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

Author: Mark Fletcher

World Cup magazines selling well

world-cup-magazines.JPGWe had to change our Soccer International Magazine’s World Cup 2010 program  counter display on Saturday due to its success.  Sales from the counter and our sports magazine section have been excellent.

While we are chasing more stock, we added two more titles to fill the counter display.

World Cup titles have taken off in the last week. We will be chasing more stock to tide us through the next three weeks in the lead up to the competition.

The World Cup is an opportunity beyond magazine sales – smart newsagents are selling supporter collateral and branded merchandise.

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magazines

Master Chef magazine sells out again!

Master Chef magazine has really taken off at our newsXpress Watergardens store.  We were able to increase initial supply to 30 copies.  We sold out in three days adn thankfully received 50 more on Friday.  As of yesterday afternoon, we had 1 copy left.  That is 49 copies sold in less than two days.  key to the success is the high impact visual merchandising by our store manager Renee.

While it is early days for the title, it could be that Master Chef magazine is a good weekend title.  I’d like that.  We have built good business around Better Homes & Gardens as a weekend title.  The mroe reasons we can pull people into newsagencies or build baskets on the weekend the better.

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magazines

$20 million lottery superdraw sells well

Last night’s $20 million lottery superdraw did very well for us, better than we had expected.  Inidividual ticket and syndicate sales were strong.  I think that the success had to do with the lack of other jackpots around the superdraw.

What I found most interesting is the success in over the counter up-sell.  Mentioning the $20 million first division prize pool led to good impulse purchases.

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Lotteries

Magazine and newspaper audit results no surprise

Those who read the first quarter 2010 newsagency sales benchmark numbers I published here last month would not be surprised by the audit figures released for newspapers and magazines for the for the same period.  The audit numbers confirm the accuracy of the benchmark data for magazines.  The newspaper numbers in the audit are worse than I saw in the benchmark study.  This could reflect greater volatility in channels outside newsagencies.  It could also reflect the need for a bigger sample for newspaper sales analysis.

While the numbers are poor for magazines, declines in sales for most, the sales decline for Take 5 and That’s Life are particularly concerning since they underpin traffic on a Wednesday.  I am pleased to see that Pacific Magazines is launching a revamped That’s Life next week. Both titles need innovation to drive sales.  Given the sales of UK magazines in this space I see potential for new titles too.

The newspaper audit numbers are dreadful with only small upside for The Mercury, The Sunday Tasmanian and The Sunday Age. My personal view is that news is what sells newspapers.  Too many newspapers have strayed from news.

Reasons for the decline aside, the newspaper numbers serve as an important reminder to newsagents that we need to evolve our model to rely less on newspaper traffic.   It is vitally important that we build new traffic generators.  It’s up to us, not suppliers, to build our relevance.

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magazines

More space needed for Golf Digest

golf-digest-bag.JPGNewsagents have had to allocate considerably more space for Golf Digest this month thanks to the free magazine bagged with the current issue.  Where we could usully display our supply in one pocket, this month we need two.  That is double the retail real estate.  Do magazine publishers think that this space is waiting to be allocated?  Do they wonder how we can make the 100% increase in space requirements work?  I doubt that it is given any thought at all.  If they had to pay for the space allocation they would think twice.

What do I want here?  Respect from a publisher when they double the space requirement.  It probably comes down to money.  If they double the thickness of a title they either pay to take extra space or increase the margin significantly. This is what other retailers would expect.

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magazines

Promoting Gardening Australia

gardening_australia_may2010.JPGWe are giving Gardening Australia a push with an in-location display in our gardening section.  Even though this issue has been out a few days we decided to give it a push for the weekend as this is when we tend to sell more copies.  Space permitting, we will maintain this promotion for a week.  A benefit of these simple displays is that they are easy to setup and move – so we get more flexibility when we need it.

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magazines

Reusing chocolate hearts

choc-hearts.JPGThis is an idea we picked up from newsXpress Kin Kora for repurposing chocolate hearts left over from valentine’s day or Mother’s Day.  Take two chocolate hearts stick them onto each other and place a stick in the middle.  They look like a heart shaped flower and took little time to make.   What a brilliant idea – customers love them!  We have our new chocolate hearts on a stick at the counter for $1.50.

Converting two products into one is easy from a stock management perspective so we maintain data integrity.

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Newsagency opportunities

Selling magazine subscriptions using Facebook

Advertising Age in the US is reporting that magazine subscriptions will soon be sold using Facebook.

