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

Video of Newsagency of the Future

We recorded the Newsagency of the Future START HERE workshop today.  This will be edited to something manageable in size over the next couple of weeks. Once this is done I’ll either load it somewhere people can access it or make copies available for mailing.

The four sessions this past week have enabled me to settle in fresh content and ideas to help newsagents transition their businesses.

Based on the feedback there are some terrific innovators out there – some newsagents embracing serious change.

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newsagency of the future

Is Network Services considering launching a new partwork series in Coles and newsagents?

I’m told that the ACP Magazines subsidiary Network Services is considering launching Cake Decorating, a new partwork title, through Coles and newsagents.

This would break the exclusivity newsagents have had over partworks titles. It would mean the TVC promotes one national brand – Coles – and newsagents.

If my information is right and Network Services does launch Cake Decorating from UK Publisher DiAGOSTINI through newsagents and Coles it would damage the newsagency channel. It would reinforce Coles as a go to retailer for magazines even though Coles would probably not offer the full service put away service offered by newsagents.

Magazine publishers using Network Services and magazine publishers more widely should be concerned by the possible impact of this move.

The only reason I could see Coles wanting to do this would be for the traffic boost from the TVC promotion issue 1. The publisher and their Australian representatives would want the back end subscription business.

Network may say that they have been forced into the move because fewer newsagents are engaging with artworks. I’d want to see evidence of this. Too often suppliers make claims about newsagents and then baulk at proving their claims.

If I am wrong and Cake Decorating will be exclusive to newsagents then I will be thrilled and apologise for shouting off here. If I am write and it will also launch in Coles – shame on you Network and ACP  – your support for the channel you say is important to you is noted.

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magazine distribution

Newsagents can more than double Optus margin

Kudos to Jenlist for landing an Optus recharge margin opportunity for all newsagents.  This deal gives newsagents an opportunity to grow margin from 5% for Optus recharge to 7% and even 10%.

While it sounds like I am promoting this … I am – but not for commercial reasons. I heard about it and thought it’s something all newsagents should know about. Since we see more than 1,000 visitors a day here more newsagents will be aware of the opportunity.

James Simadas, Managing Director of Jenlist, has provided some details:

This is a fabulous offer that took quite some time to get over the line with Optus… the pay-off being it is across all Newsagents as one group.

A great win for the industry!

Newsagents are able to increase their Optus, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile Electronic margin from 4% to 7% by simply taking the SIM Stand offer 1, which is absolutely FREE to the newsagent. ($120 retail value)

If they choose offer 2, they will be able to go to 10% margin by simply purchasing the Offer 2 pack ($500 stock) which offers $157 profit for the purchased stock plus the sale of the SIM Pack included. The Offer 2 pack includes  the Offer 1 SIMS stand as well.

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phone recharge

Newsagents – get Your Investment Property in the spotlight

Newsagents need to get the latest issue of Your Investment Property magazine into the spotlight. The cover of this issue is visually stunning, delivering excellent visual cut through in the colourful magazine displays.  It’s also a number issue featuring the top 100 suburbs.

We have it in the best location with property titles. We also have it above newspapers from now to the end of the weekend when we will assess what we do next to promote this issue.

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magazines

Chasing sales of Better Homes and Gardens magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine with a column display facing shoppers as they enter the business. The display is not cluttered not is there much nearby competing for eyeballs.

This display is in addition to prominent placement in the usual location for the title and an over the weekend placement between our two top selling newspapers.

This promotional activity is usual for us in the first and second week of the on sale. Usual because it works a treat … driving excellent results.

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magazines

Slim increase in book sales in the US

BookStats has reported a half a percent increase in book sales in the US last year while e-books sales increased almost three fold in the same period. PaidContent has more on this.

Book sales in Australia are still resettling following the collapse of Red Group – Borders and Angus and Robertson.  In the newsagency space, the remainder book market is challenged as the latest benchmark study shows.

Newsagents who want to be in books need to do it through a significant point of difference.

