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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Growing magazine sales

fitness_first_magazine.JPGI made a decision to expand our range of fitness magazines and selected to carry Fitness First, the house magazine for the gym chain of the same name. I like this title because it appeals to men and women. This means we can co-locate. We don’t have many women’s fitness titles so it is a nice addition to go next to Women’s Health and other health title.

I am continually looking for opportunities to expand the magazine range. Not mass expansion, but title by title, in pursuit of our goal to drive magazine traffic through our range point of difference.

We will run the Fitness First title for three issues before we look at the sales results and assess the next step. It’s easy for us to take these steps ith Gordon ^ Gotch, the distributor of this title.

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magazines

Population surge predicted

Demographer Bernard Salt who recently spoke at the ACP Connections Conference (see my comments here) was in the news yesterday talking about a predicted popularion surge.  I heard him on radio.  He was a fascinating as I found him at the Connections conference.  His insights and those of others on this topic can help us make better strategic business decisions.  These are insights major retailers listen to.

We need to take on board these predictions and seize opportunities to leverage these for our advantage.  We do this through relationships with landlords who work five and ten years out and by researching social and economic change, looking for opportunities.

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Newsagency opportunities

Chasing finals newspaper sales

The Herald and Weekly Times advised newsagents this afternoon of its publishing plans for the Herald Sun based on the outcome of AFL games this weekend. It is good to have forewarning of loading plans based on AFL game outcomes. This is especially important in regions where an AFL result drives sales such as Geelong and the Bayside area in the case of the saints. The plans suggest that Collingwood fans don’t read newspapers as much as Geelong fans.

The notice is handy for newsagents as it lets those in target areas know of opportunities in their areas.

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Newspapers

The weekend magazine pitch

fhn_pacmags.JPGThe weekend pitch at the front of our newsagency at Forest Hill this weekend features: Who, Better Homes and Gardens as well as Women’s Health.  All titles are from Pacific Magazines and all appeal to our weekend shoppers.  We are giving Who bigger treatment because of the special issue.

This display went up early this morning and will remain in place until Monday.

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magazines

Connecting with UP the movie

fhn_up.JPGWe are promoting the magazine launched to coincide with UP the movie.  This is at our main sales counter for the weekend.  I expect it to work well as an impulse purchase.  Already this morning, a few minutes after putting up the display, we had our first sale.

Since we did not receive any collateral, we created the backing material ourselves – this is easily done with a colour photocopier.

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magazines

Draft new crossword poster

crossword.jpgThis is a draft of a crossword promotion poster we are developing to promote the category and share with other newsagents.  While not yet completed, I thought I would post it here for feedback.

What I am not sure of is the hyphenation of crosswords – it does not look right to me. Fitting crosswords is a challenge though.

Once done, I will post a link to the art on this blog so people can download it and print locally – A4 or A3.

It is important for us to promote categories of magazines and not just single titles as we do today, especially categories in which newsagents specialise like crosswords.

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crosswords

Ugh! More diary subscriptions!

subs_diaries.JPGThe photo shows more magazine subscriptions being pushed through diaries associated with the magazines. While I understand that subscriptions are part of the publishing model, I am not happy that they use diaries in newsagencies to take business from us.

News Magazines are the worst culprit at the moment with discounts of up to 58% off Gardening Australia, Inside Out, Country Style and delicious.  What makes them worse than others in-store at the moment is their use of insets in diaries and their blatant pitch. I have seen at least one other diary offering a subscription but without a massive discount and not using an insert.

Diaries from magazine publishers are not provided to newsagents for what I would call a commercial margin. They ride off the back of the magazine supply model. I can make twice as much from diaries I bring in under fairer commercial terms.

So, magazine publishers use magazine relationships to place diaries in newsagencies on terms which are favourable to them. They then use this cheap placement to try and get newsagency customers to buy magazines direct from the publisher.

A smart publisher would work with newsagents on a subscription plan and offer fair compensation for the up-sell effort. We have the technology to offer this today. I know of plenty of newsagents who would be happy to sell subscriptions.  They’d also be happy to offer a discounted putaway service in return for a long term up front commitment.

