talent on the Seven Network. The local media coverage for this is already raising his media stakes here. So, the display and front of store placement is all about one thing for us … sales.
This teen girl demographic is very important to us.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
Newsagents in the UK are receiving compensation from the publisher of The Scotsman following Saturday’s edition of the paper going on sale at £1 rather than the usual price of £1.30. Hold the front page has more on this. Thanks to Steve Denham for pointing this out.
We see pricing mistakes here in Australia from time to time. I don’t recall a publisher compensating newsagents like this. Kudos to the publisher.