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

Author: Mark Fletcher

Interest in the Australian magazine system

I have been talking over the last few weeks with people in two different countries about the Australian magazine distribution system.  They wanted to know specifically about EDI standards and how compliance is driven.  In each case, their country is considerably behind Australia in terms of management of supply – invoices are manually processed, returns are manual and credits can take three months or more because of this.

While I have serious issues with our magazine distribution model, it is cleasr from talking with others that the Australian system is nowhere near the worst in the world.  That said, it does not stop me wanting the AAustralian magazine distribution system to be better and fairer to newsagents.  I want to see costs for newsagents reduced, supply which more closely matches sales and better ranging control so that we carry a commercially viable range and not what three distributors separately think we should have because it suits them.

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magazine distribution

Acrylic displays made to order

dsc06496.JPGI am often asked where newsagents can source acrylic slatwall fixtures made to order.  We have had many such fixtures made by Murooba Products.  Owned by ex newsagents Doug and Anne Denham, the fixtures they have made are serving us well.

Click on the image for a larger photo of  some aisle end card fixtures they made for one of our Sophie Randall shops.

Regulars here will know that I think that traditional newsagency shopfits are no longer suitable for our needs.  Purpose built fixtures do not offer the flexibility we will find necessary in the coming years.  Acrylic units like those from Murooba can be moved or replaced easily – through the seasons or as the longer term needs of the business change.

Murooba can be contacted on 03 5248 3729.  For the record, I have no commercial involvement with Murooba.

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retail

Mediabiznet reports on call for magazine supply adjustment

My March 22 blog post calling for urgent adjustment to newsagent magazine supply has been picked up by mediabiznet – an information soruce for media and marketing industries.  It is good to see the issue of magazine oversupply, especially imported titles, being covered by others.  I wish they had linked to the original blog post as it provided more details on why the adjustment is necessary.

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magazine distribution

Podcast changes newsagent opinion about sales based replenishment

I have received some excellent feedback from newsagents who have listened to the first newsagency industry podcast which was published by Mediaweek last week and in which I participated.  The most significant feedback has been around ACP Magazines’ Sales Based Replenishment program.  Several newsagents commented to me that the podcast changed their opinion about SBR and that they now support the initiative.

I like SBR because it relies on good use of technology in newsagencies.  The reward for newsagents is eliminating sell-outs, especially for monthly titles which experience an unexpected spike in sales.

The podcast helped explain the benefit as well as some of the history to the latest incarnation of SBR.

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magazine distribution

Newsagent frustration at increase in Golden Casket payout limit

Golden Casket in Queensland has advised its retailers, including newsagents, that they are to payout up to $1,500 on a prize – up from the $500 limit.   This move is causing concern among newsagents in terms of the cash they will need to carry, especially after a superdraw, and the time it will take to be credited by Golden Casket for the payout.

In Victoria we payout up to $4,000.  While there is discretion to the upper end of this amount, in my own newsagency we always try and make the payment because it reinforces our business as the go to place for lottery products.  In today’s marketplace we need to seize every opportunity possible to build customer loyalty.

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Lotteries

Australia’s oldest paperboy?

robbie_mcgregor.JPGRobbie McGregor has delivered newspapers to homes on the same route in Pakenham for fifty years.  He is featured in Century of Faces, a 44 page special report in a recent edition of the Pakenham-Berwick Gazette to commemorate the centenary of this wonderful local newspaper.

Robbie has worked for seven owners of Pakenham Newsagency – one of the early owners was the Bishop family.  I worked for the Bishops in 1970 and 1971 after school.  This is when I first met Robbie.  Back then, as I am sure is the case today, Robbie was your ideal paperboy – on time, accurate and cheerful.

Kudos to the folks at the Gazette for featuring Robbie McGregor, paperboy, in their Centenary of Faces.  I am grateful for the memories.

We have plenty of stories like Robbie’s in our newsagency channel.  We ought to share more of them.  They make for good listening.  They are also an important record of traditions.  These local stories are what connect us with our communities and give locals another reason to trade with us.

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newspaper home delivery

Promoting Annette’s Sym’s Symply Too Good cookbooks

symply_too_much.JPGLike many other newsagents, we received many copies of each edition of Annette Sym’s Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks on Friday.  While I suspect (hope) that the Network Services magazine allocation system made a mistake, we are trying to make the most of the situation by creating a display at the entrance to our main magazine aisle.  We have dressed an old stand and given it over entirely to Annette Sym’s popular brand.  I certainly saw customers browse products from the stand today after they had made their selection of another title elsewhere in the aisle.

Looking at the photo now the only issue may be our placement next to the Darrell Lea stand.  Hmm…

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magazine distribution

News Ltd forgets how important newsagents were to Alpha

News Ltd was singing our praises prior to the launch of Alpha magazine and telling analysts how important we were.

