We are going all out promoting The Women’s Weekly Diamond Jubilee Special Edition. This is the photo of a terrific display by the team at our Watergardens store. It’s at the front, facing the mall.
I love the choice of gold for the base of the display and how the poster is placed in the middle.
This is a title for newsagents to go hard with from day one. We have a brief window to grab sales.
The Times Picayune, a seven day a week newspaper serving New Orleans has announced it is cutting four days of print editions to publish on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, the most valuable for advertisers.
According to USA Today, the average paid circulation of The Times Picayune newspaper was 133,557. I mention this to provide context to readers here. At 133,557 the publishing company made a call to cut print from seven to three days a week based an assessment of costs versus revenue.
Here’s part of the announcement (Matthews is thePresident of the company to manage the print and online content):
Mathews said the three days of publication were chosen in part so that the print edition is distributed across the entire week, but also because Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays have proved to be the most valuable days for the newspaper’s advertisers.
Mathews said the changes coming in the fall were necessitated by revolutionary upheaval in the newspaper industry. These changes made it essential for the news-gathering operation to evolve and become digitally focused, while continuing to maintain a strong team of professional journalists who have a command of the New Orleans metro area.
They are creating a new corporate structure to manage the combined online and print business. A bunch of people working on the existing newspaper will lose their jobs as you’d expect.
Here is another interesting quote from the announcement:
“We did not make this decision lightly,” said Mathews. “It’s the toughest part of transitioning from a print-centric to a digitally-focused company. Our employees make us the company we are today, and we will work hard during this transition to treat all of them with the utmost respect for the hard work and dedication they’ve shown over the years.”
Three smaller daily newspapers from the same family company are also cutting days published. The Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and The Huntsville Times will switch to publishing three days a week and increase focus on online access to news.
These newspapers are not the first nor will they be the last to reduce the days of the week they publish print editions.
I thought carefully before posting this news here because in then past when I have written about similar events some have commented that I am talking newspapers down and others have said it won’t happen here. There has been little discussion about how we should / could respond.
The changes we are seeing in newspaper print days in thenUS will come here. It is not a matter of it but when. I don’t see this as bad for newsagents. rather I see it as a business planning opportunity.
A reminder about the two free AFR.COM subscriptions available through this blog thanks to Fairfax. Click here for details.
Newsagents with plenty of young teen and tween girls in their community should treat the latest issue of Total Girl magazine different to usual. The One Direction cover is certain to drive sales. I saw this first hand yesterday when a young girl got her parents to pay for the bagged magazine on the strength of the One Direction cover shot. She was only in the shop so mum could buy a birthday card for a party they were going to later in the day.
I’m expecting we will sell out of Total Girl. That’s the plan. We are chasing this by making sure the title is well placed with other One Direction titles which continue to sell well.
The Mindfood promotion I wrote about on May 21 is working with sales ahead for us for this issue of the magazine.
We have been promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine in several locations in the newsagency including this pillar-based display.
There is no doubt that Better Homes and Gardens responds very well to promotional attention. Tactical placement at the counter or with newspapers works especially well for us over the weekends as I often note here. (I keep mentioning this as some newsagents are surprised when I tell them face to face.)
While this issue is less than a week on-sale, results are already excellent for us thanks to the extra work being put in by the team to make the most of the opportunity.
We will leave this pillar-based display up for another week even though we will be challenged for space given the promotions coming out this week.
Newsagencies are the ideal businesses for connecting with local hobby and special interest clubs given the range of magazines we sell and the connection we have with clubs in other ways.
The types of local clubs and community groups I am thinking of are:
Thinking about the above list, just about every town has a historical society with members. It’s clubs and groups like this which would not usually be on our radar when they should.
We could connect with these businesses in a number of ways:
This is what being a community business is all about – connecting with the community but in a way which helps them and helps the business. There is no other local business which could connect with many of the community groups I ave listed as well as newsagents could.
