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

Author: Mark Fletcher

A horseshoe for the bride and traditions

wedding_keepsake.JPGI was asked yesterday about  the purpose of the wedding keepsake, a bridal horseshoe.  My customers were a young Chinese woman and her mother.  I stumbled through, saying it represented a wish of luck for the bride on her wedding day – to be given after the ceromony.  The giving of a horseshoe is something they had not heard of before.  They loved the idea of it bringing luck for the bride and bought one.  Judging by the animation of the conversation between them, I expect to sell more to other guests before the wedding.

The encounter made me realise I didn’t know enough about the history of the bridal horseshoe or wedding keepsakes generally.  Check out The Brides Diary for one example of more on this subject.

Product knowledge is very important and maybe I am not as advanced as others on this.  I know that for our Sophie Randall business we have a booklet we have put together explaining religious occasions and the difference between baptism, confirmation and other similar religious occasions.  The wedding horseshoe encounter has convinced me to expand this to add wedding tradition information along with details of traditions for other occasions for which we sell products – graduation, twenty-first birthdays and the like.

The ultimate booklet I see for our newsagencies is something which we can have behind the counter to answer questions, help with card choice and help with gift selection.  Then I will be ready if I’m asked about a tradition like bridal horseshoes.

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Gifts

Working Abroad magazine out of place here

working_abroad.JPGWorking Abroad magazine is a UK publication written for people living in the UK and planning to work abroad.  It is an odd magazine to sell here in Australia. 

The current issue (on sale since December 1) has an article about working in Australia. 

There is little content to be of interest to someone already here.  There has to be a better way for us to control the titles which get access to our network.

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magazine distribution

Good collateral from NSW Lotteries

nswlotteries.JPGI was in a couple of newsagencies in Sydney yesterday and was impressed with the collateral provided by NSW Lotteries, especially that for the $5 million Monday draw on January 19.  NSW Lotteries provided A2 posters as well as the landscape poster in the photo.  I especially like the call to action: ASK FOR A MEGAPICK!  It was good to see the newsagent price a mega pick under the poster, making it easy for their customers.

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Lotteries

Promoting Good Health and Medicine

fhn_goodhealth.JPGWe are using the back of the ACP Magazines basket builder stand to promote Good Health and Medicine.  This is positioned so that guys leaving the guy magazine aisle and girls leaving the girl magazine aisle see the offer.  It is working.  People purchase off the stand, people who would otherwise not have seen the Good Health and Medicine.

In newsagencies we often build displays as destinations or as something people pass when they enter the store.  Using the back of the stand in this way and placing the Good Health and Medicine offer where we have we are targeting people who are heading to leaving – to the counter to pay for their purchase.

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magazines

Beware of books

I have heard of plans to supply books and book-like product to newsagents through traditional supply channels.  From what I understand the offer (in its present form) is unlikely to be as competitive as that put to traditional bookshops.  Current release books need to be provided on a sale or return basis at 45% margin.  Without this we are not able to be competitive on price against book retailers often located near newsagencies. 

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Book retailing

Magazine management training popular with newsagents

At Tower Systems we announced a free online workshop of magazine management for Thursday this week.  It filled in two days.  We announced another for later the same day.  It filled in less than a day.  Two more sessions were announced for Thursday January 15 at 11am and 2:30pm.  They filled in a day.  More will be announced in the next couple of days. 

It’s great that newsagents are eager to learn more about best practice in managing magazines.  We know from feedback from previous sessions that this workshop can help cut magazine management (arrivals and returns time) by a third in many newsagencies. 

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newsagent software

January newsletter

nljan09.jpgClick here to see a copy of our January in-store newsletter.  This is provided free from a stand at the front of our newsXpress Forest Hill store. 

You’ll notice that the newsletter also connects with the mobile phone recharge promotion we are running in store and about which I blogged yesterday.  We write items for the newsletter which we feel are appropriate to our customers and about products which we want to promote – it is our marketing after all.

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newsagency marketing

New Home Trends loses money for newsagents

newhometrends.JPGNew Home Trends and the various other Trend titles are poor performers.  Not only in my newsagencies but others I have seen recently.  They have a long shelf life (five months for New Home) and, overall, a poor sell-through (25% or less).  Despite the poor sell-through, the distributor (NDD) continues to send product.  While the NDD response will be that I can early-return the product, their internal systems should have alerted them that I will be lucky to sell one copy let alone all they sent me.  I either let them take my cash for product which will not sell or fund the cost of early return.  This is a perfect example of where we should rip off the cover and only send this back – to ensure that this title does not do the cycle further and cost more newsagents.

