This invoice shows the wholesale prices for the sale or return model for magazines in the US:
The vast majority of magazine retailers here only sell the top 50 to 100 titles.
The returns process is similar, some topped, some full copy. Some titles, niche, are purchases firm sale.
I like the subtlety of the home delivery pitch by The New York Times.
There are retailers out there who care less about licenced products and selling the real thing versus a cheap knock-off. Fans of licences eventually discover the fakes. However, those buying for them amy not. This is why we need to call out those peddling fakes when we discover it.
I saw this recently when a retailer posted this on Facebook.
I have blurred identifying detail as they are not necessary for this post.
If you see someone selling fakes, get the evidence and post it in-store and on social media. call out the behaviour and help educate customers that when it comes to licenced product chip is usually not good news.
While some may say they don’t want to pick a fight. Sometimes you have too pick a fight to shine a light on illegal behaviour. I did this eyers ago when a competitor was acting against the law and in doing so they were gaining a financial advantage unfairly. They were eventually hauled and forced to compete on their merits rather than their illegal behaviour.
The placement of paper in a glass with art on the outside makes the art a feature. Tis will increase sales.
Before:
After:
I have seen some amazing card designs at overseas trade shows this year, extraordinary designs, on point, different, fun, unique. And then there are celebrity card designs for which I suspect the publishers ay too high, like these:
Even though I am not the customer, I suspect these cards next to two of the best designs from an unknown designer targeting the same shopper would se the Taylor Swift cards remain unsold.
The cards are not bad. They are just not current to what cool designers are producing today. Sure, they have her name. But is that enough?
This latest newsXpress TV ad just finished airing. This is a brand building ad rather than a call to action. With the promoted products costing from $150.00 to $800.00, the ad has a subtlety that plays to a style collectors are drawn to. It worked a treat.
Promoting outside traditional seasonal occasions is important in my view. The more non-traditional reasons we can give for visiting our shops the better.
Selling these items in the price range noted changes shopper perception of the business. Most important than this, it changes your own perception.
FYI, people selling these are in the city and country, on the high street and in centres.
Check out the email sent by Lottoland yesterday:
Click here to see a Mumbrella report on Lottoland rejecting an Advertising Standards Board finding against it. I encourage newsagents to read the article. Lotto land come across as sensitive and precious.
Their ads need to be called out for what they are, including their appalling attack on small business newsagents.
Lottoland is a pure online and app play. Tatts (The Lott) has a strong online and app play. OzLotteries has a a strong online and app play. In the US there is online as well as self-serve machines like this one that does not age check and does not give change. These are all factors to consider when costing the capital expenditure demanded by Tatts.
Check out the vending machine I saw yesterday at the offices of New York Lottery and Gaming Commission:
Last week I received an anonymous note following my posts here about people selling newspaper promotion sets online. In the email, the correspondent included banking and address details which I have edited of the post below. I am happy to share these details with publisher folk to investigate:
Hi Mark,
I’m a fellow newsagent and a follower on your blog, your recent posts regarding a select few rouge agents selling magazines on eBay drew my attention.
I have done some investigating and hope you can forward my findings to the relevant suppliers and stop this behaviour.
Excuse the long email as I outline my findings.
One seller in particular I noticed is prolific at selling News Limited Promotions and other current magazines often at below cost price, with free delivery.
Link to this seller’s profile:
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/auton_goyck/m.html?I couldn’t find much initially, the item locations are mainly Carlton VIC, with a few others listings stating Sydney which are likely false too to throw off suspensions from News Limited.
Examples of the listings include the Roald Dahl Full set.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-MARVELLOUS-ROALD-DAHL-LIBRARY-set-14-books-case-advisor-courier-mail-/252760717924
We’re not allowed to sell without tokens and this eBay seller is selling for $39.99 inc postage.AFL Season Guide
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-AFL-Record-Season-Guide-2017-By-Michael-Lovett-Paperback-Free-Shipping-/252762339055?
RRP $40 – Selling for $29.99 inc postagehttp://www.ebay.com.au/itm/OUR-WORLD-IN-CHARTS-UNDERSTANDING-THE-ECONOMY-MONEY-ALAN-KOHLER-/252688189246
RRP $30 – selling for $13 inc postageBy my calculations, with eBay and paypal fees close to 10% and postage for 1-3kg parcel close to $12. This seller must be doing dodgy returns as otherwise the items are being sold way below cost.
I created a fake account and purchased a small item, found the banking details.
In the checkout process, eBay actually linked me to another similar product which I discovered was the same seller with a different account :
http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/32168732/m.html?
This account has over 2300 listings for sale, mostly old magazines dating back to 2013 and around 600 stationary items from GNS all with the item location in Glenroy VIC.
The photos in some of the listings from these 2 accounts share the same floorboard in the background and I found the banking details matched too.
Quick check online showed no recent rental or sale history, presumably this seller own it, can’t really confirm it unless I do a title check but that has a fee.
With the AFL Season Guide I mentioned earlier, I bet not many newsagent’s receive over 12 copies for this title. I’m sure they are able to filter a list of newsagents receiving 12 or more (with a high history of returns) in Melbourne and cross check against Owner’s Names and address.
Hopefully this is enough of a lead to work with and you can forward this to the contacts at News Limited and Gordon Gotch who can do something about it, this character has obviously been around for a while given their feedback history.
There are of course other sellers on eBay selling magazines and promotion items, but none with the same scale and magnitude.
If the outcome from this finding leads to an appropriate action (ie a full audit on the identified newsagency account) , I would be willing to dig through the other sellers and gather more Intel.
