I’m not sure if this is a new policy but I just found out that new newsagents are barred from early returning magazines by Gotch and Network for their first few weeks. In one situation I saw recently a new newsagent had an account for less than $100 for their second month in once they could early return what was not selling.
Check out the stationery business I saw in Auckland a couple of weeks ago – click on the picture. There was no stationery in this shop even though it is called Uptown Stationers. It was all tobacco, drinks, international phone calling cards and junk.
This shop gives stationers a bad name.
We have the Pacific Magazines floor display unit at the front of the newsagency, facing into the mall and packed it with their Christmas-themed titles. As expected, this placement is working. How do we know? We count what we put in the unit. While it was working elsewhere on the shop floor, it’s working better at the front of the newsagency.
If you have one of these units, go check now and ensure you’re using it well.
I promoted this stand here – Pacific had additional stock for any newsagent who wanted to engage.
Victorian newsagents have been hit with newspaper supply cuts from News Corp. as the company seeks to reduce returns volume. As a consequence, many newsagents have been without the Herald Sun and The Australian from mid morning. Getting extra stock that day has been as impossible as setting a requirred supply quantity according to newsagents I have spoken with.
One newsagent has been losing sales of 50 to 70 copies a day while another lost several hundred sales over the weekend.
I can’t work out why News would be happy to lose newspaper sales like this. There are some in the company who are working hard at helping newsagents deal with the situation while others have overseen the process that has created the problem.
Newsagents who order a magazine they do not usually stock for a customer put away request often find that the distributor adds to the requested quantity. We need to be able to order a fixed number, as a put away request, and not be burdened with additional stock for which we have no space nor time to manage. Smart newsagents know more than magazine distributors what will sell.
We have placed the Flat Belly Diet Gluten-Free Cookbook next to Prevention as this is a brand extension for the magazine. My experience is that embracing brand extension opportunities like this drives sales of the cookbook as well as the magazine. Yes, I’d like book margin on the cookbook. However, billing is delayed to January bu which time it will be sold or returned so I’m happy.
News Corp. is delaying the introduction of DTI Circulation – its national circulation and subscriptions system which is already in place across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. No reason has been given for the delay in SA. News has advised that the WA implementation will be undertaken later this month.
Newsagencies are excellent businesses for playing between major seasons with new seasonal opportunities yet many do not embrace these. Take Movember, I bet most reading this don’t see it as a retail season opportunity for newsagents.
We have embraced Movember: sourced a range of themed products and placed it on the lease line – facing into the mall. In 24 hours its moving.
Yesterday I saw first-hand this small display attract several shoppers. One commented that they liked we are donating a portion of sales to men’s health research.
I’m certain some people buying moustache products from us this year will come to use next year remembering we’re the shop with these items.
There is no one big move a newsagent can make to attract many new shoppers. Success comes from many small steps. Embracing the Movember opportunity is an example of one valuable and differentiating small step newsagents can take.
Footnote: The Movember products and promotion are a newsXpress newsagency marketing group initiative. I’m a Director of newsXpress.
It’s easy to whip newsagents into a frenzy about magazine supply, lottery competition or late newspapers but almost impossible to achieve the same attention and comment about employee theft, poor business planning or falling stationery sales.
I am concerned that as a channel we like to complain about the parts of our businesses over which we have the least control while ignoring opportunities to complain about ourselves and our poor stewardship of those parts of our businesses over which we have the most control.
The data reported by our computer systems tell us the truth. They tell us how stationery, gift, toy, card and other sales are year on year. yes, I include cards in this list over which we have control because it’s time newsagents realised that they have more influence over their card sales than their supplier.
My management challenge to newsagents today is – next time you are about to criticise a supplier, pays and think whether you hold your own performance over your business to the same standard. Look at your year on year business data. It won’t lie. If your stationery, gift, card, toy and plush sales are down it’s 100% on you. If magazine, newspaper, lottery and agency sales are down, you;re playing a role in that decline.
Embrace the truth of your data and use it to guide where you need to focus your attention.
This month, American Express is promoting Shop Small, a month-long campaign promoting engagement with small business. News Corp. promoted the campaign with a story on October 31. While I like the goal of the campaign, it’s unfortunate that one of their partners is Officeworks, a BIG business that seeks to attract shoppers from small business newsagents and independent stationers.
The folks at American Express should have realised that Officeworks is not an idea partner for the Shop Small campaign – they are the only partner I’d nominate as not ideal for this campaign promoting small business. The participating associations, including COSBOA, should have noticed this and advised American Express to not take the Officeworks sponsorship.
Officeworks will argue that they serve small businesses, which they do. However, they do this at a cost to many more small businesses. If the campaign is to be true to its principles then Officeworks ought not be included as a sponsor.
I’ve been fortunate to see a stationery relay managed by GNS in a newsagency in Victoria I have been helping over the last few weeks.
GNS has managed rejigging the stationery range and merchandising the product onto the hang-sell fixtures. The result looks excellent. Better still, the product is selling. The GNS representative worked to a tight budget on new sock and lived within a tight space allocation.
