Easter eggs and Easter cards on the iPhone
Who needs to buy the real thing when you can send Easter cards and Easter eggs using a new application on the iPhone?
AFL Team 2009 albums back in stock
Thankfully, the AFL team 2009 albums are back in stock in my newsagencies and, I suspect, newsagencies across Victoria. This will make weekend shoppers very happy.
While we received plenty of boxes on Thursday, we expect them to be sold out by mid next week. As I have noted several times here over the last few weeks, AFL magazines and cards are more popular this year. I’m not complaining, just wondering what else we can pitch with them to leverage the opportunity.
When Take 5 magazine goes missing
Half our Take 5 supply was missing on Wednesday and Network Services was unable to correct this Thursday so we miss out. The magazine distribution model does not deal well with missed magazine deliveries, especially in odd delivery weeks like around Easter. We have customers who are frustrated. I am frustrated.
Every Take 5 sale lost as a result of this is an opportunity for a customer to try somewhere else. We estimate that we will lose between 40 and 50 sales as a result.
Crossword magazines for Easter
We have the Easter themed issue of Lovatts Big crossword displayed with Easter products. Anything to introduce crosswords to new customers. Obsessing about small opportunities is how we demonstrate our magazine specialist status. That’s what newsagents are, right?
The prospect of a one newspaper town
Click here for a copy (Courtesy of Crikey.com) of Mark Scott’s speech to media studies students at the State Library in Melbourne on Wednesday night. His comments about the future of newspapers are interesting. Including this.
I suspect we also face the prospect of Sydney and Melbourne becoming onepaper towns like their small state counterparts and much of the US market. We will see closures and mergers.
Ink campaign drives excellent sales
Our latest HOTink! campaign ended March 31 yet we are still enjoying excellent sales. $800 today, some new customers too. As I mentioned in my newsagency sales benchmark report yesterday, external marketing works! It is crucial to our growth.
Tattersalls network down again
The Tattersalls network in Victoria is up and down again today. Retailers cannot get through to Tattersalls on the phone. Being the last day before the Easter break, customers are understandably angry.
Magazine sales fall 10% in newsagencies in Q1 2009
A benchmark study of sales data from 97 newsagencies, comparing sales between January and March 2009 with the same period a year earlier, has revealed a 10% fall in magazine sales in newsagencies. The benchmark study has also revealed better than expected sales results for newspapers, growth for greeting cards and reasonable growth for stationery.
The benchmark study uncovered excellent success stories for many newsagents – demonstrating that many in this retail channel are pursuing change and benefiting as a result of this effort. It also highlights that a concerning number of newsagents are yet to embrace the opportunity of change.
I have been pouring over data from participating newsagents for a week. It is a long process because for the different ways newsagents record sales in some departments. I am grateful to the newsagents who trusted me and provided access to confidential business performance data. I am privileged to have this and the insights it is helping me form.
This benchmark study is part of an on-going project which tracks sales in newsagencies and provides the information for newsagents and others to access and consider.
More detailed store by store comparisons are available to participants in the study. I have a presentation I am putting together for some suppliers and others to brief them on the state of the channel.
This benchmark project is another way Tower Systems helps all newsagents.
Lottery companies let Victorian retailers and punters down
Tattersalls and Intralot have both suffered network outages recently and both failed to keep their respective networks informed. It is hard to believe that it is 2009 when you experience such poor communication followed up by buck passing and lame excuses.
We have old technology like mobile phones and email and new online communications channels like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the like. Intralot and Tattersalls ignored these. They relied on their retail partners calling them. The problem is that they do not have infrastructure in place to cope with the calls.
Last night, newsagents had to leave their businesses without being able to confirm the status of some tickets. They had no choice, they could not get through to Tattersalls and there was no advice as to when they might be able to get through. The stress for some as a result of this was considerable.
This blog was the only confirmation for many newsagents that there was a network problem.