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Book retailing

All eyes on magazines in the wake of newspaper changes

Magazine distributors and newsagents supplying sub agents with magazines are assessing the potential impact to their distribution model as a result of the newspaper distribution changes being introduced on the Eastern Seaboard.

The changes being driven by News and to be followed by Fairfax will see the number of distribution newsagents fall considerably.   The new ‘super territories’ may not be an appropriate model for magazines.

The best newsagent / subagent relationships for magazines are those involving high engagement between the businesses, sometimes more than once a day.  The labour cost of managing this from a distribution warehouse compared to a more local and close distribution newsagent situation, as is the case today, could be a challenge.

I’d expect magazine distributions and newsagents to be thinking carefully about how they handle subagent arrangements in a new model. I suspect distributors will want fewer direct accounts rather than more.

Do they maintain current sub agent arrangements? Would a newsagent who is no longer handling the distribution of newspapers want to do this?

What happens with magazine distribution in areas currently managed by a newsagent in the future is just one of several knock-on effects of the newspaper changes yet to be considered to a conclusion by the various stakeholders.

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magazine distribution

Here’s what I love about Beanie Kids

Beanie Kids works a treat with collectors. The range also works well for people looking for a gift. Both good things to like about the range. But what I really love is the unexpected sales, the bonus sales. Like the customer who wants an Australiana item. There it is … in the Beanie Kids range.

Products which serve multiple purchase purposes are treasured in retail, especially if they can add to an existing basket and therefore drive shopper efficiency.

Smart newsagents with Beanie Kids know the range so they can say yes more often to shopper queries.

This is not a paid ad. It’s an unrequested endorsement from a happy retailer.

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Gifts

Promoting Men’s Health and Women’s Health

We are promoting both Men’s Health and Women’s Health with our newspapers at one of my newsagencies with this simple display.

Sometimes all you need to do is get a product in front of people for it to be purchased on impulse. That’s the objective of this display.

We could have gone with something leveraging excellent VM skills. The display may have got in the way of the practical (and successful) placement.

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magazines

Building the email database for newsagency marketing

I love the Nexus program from Pacific Magazines because of the tools it offers for promoting the business externally. Like the email tools. In a minute or two we can create a professional looking email promoting any products and send this on its way to our own database of customers.

While it is the practical, ready to use, business building tools in Nexus which help the most, there are excellent reporting and benchmarking tools newsagents interested in performance and ranking love – they facilitate growth.

I like how the program is evolving.  For example, Pacific has just launched a promotion which will help newsagents to build their email marketing database. A lucky customer can win up to $250 for signing up to participate. There are six such prizes on offer. We are promoting this promotion on the column at the front of the newsagency, facing into the shopping mall.

We want to help our customers with cash as well as build our email database so that we can reach more people with our email campaigns.

We are also offering sign up across the counter to every customer.

Newsagents respect publishers who invest in their channel. The Nexus program is a good example of this. Newsagent get to add their own value through engagement – like promoting this email sign-up campaign.

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magazines

Promoting Quilting Made Easy in newsagencies

The team at one of my newsagencies have created a terrific display for the new partwork: Quilting Made Easy. This is at the front of the business, facing into the mall.

Why give over such premium space?  Easy. This partwork is on TV. People will recall the TV ad when they walk past, step inside, purchase the partwork and most likely purchase something else. How do I know? The data tells me so. Partworks are excellent for attracting shoppers and the ,majority of these shoppers purchase other items.

Win.

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magazines

Promoting Home Beautiful magazine

We have been promoting the latest issue of Home Beautiful magazine with this aisle end display. This is a title which floats under the radar somewhat yet continues to deliver valuable sales, especially when we give it a shot in the spotlight like with this display.

After a week, the aisle-end display is down and the title is a featured title in with home and living titles. Home and living is a serious growth category for us – double digit growth over the Apr-Jun quarter last year. We track this data obsessively as it guide display decisions.

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magazines

Is Biebermania over?

Sales of magazines with Justin Bieber on the cover are not what they once were so I did some research. It seems that his latest music release is not selling all that well.

