Cats and Dogs, the special edition of National Geographic just out should get star treatment from newsagents since we know that customers will buy just about anything featuring them. Calendars, cards, gifts, books, address books – you name it customers love it if there is a cut cat or dog on the front of the products. This is the kind of magazine cover where the full cover needs to be on show.
The makeover of BRW magazine from Fairfax has resulted in terrific sales growth as the recent audit results showed. The latest cover is terrific for a business magazine. It makes the magazine look more appealing than the usual business fare. It’s bright and appealing. This is what will get people who don’t usually reach for a business magazine to pick up the title and browse.
We are promoting four magazine titles from Pacific Magazines at the front of the newsagency facing shoppers as they enter the business – in a sturdy yet easy to move floor display unit from Pacific.
This promotion is part of the WIN A CAR promotion currently running with Pacific. It’s been a tremendously successful promotion … you can see the results in the sales data comparing similar titles. If shoppers are to purchase one title and perceive little difference between them, the one with the compelling competition opportunity gets the sale.
With the PMP share price back down at 39 cents from a recent high of 60 cents the market appears to doubt that the qualified offer for the company is unlikely to proceed. Time will tell. In the meantime the operations of Gotch appear to have settled following recent departures. It would be good to see them competitive from a newsagency supply perspective again.
In this period of consolidation in the newsagency channel we are seeing activity unlike any we have seen before. One possible trend which has been mentioned to me is the purchasing of a rural or regional newsagency by a fuel outlet, the running of the newsagency without change for up to a year and then the merging of the newsagency into the fuel outlet, losing much of what defined the newsagency as a newsagency along the way. The question put to me was whether such business purchases were being done to access a lottery licence as this is the only fuel outlets cannot get easily.
I call this a possible trend as only a couple of people have mentioned it and between them only three examples were provided. I am curious as to whether others have heard about this and whether they think it is a trend.
There are a few issues at play here for me. People selling their newsagency businesses will want to maximise their exit price. I understand and respect that. Towns want a newsagency and maybe more depending on population. Seeing a business close is not an ideal situation for many towns, especially if some newsagency specific services and product ranges are lost to the town. Rules and goals around the types of business which offer newsagency services like lotteries have been put in place for a reason and I wouldn’t want those skirted without transparent discussion.
There is no doubt that consolidation is afoot and that change is the order of the day. This is ultimately good news for newsagents and their suppliers. Those of us who embrace and pursue change can come out the other side with stronger and healthier businesses.
New Idea Jumbo Puzzler is our top selling crossword title this year by far. The title sells itself through simple tactical placement – here next to New Idea in our women’s weeklies section as well as a full face display with our crossword titles. We don’t do any other major promotion. It is this location next to New Idea which works the best for us as it drives impulse purchases.
I am learnt over the years that impulse purchases are vitally important to driving crossword sales. Giving up a few pockets with weeklies works well for us, easily paying for the premium retail space.
I’d encourage other newsagents to make this move – place New Idea Jumbo Puzzler in a pocket of next to New Idea. Count how many you ut there. See if it works for you. Our obsessive pocket counting teaches us plenty about which locations work best when we collocate.
While our magazine competitors – supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol outlets – do just what they are asked for and paid to do – smart newsagents engage and drive sales as a result.
I don’t know if Real Living magazine has a new look or not. To me it looks like it has. I like it. We are running the current issue as a half waterfall between Better Homes and Gardens and Grand Designs Australia. We have created this deliberately to present what we’d call a power message to shoppers in this aisle. The three titles together like this do stand out in the aisle and that’s the first step to getting browsers to notice them.
This category of magazines continues to perform well for us. year on year sales are up well above 10%.
Morrison Media, the publisher behind Frankie and Smith Journal, launches White Horses today. White Horse is a magazine of stories and ideas for surfers, thinking surfers. It looks lavish, something readers will want to keep. See more here. There is a video introducing issue #1 plus a couple of posters newsagents can download and use.
I urge newsagents to NOT early return this title. It is targeted at a demographic which is important to us, one we need for our future.
Late yesterday I watched security camera footage at one of my newsagencies from Sunday afternoon when two people stole several hundreds dollars worth of products.
It is always easy to judge what allowed a theft after the event. This is where having the footage is helpful, so that everyone at the shop can learn and hopefully avoid such theft in the future.