Using diaries to take business from newsagents lacks foresight on the part of publishers. They should support this valuable channel and not treat it with such disrespect.

Publishers diverting revenue from newsagents risk looking back one day and wondering what happened to the newsagents?  Respect us and we support you.

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Diaries

The fake $50 note

50.JPGThis is a photo of a fake $50 note presented (and accepted) in one of our stores. We have kept it to show staff so they can compare to the real note and be more aware of what to look for. It is one thing to list what to look for in a fake note and another to place this is a pile of $50s and have them spot the fake.

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Ugh!

Reusing old magazine display stands

fhn_bhg_oct09.JPGWe keep the better stands supplied by publishers and reuse them when we have the space and opportunity. Take the Better Homes and Gardens stand from early this year. This latest outing for the stand is its fifth. While the message about the TV show is dated, the stand is an easy way for us to pitch the latest issue (out Wednesday) next to our newspaper display.

We will leave this stand up for the first week of on-sale and bring it back for weekends unless we create a BHG display elsewhere.

We have created out of the way on-site storage space for these stands so our task is easier than in many newsagencies.

Better Homes and Gardens responds well to this type of promotion over the weekend.

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magazines

Firewalls and XChangeIT

The new XChangeIT Link has more robust security than the previous platform.  I am hearing of more conflicts with firewalls installed on computers in newsagencies.  If you have encountering difficulties accessing files sent by XChangeIT, checking your firewall settings may unlock a resolution for you.  If you are not sure what to do, check with the company which supplkied and setup your hardware.

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XchangeIT

The conference for newsagents

A National Newsagent Conference for newsagents is being held in Melbourne next month.  Over two days, newsagents will head speakers from a range of areas speak about leadership, the challenges of structural change and the future of some core products in our businesses.

This is an excellent opportunity to step out of your newsagency and network with proactive newsagents from across the country representing large and small newsagencies.  While the conferecne is hosted by newsXpress, paerticipation is open to every newsagent.

The conference offers two days of great networking.  Click here for a copy of the conference registration form. Registrations are open now.

Disclosure: I am a Director of newsXpress.

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Newsagency opportunities

No paper, no printing plants

I do certainly see the day when more people will be buying their newspapers on portable reading panels than on crushed trees. Then we’re going to have no paper, no printing plants, no unions. It’s going to be great.

These are the words of Rupert Murdoch quoted in the Financial Times yesterday.

The opportunity is for newsagents to reconfigure our retail newsagencies so we are not as reliant on current traffic generators – lotteries, newspapers, home delivery payments and the like.

Every day now we should be planning our own future in this new world.  No one else will create the future for us.

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Media disruption

2010 desk calendars selling

fhn_deskd_2010.JPGWe have had our range of desk calendars out for several seeks and they are ticking along well. There is nothing fancy about our display – we have these at one of our counters. The price this year is the same as last year – $2.00 a block. I’d be interested in what others charge because one newsagent I was talking with yesterday charges $1.50 and he was convinced he could not charge more.  I think we could go to $2.20 without impacting sales.  This is a convenience offer.

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Calendars

Newsagency off the market

Regulars here would know that I put my newsagency at Forest Hill on the market many months ago. After being looked at by many prospects, a heads of agreement was signed four weeks ago. The purchaser pulled out for personal reasons before signing a contract. I have decided to take the business off the market and, instead, focus on the next phase of development of the newsagency.

The sale process has given us an insight into the performance of the business and opened opportunities for change which have renewed energy and focus.

I have owned Forest Hill since February 1996. I like the customers and the area. There is a comfort from dealing with the same people over a long period of time.

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About us

Newspaper of the year or sell out of the year?

smh_sep1609.JPGI was shocked to see The Sydney Morning Herald in the photo for sale in Sydney this afternoon.  Above the masthead, the publisher proudly proclaims NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR yet they have sold an ad to cover the word Sydney in the masthead.  Shame.

This is one of the worst acts of desecration of a newspaper masthead I have seen.