While we are promoting several current Bieber themed titles and sales are okay, we are always watching for a hot trend fades – so we can limit our exposure in terms of inventory, space and time.

Maybe Justin’s time in the spotlight is coming to an end. Maybe music sales aren’t the indicator of popularity they used to be. All we can go is our own magazine sales.

PS. I have started a new category for the blog – Trends – I’ll use this when writing about a trend … to make finding these items easier.

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magazines

The Age cover price increasing, newsagent compensation changing

Victorian newsagents received notification last week of cover price changes coming for The Age and significant changes in the structure and quantum of fees paid to distribution newsagents for home delivery.  These changes are part of the significant changes being lead by Fairfax as it restructures its business in response to changes market conditions.

The changes coming in Victoria are similar to but not identical to the changes brought about recently in NSW. It is the difference between the approach in the two states which is challenging implementation inVictoria.

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Newspaper distribution

Mini mag at the counter

I like fertility magazine, the new mini mag from Pacific Magazines. I like that it’s small and easily placed on the counter as an impulse line. This is where we have it in-store. We also have copies placed above pregnancy magazines in a small acrylic unit.

The $1.95 price point is good, playing into it being an impulse item at the counter. Above $2.00 would be a challenge.

I like the idea of single topic mini mags as a way of driving incremental business on impulse at the counter … as long as a bunch of publishers don’t do this and we become cluttered.

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magazines

Unfortunate slip at Run Melbourne

I was at the Run Melbourne event on the weekend (observing, not running!) and heard one of the commentators spruiking the free copy of The Age for every runner. She went on: remember to get The Age from your newsagent (PAUSE) go to Coles for The Age – probably when she remembered that Coles was a sponsor.

Whereas a chain like Coles can buy positioning, our channel cannot. This fails us. We risk being forgotten not only for newspapers but other traffic-important products we sell.

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Newspapers

Newsagents in the AFR today

Newsagents should read page 39 on The Australian Financial Review today. It is a full page article about the changes in distribution of newspapers. The article starts with a report on the events at the NANA awards dinner on July 4, something I covered here the day after.  It covers the challenges of newspaper distribution and newsagency management.

I spoke to Will Glasgow, the journalist at the AFR, for more than an hour over several calls.  It was terrific to hear someone keen to get to the bottom of such a complex issue which had its roots more than one hundred years ago.

There is plenty which space has not permitted covering in the AFR article which was covered in discussions including…

  • The proper time for compensating newsagents for the restructuring of distribution territories was 1999 when newsagents were so poorly represented through deregulation.
  • The state associations have failed to deliver appropriate leadership to newsagents for years on the issue of newspaper distribution.
  • Many newsagents are not surprised by the News announcement of redrawing of territories.
  • Plenty of newsagents have restructured ahead of expected changes, merging territories and building large and viable distribution hub businesses. You;re more likely to see this in Victoria.
  • The magazine distribution model continues to fail newsagents. Deregulation facilitated competitors accessing magazines on terms which are considerably fairer than terms given to newsagents.

Newspaper distribution changes are but one of several structural changes impacting newsagents today. Ignorance is not an excuse. The more in our channel who realise that their future in business is solely up to them the better.

Years ago I used waves as an analogy in discussing the changes newsagents face – waves we could see and the freak wave we could not see but knew could happen. I explained that we need to become expert surfers, riding on top of the waves of change. This is true today more than ever even if the waves are more obvious.

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Newsagency management

Competing on ink, facing competition

Further to my post yesterday about our ink sale, this photo taken from inside my newsagency on Saturday shows just how close the permanent ink outpost of our competitor is. While their offer is different – they mainly do refills – it does not look that different to shoppers as they are promoting to the same shopper we chase looking for ink for their printer. They do this by promoting the major brands … even though selling cartridges for these brands is not their core focus.

I kind of like having a competitor right out the front of our business as it’s a reminder every day we walk in about competition.

I think some newsagents forget about the competition in some categories and are ‘shocked’ when they ‘discover’ competition.

Every department in a newsagency has tough competition in the marketplace. Too often newsagents are not stepping up to this. This could be because it’s too much – too many competitors because our businesses carry so many different items.

