Author: Mark Fletcher

Pacific Magazines is publishing a One Direction one shot next week, on Wednesday, under the Girlfriend masthead.

One Direction is a UK boy band that has teen and tween girls in Australia going nuts. If you have these shoppers in your shop or can attract them or those who buy for them, here is a great chance for you to make some good money. Contract Gotch, check your supply numbers, make sure you are getting enough stock.

One Direction appeals to the same market as Justin Bieber. They have over 2 million Twitter followers and 3.7million fans on Facebook.

This is an excellent tile to promote in advance of the on-sale. Pre sell the title telling your shoppers to order and pay now so they don’t miss out. This locks them into buying from you … a very smart move for a one shot I expect will sell out.

Pacific Magazines will be promoting the One Direction one shot with a bunch of activity including support on the Girlfriend magazine website and Facebook page. This will drive traffic for newsagencies.

While the title will get to supermarkets, newsagents will have it first … seize this opportunity.

Having said all this, I bet there are newsagent who early return the title the day it goes on sale, missing the opportunity and damaging how newsagents are looked upon.

We are leveraging the Easter themed cover story on the cover of the latest issue of National Geographic magazine with good placement of the title showing off the full cover and through double pocket placement. We are planning to give the title time either at the coulter or with newspapers as part of the run up to Easter when we place through the shop a range of Easter related upsell opportunities.

Here is how we are supporting the release of the My Kitchen Rules cookbook 2 in another of my newsagencies. Here, since space is tight we are running with an in-location display, as shown in the photo.

We also have  a display on a column facing shoppers as they enter the business.

As I see it we have a limited time opportunity to make the most from this title … hence our commitment with extra space. This is the only title like this in-store at present – a cookbook connected with a runaway success TV show. So it makes sense to me that we promote it as much as we can.

We sold out of the Woman’s Day / NW / OK! bundle pack yesterday, the day it went on sale. we rarely sell out of the packs let along on the day of on-sale. While I am happy to sell out I don;t want to educate shoppers to seek out those bundles. I want the full cover price for magazines. That said, maybe there are some shoppers who buy the bundle who would only usually purchase just one or two of the titles.

The latest issue of surfing magazine Riptide goes on sale on April 4 and it is certain to sell out.

This issue of Riptide magazine also has a newsagent put away form, encouraging shoppers to request that you put each issue of the magazine away for them. This is a terrific initiative and support for newsagents from Morrison Media.

I urge newsagents to not early return this title.

Click here to read from the publisher why it will sell out – here’s a brief summary:

We promote our interactive store locator (listing their closest newsagent) and have marketed the issue with previews and launches around Australia.

We’ve got a tight supply on this issue, ensuring that those who sell RIPTIDE receive additional stock (but not oversupply) and those who consistently early return stock do not.

Morrison Media has worked hard on ensuring that the supply to newsagents are justified by sales, but also maximising and growing sales and revenue in EVERY STORE!

Magazine distributor IPS has acquired fashion and beauty magazine Just Be for distribution and are offering the first issue at 50% commission. The usual commission for the title is 27%.  The on-sale of this issue is today so contact IPS if you want stock.

Rachel McAdams, the cover feature, has been enjoying some good success and should help draw interest to the title as long as the full cover is on show.

I am organising a round table discussion between some newsagents and small publishers – in Melbourne and Sydney. If you are a small publishers and would like to be added to the invitation list please email me at mark@towersystems.com.au. The sessions will not be before late April.

We love supplier competitions and embrace every opportunity possible to engage with these. We especially love it when suppliers provide collateral with which to promote a competition. Pacific Magazines have done this with the kitchen appliance package being given away in a competition promoting the latest issue of Home Beautiful magazine. In addition to collateral promoting the offer in-location,we have a small flyer for the counter with which to promote to shoppers who fit the target purchaser of the title. Each time we can pitch a valuable giveaway which is not on offer at most other magazine retailers is an opportunity to show off the bonus value of shopping with us.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival will be big news in Melbourne from now until the end of April so the feature of the latest issue of Time Out is, well, timely. We have placed it with newspapers as we know it sells well from this high-traffic location. Plus Time Out is challenging to place elsewhere as there are not similar titles in-store. I expect the Comedy Festival related cover to drive early sales with this.

While I would have liked to receive The Complete Guide to Swimming last week to tap into the interest around the olympic trials, we are giving it a good run at the front of sports titles.

We have a gym nearby so there is a fitness aware market shopping with us.  We plan to give it a crack at the counter for a few days to see if that generates interest.