I know many newsagents who connect with local groups already. Those who don’t should and those who do could consider enhancing their connection to drive loyalty, word of mouth and, ultimately, sales.
Newsagents can own this immunity connection. This is why we should all engage in it in our local communities – with multiple clubs.
We have been trying to get Dumbo Feather on the shelves for a while since I met the editor and publisher last year. Anyway, we have the title now. This is an important title as it added to the selection of funky and intelligent titles we are building for twenty somethings plus – an often forgotten group of shoppers in newsagencies.
Dumbo Feather is an Australian title, out of Melbourne. It’s a title which shoppers would have looked for in Borders and with Borders stores now closed they would look in a newsagency. We are working to expand our range of these magazines, magazines with intelligent content which people will seek out and loyally purchase from you.
I am glad we have found Dumbo Feather. I encourage other newsagents to check it out. It is distributed by Network Services.
Click here to get the details of a competition being run here with two year long subscriptions to AFR.COM (worth $680) of offer.
I am hosting a Newsagency of the Future workshop for Townsville this Tuesday, May 29 at 10am. This session will be at the Plaza Hotel. You can book here. It’s free. Participation is open to anyone. This will be the last session of this round.
News Limited at least let newsagents know they were promoting their digital offer for The Australian this weekend with this email:
Dear Agent,
On Saturday we will be running a post-it-note on the front of The Weekend Australian.
This note will offer readers the opportunity to join up for a free 28 day digital trial with full access to our website.
At the end of the 28 day trial readers will be offered via email a choice of print + digital bundles as a subscription offer.
Kind Regards
Maybe it was to give newsagents a heads-up to be ready to remove the post it notes.
A better approach from News would be to pay newsagents an acquisition fee plus a trail fee for renewals for the next, say, five fears.
Gerry Harvey says he doesn’t know why there is negativity toward him – he was on TV again this week saying this. His Harvey Norman retail business grew on the back of a price pitch and their relentless promotion of easy access to finance. The company is not remembered for promoting customer service or brands. The TV and radio ads were all about price.
There is no shopper loyalty when people purchase on price.
Now, with sales falling and profits sliding, Gerry wonders why there is negativity toward him … he has not built a sustainable relationship with his customers. This is what happens when you promote almost solely on price.
While a price pitch may get you some extra sales today, it is the easiest differentiator for a competitor to attack you on tomorrow.
In today’s world of easier than every price comparison and of new-model online retail operations, in Gerry Harvey’s space it really is about price and he has been caught with an out of date and expensive model that struggles to compete.
Newsagents who promote price as a differentiating factor over the long-term and outside of seasonal sales face the Gerry Harvey problem.
Newsagents also risk a challenge down the track when the transition from print to digital reaches a tipping point, when more lottery purchases are transacted online than in retail and when more emotions are expressed digitally than via a greeting card.
We need to work today to ensure that we are not the Gerry Harvey of tomorrow as there will be no parachute and no pity.
It is lonely sitting atop an outdated business model.
Actions we take in our newsagencies today can help ensure that this will not be us. But it’s up to us. Our future is in our own hands.
The translucent wraparound for The Daily Telegraph yesterday was pretty cool. It was a clever way to promote the Vivid festival which has just started in Sydney. While the main story was covered, you could see it there and you didn’t have to peel anything off to get to it.
I see this as quite different to the post-it type ads as it connects the paper with a community event.
As part of our Autumn / Winter feature we are promoting a carefully selected range of food titles at the sales counter. We are running this counter promotion for a week after which we will assess and either replace or tweak to keep it fresh.
There is nothing special about the display, it took a couple of mints to put together once we had selected the tilters we wanted to feature.
Already we are seeing magazines selected from the display and added to baskets as shoppers step to the counter to make their purchases. This is a delight to see – every dollar added is a bonus we cherish.
