Author: Mark Fletcher

This is the main Frankie / Smith Journal display in one of my newsagencies. It faces shoppers as they walk through the store.  I say ‘main’ because we have more than one. Each title is located in two other places.

The photo does not do display justice as it looks more washed, faded, than in real life.

I like that we are educating shoppers here about the two titles being somehow related.

Elsewhere in the newsagency, Frankie and Smith Journal are not located together … we have them in the more usual locations for each title to catch sales to those who will regularly purchase them.  We’re tracking sales, chasing growth on the previous issue of each.

I know I go on about these magazines but I cannot stress their importance enough. Frankie and Smith Journal are loved by and connect with an age group which is vitally important to our businesses. The more we show these younger shoppers that they can rely on us for magazine entertainment the brighter our future.

With the growth in sales of digital photography titles we regularly refresh the layout of this section of our magazine department, ensuring that titles we want to promote are presented with the full cover on display.  The range is small enough and the space allocation good enough for us to give all titles fair time in the full cover spotlight.

Each week we review this section to ensure it is fresh and to place titles next to each other in a way which we think will drive the purchase of more than one title in a shopping trip.

The result we are seeing is good sales growth.

The May issue of FHM will be the last reports Mumbrella. This not unexpected (due to declining sales) move further thins the men’s shelves.

Maybe we are in an era of more cerebral contact given the challenges for titles with sexy content compared to the success of titles with smart content. I suspect this is the case across all magazines. readers want value in the form of smart content. I think this is a reason for the success of Frankie for example and will probably be the reason for success of Smith Journal as it extends its journey.

Vale FHM, it’s the end of an era.

There are plenty of bulk magazine deals – where publishers put 2, 3 and even 4 current issues of weeklies together in a bag and offer these for a lower price – in London.

While I am sure that publishers engaged in the practice will disagree, retailers I have spoken with here say that they don’t notice a sales lift. One retailer said was quite frustrated because he is certain his revenue is down as a result.

Regulars here would know that I am not a fan of the deals as I think they educate shoppers to not pay full price.

I’d prefer people to purchase a title for the content rather than the discount off cover price. Okay, use price rarely to reconnect with shoppers who have stopped buying but not too often and this is what educated people.

Is it just me or are hair magazine sales under performing other magazines? While there are a couple of titles doing okay, I am seeing others where sales are in free fall.

So here’s my question, is it just me or are other newsagents seeing this hair related titles?

The latest issue of Mindfood has a good cover, this time featuring the wonderful (yes I am a fan) Nigella Lawson. We have co-located this issue of Mindfood with our food titles. Hopefully, Nigella fans looking for a food magazine will pick Mindfood up.

This approach of using a good cover subject to facilitate an off-lcoation display has worked well for us. A sale is a sale.