Hearing positive comments from customers is encouragement that you’re on the right path. Seeing sales growth from stationery shows this to be the case.
What has happened in this business is an excellent example of a proactive GNS representative genuinely helping a newsagent to grow stationery sales.
I got to see The Card Shop at Brookvale in Sydney a couple of days ago. It’s a shop worth visiting if you are looking for an innovative approach to card merchandising. They are targeting a younger shopper than a newsagency and pitching to them with a value proposition – buy more cards and save. It’s an interesting model worth watching.
I think how newsagents merchandise cards needs to change. The old pocket approach is tired. It does not show off the innovation on the cover of cards we are seeing now.
Check out the sign by one of our team members and placed with tattoo magazines to drive margin dollars from tattoo magazine purchases. This Tattoo Goo is a new product for us and promoting it to tattoo magazine browsers makes sense since people buy the magazines especially when contemplating a new tattoo. There are plenty of ways we can drive sales of other items to magazine shoppers.
The team at one of my newsagencies put these cable buddies – which had not feel selling elsewhere – right next to our tech magazines. In a week we’ve moved 25% of the stock we have which is excellent given we’ve had the stock for too long elsewhere in the store.
Placement is everything. that and explaining to customers how the product works.
A month ago I wrote here abut correspondence with the ANF about Hubbed. I published my email to the ANF, their response and my follow up. The ANF has not responded since. My questions about Hubbed remain. The ANF demonstrated a lack of interest in collectively communicating with and representing newsagents by not communicating collectively on Hubbed.
The cover of the final issue of Burke’s Backyard won best cover House and Garden category of The Maggies 2013 announced this week. I love this cover. It’s fun and eye-catching. A key reason for the issue selling so well I think. The garden space is thin in my view, missing a popular monthly garden title.
In late 2011 the ANF invited me to be part of a magazine summit they hosted in Sydney with the state newsagent associations. The purpose of the summit was to develop a plan of action to confront the on-going issue of magazine oversupply to newsagents in Australia.
I was there for three hours to share my thoughts and provide an insight to the data available to support claims of oversupply. Others to participate included the magazine distributors although I was not for their attendance.
I understood that the ANF and one or more of the states would assist some newsagents through a test case to lay out a path for others. I have not seen any such action taken.
Here is what I proposed to the meeting.
ASSEMBLE THE FACTS
It is one thing to think you are oversupplied with magazines and another entirely to have proof. If you do not have proof that will stand up to scrutiny there is no point is pursuing the matter.
You can’t have proof that will be acceptable if you are not loading electronic invoices from the magazine distributors and scanning your returns with accuracy. This is important because at some point in pursuing your claim you will have to confront the other side, one or the other or both of Gotch and Network.
If your data is accurate and your processes are right then you can use your Magazine Sell Through Rates Report if you are using the Tower newsagency software used by 1,850+ newsagents or a similar report from any of the other software companies. This report shows the percentage of what you have received that you sold by title by month. This report shows if you have been oversupplied and over what period. The sell through rate calculation was developed through discussion with the magazine distributors to avoid a fight over data.
Before you start any action or complaint, read the contract you designed with the company you are about to go up against – read it and think about what you agreed to.
PREPARING YOUR CASE
If your data shows that you have been oversupplied you need to work out what you want. I am serious. If you are going to make any claim, in any forum, you need to be clear in what you want from a mediation or a case. A registrar, mediator or judge will want you to be clear in articulating what you want. So, if you are being oversupplied, what do you want?
MOUNTING YOUR CASE
Where you make your complaint will differ from state and territory to state and territory. My suggestion is to start with an entry level forum like a Small Business Commissioner. In Victoria I have used the office of the SBC to resolve a several issues. It’s inexpensive and informal. It also shows the other side that you are serious about resolving the dispute. Also, it can be a reasonable precursor to more formal action of the matter is not resolved.
Here are the entry point places where I’d mount an initial complaint for mediation / resolution by state:
However, don’t rush to make the complaint. Make sure you have your evidence, that you know what you want as an outcome and what you will do if mediation fails.
I’d be glad to help any newsagent through this process. It’s important to me that newsagents and the channel approaches more broadly approaches the matter of magazine oversupply thoughtfully, professionally and without emotion. Mounting an ill prepared, undocumented and emotion-charged case will not help those involved nor the channel more widely.
Each case will be unique. It needs to be from you, in your own words. Your local entry point can usually help you prepare your complaint. Just lodging the complaint will pressure the magazine distributor involved to be present for a mediation usually in your capital city or nearby. In some jurisdictions the numbers of complaints against companies are noted in reports to parliament.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
You never go into any legal or quasi-legal fight without knowing for certain what you want. When it comes to magazine supply, I suggest that newsagents want one or more of:
SO, STARTING
If your reports show a sell through of less than 50% I’d suggest you might have a reasonable case to mount. If you decide to do this you will need to be prepared to fight for the long haul. You will need to be prepared to sit across the table from people better resourced and probably more articulate than you. You will need to have a thick hide and be prepared for them to play the person and not the issue. You will need to be prepared to be public about your fight so that other newsagents can support you.