If NDD cannot sort these problems out, more newsagents will shut their accounts with the company.  A better outcome would be fair supply based on sales data. 

This problem matters to all magazine publishers in Australia because the money and time wasted on these Trend and similar titles (Universal Magazines) which are oversupplied and with a long shelf life is money and time not available for more productive titles.

I am happy to carry the Trend titles but only on equitable terms.  The current terms are anything but.

One day publishers will wonder why newsagents either shut or dramatically reduced magazine space.  The problem I have described in the blog post, and many others like it, will be a key reason. 

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magazine distribution

Health Smart blocks other titles

notsohealthsmart.JPGWhile I am sure that the folks at Reader’s Digest would be thrilled with the work of the merchandiser in promoting the latest issue of Health Smart. Their action, as shown in the photo, is disrespectful in that it blocks view of titles to the left, right and above.  One of these would be fine but all three is a bit much.  The merchandising shown in the photo is selfish and unfair against not only the other titles but also the retailer.  What is more frustrating is that the merchandising company probably paid something like $25 for the merchandising visit.  If the publisher had provided us the materials we would have navigated a better outcome for all concerned.

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magazines

Great Back to School deals in Australia

bts09.jpgForget Big W, Officeworks, Target, K-Mart and other big retailers chasing back to school business this year.  Their deals are not so hot.  Australian newsagents have excellent deals.  I know from my own experience that newsXpress has some excellent deals which beat the big boys.  There are twenty Nintendo Wii up for grabs as well.  The Newspower catalogue has some excellent deals too.  In addition to these good deals, Australian newsagents provide good local service, employing local people and supporting local community groups.  These are important reasons to support local newsagents with your back to school business. 

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Stationery

EGM to close

Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine is to close.  The January issue is to be the last.  Gamasutra has details on this move.  While not a big seller, it has been an important title in the gaming mix.  Joey Allarilla writes about EGM and challenges for print magazines at cnet. 

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magazines

Promoting Tattersalls instore or online?

tattsoutside.JPGI am disappointed that Tattersalls has paid to place this generic poster just outside the entrance nearest our newsagency.  I would rather it promote our business or at the very least not promote online.  While you may say that they are funding the advertising and can do what they like, it’s ten steps from the poster to our shop and I would have thought that a call to action to buy from us would have worked well.  I would have shared the cost with them.

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Lotteries

Newsagent exclusive opportunity with music cards

cp_pitch.jpgCardplai sells greeting cards which come with access to music as the gift.  By using the unique code which comes with the card, the recipient can download songs selected for them or, depending on what the giver has selected, any songs in the catalogue of 38,000 new and existing albums.  Newsagents are the exsitive retail partner for cardplai.  Our Tower Systems Point of Sale and eziPass platforms are the exclusive access point.  Tower users running the integrated eziPass software can sell the cardplai product.  Non Tower newsagents can get ezipass stand alone for free to sell Cardplai.  We have eziPass running in newsagencies using other newsagency software.

The folks at Cardplai offered us a commission to bring their product online and to promote it.  We said thanks but no thanks, prefering that they spend the commission we would have earned in helping newsagents make more from Cardplai.

So, for the record, we receive no payment for the work we have done on Cardplai or for endorsing the offer.  We are supporting the offer because we like that it is exclusive to newsagents, that it is a good and natural fit for newsagents and that it opens our channel to a new product offer around digital music.

The team behind Cardplai is in the process of calling newsagents to offer access.  This is an opportunity for newsagents to show they can band together to bring a new product to market.  Click here to download a copy of the information sheet developed by Cardplai to announce the offer.

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Greeting Cards

Promoting mobile phone recharge

mobilerecharge1.JPGClick on the image to see a larger photo of the how we are using A3 posters to promote mobile phone recharge in our newsagencies.  While there is plenty of collateral material around specific brands of mobile phone carriers, our feeling is that a generic sign like this more efficiently speaks to the overall offer mobile phone recharge offer.  The Tower Systems marketing team created the poster for use in times when we have good real estate available for a generic promotion such as this.  Click here to download a free copy of the A3 artwork if you’d like to display this in your newsagency.

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newsagency marketing

Rethinking Western Union

We plan to review Western Union this year.  While I like the overall offer and that it positions us well with foreign language newspaper sales, the more complex compliance requirements and the slim margin have brought it onto the radar for review. 

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Newsagency challenges

Martha Stewart late for Christmas

msliving.JPGThe latest issue of Martha Stewart Living is a good example of certain issues of overseas titles which face challenges.  Only a die-hard Martha Stewart fan will buy this Christmas themed issue which arrived yesterday.  We will be unlikely to sell the one copy we received.  I am not sure what the answer is: airfreight seasonal issues, cut supply or live with it as we do today?  Having Christmas titles now makes us look lazy or out of date.

