Powerball jackpot welcome
Powerball jackpotting to $12 million tonight is a welcome boost to Christmas trade. While I wish it had reached $15 million, the $12 million amount is enough to drive some extra business over the next seven days.
The newsagent home delivery value proposition
Newsagents are valuable to publishers for their newspaper home delivery service. This service is unique on a range of fronts which are worth newsagents contemplating as they discuss how to respond to the contracts proposed by News Limited. Here are some of the many unique points offered by newsagents:
- One stop shop. Just about everywhere in Australia, newsagents deliver all newspapers available for subscription delivery. In the US, each newspaper uses a separate carrier. I know places where there can be five different delivery vehicles delivering newspapers each day.
- Local service. People like to be able to organise and adjust their home delivery face to face.
- Newsagents are spongues. When things go wrong, and they do (DVD promotions, CD promotions etc) customers want someone local to listen to their complaint.
- Newsagents understand local requirements. A driver sees a road as a means to an end. A newsagent sees a road as a somewhere where friends and neighbours live.
- Newsagents offer a premium service. A truck driver will throw a newspaper. A good newsagent delivers the newspaper where and how the customer wants – there are some weird requirements out there and good newsagents respect them all.
- Credit. Newsagents give credit whereas publishers want money up front. While there is a cost to credit, there is also an element of local customer service.
- It’s personal. Newspapers are local with stories about the city in which they are puublished. This local connection is reflected by newsagents in the local service they provide.
Newspaper publishers who sell home delivery as a premium service ought to consider these and the many other points of the benefits of the newsagent home delivery model before taking further steps to break it up.
NDD delays returns benefits
Magazine distributor NDD had hoped to have introduced a more immediate credit process for magazine returns processed by newsagents through XchangeIT. These changes are now not expected before March. This will disappoint many newsagents who committed to XchangeIT on the promise of faster returns processing.
The issue here is cash-flow. Every copy returned reflects cash owed the newsagents. The poorer performing the title the more cash owed.
A fairer financial model for magazines would be where we pay on scanned sales. As it stands, newsagents and publishers carry the risk and distributors nothing. They are paid for everything they do regardless. Every day we wait for a credit for stock which has failed is a cost to our business.
New approach to displaying roll-wrap
Check out this hang-sell approach to roll-wrap. It is a visual improvement on the bins (vertical and horizontal) which have been traditionally used newsagencies. This hang-sell approach is easier to shop. I think customers will like it. It will be interesting to see how it performs.
Australian retailer launches eBook service
The Red group, the company behind Angus & Robertson, Supanews, Whitcoulls and Borders is launching an eBook service next year. Click here for details.
They will not be alone with more announcements due in the coming weeks.
Promoting Diabetic Living at the counter
We are promoting Diabetic Living from Pacific Magazines between our two busiest register points at the counter this week. We like to promote titles with freebies at this location – the free booklet with Diabetic Living makes it a compelling offer for this space. That and the fact that this title responds very well to in store promotion. Every time we bring it out from its usual location we see incremental business. It’s as if the title is not as much a destination purchase as other titles. We know promoting works for us, hence the prime space commitment. `We hope to leave this display up for a week – space is a challenge this time of year.
Auto salon magazine oversupply
Either the publisher or distributor is to blame for today’s oversupply of Auto Salon magazine. Despite a poor sell through, some bright spark has decided we need more stock. Well, no we don’t unless someone wants our cash for a while. I am sure there will be an excuse, there always is yet the ‘gremlins’ which cause these ‘blips’ continue to have their way. Maybe it is the free CD they are giving away. I’d be surprised through – give the number of titles in the motoring section with freebies at the moment. We will not sell the extra stock unless the publisher changes approach and drives traffic to newsagencies looking for this title.
Covering the front page of the newspaper
The Age newspaper has permitted half of today’s front page to be cobvered with another advertisement. This time from Mastercard. It looks ridiculous. You have no idea about the lead story of the day. The grey block looks like a print error. Indeed, that is what one customer thought. Isn’t the Age the Newspaper of the Year? Where is the news?
Rupert Murdoch wants to understand the life of newsagent
Check out the report in the Guardian about a visit made to a newsagent in London by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.
Newsagents in Australia, especially those with distribution and retaiol contracts, would be thrilled to an an opportunity to speak directly with Rupert Murdoch right now given the new contracts from News Ltd they must make a decision about.
