Author: Mark Fletcher

I am off too the second day of the two-day conference in Sydney which is being held as part of Magazine Week today.

While some on the magazine publishing and distribution side are working hard to strengthen their relationships with and support for newsagents, we, all of us, are only as strong as our weakest link.

Every time magazines are oversupplied newsagents hurt, other publishers suffer and the reputation of the distributor in question is tarnished.

Every time a retail competitor of a newsagent gets a better deal, promotion of some other benefit not available to newsagents you strengthen their position and weaken that of newsagents.

Every time newsagents are under supplied you reduce the opportunity for full newsagency sales potential to be reached.

Every new title distributed without consideration of the cost of newsagent floor space, labour and inventory cost is an additional burden which other channels most likely do not have to face.

Every time a newsagent over claims on returns the entire channel suffers.

Every early return which leaves a newsagency with less floor stock than recent average sales harms the newsagency, the newsagency channel and the publisher.

The Australian newsagency channel could have a bright future in magazine sales if we lifted our professionalism, were supplied based on sales, treated fairly when it comes to returns, rewarded for our support and respected in terms of title ranging. Achieving this depends on all stakeholders having common goals.  Right now, not enough of us stakeholders do.

Like many newsagents I suspect, we received stock of Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adevntures last week.  It’s the first time we have received this title.  Given our sales of 4X4 titles, the price point and the thickness of the title, I would have preferred to receive three copies to start with.  I’d draw down more if sales warranted.

Magazine pub lispers and distributors need to stop using newsagencies as their warehouses.  We should have no more stock of monthly (or longer) titles than could be reasonably sold in 30 days.  As it is with Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adevntures, we have been supplied to satisfy a sales expectation of three months.  I’m not making enough money to justify warehousing the title for there months.

I have recent experience in the supply chain to homewares stores.  In this retail channel smart suppliers have implemented just in time supply principles and thereby eliminated the need for retailers to warehouse stock.  They have done this out of respect for the tough conditions in which retailers find themselves today.  I’d like to see the same implemented in the newsagency channel.

If a title has an on-sale of more than a month, introduce multiple drops aligned with sales expectations.  Stop using small business newsagents as the warehouse.

Check out what the publisher of The Australian Woodworker has published in the latest issue of the magazine.  They infer newsagents have cut their title from the mix of magazines they carry.  I wonder if this is what they have been told or whether they have other evidence of this.

They also claim that there are new newsagents who do not appreciate the interest in woodworking.

If I were them I’d want supply and return data by newsagency for the last three years.  I’d also want to know how many newsagencies have specifically cut the title versus how many are no longer supplied because of sales performance of the title and a cut therefor by the magazine distributor allocations system.

A better approach for the publisher would have been to engage with newsagents, to educate us about the title and to invest in driving traffic to the channel.

Their decision to go the other way, and promote only a direct subscription relationship will only encourage more newsagents to look at not stocking the title.

I’d urge the publisher to retract their statement and engage directly with newsagents:

1. Provide collateral (real or downloadable) with which to promote the title.
2. Provide einside information on who is the likely reader and how to sell to them.
3. Be clear on where the title should be placed in a newsagency.
4. Make a commercial offer to encourage newsagent support.
5. List newsagent stockists on your website.
6. Talk up newsagents in the magazine.
7. Tell newsagents how you support them.

Newsagencies are businesses.  Every magazine pocket has to pay its way.  To achieve this, we need publishers to actively support our channel as the magazine specialist channel at ever opportunity.  We need collateral with which to promote titles.  We need publishers engaged with us commercially.

Publishers who do nothing to support the channel can expect nothing in return.