The key items stolen were boxes of AFL footy cards. The two people knew what they were doing, where the cards were and when to hit. A few seconds of distraction at the counter is all it took. Once they had what they wanted they were out and away.
Given how they ‘cased’ the shop, I suspect that had we made our use of a security system more obvious they would have not hit us. We have an excellent security system but do not show this off in-store. We don’t have monitors up for shoppers to see in this newsagency.
In another retail business I have all shoppers entering are faced with a screen shooing their face. I am confident that the two who hit us Sunday would have left empty handed had they seen their faces on a screen.
These people who stole from us are scum. The best we can hope for is that the police catch them the courts mete out justice.
In an extroardinary result, Mother’s Day card sales were up 39% year on year in one of my newsagencies. This wonderful sales growth is reported across most Mother’s Day card captions. I note that we only have Hallmark cards in this newsagency so it really is a like for like comparison.
Mother’s Day gifts were up as well, well over double last year thanks to better buying and better displays.
Looking at the last two weeks, Mother’s Day cards accounted for 47% of call cards sold.
Overall traffic in the newsagency for the same period is static between the years.
The other interesting data is the boost in magazine sales. I have no doubt that many mums opened gifts on Sunday which included magazines. Newsagencies are the perfect place to drive sales of magazines as gifts.
It’s terrific having the sales data so close to the end of the season.
We have been promoting the GoodFood Comfort Food title next to Good Food itself in with our food titles. We have these two at the front of the section so the covers are on full show at eye level – this is important.
While the photo show’s the latest Australian Good Food, we had the Comfort Food title next to the previous issue until yesterday. That said, the latest issue of Australian Good Food fits well next to the comfort food title given both covers show off comfort food.
Comfort Food has sold so well that we have ordered more stock, more than our initial allocation from ACP. This is great news! While magazine sales are challenged, smart newsagents can find sales growth opportunities by understanding the titles in-store and leveraging these in clever ways.
Now is the time for comfort food titles and covers. As we receive more comfort food titles we will give them their own space within food.
The latest issues of both Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire have bonus gifts with fold out pockets which require them to take twice the shelf space.
We have reclaimed space from other titles so we can fold them out and fully display the gifts. I don’t see the point in folding the gifts to the back and therefore hiding them from browsers. My experience is that this hinders sales.
We are promoting the launch issue of new magazine title International Traveller – from the publisher of Australian Traveller – with this double pocket display with travel magazines. We also have the title with our women’s weeklies. We will co-locate for the first month of the on-sale to help find customers for the launch issue. I have read the magazine, there is nothing like it from an Australian publisher. This is one reason I’m happy to support it with space. I also expect it to sell so there is a commercial imperative for me too.
Melbourne is the next focus of the people creating the ParcelPoint parcel pickup service for newsagents. This newsagency software integrated service will make it easy for newsagents to offer and manage the service from within their software. Parcel Point gives newsagents an Australia Post competitive offer. It costs nothing to take on and the space requirement is minimal.
I’d urge newsagents to watch this introductory video and then Express your interest here. If you are in the Melbourne suburban area now is the time to move. ParcelPoint will use other retailers in areas not covered by newsagents.
Newsagency awards dinners should be relaxing events with the focus solely on the award nominees and recipients. On this one night of the year, nothing else should matter, nothing else should pull focus from the newsagents to be recognised.
Unfortunately, the VANA awards dinner on Saturday for a while was like a newsagents meeting with a couple of business presentations. The awards dinner was the wrong forum and the content not as noticed as a result.
Stephen Kaye, Circulation Director of News Limited’s Herald and Weekly Times delivered a speech about changes to the newspaper distribution model. He started by criticising talk in some quarters that News Limited was in crisis. Um, Stephan, that comment was directed at me and a blog post I published on February 21. Immediately after the post News used several channels to any the claim, they used newsagency associations to put out their spin. I’ve not officially heard from News Limited. I stand by what I said including this…
There is a crisis gripping News Limited on the future of newspaper home delivery in Australia. My understanding is that there is disagreement between circulation executives in some News Limited state offices and their bosses at Holt Street in Sydney on the future model of newspaper home delivery and whether newsagents are part of the model.
