Good to see News Corp’s Herald and Weekly Times apologise to newsagents about late delivery of the Sunday Herald Sun due to production problems yesterday. This letter was distributed today.
Click on the image for details.
Newsagents should check their shelves for the food network magazine. If you have the Halloween issue and you have a Halloween display place the magazine in the display. This themed issue is an excellent opportunity to show the title off to people who would probably not know that you stock this. It also broadens the reach of your Halloween display and offers a more practical engagement with the season. With the major supermarkets actively engaged in promoting Halloween – including Coles selling halloween carving pumpkins – promoting magazines that connect with the season makes sense.
Several newsagents have contacted me to say they have been oversupplied the latest issue of Elle with little regard to launch issue sales. This is not my experience with supply but to a reasonable level based on Issue #1 sales data. That said, Elle sales will need to grow considerably to warrant permanent space allocation in my newsagencies.
I’ve just finished reading Breaking News: Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession by Paul Barry. This is an excellent book – I highly recommend it. It documents the facts of the dreadful phone hacking scandal and contemplates the future leadership of the new split News businesses. The author, Paul Barry, extensively documents his sources. His writing style is that of informed reported more than commentator.
Anyone criticising this book as a hatchet job against the Murdochs would be wrong. It is well-researched and well-written. There are no cheap shots against the Murdochs. There don’t need to be since the evidence relating to the phone hacking is damning.
Breaking News: Sex, Lies & The Murdoch Succession documents how News Corp. has leveraged its power to the detriment of the community which it serves and how the company has not held itself to account to the same standard it uses when targeting politicians it does not support.
I highly recommend it – especially to newsagents.
While the book does not cover the Australian News Corp. assets in any substantial detail, the book informs the reader of practices engaged in by company representatives in the UK. This information coupled with the obvious bias of the News Corp. press here makes an urgent case for diluting the concentration of media ownership.
One only has to recall the coverage in the News Corp. newspapers here over the last few years hunting down the Labor Government of the day and their lack of interest in the latest travel federal politician travel rorts scandal to realise that they are not fearlessly pursuing the truth – unless it suits their agenda.
These Tattoo Goo products present an opportunity to build margin dollars from tattoo magazine traffic. We are introducing them to the business with a promotion at the counter along with a selection of tattoo titles.
Too often newsagents see magazines as a chore. The reality is that the interests reflected in our deep magazine range present us with excellent opportunities.
The Australian Women’s Weekly at Coles supermarkets comes bagged with a free AWW cookbook. This is a pretty nice bonus gift, ideal for a promotion in a supermarket. The only downside is the packaging – it detracts from what is an excellent cover featuring Jackie Kennedy on this issue of AWW. It makes me wonder what’s more important – the cover story or the free cookbook? For the longevity of the title it has to be the content.
Due to production problems, trucks carrying the Herald Sun were at least two hours late this morning. News has done an excellent job informing people.
I have developed sales ratio benchmarks newsagents can use to determine what they can achieve in their businesses. I use these in turnaround situations to show an old-school newsagent what they can achieve using data from their traditional business to pivot to a more relevant newsagency business.
These sales ratio benchmarks are different to stock turn and profit guide benchmarks. These sales ratio benchmarks are designed as a minimum achievement guide only. Many newsagencies are performing far better than these:
These benchmarks do not mean that gift sales are recorded as cards or that ink is recorded as stationery or that plus is part of cards. No, they are all in separate departments: ink, gifts and plush. The percentage is a comparative guide. That said, pens, of course, are in stationery – that is the only exception.
On gifts to cards, I know of newsagencies where gift sales are greater than cards and gifts generate more traffic and through this actually drive card sales.
Plush is the ratio I am challenges most on. It’s important to approach plush as not soft toys you sell for young kids. Plush can be sold for anyone of any age. You are not your customer.
Our stand of Peppa Pig attracts tremendously valuable traffic for our newsagency. Not only to purchase Peppa Pig product but other product as well.
I watch kids drag their parents and grandparents to our entrance. Once there, it’s a step into the business for other browsing. I have seen people diverted to look at the Peppa Pig product ultimately purchase from us. I saw it yesterday.
The placement of the Peppa Pig stand is a key marketing activity for us. The success is due to the placement and the excellent sign above the stand. In fact, the stand without the sign would not work as well. While you could argue it works for us since we are in a shopping centre I have seen it work in high street and country town situations.
This stand works far better for us than magazine or newspaper posters would on our lease line. Our range of Peppa Pig product is a point of difference for us. The bonus is the margin.
There are plenty of hero brands we can use to drive traffic. Every newsagent in every situation can use brands to generate new traffic for their businesses.
We are promoting Lovatts Holiday Crosswords on a floor display unit at the entrance to our main magazine aisle in our newsagency.
This high-profile placement is designed to boost sales for Lovatts Holiday Crosswords and to increase awareness of Lovatts crossword titles more broadly. Crosswords currently account for 5.37% of magazine sales and we are keen to increase this as crossword shoppers are habit shoppers and they are loyal.
This free standing floor display unit is very effective in driving impulse purchases of promoted titles. We have had to order more copies of Diabetic Living based on excellent sales last week from this same unit in this same location.
