Author: Mark Fletcher

I’ve heard that NDD is this week considering moving to the First Fleet organisation for the packaging and distribution of the magazines they represent. Such a move would most likely lead to a cut in the number of distribution days. Currently, NDD product can be delivered five or six days a week. Under a First Fleet arrangement I would expect this cut to one or two days a week. This would impact newsagent customer service and workflow.

Publishers who moved to NDD because they did not want the First Fleet restrictions would be unhappy.

First Fleet does not deliver everywhere. Often newsagents in previously serviced remote locations have to travel some distance to collect product which previously was delivered to their doorstep.

Newsagents, publishers and even major retailers such as Coles and Woolworths will recall the impact on their businesses when Gotch and Network made the move a couple of years ago. In some states it was six months of disaster. Newsagents, collectively, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know of one major retailer who threatened a major compensation claim at the time – not sure that that proceeded though.

Gotch and Network moved to First fleet to cut costs out of their operation. Project Hero it was called. The hero was their P&L – the move was most successful so it’s logical that NDD looks to achieve the same gains.

Given that its current distribution arrangements are a point of difference I am surprised NDD is seriously considering this move.

From a newsagent perspective it could be another reason to rethink carrying NDD product at all.

The one day over the counter promotion of Australian Women’s Weekly yesterday generated an additional 23 sales of the title.

The designers at The Monthly are pumping out exceptional covers. Innovative and bright. Even in traditional newsagency magazine racking their current masthead stands out. This is crucial given the sea of colour in the magazine aisles.

With the low level of browsing of the news and current affairs space, covers like this one from The Monthly is sure to draw people across for a look.

Ben Kay, manager of my newsagency, set this up today on a stand out the front of the newsagency. It’s not a new promotion but it is uncommon in newsagencies. We often get so caught up in the daily grind that we forget to remind our customers of what’s new and of the deals like the amazing Lindt chocolate with Delicious this month.

While it’s reasonable for newsagents to say that customers will know if new issues are in, we are on a mission to chase impulse purchases in as many ways as possible. We’re treating every sale as a victory. we have to – disruptive construction continues in and around our shop as the landlord ‘adjusts’ the centre.

We’re running a one day magazine promotion to support Australian Women’s Weekly. Any customer buying Take 5 and That’s Life can purchase AWW for $2.00. The team member selling the most will receive a gift as a reward for their effort. Central to this mini campaign is us talking with our customers about AWW. We’re funding the promotion ourselves and promoting it over the counter and on a stand at the front of the shop.

AWW is doing it tough and we felt that an over the counter offer like this could reacquaint some of our Wednesday regulars with the iconic title. I appreciate the offer may be seen by some as devaluing the brand. My view is that having a stack of product on the shelf and not moving for the month is as devaluing.

We received 14 copies of this Windows Vista magazine last month. Last week we returned all 14 copies when we put the 14 copies of issue #2 on the shelf.

Is this a dog of a magazine? Well, no. The product is okay. The medium is the problem, for this title at least. The title’s target audience spends more time on their PC than with any other medium so it’s likely their interest in Vista related information will be satisfied through their PC.

We are requesting a reduction in supply through the right channels at Network services but know that this will not take effect for another issue so we’re going to be out more than $200 in cash over three months and probably longer. This is our money we’re investing in the launch of this new title. Indeed when you add up the cash drain this title is having on newsagents across the country I’d suggest we have more money in this title than anyone else in Australia.

This is why newsagents need to control what new titles have access to their channel. The current situation leaves us, the most important stakeholder, without a seat at the table.

Regulars here will recall my post a few weeks back of the unbearable construction noise in my shop. As a result magazine unit sales were down 17%. Now that the noise has gone we’re back where we were – tracking in positive territory. It says something for the importance of the retail environment for browsers. It also gives us an indication of how much of our magazine business comes from browsing.

It’s been a year and a half since I wrote here about how we use magazine sales decay data to drive our in store activity for weekly titles. Sales decay data shows the fall in daily sales over the seven day on sale period. This data stopped us giving over valuable space in-store to weekly titles when we were not likely to get a return on the promotional space.

For example, we sell 60% – 75% of Take 5 and That’s Life on a Wednesday and a further 15% – 25% on a Thursday. So, we focus our in-store effort on Wednesday and Thursday rather than the whole week. These are the low hanging fruit days – the best opportunity for sale growth.

Focusing on the decay data in this way enables us to use promotional; space over the course of seven days for a range of titles and thereby maximise the return to us and suppliers.

The problem with this approach is that it goes against what some publishers want. Their goal is for us to promote titles on an aisle end or elsewhere for a full week. Often the sales data for the title does not support that real-estate investment. This is where we have to rely on our store specific sales data and make the decision which is best for us and for the title.

Sales decay data is a great way to uncover low hanging fruit in a newsagency. Reasonable quantities of weekly and some monthly titles are purchased on impulse. This means we need to promote these titles on the specific dates in their shelf life cycle which will give us the best possible return. Being able to easily compare sales decay data for a title between two date ranges helps me track the success or otherwise of efforts to grow sales of the title.

Here’s proof of how stuffed magazine distribution is in Australia. We received this issue of Geare magazine on April 20. It’s due for return in June. This issue, #39, is dated September/October 2006. The current issue is #42.

Geare is a technology magazine punters judge the magazine and those who stock it by how up to date they are. By reissuing old stock like this the distributor is making my newsagency and plenty of others look out of touch. It’s also a bad look for Geare as the reissued stock conflicts with current stock of the same title. Worst of all is that this is a grab for my cash as I’ll pay for the title and not get my money back for another two months.

The distributor, Gotch, will have their reasons for the reissue. I can’t think of any that make sense. I am certain they will say that reissues sell. Most reissues don’t sell. With shrinkage in the magazine category at, on average, 5%, what Gotch sees as sales will not always be sales.

I want a trading term with all magazine distributors whereby they agree to get my permission before they reissue a title and that such a request is very clear that it is a reissue of a title. I’d also want a trading term which enables me to ban accepting reissues in certain categories – such as technology.

Thanks to Ben Kay manager of my newsagency for alerting me to this.