Here are some questions and answers:
Why should individual newsagents mount their case? My experience in business is that
The distributors are bigger? For decades newsagents have felt and acted helpless. One day someone will act and show the way forward.
Will government won’t care? The organisations I suggest in this post have been established by governments to provide low cost and structured places where disputes like these can be resolved.
What is publishers hate me? Who cares? They are part of the magazine distribution process and play a role in oversupply.
I am too small why should I do this? If you do suffer from oversupply and complain about it, you need to have the guts to act on your complaint or stop complaining.
How can the magazine distributors Gotch and Network avoid this? Stop oversupplying. It’s a behaviour they knowingly engage in. This is my preferred outcome – that they voluntarily supply based on the accurate sales data we provide.
Why have the associations not done this? You’d need to ask them. Magazine oversupply is the issue newsagents rate as the most important they currently face.
FOOTNOTE: I will help any newsagent as much as I can to deal with magazine oversupply. Call me on 0418 321 338 or email me.
I’ve been told that the trial of Tatts product sales in some Coles Express outlets has been so successful that Coles and Tatts are planning on rolling out across the Coles Express network in Victoria. What happens beyond Victoria will depend on state based legislation – certainly in NSW and QLD.
I’m also told that Tatts / Coles wanted to achieve $10,500 in sales in each trial site and that this is being achieved.
The other information just shared is that Coles outlets are required only to provide space for two A1 posters as corporate image support for Tatts.
WHO (October 15, 2012 issue) is the winner of The Maggies: Magazine Cover of the Year 2013. I voted for this cover as one of the judges voting for the shortlist for public voting. It’s a stunning cover for the 20th anniversary issue of WHO. The Maggies are terrific awards, driving reader engagement in magazines by inviting their votes.
The category winners are:
This photo showing unsold magazines from a regional newsagency yesterday is evidence of what I suspect will (or should) ultimately drive change in the magazine supply model.
What is on show in the photo is waste – magazines that have been topped. This newsagency is not required to return full copies so they remove the cover, leaving this pile of what is now waste to get rid of for themselves and at their own cost.
This is an environmental and economic problem yet the environmental issue is the one that could get action. No matter how newsagents dispose of topped magazines, even recycling them reflects a wastage that could be avoided through a better management of magazine production and distribution.
Multiply this photo by thousands of newsagencies and you can feel the scale of the problem, the trees and ink wasted – and the time wasted in small business newsagencies.
That the magazine distributors have allowed this to continue for decades is shameful.
Every so often I check the traffic this blog attracts to gauge audience size and to see what brings people here. The latest analysis shows we’re attracting on average between 1,100 and 1,300 visits a day with that dipping on there weekend to between 650 and 850 a day.
People tend to visit multiple pages and stay for a while reading. This information, coupled with the comments published, provide an insight into engagement.
The traffic data is important is if reflects the voice this blog and all who participate here can be for Australian newsagents.
As was seen yesterday, a post I published on behalf of another newsagent can be particularly popular. I am happy to raise topics others want raised – to provide a platform for wider comment. It’s important we all use this as a place to drive change for the benefit of newsagents.
The cover of The Monthly magazine a timely with two books about News and Rupert Murdoch receiving excellent media coverage in Australia right now. We are pitching the magazine with newspapers as well as its usual location. I’d expect it to be especially popular on weekends when our sales of more serious newspapers increase.
I have created a new group on LinkedIn for Australian newsagents and suppliers. Click on the name to join. Anyone can join, comment and initiate discussions. I included suppliers in the mix to facilitate more newsagent / supplier discussion.
LinkedIn is a worldwide network for professionals to connect with each other. My LinkedIn profile is here.
It’s great to see special the publisher of interest magazine Dumbo Feather promoting newsagents on Twitter. Their 8,682 Twitter followers received this tweet. This type of social media engagement by publishers of special interest titles is excellent for newsagents as it plays to our strengths as the go to retailers for special interest magazines.
Folks, these are the magazines we should especially support!
A newsagent contacted me yesterday reporting extraordinary magazine oversupply planned for their business by Network Services for tomorrow, October 31. In their own words here are their concerns:
Just thought this might be interesting to post on your Blog, Network are saying the last day to submit returns for this month is Wednesday 30th .My concern is there is a lot of stock coming in on Thursday which they just confirmed with me via phone can be submitted but probably wont appear on this months statement.
How can they scale out magazines on the last day of the month and then say you probably wont get a credit for any excess ? Is this legal?
Their excuse was with so many returns being submitted online their computer systems cannot process all the data in time to guarantee the credit appears on Octobers statement.
How become Gotch accepts returns via exchange it on then last day where as Network.
I would be interested to know how other Newsagents handle this.
The only way to fight magazine oversupply is through a structured legal process. Until newsagents do this they will continue to be treated as they have been.