In Adelaide yesterday the front page of The Weekend Australia has a post-it note type ad stuck over the the lead photo of the day. I guess the photo editor is wondering why bother when they see their work treated this way.
The front page headline on the Herald Sun newspaper was covered up with a post-it note type house ad promoting print and digital subscriptions. I call this shocking because it shows what little value News Corp. places in newspaper headlines now.
Besides that they are trying to get retail newsagents to direct revenue away from their businesses they are demonstrating little regard for the news of the day. Yes, shocking.
Returning unsold magazines for credit ahead of the distributor-set recall date is important for managing space and cash-flow in a newsagency business.
Early returning would be less necessary if magazine distributors supplied more closely to what newsagents actually sell and if they did not load new titles without newsagent permission. Yes, the failure of the magazine distribution system requires that we early return.
Here is how I approach early returns.
So, early returning is not black and white. I see it as a senior management function that requires careful attention to the opportunities of each title and the needs of the newsagency business.
I have been working with a newsagency recently where they did not early return at all. This business has been losing a considerable sum of money in part because of gross oversupply of magazines. My implementing a structured and considered early return process we have stemmed the losses and made magazines financially appealing to the business again.
I am confident that there are upside opportunities with magazines. It’s unfortunate that we continue to be oversupplied in a way that forces us to waste time on early returning instead of investing time in growth opportunities.
We have been selling contact lenses as part of our Halloween offer as a trial to see whether they are something we could add to our gift selection throughout the year. While sales have not been massive, just offering them has helped drive interest in Halloween more broadly and this has been commercially valuable. I think there is an opportunity to play more in this costume space. It fits well with party, cards and gifts.
Beyond the point of difference for us and our halloween offer compared to other retailers, these contact lenses challenge the perception of what a newsagency sells and I like that.
Our stock of Cosmopolitan magazine has two different colour tones. At first we thought this was deliberate but checking other stores we realised it was a printing issue. We’ve placed the hotter covers to the front as they pop more in-store.
Check out the excellent and positive story at Newsagencies For Sale about lottery sales driving value for newsagency businesses. Check out the example of lottery sales growth over three years.
There are many good stories out now about the newsagency channel where businesses are achieving growth. Sadly, some accountants are ignorant and don’t know the upside opportunities in the channel and have advised newsagents to not proceed based on their ignorance.
This data showing lottery sales growth cannot be argued with.
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.
NZ Post has achieved government approval for mail being delivered three days a week. They have presented a business case on their website for the move. Meanwhile Australia Post CEO reportedly said Australia Post was not contemplating such a move.
Postal services continue to be disrupted by the digital economy. Some disruption is negative, such as the decline in letters, whereas other disruption, such as inbound and outbound parcels, is positive.
The key for all stakeholders in Australia Post, including the many Licenced Post Offices that are part of newsagencies, is to be aware of the changes and to respond in your own business planning. Parcels are not the monopoly letters are and this is the biggest challenge for Australia Post.
I smile at the concerns expressed by the CEO of Australia Post given how they have abused their government protected monopoly to specifically target small business newsagents through their corporate-owned retail stores. I remain convinced that this is outside the act under which they operate.
Several newsagents have mentioned they saw a measurable boost in sales this past Monday which they attribute to the new Monday lottery just started this week. They’re thrilled and hope it keeps up.
There is no doubt that lottery games can change traffic flow and this can be a good or a bad thing depending on how much or how little you rely on lottery traffic for growth and how much you leverage lottery traffic.
Tatts turned on the barcodes on tickets in NSW earlier this week without a reasonable heads-up. Okay so we all knew it was coming but advice that it was coming in the next 24 hours could have allowed all stake-holders to be ready by proactively sharing advice. My newsagency software company could have avoided more than a third of call traffic on the day tatts turned this on. yes, we had sent advice to all newsagents but this was done when tatts first started it and many NSW newsagents ignored it at the time.
Better communication from Tatts would have helped the channel better deal with this change.
I love the Jackie Kennedy cover on the latest AWW. We’re featuring it off-location with the full cover on show, at the counter as well as in waterfall locations in each of my newsagencies.
I love the handling of the masthead – the yellow stands out. I also love that even in old magazine pockets this issue looks excellent. I expect it to sell well.
Great to see newsagents promoted on Twitter today as the go to retailers for for the Match Attax 13/14 EPL trading cards. Support from suppliers for our channel is something to shine a light on and appreciate!
A Communications Book is essential in any retail business, especially a newsagency. regardless of the size of the business, a Communications Book keeps everyone in the loop.
It can be a record of news relevant to the business and those who work in it, document to do lists and record progress on these, a place where owners remind themselves of things to be done and a place for recording feedback.
I recommend every newsagency have a Communications Book and that it is used every day. From a management perspective, the book allows you to set the agenda in a way that can be measured against. It gets everyone on the same page (excuse the pun). Plus it documents expectations.
Here are some tips for successful Communications Book use.
Have the book always in the same place. Train your people on how you want the book used.
I walked past a Thomas Dux store yesterday and saw this Halloween display in the window. Halloween is becoming more mainstream in Australia and this will make it more valuable for us as retailers. We’re still not discounting our Halloween products by the way.