Poor communication by Tattersalls and Intralot reflects badly on our retail businesses. In my own shop yesterday a customer abused our manager, blaming him for her not being able to put her regular numbers on. Information from Tattersalls, anything, might have helped him provide something close to the customer service he prefers.
The Victorian Government ought to demand that Tattersalls and Intralot put in place better communication channels with appropriate redundancy as a matter of urgency. To do nothing would show them up as caring little about the punters they want buying lottery tickets and supporting the State Government addiction to gambling revenue.
Yes it is 2009 believe it or not. What we put up with yesterday was a joke. Lottery traffic is crucial, especially two days out from a long weekend. Tattersalls ought to have done better – they have been around long enough to know what Victorian punters expect.
It will be interesting to see in the lottery companies, Minister for Gaming or the Associations have anything to say on this issue.
My own small software company serving newsagents does a better job at communication. In a recent blackout we had advice and help for our customers on our company blog, by email and backup call centre access through a network of mobile phones and a Skype phone. Pretty basic stuff really.
Promoting Weight Watchers magazine
We are promoting Weight Watchers magazine between our two busiest sales counter locations. The free photo frame gift with the magazine qualifies it for this premium location. Shoppers are still getting used to the new monthly frequency of Weight Watchers. Our counter placement is designed to attract those who know of the title but were not aware of the new issue being on-sale. Having it on display at Easter should help too. We are aiming for a 50% sell-through by Monday. I’ll update this post then.
How do they spell angel in China?
Check out the photo of a pair of pink booties we received at one of our shops last week. What should have been Angel has been spelled as Angle. The misspelling gave me a smile. Sure, QA processes for the Australian supplier ought to have picked it up but, hey, nobody is perfect in spelling – least of all me.
Excuse the indulgence … the misspelling reminded me of a guy I used to serve petrol to when I worked at the BP petrol station in Pakenham in the 1970s. Everyone called him angles. I found out, after a while, that he earned this name by misspelling Hells Angels on a home-made t-shirt.
The booties will be replaced but we’ll remember them and share a joke from time to time about little angles.
Promoting magazines at the lottery counter
We have refreshed the magazine offer at our lottery counter. Nothing special. Our approach is to use two popular titles to support another. Earlier this week we focused on Woman’s Day and New Idea bookending Good Food. While Good Food sales are okay for us but not where they need to be. Hence the bookending. This title mix will be changed through the week – Take 5 and That’s Life for later in the week.
While this display breaches our Tattersalls obligations, we balance this by supporting Tattersalls outside ‘their area’.
Newsagencies are finely balanced businesses. Suppliers need to allow us flexibility to have products and categories support each other.
Drowning in Street Rodding magazine
Magazine distributor NDD must know something we don’t because they increased our supply of Street Rodding magazine by 50% despite us selling less than half the last issue. NDD gets our sales data daily, they would know that it is unlikely we will sell the 50% extra stock. I don’t blame the publisher, Graffiti Publications,this is an allocations issue.
Tattersalls network down
The Tattersalls network has been down in Victoria for over an hour. The Tattersalls phone lines are constantly engaged. The company has not sent an email explaining the situation. Newsagents don’t know if it is just them or the whole network. Earlier this week a smaller group of newsagents suffered network outage, the remifications of which are still being dealt with.
Both lottery companies need to come up with more efficient ways to alert their respective networks to status. Too much time is spent trying to get onto an overloaded call centre in these circumstances.
UPDATE (10:15PM) The Herald Sun posted a report about this online at 7:06pm tonight which claims the network was out between 2pm and 6:20pm. This is a long time to be unable to sell tickets in a short retail week before a long weekend.
This outage is more financially painful than the Intralot outage because of the considerable higher revenue put through Tattersalls compared to Intralot – this is the difference between category 1 and category 2 products.
Newsagents featured in Mediaweek article
Mediaweek this week publishes an interview with me about the newsagency channel and how I came to be involved. Click here to see a full copy. I appreciate the time James Manning took to understand some of the challenges newsagents face and the complexities of our business model.