“That positioning in newsagents is a massive advantage,” he says. “And the strength of the newspaper brands gives that instant imprimatur, gravitas and authority.”

Phil Barker, Managing Director of News Magazines was quoted in The Australian on April 28, 2005.

We need to understand the importance of our real-estate and run our businesses accordingly.  While the opportunity to do this nationally has well and truly passed, we do have an opportunity through other communities – such as marketing groups which have levers of discipline.

What News has done with Alpha is a wake up call.  Only time will tell if it did indeed wake us up.

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magazine distribution

News Corp investing in Kindle like device?

Peter Kafka at Mediamemo is reporting that News Corp. is investing in a colour Kindle-like device. Here is what Rupert Murdoch is reported as saying during a Q&A session at a cable industry conference in Thursday, talking about the Amazon Kindle:

We need new models. The first inkling of it is the Kindle. You can get the whole paper there. And you can get the whole of The Wall Street Journal on your BlackBerry. We’re investing in a new device that has a bigger screen, four-color, and you can get everything there.

The Kindle is changing the way people read and buy books in the US.  At some point similar technology will disrupt the purchase and distribution of newspapers and maagzines.

UPDATE: The Australian covered this story as well.

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Media disruption

February customer newsletter

nx_fhn_apr09.jpgClick here for a PDF copy of our April 2009 customer newsletter for our newsXpress Forest Hill shop.

We have copies of the newsletter on a stand at the front of our newsagency  – for any passer-by to take. This is in addition to advertising flyers promoting ink, books and other deals we also make available customers from the same location.


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Customer Service

AFL product drive excellent sales

footycards.JPGJust as we found with the season launch AFL Record earlier this year, the AFL cards are selling very well this year.  While magazines may be challenged, there are related products, like these AFL cards, which are trading well.  Year on year we are up 64% in unit sales of these.  I like the trading cards because they drive repeat business if we maintain a good level of stock.

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magazines

Maxim UK print edition to close

The UK edition of Maxim is closing its print edition and moving online from next month.  The US edition will replace the UK edition at retail.  The Guardian reports that Lad’s mags like Maxim are doing it tough in the UK:

Lads’ magazines are suffering heavy declines across the board. IPC’s Nuts fell 13.3% year on year to an average weekly circulation of 234,034 in the six months to December 2008; while weekly rival Zoo, from Bauer Media, fell 18.7% year on year to 145,555.

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magazines

Displaying women’s health magazines

fhn_womenshealth.JPGClick on the photo to see a larger version of what I’d consider to be be best practice for displaying women’s health realted titles.  This is from our Forest Hill store this morning.  As we do with other categories, we anchor the display with top selling brands: Women’s Health, Good Health and Medicine, Health Smart and Diabetic Living.  Blocking key brands in this way draws attention to the category.

Newsagents often say that they don’t have the space to display magazines in this way.  We make it our business to find the space because the sales benefit makes it worthwhile.

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magazines

Overloaded with patchwork magazines

fhn_crafttitles.JPGThe photo shows three of the packs of patchwork magazines from Express Publications.  This is a perfect example of oversupply.  The titles in the packs are similar.  They demand space for an already well-serviced segment.  Given the packaging and quality of the products themselves I’d regard these as junk – sent in the hope of theft or, maybe, purcahse by a less discerning consumer.  having to deal with poor selling packs like these from Express soaks up our time and cash, away from more profitable magazines.

The magazine distribution model is in need of urgent review.  I was hopeful that the ACCC questions about this might lead somewhere.  I am now concerned that this appears unlikely.

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magazine distribution

Newsagency industry podcast

I participated last night in a podcast about the newsagency industry for Mediaweek magazine.  Moderated by Brenden Wood, Eugene Varricchio – Group General Manager – Retail & Distribution – ACP Magazines, James Manning – Editor – Mediaweek and I talked about magazines in the newsagency channel and the challenges we encounter and the opportunities ahead.  The 30 minute discussion started with a look at the issues surrounding the changes with Alpha magazine.

It is good to see the newsagency channel featured and discussed in this way.  As Eugene points out, we account for sales of mroe than 50% of ACP magazines product.

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magazines

Foreign newspapers up 13% Q1 2009

fhn_foreignpapers.JPGI am working through our own Q1 sales and found that once again foreign language newspapers were a stand-out success.  Unit sales are up 13% year on year at Forest Hill.  Other daily newspapers recorded a 0% change over the same period.  In Q1, we sold 867 foreign language newspapers.  We are achieving sales equal to around $12,000 per square metre of space allocated.  This is an excellent story.

