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

Author: Mark Fletcher

mX free newspaper distribution in sydney

mx-syd.JPGI was surprised to see this stack of the free daily newspaper mX in front of a newsagency in Sydney this afternoon. There was another stack right in front of the newspapers. Some newsagents have asked me whether newsagents are involved in distributing the free papers. Based on this I’d say yes, some are. I’m not sure of the financial arrangements but I would expect something to be flowing back to the newsagent.

I was fascinated by the energy of some of the mX distribution folk, particularly down by circular quay. I saw one hand out 50 copies in a minute – he was really enjoying his job. Admittedly it was peak hour but 50 is great going. Even the best people I saw in London last year didn’t get close to that.

My office is not in the city and I have not seen the mX distribution process first hand until today. This afternoon was an eye-opener. Many commuters really do want want their free paper. mX is clearly well established in Sydney. One surprise, however, was lack of distribution points at the major bus stops I saw. There were over 100 people and no mX copies in sight.

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Newspapers

Poor uptake of Adelaide Crows and Port Power car flag promotion

crows-power.JPGThe customer uptake for the Adelaide Crows and Port Power car flag promotion run by the Adelaide Advertiser exclusively through BP and On The Run outlets has been so low that they are repeating it in today’s Advertiser.

The Advertiser has a track record for ignoring retail newsagents with such promotions – to their peril it would seem. Hopefully, the poor uptake of the AFL flags promotion will encourage them to ditch BP and On The Run and go back to newsagents were they enjoyed greater success.

Promotions such as the AFL car flags in Adelaide and the AFL cards currently running in Melbourne at the moment are as important for the sponsoring newspaper as they are for the AFL and AFL clubs. The Adelaide clubs and the AFL would have to be concerned with the poor uptake – that’s if they know about it.

Newsagents are better connected with their community and more likely to get behind promotions like this. Also, they see more regular traffic than petrol and convenience outlets. How many times do you go to a petrol outlet in a week versus how many times to a newsagency? Some newspaper and magazine publishers have done a disservice to customers and their promotions partners by driving customers away from the channel not to mention the disrespect to the newsagents who have served them well.

To Advertiser Newspapers marketing people – you need to update your website to indicate that you’re having a second crack at this promotion today.

Photo courtesy of Advertiser Newspapers’ Adelaide Now website.

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Newspaper marketing

State of (US) News Media 2007

The State of the News Media 2007 report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism makes for compelling reading. While it provides a thorough analysis of all news media, the chapter on newspapers will be of particular interest. The Editors Weblog has published a neat summary of the report including this insight into free newspapers:

“A question for the future may be whether mainstream papers will consider doing away with paid circulation — giving papers away — or charge only for the convenience of home delivery,” says the report. According to it, these free models might actually be beneficial, since they could boost circulation and cut costs in the circulation and distribution work force.

With successful free daily newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney and the recent launch of mX in Brisbane it is timely for us to ask about the future of these products and their likely impact on paid sales.

Newsagents rely on paid newspaper traffic every day. This is why they (we) must research and understand overseas trends. While publisher representatives tell us that Australia is not the US or Europe, we do know that trends offshore will impact decisions here eventually. The more newsagents research these trends and consider their implication the better informed their capital decisions will be.

Unlike newspaper distribution in any other country, the Australian newspaper distribution model is deeply entrenched with publishers, thousands of families rely on publishers to make decisions mindful of the history and capital investment by newsagents it often dictated by the publishers.

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Newsagency challenges

Newspaper distraction

I was in a petrol outlet this morning when a customer came in and asked if they had the AFL cards with today’s Herald Sun. The owner told the customer they had to go to the newsagent. The customer put the newspaper down and walked out. The owner then said to me that these newspaper promotions were “a waste of money”.

My takeaway was that newspapers are a distraction for this chap. He’s clearly frustrated with the product. His is a petrol outlet after all.

Publishers in their push to get into more retail outlets see their product treated as a poor cousin to the main product and while they may still get some impulse purchases, it is with the brand supporting promotions where they miss out.