Given the readership of Mediaweek, hopefully the article will facilitate a greater understanding of why we newsagents act as we do on some issues.
Our best asset is our network of retail outlets yet it is our most misunderstood and underutilised asset. The Mediaweek article puts this opportunity on the table again. Hopefully, publishers and other suppliers engage.
Replacing Alpha with FourFourTwo
We have placed FourFourTwo above the Herald Sun in the place we often used for promoting Alpha magazine. FourFourTwo speaks to the same demographic, is published locally and is primarily sold in newsagencies so promoting it reinforces our point of difference. Circulation of FourFourTwo has recently been withdrawn from many non-newsagent retailers – making our support more worthwhile for us. FourFourTwo is another title which I expect to sell well when placed with newspapers, taking the space no longer given to Alpha.
Selling The Monthly with The Age
Placing The Monthly above The Age in our newspaper stand works. We will sell out of the latest issue thanks to this opportunistic placement. I’d encourage other newsagents to find a way to display The Monthly with newspapers – for at least the first week or two of the on-sale. Showing the whole cover is key to success for The Monthly – their covers are excellent.
Resigning from VANA and the ANF
I resigned from VANA (the association representing Victorian newsagents) in the second week of February because of their misguided Futures Project.
I have not announced my resignation until now because the Board asked to meet with me to discuss my concerns with the Futures Project. I am not sure why they felt a need to talk to me when so many others had expressed concerns yet were not invited to a Board meeting. My meeting with the VANA Board took place two weeks ago and I’ve heard nothing since so I suspect I have not changed their plans.
The Futures Project is about getting newsagents to operate their back offices according to strict data and other rules on the belief that this will drive better business decisions. While there is no doubt that good data is essential to good business decisions, this does not, of itself, drive good business decisions. This is where the Futures Project is misguided and why it will fail.
I have other concerns about the Futures Project:
- Cost. This will cost each newsagent thousands of dollars a year with no guarantee of return. It will cost VANA hundreds of thousands of dollars. I am told they are contemplating borrowing this.
- Poor due diligence. There is no science behind the Futures Project, no research. It is being driven by one or two ill-prepared people and has got this far more because of ignorance and bluster rather than professional assessment. Without wanting to disrespect the VANA Board, they do not have the knowledge or background to reasonably assess whether this project, as presented, is right for their membership.
- Newsagent outcomes. The goals of the project and the project plan as outlined to me do not match. It will fail in its present form. The consultant to the project is, in my view, the only winner.
- Not association work. The Futures Project is a commercial project. VANA should get their association offering right before they borrow on behalf of member newsagents to fund this folly. Where were they on Alpha? What did they do about Bill Express? Nothing.
So, I resigned from VANA. The $1,800 a year I will save will be better invested elsewhere in my business.
Sometime in the future, VANA members will realise that the Futures Project was a folly, just like the failed accreditation project which cost a ton of money and wasted years.
In resigning from VANA I also resigned from the ANF. The new CEO was keen to meet and talk when I was introduced to him twelve weeks ago and I’ve not heard from him since. While I was but one member, he asked for me to set aside half a day a week or so later.
Once the QNF/NANA secretariat model is released I will look at that with considerable interest. I like the idea of a lean non-commercially focused association.
Footnote: If I am wrong I will be waiting for the I Told You So card.
The future of newspapers
Jon Faine moderated an excellent discussion yesterday morning on local ABC radio in Melbourne on the future of newspapers. I found the discussion between Michael Gawenda (former editor of The Age), Eric Beecher (former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald) and Sally Warhaft (editor of The Monthly) to be most interesting. They covered disruption brought about by the Internet as well as challenged brought about by the current economic situation.
I hope they load the discussion to their website as I am sure many newsagents would find it interesting – our channel gets a fleeting mention from Eric Beecher.
A conversation for another day could be about the challenges faced by businesses and professions built around newspapers. Look at newsagencies. Our channel was createdby a publisher in the 1800s on the goldfields of Victoria. We have been servants ever since. We are struggling to contemplate life out of service.