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Newsagency opportunities

The Land covers news and ads

land-1.JPGI am grateful to a colleague newsagent for showing me that the latest issue of The Land has taken covering the front page of the newspaper to a new level.  The ad covering the bottom half of the front page covers editorial as well as advertising.  I’d expect Terry Miller Concrete Tanks, the advertiser covered-up, to be frustrated.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Magazine reader due for release next year

Toy Story: Are Those 5,000 Magazines in Your Messenger Bag, Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? is an excellent report by Gillian Reagan at The New York Observer about the first mobile digital reader made specifically for newspapers and magazines.  The device can hold many magazines with content easily searchable and indexed.  Once a consumer has the device, they would not need a retailer for new issues.  They hope to have this product on the market sometime next year.

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magazines

ANF lets newsagents down over Alpha

The ANF made its first statement about the Alpha magazine situation today and said, well, not much. Indeed, they reported the facts as we know them but proposed no action on behalf of members. Newsagents can now add disappointment with the ANF to their disappointment with News Ltd on the Alpha mess for it seems that a week after the Alpha announcement, the ANF does not have a plan.

To those inside the ANF who complain about what I have written here I’d say that this blog post recording another ANF failure to lead could have been easily avoided.  Newsagents are angry.  Your constituents are angry.  Ask what they want of you and do it.  This is what newsagents expect from an association – to have their views robustly represented.

No wonder News Ltd thinks it can get away with treating newsagents in such a poor way.

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magazine distribution

Warning to newsagents over Alpha magazine action

Newsagents ought to consider taking care in what they say publicly about their plans to remove Alpha magazine from their shelves or block sales in some other way.  I have heard that questions are being asked about whether newsagents are colluding to harm the sales of Alpha.  If questions are being asked, I know this will be enough to scare off some newsagents.  Newspaper publishers are good at scaring newsagents.  It is why we accept making less in real terms today than we were making ten years ago.  Many of us are like deers caught in the headlights – too scared to take care of ourselves.  Publishers know this about us.

That said, I have received more calls from newsagents who are removing Alpha.  Many of these are newsagents who supported the title through the launch, believing that News was committed to supporting newsagents.

If it were not illegal I would actively promote a boycott and encourage newsagents to practically demonstrate their anger at being treated so poorly.

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magazine distribution

EDI compliance training for newsagents

Tower Systems has announced a national newsagent IT compliance training and advice tour. Each 2 hours session will cover the new XchangeIT (EDI) standards and other new standards.  Access is free for this newsagent only session. Come and learn how to get XchangeIT access for the lowest price – by being compliant.

BOOK NOW. HERE ARE THE DATES:

  • Geelong Wednesday, 6 May 2009 2pm
  • Adelaide Thursday, 7 May 2009 11am
  • Melbourne Tuesday, 12 May 2009 11am
  • Cairns Wednesday, 13 May 2009 2pm
  • Brisbane Thursday, 14 May 2009 11am
  • Gold Coast Friday, 15 May 2009 10am
  • Sydney Tuesday, 19 May 2009 11am
  • Newcastle Wednesday, 20 May 2009 10am
  • Gosford Wednesday, 20 May 2009 3pm
  • Tamworth Thursday, 21 May 2009 10am
  • Hobart Tuesday, 26 May 2009 10am
  • Launceston Wednesday, 27 May 2009 11am
  • Canberra Tuesday, 2 June 2009 10am
  • Albury Wednesday, 3 June 2009 11am

BOOK ONLINE: At our free online booking portal.
BOOK BY EMAIL: bookings@towersystems…
BOOK BY FAX: 03 9524 8099

Every newsagent is welcome to attend.

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newsagent software

Promoting Better Homes and Real Living together

fhn_bhg_realliving.JPGWe are promoting Better Homes and Gardens and Real Living together to customers as they leave our highest traffic magazine aisle at Forest Hill.  We have gone for two titles to change up our usual approach in this space of focusing on one title and supporting this with other titles from the same category.

We hope to sell both titles together enough to encourage us to to do more of these dual title displays.  Hopefully, ACP and Pacific will be happy with the joint promotion – both have key mastheads being given feature treatment.

Of course, retail displays are only useful to the retailer if they drive sales in that business.  This is how we measure every display and determine if it is to remain active.

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magazines

Financial crisis hits US Postal Service

The head of the U.S. Postal Service went before Congress late last week to deliver a submission seeking help in the wake of a considerable downturn in business.  While there are considerable differences between the US Postal Service and Australia Post, reading the report led me to wonder about the health of our mail delivery sevice and whether Australia Post will further increase focus on non mail delivery service revenue streams.

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Australia Post

Aussie newspapers faring better than others

Australian newspapers have been receiving kudos in international reports over the last 24 hours following the release of advertising revenue figures which showed a decline on 0.6% in 2008.  My view is that part of the reason for the lower decline here is our newspaper distribution model.  Without the financial support from newsagents, publishers would bear a higher cost and this would have altered their model and sales – eventually playing out in lower ad revenue.

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Newspapers
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