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Newspapers

Cover-up The Age

Check out the American Express ad stuck on the masthead of The Age today and see another example of revenue coming before the brand.

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I am astounded that this placement passed quality control. While Fairfax bean counters may like the dollars, the editorial team must wonder where this will end.

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Newspapers

Magazine online growth

The Magazine Publishers of America website lists the Top 10 websites associated with magazine brands based on recent pageview data. It would be interesting to track similar data for Australian titles and correlate this with over the counter sales of the related titles. Take a look at PC World for example. 38 million pageviews in a month. That’s an extraordinary number.

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Media disruption

Supanews takes back two franchises?

Supanews has reportedly reached a settlement with the former franchisee of their Frankston store which the company locked them out of just before Christmas. The same source tells me that Supanews, or parties close to Supanews, have reportedly agreed to purchase a franchisee outlet in NSW. The franchisee advertised the business for $80,000 so no wonder they wanted this out of the newspapers.

Representatives of Supanews are talking to some newsagents about purchasing their businesses. Newsagents are skeptical, worried that the interest is only so they can access business data in advance of directly approaching the landlord. At least one newsagent has refused to sign the Supanews offered confidentiality agreement. It’s a tough situation for newsagents because the prospect of selling for a good price will make them very interested. However, it is important that they access appropriate legal; advice and ensure that their interests are well protected in the event of such an approach.

If the Supanews reports noted above are right, there will be some interesting discussions going among the new partners in Supanews, especially from the Angus & Robertson / Whitcoulls side I’d expect.

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Newsagency challenges

No one noticed Sensis Bidsmart was down for five days

I’m surprised that this was not covered anywhere and that I didn’t notice it. Sensis. BidSmart service was down from March 10 through 15. We have a small BidSmart campaign running for our Inkfast online ink and toner business – this runs separately to our retail newsagency and easily accounts for more ink and toner sales in a week than our shop processes in a month.

If Google AdWords was down I’m sure there would be reports. It’s a bit like someone turning off your marketing campaign. But we didn’t notice. Frankly, the BidSmart campaign was all but forgotten. Until Sensis emails us to advice that it had been off the air. Their apology email resulted in us logging in and revising the campaign. If we didn’t miss it surely there is a problem?

While I was playing with BidSmart today I saw some amazing traffic stats for some keywords which newsagents could play with – I’m not about to go into details here though.

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Uncategorized

Promotion works

The Ink and Toner flyer distributed to 20,000 houses around our shop three weeks ago continues to drive good sales. The promotion has boosted retail ink sales over the three weeks by more than $6,000. In our demographic that’s astounding. Add to this the additional purchases made by the customers brought in by the flyer and it is easy to label the promotion a resounding success.

Being able to quantify a marketing campaign in such a specific way is essential. In the case of ink and toner it locks in our commitment to run these campaigns regularly not only to remind the customers we have already but to grow the pool.

Not enough newsagents promote outside their four walls.

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Stationery

Happy UK Mother’s Day

UK Mother’s Day (today) is another micro season for Australian newsagents. It provides an opportunity to demonstrate a point of difference over other greeting card retailers. The more we are known for having a card for every occasion the more we will be shopped. The majors are not interested in this space and it amazes me that many newsagents ignore it as well. To me these micro seasons are what small business is all about.

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Greeting Cards

Kudos for Annette Sym

Mark Fenton-Jones has a good report in this weekend’s Australian Financial Review (pages 16 & 17) about Annette Sym and her Symply Too Good cookbooks. Annette has been a great supporter of newsagents, participating in store openings and other promotions. Newsagents give her books a prominent position in store. I like them because they fit well between cookbooks and health – to categories we have just brought together.

I am often contacted by independent publishers through this blog. They say I am against small titles because I want a certain level of return. What Annette and her team have done with her titles is create a respected brand which consumers seek out. While still a small publisher, her titles earn their place by selling. Her story is one which other small independent publishers ought to read.