Synapse, a Time Inc. division that sells subscriptions for many publishers, is collaborating with Alvenda, a company that builds e-commerce applications, to introduce a system letting Facebook users buy print magazine subscriptions without leaving the site or even the Facebook news feed.

Facebook users who share a magazine article link in their news feeds find that friends can access the article and then subscribe from within Facebook.

The content Facebook users create on the website and the traffic we attract is becoming more powerful for advertising every day.

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Media disruption

Negotiating greeting card company rebates

Rebates from greeting card companies are important to newsagents.  They can range from a few percentage points to above 30%.  They can significantly enhance the return from the card and wrap department.

Newsagents need to take care when negotiating greeting card rebate arrangements.  they need to read the fine print and understand the full implications.  here are some questions worth considering:

  1. Is the rebate paid if you are late paying any account?
  2. What is the rebate paid on?  One card company I know does not pay a rebate on related (non greeting card and non wrap product).  This makes that company worth less than companies which pay a rebate on all or most other product.
  3. When is the rebate paid?  One company I know pays off invoice – i.e. immediately.  others pay quarterly or annually.  the difference from a cash flow perspective can be considerable.
  4. Does the rebate reduce for any other reason – if you receive funding from a card company for example?
  5. Is there a sales target you must reach to achieve a rebate?  If so, what happens if you do not reach the target?
  6. Does the existence of the rebate agreement lock you into space allocation and other rules which could impact on the business?
  7. What is the term of a rebate related agreement and what are the implications of early termination?
  8. How does the rebate agreement play out should you sell the business?

My point here to newsagents is to carefully consider all terms and conditions relating to a greeting card rebate agreement.  Do your research.  Ensure that the agreement suits your personal and business needs.  Talk to other newsagents to ensure that what is on offer to you is fair for your business and the investment you will make with the card company.

The goal has to be a fair and equitable relationship between your newsagency and your greeting card supplier, a relationship where both businesses win.

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Greeting Cards

Master Chef stock availablity

Kudos to News Magazines for working to ensure aditional stock availability of the launch issue of the Master Chef magazine.  Plenty of newsagents have ordered extra stock and while supply was a challenge earlier in the week. stock was flowing yesterday.

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magazines

Even overseas food magazines sell well

uk-food-titles.JPGWe have a good range of overseas food magazines.  All are selling well.  Take easy cook magazine from the UK – we receive four copies and average sales of three each issue.  This is a good result by any measure.  I like the overseas food titles because their content offers a point of difference over Australian titles.

While in terms of overall sales volume the overseas titles account for less than 10% of total food magazine sales, carrying them makes us more of a specialist destination for food titles over other retailers selling magazines.

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magazines

June 7, Ipad day

Okay, the iPad is ordered and the delivery day is set for June 7.  The next step is to finalise the 3G plan (probably Telstra) and sort out a few content subscriptions.  I’ll certainly sign up for a subscription to The Australian as that appears to be the most iPad ready newspaper in Australia.

I am looking forward to wholeheartedly embracing this new device – not for a day or two but for the long term.  I want to see what difference it brings to my work day as well as to my consumption of news and information.

Heresy I head some say!  Well, maybe.   I expect this device to be a game-changer but that is only based on what I have read.  I need to experience it myself before I understand the opportunities and the risks for Australian newsagents. So, I have taken the plunge and placed the order.

PC Magzine has just published an Australian iPad buying guide.

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Media disruption

The $50 ethical dilemma

We were offered $50 to allow someone to weigh packs of AFL collector cards (not the newspaper cards) so they could find packets with premium cards and buy just these. Premium cards weigh slightly more than regular cards.

We said no thanks as we felt it would be unfair to our regular customers, the kids who will buy more than a thousand packs over the season. They save to build their collections and hope to get one of the premium cards.

While not one of life’s big ethical dilemmas, it is an interesting question – what price to veer off one’s moral compass.

There will be some who are happy to take the $50 and allow the boxes to be weighed and purchased. It’s a completely personal decision. That said, if we put our customers first then we have to say no to the $50.

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Ethics

Promoting Weight Watchers magazine

weight-watchers-may2010.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Weight Watchers magazine with an in-location display.   While we would usually successfully promote this at the counter, I wanted to see how the title performs with this type of display.  I want to educate shoppers as to this regular location.

We also have two pockets of Weight Watchers magazine located in with the weekly magazines.

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magazines

Promoting Top Gear magazine

top-gear-may2010.JPGEven though the latest issue is a week old, we have created a small display at the end of the men’s magazine aisle for the latest issue of Top Gear.  With Top gear being the top selling title in the category, the small display acts as a beacon for car titles and a last minute reminder for people leaving this aisle and heading to the counter.