Queensland newsagents challenge Minister for Small Business on new Award
At a small business forum in Brisbane on Monday evening, Federal Small Business Minister Craig Emerson was asked about the looming reintroduction of penalty rates. After protesting at being ambushed by the question, he went on to demonstrate a good grasp of the issue but offered no comfort to the small business owners in attendance.
The Minister requested a full written submission from QNF on the issues and has undertaken to try to pursue the matter. This is a good outcome – if he honors his undertaking.
The changes to rates are a challenge for newsagents since around 75% of what we sell is at fixed price – meaning we have less capacity to manage our businesses to better cope with chunky penalty rates.
I am told that following the meeting there was discussion with the Minister about the status of the ANF in representing newsagents. Those participating made it clear that the ANF does not represent the majority of Queensland newsagents.
I am grateful to colleagues in Queensland for sharing information about this.
Being charged extra for opening early
Colonial First State, landlord for our newsXpress Forest Hill store has introduced an extended trading hours charge. We have been charged because we open before the official centre opening hours each day. They have applied this charge retrospectively – from July 2008.
We are still waiting for compensation water damaged stock removed from our shop when CFSPM contruction went wrong and we were flooded in 2007.
Do newsagents need a newspaper distribution contract?
News and Fairfax are said to being close to putting new distribution contracts to newsagents for their consideration. The current contracts were negotiated in 1999 as part of the process of deregulation of newspaper and magazine distribution in Australia.
While newsagents and those who represent them will focus on the terms of the proposed contracts, I’d suggest newsagents first consider whether contracts are appropriate.
Distribution newsagents beat themselves up every day fulfilling their obligations under the current contracts for, in most cases, less than minimum wage.
Newsagents are paid less in real terms today for every newspaper they handle than ten years ago when the current contracts were negotiated. Newsagents cannot sustain themselves as the working poor.
By saying no to contracts we are saying no to being a distribution newsagent. This would be a big deal for most newsagents as we would be rejecting the very purpose for which our channel was created.
Not having a contract would give newsagents more freedom to define their own future. While many may fear such an opportunity, others have already found the freedom to be personally and financially rewarding.
I’d encourage newsagents and their associations to open debate on this and seriously question whether having a contract is important.
For the new contracts to be interesting, they need to improve compensation for newsagents and provide more local business control over the profitability of newspaper distribution. They would need to allow newsagents to be business people and not process workers.
NDD likely to block newsagents on Alpha magazine
I know from my own experience recently with magazine distributor NDD that they are unlikely to respond to requests from newsagents that they not supply Alpha. I wrote to NDD asking that they not supply certain titles. They threw up all sorts of barriers and eventually refused to give me permission to control the titles I get for my newsagency.
If NDD follows the same approach for newsagents who ask to not be supplied Alpha we could find ourselves forced to take Alpha. It is this lack of control which has led some newsagents I have spoken with to close their accounts with NDD. I guess they have exercised the ultimate control.
It should not come to this. If I am expected to carry the risk of stock in my newsagency then I ought to have absolute control over the stock I carry. It is my money after all. NDD appears to have forgotten that. Just as News Ltd has forgotten that it was newsagents who made Alpha the sales success it is today.
Easter card sales up in newsagencies
Easter card sales are up on last year in the newsagencies for which I have sales data. I’d expect to see the season end with double digit growth in some stores. This is excellent given the economic conditions and that, at this stage, the same growth is not being seen for Easter Eggs.
Promoting Donna Hay at the counter
We are promoting Donna Hay magazine at the counter. While the free shopping list pad is not original and the publisher provided one poster of marketing collateral we decided to give it a go.
Publishers need to understand that not all newsagents are the same when it comes to promoting titles. The more they invest in our business with professional collateral the more likely we are to engage with their title.
We like to change our displays regularly, at least weekly and usually more often. regulars quickly become store-blind.