The crisis in had its genesis in 2009 when somewhere between 100 and 300 newsagents handed their newspaper home delivery businesses back to News, claiming that they were not financially viable.
I didn’t make it up. People in News said it to me.
Why Stephen Kaye felt he needed to comment on this at the VANA awards dinner months after I made the statement is beyond me. Odd.
But Stephen was just starting his speech – he went on to tell newsagents that change was coming and that it would start in Queensland where more newsagents have handed their runs back. Reading between the lines, one could take Stephen’s words to suggest that there is a crisis in Queensland.
I wish I had been able to take notes as the speech had plenty of information which newsagents would find valuable, information they would want to reflect on away from an awards dinner environment.
In his speech, Stephen Kaye said that Victorian newsagents are not waiting for the News Limited changes in Queensland to come to Victoria. He observed than some Victorian changers were not what News Limited wanted. Hang on, News Limited has been at this change thing for close to three years, watching what is happening in Victoria among newsagents and he says that some of the changes newsagents have been leading may not be what News Limited wants. That’s odd.
Are newsagents is a master servant relationship or is this the era of deregulation.
All newsagents want is contracts so that they can go about commercially structuring themselves as they consider mot appropriate. It looks to me like News is trying to control too much of the operation. This is not what one should see in a deregulated marketplace.
If I was running VANA I’d ask for a copy of Stephen Kaye’s speech so it could be published to all newsagents. It contains information all newsagents need to hear. I would also bring into the open for all newsagents as a matter of urgency open discussion about what is known of the News Limited plans. I’d actively engage with South Australian newsagents who have gone through aspects of the News Limited plans already. Their experiences would be invaluable despite what some in News might say. South Australian newsagents have a lot to share with their eastern seaboard counterparts.
While I disagree with their process, I agree with the overall goal of what News Limited is working on. The problem for newsagents is that the company is pursuing considerable change in its relationship with newsagents while at the same time finally addressing the state based silo management style in which it has operated for decades. News in a year or two will look very different to the company we know today.
I suspect the scope of change facing newsagents is far more than any but a small few expect.
News needs to stop jumping at shadows and trying to discredit anyone they think is challenging their position.
The VANA awards dinner was good. I appreciated the opportunity to catch up with plenty of newsagents as I did in Hobart a week earlier. Brisbane next week…
I have scheduled a Newsagency of the Future workshop for Townsville for 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 could be the last session of this round. It’s been a fascinating journey meeting with so many newsagents and engaging in some terrific discussions as we explore being proactive about the future of our businesses and the channel.
We have been promoting the latest issue of Prevention magazine with this aisle end display. The exercise band gift is ideal for the typical Prevention shopper.
This display was one of our Mother’s Day magazine gift displays which we ran in several locations in-store. FYI we sold close to three times our usual magazine on Saturday – most likely due to our targeting of magazines as a good gift for Mother’s Day.
We are also promoting this issue of Prevention with good placement in our women’s health and fitness area.
We are giving the latest issue of Men’s Fitness magazine a run with high profile double half waterfall placement with our men’s fitness and sports titles. We are also promoting it at the counter.
This issue of Men’s Fitness comes with a free copy of a past issue and I can see that this works with given the timelessness of the content of the magazine.
Our sales of sports and fitness titles are up considerably – double digit growth year on year comparing calendar year to date to the same period a year earlier.
One of the themes I have explored in the Newsagency of the Future workshop series over the last couple of months is the opportunity for newsagents to compete with other retailers, even to the poit of the competitor closing down.
When I first broach this opportunity, newsagents, especially those in rural and regional communities, balk … concerned at the possible commercial harm to another local business. I understand that. I grew up in Pakenham back when it had a population of around 2,000.
While we like to think about business colleague, the local families that rely on them and the benefits of co-operation, commercial reality prefers us to focus on our own return, our own survival.
What’s better, two businesses covering costs or one business which is profitable and able to invest and grow? I think the second scenario is better. One business growing is better for the business owner, its employees and the shopper community than two businesses which are treading water – especially in today’s world of economic challenges and considerable change around retail.
This is why newsagents need to look around their area and target other businesses as competitors and go after them through service and product range propositions. Whether they act on this is another thing. Look, assess and make a business decision.
Newsagents have wonderful opportunities for competition, opportunities which could dramatically improve the financial return achieved by any newsagency business. Opportunities for expansion in range of products and services.