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magazines

Newspapers up, newspapers down

The Newspaper Association of America press release has the good news that advertising with US newspaper websites increased 35% in the fourth quarter of 2006 compared to 2005. This is the 11th quarter of such double digit growth from online advertising. The same release records that print advertising fell in the fourth quarter of 2006 – retail down .9% and classifieds down 7.1%.

While publishers will drive newsagents and other retail and distribution partners to increase sales of their print editions, their main game now, in terms of investment and senior management focus, must be online. One cannot ignore the growth.

My concern is for the pressure by publishers on small business newsagents. Pressure such as where newspapers must be located in store – the best retail positioning; opening more competing retail outlets; running labour intensive over the counter promotions for little or no margin; and, driving down the real margin achieved from home delivery.

I’d prefer publishers to engage more openly with newsagents so that these small business operators can appropriately adjust their businesses now. There is a win win opportunity here for the publishers. Their denial to newsagents of any threat to paid sales is beginning to ring hollow based on the US numbers.

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Newsagency challenges

Quick Stick labels good habit products

quick-stick.JPGQuick Stick labels are another good habit based product for newsagents. They’re a strong brand, easily merchandised and support a good retail story without a chunky stock investment. We’re finding that Quick Stick customers are likely to return – hence the ‘habit’ tag. We’re also finding that Quick Stick sales are rarely single item sales. That is, people buy a box of labels and other products or they buy multiple boxes of labels.

Newsagents ought to be achieving a stock turn of six to eight a year with the right range. This is up on a year or two ago because Quick Stick products are stocked in fewer places. Bigger companies don’t like them because of the time involved in handling customer queries.

Newsagents wanting to grow stationery sales will need to carry at least sixty types of labels. I’d suggest more if you have the space. With a good range of stock it speaks for itself and acts as a magnet for customers. Quick Stick is not something to be timid about.

Our approach to rebuilding stationery this past year has been to build around strong brands which either through the nature of the product or range offer us a local point of difference. Quick Stick fits this and the range we carry generates good business elsewhere in the stationery department.

The only challenge is stopping customers taking a label of two.

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Stationery

The last magazine

Jeremy Leslie, writing at BusinessWeek.com, reviews The Last Magazine a new book by David Renard. Leslie shares the opening sentence of the book:

Magazines, as we know them, are dying.

The article is not as downbeat as this quote suggests. The review declares his love of magazines and outlines how he sees their future – challenged but surviving nevertheless – with digital formats playing a big role. The review is interesting and makes the book tempting. Unfortunately, I can’t find it here so it’s another sale for Amazon.

While some magazine categories are undoubtedly challenged in Australia, overall sales are strong. Weeklies continue to do well as do most women’s monthlies, health, fitness, and several other categories. Publishers and distributors need to help newsagents exit the dying categories before the losses are too great.

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magazines

MySpace news

Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog tells us that News Corp’s MySpace is getting into the new business:

MySpace is getting into the news business with launch due in early 2nd quarter, according to inside sources and the company’s own sales materials.

* MySpace News takes News to a whole new level by dynamically aggregating real-time news and blogs from top sites around the Web
* Creates focused, topical news pages that users can interact and engage with throughout their day
* MySpace is making the news social, allowing users to:
Rate and comment on every news item that comes through the system
Submit stories they think are cool and even author pieces from their MySpace blog
* MySpace users previously had to leave the site to find comprehensive news, gossip, sporting news, etc. With MySpace News, we bring the news to them!

My concern is that newsagents don’t see developments like this impacting their businesses. While the impact may not be immediate it will happen.

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Newsagency challenges

NRL tipping entries close today

Tower Systems is hosting a free footy tipping competition again this year and you’re welcome to join in. To join the NRL competition click here. To join the AFL competition click here. First prize is $300, second prize is $150 and third prize is $50. Results are accessible weekly so a boost to your pride is the real reward.

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Uncategorized

Gold Lotto down for 24 hours?

I am surprised that this story has not been picked up by any news outlet: Many Queensland newsagents have reported their lotto terminals being down for 24 hours to yesterday lunchtime. It seems to get back online they have to call a help line at the Golden casket office and wait a few minutes while they were reconnected to the network manually. Pretty frustrating for the newsagents affected.