The Melbourne Observer continues to support newsagents. Most recently with weekly tweets on twitter promoting the latest issue as being available from newsagents. Other publishers could so easily do the same. Happy to promote the support here.
Okay folks, who wants a free 1-year subscription to AFR.COM the iPad app and website for The Australian Financial Review. Thanks to the generosity of Fairfax, I have two free one-year subs to give away – along with 19 other bloggers in Australia. Each subscription is valued at $680.
To enter, please comment on this post and tell me in 25 words or less a positive story about your newsagency business. It could be something you have done, a customer experience or a community experience … it must connect back to your newsagency. The competition will be open for a week, to June 1.
Fairfax gave me a free one-year subscription to AFR.COM and I am enjoying it. I get the approach Fairfax is taking is seeking out digital subscribers rather than sitting back and reacting. Their proactive approach to change is what we need to do in our own businesses.
The Access POS software company has published a claim that it is the only software company with 100% XchangeIT file integrity. The claim is misleading in my in that it does not reflect all compliance measures tracked by XchangeIT. It is claim that XchangeIT has been asked to approach Access POS to withdraw . Besides the inaccuracy, software companies are under confidentiality with XIT.
I know a bit about XchangeIT standards as my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, participated in developing the file structures and standards at the heart of newsagent EDI, the structures and standards on which XchangeIT standards are based.
With more than 1,800 newsagents as customers, Tower Systems has 1,000 more newsagents using its software than any other software company. Access POS is trying to make out that they are bigger and better than they are. I respect the 90 or so newsagents using their software but note that size will matter as the newsagency channel consolidates.
Consolidation is one of the reasons I purchased the NewsPOS software business. Access POS claims that the NewsPOS business is closed. It is not closed – NewsPOS newsagents continue to use the software, they get support … nothing has changed except for the ownership of the company. AccessPOS knows this.
Things can get feisty between newsagency software companies. I’ll be in court in a few weeks defending action brought on by POS Solutions in which they complain about why and how 200+ of their newsagent customers came to switch to Tower Systems.
I stand by every claim I have made about my software and my software company.
I have been contacted by Fraymond Lew, publisher of Feng Shui World magazine – distributed here by IPS. Fraymond has contacted me seeking advice on how to help newsagents sell more copies of the specialised title. It’s terrific he has reached out to newsagents.
Here is some information from Fraymond which could help newsagents:
The magazine itself is more of a lifestyle magazine that mainly caters to women. I would love for it to be placed in the women’s lifestyle section but can’t seem to figure out how to convince the newsagents to do that. I some how think that that would help or I could be wrong altogether.
Please if you can give an insight or advice on what I can do to make the magazine sell better it would be very much appreciated. you can email me or call my shop 03 90786596 or on my mobile 0413731835. Thanks.
I am being a bit lazy passing on the request here but I hope newsagents do contact Fraymond with ideas. It’s niche titles like this which can help us retain special interest customers.
We are promoting Handmade from EMG at the counter this week as it fits with a theme around Autumn / Winter related magazine titles we are featuring elsewhere.
Pitching the $26 with of magazines at $9.95 shows it off as a specials offer. That’s what we are going for with this counter placement.
We plan to leave Handmade in place until Monday morning when we will assess. Like any counter offer, it has to pay its way.
Is that possible? Can we grow an awesome newsagency? I wonder some times with people being so quick to talk newsagency businesses down – Jeff Kennett, Bill Shorten … even those representing newsagents. Everyone says how tough retail is and how tough some of the issues facing newsagents are. And they leave it at that.
I say it’s tough sometimes. But retail has always been tough.
In the middle of the changes and challenges lies opportunity, opportunity which allows us to become awesome. It’s a pity that those who say it’s tough don’t offer something in response to their observation.
Yes, I really do mean awesome. I am so lucky that I get to talk to some awesome newsagents every day. On Monday, for example, I was talking with a newsagent who has had a corker of a trading quarter, banking the results of 10% sales growth over the same quarter last year. He did it through hard work and backing his judgement.