Newsagents in Douth Australia have an opportunity to discuss the contracts at a meeting starting at 2PM this Friday. Click here for a copy of the flyer announcing the meeting and detailing concerns expressed by newsagents in relation to the contracts.
People’s Friend pocket novels popular
I’ve written here before about our success with the weekly People’s Friend magazine from the UK. Their books are also popular – usually achieving a 90% sell through. This is the kind of brand extension I like: financially efficient for us and easy to display with the main title. The People’s Friend brand is in our top 10. This is a testament to our demographic and our driving of the brand at every opportunity.
It’s cupcakes and cookies season
We are promoting two Australian Women’s Weekly cupcake and cookie cookbooks and mini cookie and cupcake kits on our Christmas gift table. While not the prettiest display in the store, it works. The cookbooks and the cookie and cupcake making kits promote each other. It is better to display them together like this than to have the cookbooks in one part of the shop and the kits elsewhere as one would see often in newsagencies.
We are tracking sales so that we know if the various items sell together and how often. Basket analysis like this is important if we are to track hunches to see if they pay off.
The cupcake and cookie kits are part of the newsXpress Christmas catalogue offer.
Online magazine study in the UK
Rachel Singh, a student at the digital anthropology department of University College London, has launched an online study into the state of the magazine industry. The Shifting Landscape of Magazines encourages people working, or who have worked in the magazine industry to visit the site and post comments. I especiaally like the discussion going on about the future.
Newspapers complacent – Warren Buffet
Editor & Publisher published an excellent interview with Warren Buffet overnight in which he says that the newspaper industry got too complacent with its success.
“It is so easy when you’ve got a wonderful business,” Buffett told E&P during a recent interview. “Complacency is pretty easy and it is why they weren’t looking over their shoulder at what was happening.”
He goes on to say the newspapers should have tried to get more revenue from circulation over the years. This resonates with distribution newsagents who are blocked from charging a fair price for the service they offer.
Buffets comments also resonate with retail newsagents, most of whom are yet to fully leverage print media traffic into new and more profitable categories which provide a brighter future.
Thee report ends with this quote from Buffet:
We have a business model that is eroding. The whole industry. But we still have a huge base of readers.
This is true for newsagents. New devices will change how people consume news, there will be a tipping point. We have a huge traffic base today. The question every newsagent must ask is am I leveraging that traffic for my future?
We need to switch from thinking we are in a push supply model to operating our businesses from the perspective of a pull supply model.
Dissing e-readers is not good form
Newspapers are using their pages to run op-ed pieces about e-readers and other print disruptive technology. John Davidson jas a piece in the AFR on the weekend reviewing the Kindle. Doig Spiers takes a somewhat lighthearted swipe at e-readers in the Winnipeg Free Press.
We should not be lured into a false sense of security by this bad press for new devices. The music industry was. How many music stores are there today compared to ten years ago? Diversification is the name of the game, not radical diversification but smart diversification into categories which are naturally adjacent to the products we sell today.
Promoting Women’s Health with newspapers
With Men’s Health selling well when displayed with newspapers, we are trying Women’s Health in this location. Click on the image to see a larger version of the photo. We also have Women’s Health located in its usual position as well as with women’s fashion magazines. We plan to leave the display next to the newspaper stand in place for at least a week. We count stock in the pocket so we know what sells from this location compared to the usual home for the title. This is crucial in guiding whether we repeat the promotion here.
Lazy visual merchandising
Dolly did not perform as well for us last week as expected so we turned the display around 180 degrees and now have the back of the ACP basket builder stand, with the Dolly display, facing into the dance floor area of the shop (in front of the countre) and the other titles on the stand facing customers leaving our two busiest magazine aisles. The change took a us few seconds to make – hence the lazy title – yet made a good visual change at the counter.
While it would have been easy to take the display down – we could certainly use the space – we felt there was an opportunity to sell more Dolly on impulse by making this change.
Promoting the AWW Puzzle Book
We have placed a stack of copies of the Women’s Weekly Puzzle Book next to the Australian Women’s Weekly. While we are short of space we made room since it performs well here. This is a brand extension which works. I’d expect good sales in the next week for Christmas gifts. We also have the Puzzle Book located in our main crossword section elsewhere in our magazine department. We will maintain this co-location approach for a month.