The logical opportunities are gifts, toys and books. Other opportunities exist with food, coffee and a range of other areas I won;t go into here because for commercial reasons.
We, each of us, need to look at our businesses beyond the prism of a traditional newsagency. we need to seize opportunities which strengthen our offer, drive our profitability and make our businesses more valuable. Oh, and all along the way, easier to run … yes, having an easy to run business makes it easier to sell. no doubt about that. Newsagents often forget this.
The interactive storybook range from Hallmark has made for a nice and different Mother’s Day gift this Mother’s Day. Mum & Me and a couple of there in the range are a wonderful and memorable gift on a range of levels. I like them and glad we had them on offer. With the season often having a sameness in retail we look for products which can help our range stand out as different – these recordable storybooks work on this level. Nice.
While Mother’s Day sales have been excellent in the lead up to this weekend, those out shopping for Mother’s Day cards and gifts today are the best shoppers since time is against them. We have configured our shops to make the most of the opportunity by making shopping easy and impulse buying tempting. We are also making sure we can tap into the opportunity of shoppers purchasing products for themselves. This the last big, season-driven, retail weekend for a couple of months.
UK card retail chain Clinton Cards has been forced into administration by John Sands parent company American Greetings following their purchase of Clintons debt through a UK subsidiary of American Greetings. American Greetings is #2 US card company behind Hallmark Cards.
With more than 700 stores, the Clintons network is a highly visible player in the greeting card space in the UK. Store closures as a result of the administration action will put even more retail space on the market and add to further job losses in retail – already at a high.
I have looked at Clintons stores a few times over the years, most recently a few weeks back when I was in London for a retail conference. It was clear even then that the group was not travelling well with an odd mix of products.
I wonder if the decision by American Greetings decision is related to their recently released fourth quarter figures showing a small loss.
Card sales in the UK are down more than 4% year on year – against the growth trend we are seeing in Australia.
Newsagencies are well placed to compete with specialist card shops because of the broad base of shopper traffic we achieve. While our product category has its challenges, it offers a fundamental structural strength, particularly in areas such as greeting cards.
Footnote: Clintons had sales of £360m from its 700 or so stores. This data should interest newsagents as it goes to the heart of the challenge of an almost single category retail outlet which relies on major seasons to carry it through the year. I have covered some of this in the recent Newsagency of the Future series, sharing ideas on how newsagents can leverage their base for card sales growth.
Click on the image to see the a larger version of the display created behind the counter promoting the latest One Direction magazine which came out Monday. The Girlfriend One Direction Aussie Tour Issue has been selling well for us. We wanted an in-store display to show off our credentials as the go to One Direction retailer in our region.
Doing this display in Mother’s day week may seem a curious decision to some. We thought about this and made the move to replace our Mother’s Day counter promotion with the 1D promotion for a few reasons:
Sales for this and other One Direction titles continue to be good. Even our posters are selling well despite plenty of retailers in our centre now carrying exactly the same range. Indeed this is why we are actively promoting ourselves as the One Direction hub in the region. Thanks to displays like this at the counter it is working and leading to valuable word of mouth for us.
I am surprised that there are newsagents who still ask what is or who are One Direction when I talk with them.
I’ll be at the VANA awards dinner tonight representing my newsagency software company Tower Systems – a sponsor. We sponsored the Tasmanian awards last weekend in Tasmania. It is frustrating that Tower appears to be the only newsagency software company investing money in the channel in this and other ways. I wish other newsagency software companies would show their support for newsagents. Alternatively, associations could cut off those who do not support them. You can’t have it both ways.
The weekly magazine circulation data for the march quarter released this morning and published by B&T indicate performance of major weeklies within the band published last month in the newsagency sales benchmark report for the sale period.
The worst news of the audit is the collapse in sales for lads mags: Picture, People and Zoo with each reporting declines of more than 20%. This is bad news for the publisher and bad news for newsagents and other retailers.
OK!, BRW and Who reported growth.
I see upside in magazines for newsagents who are proactive with the category and engage with it as a magazine specialist. Okay, not long term growth but certainly for the next couple of years. Magazine range continues to be the most important point of difference we have today.
For one of my newsagencies I am adding at least 50 new titles to my magazine range because I want the sales growth this will bring.