I wonder what the editorial team thinks?  I wonder, too, what brand experts think.

My uneducated opinion is that selling masthead space demonstrates a profound lack of respect for the brand and a belief that cash for the ad is important than the brand and all it stands for.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Check your Notebook diaries

Inserted in the front of the 2010 Notebook diary is a subscription flyer. Subscribe and save 28% on a 1 year subscription to Notebook magazine it proclaims.  Publishers do this all the time and I usually let it slide.  Using a low margin diary supplied on mediocre terms this is poor form by the published against newsagents.  The flyers in the Notebook diaries in my newsagencies have slipped out.

Our channel is a valuable resource.  Suppliers ought to respect this in their actions.

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Diaries

Promoting Time with newspapers

fhn_time_sep17.JPGWe are promoting Time magazine at our main nespaper stand this week.  The ethical consumer cover story is something we feel will interest our customers.  Time is one of those titles which needs to be featured when it has a good cover since it is not often a destination purchase – certainly in our newsagencies at least.

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magazines

Promoting free seeds with That’s Life

fhn_tl_sep1609.JPGWe are promoting That’s Life in our prime counter position from today, replacing New Idea (which has sold well with the free chocolate), because of the free seeds which come with this issue of the magazine.

We will leave That’s Life in place at the counter until Friday.  The seeds are a good giveaway given the low cover price of That’s Life.

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magazines

More newsagents selling home delivery runs

I am hearing of more newsagents selling their home delivery runs to concentrate on retail.

My own experience is that the separation of two different and competing businesses is good for both.  They have different labour and capital demands and separation allows for more appropriate allocation.  Retail has less regulation whereas home delivery is highly regulated.  Retail can pull revenue from a broad range of categories whereas home delivery is challenged in this area.

The separation of home delivery from retail continuesd to be the most significant structural change in our channel.  It is great that newsagents are achieving this for themselves.

Retaining customer traffic in retail after selling the run is easy with good PayPoint technology which lets the retailer act as if they are the distribution newsagent when it comes to payments, stops and starts.

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magazine distribution

My Shop is Your Shop UK

Today is National Walk and Shop Day in the UK – an excellent promotion of local shopping supported by independent retailers, including newsagents, suppliers, local councils and consumers.  This is part of the My Shop is Your Shop project.

the campaign for National Walk and Shop Day is built around reducing emissions CO2 emissions, buying local for today to avoid waste and saving petrol costs.  All good messages which local shops can pitchto their local customers.

This is an opportunity for newsagents and similar independent retailers in Australia.

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Customer Service

How this blog works

Blog posts here are conversations. I’ll publish a post and people, sometimes many people, comment on this and, from time to time extend the post into new areas.
The first comment posted by someone is moderated and from then on their comments are published immediately. People are responsible for their own comments.
The openness of this place means we need to be respectful the opinions of others and their right to their opinion.

Some people get grumpy when I publish something with which they disagree.  The grumpiest responses are sent by email or a call.  Some think that because this place is public I should write what they think and not what I think.  It all makes for colourful conversations about ownership of opinions.

When I started blogging in January 2005 I didn’t know if there would be much interest in matters affecting newsagents. Today, 6,226 posts and 12,364 comments on and 1,500+ visitors a day, I have the answer.

Our channel is important to Australians, suppliers and the families of newsagents and employees. Hopefully, this place plays role in helping define the relevance of the Australian newsagency.

Let the conversations continue.

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About us

Flipping through magazines and newspapers online

Google has released a facility enabling browsers to easily flip through content like they would flipping through physical magazine or newspaper pages. Read the Google blog post about this.  Fast Flip, as it is called, serves up screen shots of the Web pages containing relevant articles – just the article and the masthead.

See fast Flip in action here.  I like it.  the experience is reader friendly.  It plays to the rapid surfing of content many of us do online.  I like the ease with which I can browse across a variety of mastheads and their handling of a story.

Fast Flip also provides publishers with a revenue opportunity.

Newsagents should check this out.

UPDATE: read the Guardian report on this.

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Media disruption
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