Chasing weekly magazine sales
We have changed our weekly magazine display at the front of the newsagency from focusing on one title to a feature title and two columns of weeklies. We will run with this for the next few weeks – through the holidays. Regulars here will know that we have enjoyed considerable success selling weeklies from this location. This stand faces the mall and attracts people to purchase magazines who are not in our shop at the time. While it drives good business when promoting a single title, it is actually more valuable when promoting a range of titles as shown in the photo.
Covering the front page of the newspaper
The Age newspaper today has another ad covering half the front page – this time for Deakin University. While not causing litter or covering the newspaper masthead like the post-it type ads The Age runs, this ad covers half the news on the from page. What does this say about the value of the news on the front page? Also, what does it say about the journalists, photographers, designers and other editorial people who have laboured over a front page of which they can be proud. It says that ad revenue is more important than their good work yet is their good work which provides a medium for carrying the advertising.
Michael J Fox cover attracts browsers
We Put Think Big with newspapers last week because of the Michael J Fox cover story. While not a big success sales wise, I saw customers stop and look at the title. They would not have done this had we just left it with our business magazines. We place several titles a week based on the cover image alone.
SA newsagents to meet this week on News Ltd contracts
Newsagents in South Australian have organised for themselves a meeting this Friday, December 18 between 2pm and 5pm, to discuss the News Ltd distribution and retail contracts. Click here for a copy of the flyer announcing the meeting and detailing concerns expressed by newsagents in relation to the contracts.
Speaking at this important meeting, in addition to newsagents, will be:
- Professor Frank Zumbo from the University of NSW. Frank is a highly regarded expert in the field of the excessive power of big business. He has donated his time for this meeting to help newsagents.
- There will be an Adelaide based lawyer who specialises in contract law.
- Mr John Darley, an independent member of the Legislative Council.
- Mr Robert Brockenshire Family First member of the Legislative Council.
- Mr Steve Georganis, Federal Labor MP for Hindmarsh has also been invited.
Newsagents in other states ought to consider attending this meeting. While the South Australian situation is different to the Eastern States, many consider it to be the trial location for a new distribution model.
News Ltd has had some time to work through its various state based publishing businesses to develop the new contracts and to consider what the future of newspaper distribution may look like. Newsagents have not had such an opportunity. Hence the importance of this newsagent well organised meeting. I hope that News Ltd does not make any moves to block the meeting.
Many newsagents attending have already been deeply engaged in this matter thanks to the newsagent-led action in SA. They are handing out questionnaires to customers, talking with members of parliament, gaining media coverage and talking with fellow newsagents. The meeting is likely to provide an update on this considerable ground level work.
I am grateful to the organisers for passing on details so that I may promote the meeting at this blog. I am hoping to be there as well.
You can read some more about activity by newsagents in SA on this by clicking here.
Christmas impulse purchases
The snow globes and magnetic wooden Christmas ornaments are selling like hot cakes. Given their location only at the sales counter, they are purchased on impulse when finalising the sale. Adding between $1.95 and $5.95 to a sale is a terrific bonus in a newsagency. That said, in most cases we sell more than one in a sale. These items not only extend the value of the basket, they also improve overall sale margin thanks to good buying. Our margin is above 50%.
The snow globes and magnetic wooden Christmas ornaments are located at the counter without competing products nearby. It is important that customers can see counter offers, understand what they are and know the price right away.
Hiring newsagency staff, part 2
Further to my post two days ago, we have now received 198 applications via Seek from 623 people who have viewed the ad. This is just in two days. We have received another 25 or so direct. We’re now turning the ad off because we have a shortlist of 20 candidates for five positions. Having spent hours reading resumes and application letters, I am impressed with the quality of candidates, especially those who get past the initial cull.
Barack Obama 2010 calendar not selling
The Barack Obama 2010 calendar which we bought for our calendar range is set to be the dud of the season. We’ve not sold a single copy. Indeed, calendars of fanous people and celebrities are less popular than calendars of animals and places of interest. I think more people buy calendars for nostalgia than those who buy for idolisation. The Michael Jackson calendar is an exception. Anyone want a Barack Obama calendar?
50s Brotherhood Magazine title for sale at eBay
The publisher of 50s Brotherhood magazine has put the title (the world’s only mini bike magazine) and associated trademarks for sale at ebay. Click here to see the ad (it expires later today). eBay is an interesting place to sell a magazine title.
Thanks to a colleague for tipping me off to this ad.