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magazines

Is Gowns magazine free or what?

gowns.JPGGowns, published by Wildfire Publications, has a price of $9.90.  However, it is free if you buy Sydney Weddings.  This is extraordinary.  In a newsagency I visited today (in Melbourne) there is Sydney Weddings on the shelf with Gowns for free and next to it is Gowns by itself priced at $9.90.  Both are distributed by NDD.  Surely someone at NDD noticed this?  I hope not because it would shock me that they noticed this and let it through.  This behaviour makes newsagents look stupid to customers.

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magazine distribution

The cost of launching a new magazine

grandma.JPGWe have not sold a single copy of Groovy Grandmas since it launched six weeks ago.  As I blogged at the time, we received 19 copies.  We early returned the stock today.  Besides being out of pocket for a time for the cost of the initial stock, we have to pay freight to send this now dead stock back.  This is a considerable impost on small business newsagents. 

While I understand that the publisher has risked tens of thousands of dollars, maybe more, in the launch of Groovy Grandmas, that is their choice.  Newsagents have not been given a choice as to whether they want to invest in a new title.  The distributor is not out of pocket in such a launch.  Only the publisher, who had a choice, and newsagents, who had no say in whether to invest.

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magazine distribution

Print run cutbacks cost magazine sales

Reduction in supply quantities of some weekly magazines over the Christmas / New Year period is seeing sell-outs.  In some cases, the impacted customers are shifted to a competing title while in other cases they leave to find the title at another retailer. While I understand that the size of the print run of many titles is determined by the ad revenue of the issue, as a retailer I hate losing sales.

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magazines

Fat wedding magazines expensive to return

fatwedding.JPGBesides a six-month period and supply way beyond what we will sell, Complete Wedding Melbourne from Universal Magazines stings newsagents because of its sheer weight.  We have to pay to freight unsold product back to the distributor and cannot fit more than four copies per bundle.  This is another argument for sending the cover only and trashing the rest of the magazine.  Paying to freight returns of Complete Wedding Melbourne is like a fine on newsagents for doing nothing wrong.

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magazine distribution

VANA unsuccessful on home delivery fees

Further to our Bulletin dated 13 November 2008 re Home Delivery Fees. VANA has been discussing a Home Delivery fee increase with HWT for quite some time and we are extremely disappointed to advise that Peter Blunden, Managing Director of HWT has informed us that we have not been granted an increase.  He has stated the following:

“After giving the matter careful consideration, we have decided to seek alternative ways of addressing the issues raised”.

With that, VANA has announced that it has failed, again, to deliver for its members. 

No wonder newsagents are quitting newspaper distribution. 

In what other business is a service provider expected to carry cost increases every year in labour, fuel and other areas, cope with a reduction in margin and survive with no increase in service to compensate? 

Newspaper publishers will wonder, at some point in the future, why newsagents abandoned what was the best newspaper distribution system in Australia.  The answer can be found in this decision and many similar decisions which preceded it – to not pay a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work by newsagents. 

I know newspaper executives are concerned about the number of newsagents quitting home delivery.  They invite such action with decisions such as this.  Sadly, the VANA announcement contains no passion on behalf of newsagents. 

I wonder who VANA used to prepare and represent its case?  If this was done in-house or by VANA Board members then it has let its members down.  On a case such as this, professional representation is essential so that the newsagent position and negotiation is as strong as the other side.  Such a case would have included information on advertising rates as a comparison among other things.

Home delivery is a service by newsagents.  It is only reasonable that they set the fee they cahrge for the service they provide.

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Newsagency challenges

Small retailers ‘protected’ on unit price

The Federal Government yesterday announced that small retailers, those with stores under 1,000 square metres, will be exempt from mandatory unit pricing.  This will be of interest to newsagents selling grocery products, those covered by the regulations.

While this looks like a victory for small business, it, in my view, widens the gulf between them and big retailers. 

Unit pricing is not that difficult since the work is done by the software and the data included on shelf talkers and other labels produced.  I certainly plan on using unit pricing and eliminating an opportunity for a customer to prefer a bigger competitor over one of my businesses.

The Australian has more on the Government’s announcement.

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Competition

Banksia Beach News promotes fellow newsagents

30122008.jpgCheck out how Peter Williams at Banksia Beach News in Queensland has embraced the newsagency marketing campaign we developed a couple of months ago.  On several window panels of Peter’s shop he has included artwork which connects with the TV and print campaign.  Peter has done this at his own cost to connect his business with the wider newsagent network and to support other newsagents. 

Thanks Peter!

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newsagency marketing
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