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Newsagency challenges

Books the new free gift for magazines

Books are the tip-on of 2007 for magazines it seems. Last month Notebook came with a free book. This month New Woman and Eve each has a book as a gift with the magazine. Customers seem to like these free books more than the bags, sunglasses and umbrellas from last year.

books-tip-on.JPG

While there is a challenge sometimes in displaying the bulky stock, sales are such that it’s not a problem for long.

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magazines

Handling newspaper distribution delays

Check out the National Distribution Monitor webiste to see how wholesalers and retailers transparently handle newspaper delivery times. It was created as part of a strategy to improve newspaper delivery times, thereby enabling retailers to maximise sales. For those involved in negotiating supply issues with publishers around Australia, the UK website model could be worth considering. Newsagents often complain about the high cost to their distribution businesses of late newspapers.

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Newspapers

Magazine layout change boosts monthly titles

womens-mag-success.JPG

Four days ago I blogged about the success we had moving Notebook next to our women’s weekly titles. Real Living is also selling well as a result of this move. We will sell out this month. While both titles were doing okay in our store, this move will result in us ordering additional stock for future issues. It proves that the location in our store was not helping the titles to achieve their potential. Better Homes is also benefiting but not as much – this is in part due to a co-location strategy we use for that title which sees it promoted elsewhere. Better Homes also has a much higher sales based before we moved it to this new location.

We have broken the MPA magazine layout guidelines with this move but I don’t think anyone would be unhappy with the result.

While it is not possible to load this high traffic women’s weekly magazine are with all sorts of titles, my view is that careful planning can see mid range titles better supported and sales increase as a result. Sometimes customers who don’t browse too far need to be shown what you have.

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magazines

Inspector Morse stuff up (part 2)

Further to my post yesterday about the Inspector Morse partwork stuff up. Yesterday afternoon we received 20 copies of part 1 of this new partworks product. We had sold all twenty copies of Inspector Morse by lunchtime today. Here’s the empty unit (photographed in our backroom) which we used to achieve this sellout in less than 24 hours – from the front of the shop.

empty-unit.JPG

Partworks are a goldmine. Some of our customers for Inspector Morse from the last 24 hours have signed up as putaway customers. The challenge will b to ensure that we continue to get the stock we need to serve our customers.

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partworks

Selling your newsagency

I was talking with a colleague last night about the challenges of selling their newsagency. They have been in the game for ten years and want to purchase a bigger newsagency. Their business has been on the market for three months with little interest shown. He says it’s because of the market. I am not so sure. I’ll share below what I suggested he do in response to his request for suggestions on how to get more interest:

From the front of the shop through to the back make sure the business looks appealing to customers, that it is easy to navigate and that it does not feel cluttered.

Clean, clean and clean. You cannot clean too much.

Take all your stationery off the shelves and put it back on, neater and better laid out.

Make sure all your employees have clean and fresh uniforms.

Have flyers going out in bags as customers leave – show that promoting the business is easy. I good flyer to have while you’re selling the business is a two page A5 size flyer promoting your business as local, friendly and there to serve the community. People like to belong and they are more likely to buy a business which is well connected.

Make sure all your lights are working and are turned on.

Have appropriate music playing.

Reengineer your back room – make it look like a GREAT place to work.

Get on top of your paperwork – make the business look easy to run.

Have a good system in place for employee communication – so you can show that managing the team is straightforward.

Bring in a visual merchandiser to freshen your in store displays and make the shop look sexy – this is just like bringing in rental furniture for a display home. People need to see the possibilities.

This is by no means definitive list. Post your comments with other suggestions and maybe we could create a formal advice sheet.

Selling a newsagency is like selling a home. It has to look appealing – where people would want to ‘live’. If it doesn’t, they will move on to the next store available.

Of course, some buyers don’t want to see any of this because they get pleasure from turning a scruffy poorly run business into a local hero.

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Newsagency challenges
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