Last week I spoke to a regional newsagent who has created an exclusive service which makes their newsagency the place people will travel an hour ow two to visit.
Just yesterday I was standing in front of a tired run down newsagency which was crying out for an awesome make-over. Without spending any money and investing just a few days and retraining team members this business could be on the way to being awesome.
I reckon too many newsagents get lost in our past of being a servant to a few suppliers who themselves are still locked in the past in some areas of their businesses. The newsagents doing great are those walking to the beat of their own drum, newsagents who are taking a good look around and choosing this path which they want for their business. While some newsagents and suppliers talk us down and shake their heads worrying about tough times, these awesome newsagents are craning to look beyond the horizon because that’s where they want to be – ahead of the curve. It’s where there is fun, excitement and profit.
Yes, I bang on about suppliers who frustrate me and some of the bad stuff which happens to newsagents. But I also write plenty about the success of playing with the model, experimenting with new product categories and pursuing change. There are suppliers who are doing good things with and for newsagents. Some long-term suppliers and some new suppliers.
What irks me is those in the channel who talk it down, going on about tough conditions. For some it’s like they have to do this to match their own achievements. I care less about these people.
I want to see more awesome newsagents and more awesome newsagency businesses out there. More success stories. Now networking about positive things happening in our businesses. Success breeds success, no doubt about that. We have to talk more about this. And if we aren’t enjoying success, we need to make the tough decisions to move which is in the way of us enjoying success.
Our biggest asset is our independence. Our biggest liability is our independence.
We need more awesome newsagents and awesome newsagencies, these businesses are our future. Making them ought to be mission critical.
Check out the magazine I saw in Sarina (just out of Mackay in Queensland) last weekend. It’s not so much the title but the cover story.
Hunting in Iran? It’s the cover story so must sell magazines, I guess.
I feel really out of touch.
The winner of the Breville food processor we gave away as part of our Mother’s Day promotion collected the prize on the weekend and was happy to pose for a photo. It’s terrific when customers collect a prize and are so thrilled to have won. We love to see their happiness and to see another campaign have come to a successful conclusion – for the winner, our partner supplier – Hallmark and for us in terms of sales growth.
Competitions where one of your customers wins works a treat as it connects us locally with the prize. While this is not possible with a massive prize, it works with this type of prize.
The giveaway with the latest issue of MasterChef magazine is stunning, it’s the $14.95 Junior MasterChef cookbook from last year bagged with the magazine. Like most newsagents we are promoting the deal in good locations with food titles as well as a second location – newspapers or the counter.
While my views of bagged magazines have softened over the last year, I remain unconvinced in the food space. Browsers like to see the dishes to determine if they would like to make these. This is why we sometimes open a copy for browsers.
The free gift with this issue of MasterChef is one many MasterChef fans would have.
We completed a stocktake yesterday in one of my newsagencies. This is the second store we have done this for in a few weeks. By doing this we eliminate the need for a stocktaker to come in at the end of the financial year.
We do our own stocktake every couple of years, relying on accurate supply, return and sales data in the meantime. The Tax Office accepts the data and we save money.
The data result is terrific getting a handle on shopper theft, space allocation performance and other metrics accurate stock data facilitates.
Check out the full page ad which appears in the current issue of The Groundsman magazine. Click on the image for a larger version. The publisher is clear with their message – stop buying The Groundsman magazine from your local newsagent. This is a disappointing message form a publisher who relies on the goodwill of newsagents to carry and promote the title. Indeed, it’s beyond disappointing, it is disrespectful.
I accept that publishers need subscriptions in their supply model and that they need to promote subscriptions in their magazines. However, publishers need to respect their retail partners.
I would’t be surprised in newsagents acted to stop carrying The Groundsman abased on reactions in the past to similar disrespect from publishers when promoting subscriptions.
All the publisher needs to do to make their subscriptions ad reasonable is to change the first two lines.