Perhaps you can also share this on the blog and enlist some help. I myself do not seek any credit and wish to stay anonymous.
I, too, am concerned about people operating outside the rules when it comes to these promotions. It gives our channel a bad name.
For their part, publishers appear disinterested in what looks like rogue behaviour.
I welcome comments from others on this.
I am in New York for conference this week and dropped into several retailers early this morning (Feb. 14 here). In one CVS store the were refreshing their card department ready for anticipated big sales:
A regular commenter here has a daughter with terrific newsagency experience relocating to Melbourne for study, and looking for casual work.
My 23 year old daughter Amanda, has just moved to Melbourne to study at Melbourne Uni for the next 2 years, to obtain her masters in Chinese translation.
She is living in Footscray West and looking for some casual work, up to 20 hours per week.
She has newsagency experience having worked in our newsagency since she was 10 years old. Since she was 18 she ran the business on a Sunday afternoon.
She has a masters in teaching and a bachelor of languages and has worked as a chinese teacher in W.A. for the past 18 months. She has also lived in China for 6 months whilst on on a scholarship.
I am hoping you could assist by post her details on your blog to see if any opportunities exist.
Contact Amanda direct on: akwareham@live.com
In his post Rupert’s results: no end in sight to the destruction of mainstream press, Michael West dispassionately looks at the latest News Corp results.
The latest profit results from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation are not a pretty sight. In fact there seems no end in sight to the destruction of the mainstream press.
Plunging ad revenues in the second quarter, falling newspaper circulations and a still feeble contribution from digital advertising mirrors the performance of News Corp’s arch-enemy Fairfax Media. The inexorable incursion of the internet continues to wreck the mainstream media; more journalists will go, newspapers will close, and coverage of important issues will be even further compromised.
Anyone interested in the state of journalism and newspapers should read this piece by West. I found it fascinating.
How many different retail messages are you pitching from the front of your shop? Too often in indie retail we see too many messages. This can confuse shoppers, resulting in them not noticing the messages you want noticed.
This photo is from a toy shop in London. I was there when they were having a sale. They had removed all other signage. The 20% off signs were it as far as posters in-store were concerned. There was no missing the offer, no other signs competing for shopper attention.
What this toy shop had is what I am talking about. A single message, repeated though the store. This is the best way to capture attention.
You do not have to have exactly the same collateral for the message to be the same.
Take a major season. You could have a them for collateral where a series of posters and signs are visually connected yet different as appropriate to each department in the business. Done properly they can represent a consistent message.
Here is my advice on VM that works in small indie retail:
A visually busy shop does not ensure the shop will be successful.
Less really is more.
Recently launched in the UK, again I think.
In the UK there are more raunchy Valentine’s Day cards than in Australia. The cards in the photo, click for a bigger image if you are game, are the tame ones from the raunchy mix. I got tons of card shops and the really dirty ones are what people were drawn to for a laugh.
I gave seen UK Cosmopolitan pitched at £1 out the front of several WH Smith newsagency locations over the last few days. This is concerning as UK trends are noticed by Australian publishers.
I like the executing of a Lego promotion in The Times newspaper in the UK. They are clear on terms.
The offer is good. It is pitched in a way that does not distract too much from the front page. However, they only partner with selected stores.
They have solid terms and conditions deep inside the newspaper.
The offer runs multiple days like they do in Australia.
The connection with Lego is interesting as they run on a planned scarcity model. Retailers rarely get the volume they order. So, promoting a brand that is reasonably hard to get all of what you want is odd. That said, I do like this promotion. I suspect it will sell newspapers.
When promoting on social media try as much as practical to pitch multiple product categories. From what I see greeting cards are too often forgotten by newsagents in promoting their businesses.
Displays benefit from including cards as there are cards for every occasion. This lack of engagement in marketing could be a factor in newsagents seeing declining card sales while others are seeing growth.
The more (relevant) product categories you include in a marketing pitch the more likely you are differentiating your business from competitors.
Product knowledge is vital on the shop floor. Leverage the knowledge of experts by providing your staff with access to YouTube videos about products.
Whether from a supplier or a fan, videos from others can provide insights that are useful selling.
Encourage staff to look for the videos themselves and share them with other in the business. They can be a great learning tool, and help you with information your competitors will likely not tap into.
Following my post here a week ago about supporting journalism I subscribed to the Washington Post, the New York Times and The Age.
A week in, I rank the Washington Post ahead of the others. The iPhone App is far superior. The Age does not have an iPhone App – this is a let down. The NYT App is good but not the best.
The experience matters when accessing news. App design is like print newspaper design – navigating is key along with content you can trust.
I am liking having access to quality content on my phone.
Overall, the experience is a reminder of how inappropriate the print medium is for delivering news.
Here is how newsXpress is promoting Valentine’s Day this year. This video is running across multiple social media platforms.
The Australian today had reported on a second quarter loss by News Corp.
News Corp posted a loss in the second quarter amid a challenging print advertising environment for its newspaper and information-services unit and foreign currency headwinds.
The company — which publishes The Australian as well as other newspapers in Australia, the US and UK — reported a loss from continuing operations of $US219 million, compared with a profit of $US106 million a year earlier.
The report reveals News Corp. wrote down down the value of Australian fixed assets by $US310 million. The digital focus is ramping up:
To make up for lost print advertising revenue amid rapidly changing market conditions and to position the company for long-term growth, News Corp is boosting digital revenue streams even faster.
Digital revenues now account for 27 per cent of revenues at the news and information services segment, compared to 22 per cent in the prior year.
Newsagents should read the whole article.