Being broadly based, newsagencies face competition from a bunch of businesses. This leads to us taking our eyes of our competitors – because there are so many. This is why I like the regular reminder of a very specific, and close, competitor.

A tough challenge for newsagents is to pitch their businesses competitively. Now more than any time in our past.

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Newsagency management

Rugby titles struggle in Melbourne

I am surprised by the quantity I received of the state of origin title, DYNASTY, from ACP. I’ll be lucky to sell one copy as sales of rugby related titles in my store show.  Since ACP has sales based replenishment I should have been sent two, maybe three, copies and then topped up as I sold them. This would be been much fairer than getting eleven sand probably returning two thirds.

We are promoting the title but the reality is that state of origin interest in our part of Melbourne is low and interest in the Broncos QLD state team even lower. No offence – just the facts.

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magazines

Men’s Health and the Olympics

We are promoting the latest issue of Men’s Health magazine with this display in our men’s magazine area as well as prime placement with our sports and fitness titles. The Olympic themed issue issue is sure to sell well, especially as we get closer to the games in London.

In addition to this display and good placement, we will give the title a week with newspapers.

We are also contemplating an Olympics themed display. Men’s Health would certainly be part of this – it’s a terrific magazine … sells well for us and we’ll jump at any opportunity for further promotion.

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magazines

Nine winter marketing ideas for newsagents and other retailers

Now, in in the middle of Winter and between major retail seasons, it is easy to coast, waiting for the calendar to click over and lift traffic and sales. That’s for retail used to operate, especially small business retail. We let the calendar drive traffic and sales. Retail today is different. Now, more than ever before, we have to get our chasing traffic and sales.

Coasting in the middle of Winter is the last thing any of us should be doing. Here are nine easy and cheap to implement ideas for promoting your business this winter:

  1. Run a HIBERNATION SALE – themed for winter. Offer products your customers can hibernate with at a discount. It doesn’t have to be much. This sale is more about getting them to look at items you have that they would not usually buy. This type of sale lends itself to magazines – cooking, quilting etc.
  2. Become a collection point for a local charity working with homeless and housing challenged people. Collect tinned goods, bedding and the like. talk to the charity. The underlying message here is that yeah it’s winter and people are doing it tough so we’re going to help.
  3. Run a best sunshine themed art competition for kids. Get kids drawing bright pictures and making bring art objects with a sunshine theme. Offer prizes – not too much though. The honour of winning is enough. promote it to the schools and kindlers to get them engaged. Put the entries on show … to attract traffic.
  4. Find out what produce is available direct from the farm gate nearby and if it connects with cookbooks you sell consider inviting the farmer in for an in-store produce promotion.
  5. Contact local businesses and offer FREE DELIVERY for all stationery orders for the next two months to introduce them to your competitive range of stationery. promote it as a SAME DAY DELIVERY SERVICE – this is where you can compete with the orders they get shipped in from Staples, Officeworks and the others.
  6. Contact any local quilting, knitting and sewing clubs – invite them to do a craft display. If you execute this well they will tell their friends who will come in and check out what’s on show.  Maybe even invite your customers to vote – this could drive more traffic.
  7. Cook soup from one of your recipe books and offer cups of FREE SOUP. Promote this in the window. Limit the hours and maybe the days.
  8. Run a SHARE THE WARMTH PROMOTION where you encourage customers to send a card to a friend, loved-one or a family member just because … to share warmth with them. Warm a heart this winter.
  9. Give your employees what I’d call WINTER THANK YOU COUPONS. These could be, say, 10% off. Each staff member could give away a set number each day to someone they help on the shop floor to spend above a pre set trigger point. The goal here is to get your team engaging with shoppers and rewarding shoppers who respond by buying more.

None of this is brain surgery or all that innovative. many of the ideas have been pitched here before at different times. My point is that right now, in the middle of Winter, we need to act to drive traffic, to make our shops warmer and more appealing … to get our communities talking about us.

For not much effort we could see a nice lift in traffic and sales.

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marketing tip
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