We will leave this display up for at least a week – as long as stock permits.

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magazines

Herald Sun production problems

The production problems with today’s Herald Sun newspaper meant that we did not receive any newspapers until 9:15 this morning.  What was most interesting is the number of new customers who visited between 7am and 9am.  These were people who usually bought their newspapers from the supermarket.  At least we offered customer service, explaining the production problem and providing an availability time esitmate. I gather that the supermarket employees were unhelpful.

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newspaper home delivery

Tuesday sales for Master Chef magazine

Based on a small sample group of 12 stores, sales for Master Chef magazine appear to have been patchy yesterday – very low in some (1) and good (8) in others.  What is interesting is that the stores with stronger numbers had weaker Monday sales.

While somewhat unfair since they are from two different categories, I am comparing the performance of Master Chef  to Prevention last year. The launch budgets were similar (if I recall correctly).   Prevention had a stronger first day and follow up on day two.  More of the launch budget was spent in retail, particularly newsagencies.

Based on what I have heard from newsagents, I suspect that a review of the launch will show that inadequate retail marketing collateral and scale out mistakes held the first issue back from reaching its potential.

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magazines

Promoting Prevention magazine to women

fhn_prevention_may1010.JPGWith all the magazine promotional activity around at the moment we decided to reposition our Prevention magazine offer.  We now have it facing shoppers as they leave our card aisle and head toward the counter.  Given that most card customers are women I expect Prevention to work well for us in this location.  This location is on the side of our newspaper stand – a side we have not used much previously.

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magazines

Battles of World War II

battles_of_world_war_ii.JPGWe are promoting Battles of World War II, the new part series, in two locations to make the most of the opportunity.  We have a good war / combat section with magazines and books so it fits in well there.  We also have it in our partworks department – a good display across the back wall.  It will be interesting to see how this part series goes as it is quite different in that the reader is not building something.

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magazines

3D bunnies

Associated Press is reporting that the US issue of Playboy magazine which goes on sale this Friday will have a 3D centrefold.

This is the year of 3D with magazines offering glasses for TV shows, 3D movies everywhere and now a 3D Playboy centrefold.

Gimmicks are fun and can deliver a sales lift.  However, sustained above average performance is based on the product itself.

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magazines

Master Chef magazine off to a good start

The launch issue of Master Chef magazine performed well yesterday in the newsagencies for which I have received sales data.  Sell-through ranged between 15% and 36%.  There was a good mix of shoppers looking specifically for the title and those who happened across it while looking for something else.

The result is good given that the latest issue of Good Food magazine was released yesterday with considerable promotional support from ACP Magazines.  Competition is healthy!

The only complaint with the launch I have heard is insufficient marketing collateral.  I’d be interested to see the percentage of the launch budget invested in in-store collateral.  Given the foot traffic in newsagencies, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

Yesterday’s performance of Master Chef puts it close to that of the launch of Prevention magazine last year – except that Pacific Magazines did a better job with marketing collateral.

I’d expect some newsagents to be chasing more stock of Master Chef magazine by the end of the week based on the sales numbers yesterday.

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magazines

Newsagents negotiating on workplace changes

In another example of the high cost of rushing changes, representatives of the federal government are working with newsagents and their representative bodies to overcome problems caused by the workplace changes introduced earlier this year.

I don’t know who is to blame for the changes which looked set to significantly increase newspaper home delivery costs and make many casual employment arrangements untenable for newsagents.  That said, it was a government initiative and so the government must be responsible for the months of uncertainty and stress for many newsagents and their employees.

The resolution which is ultimately negotiated ought to have been put in place prior to making the changes.  Had this been done, considerable time and money could have been saved.

Governments have an obligation to get it right.  They keep telling us how hard they work for us – maybe they could show it by not introducing problems.

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newspaper home delivery

The test for the iPad fast approaches

Apple has set prices and the launch date for the iPad.  The next three weeks will show whether the hype for the iPad translates into sales here. Apple says they have sold more than 1 million units in the US since its release five weeks ago.

It is only once publishers see the interest here (cash over the counter) in the iPad and other similar devices that they will make a decision on investing in the new distribution channel.  Many today say they are working in the area but for most this means waiting for hardware sales data and watching closely what US publishers are doing.

News Limited is the one local publisher with a strong public position on the iPad.

I’m looking forward to getting an iPad and experiencing it first-hand.

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Media disruption
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