Publishing Woman’s Day three days early to leverage the exclusive Shane Warne / Liz Hurley has not worked for me. We have sold a couple of extra copies over Friday and Saturday. We have supported the title with excellent placement with our weeklies as well as placement at our busiest counter position to leverage impulse purchase opportunities – that support will continue today.

If my experience plays across all retailers, ACP will certainly be unhappy at the performance of their considerable investment.

Covers for weekly magazines are a challenge at the best of times. That challenge is magnified when you go out early and take on the additional costs associated with that.

My feeling is that Australian’s don’t care about Shane Warne and Liz Hurley. Customers often comment on covers – to us and to each bother. I’ve not heard it with this cover.

If I was the publisher of one of the weeklies this week I would have gone out early with a special: One Direction down under, a photo special of their tour of Australia. If this had come out Friday under the Woman’s Day or New Idea mastheads I am certain I could have sold between 100 and 200 copies over the last two days and ended with a 30% or more sales increase on regular issues of the title. Yes, you may think that 1D is not necessarily on the radar of the typical reader of either title. Sales are sales. Right now, and I’m not sure for how long, they can sell anything.

We have been promoting the latest issue of Girlfriend magazine in a couple of places this week to make the most of the cosmetic kit which is bagged with the magazine. The cosmetic kit has a look of genuine value, more so than a single item taped to a magazine cover. I say that, of course, as someone who is not the target customer.

We have making sure that the full cover of Girlfriend is on show so that the kit can be seen easily by shoppers. This is vital to driving sales.

I stayed at the Sofitel Hotel in Brisbane last night, the same hotel as One Direction as I was to discover thanks to the girls outside on the street screaming for the members of the boy band. They were possessed. Seriously.  Fanaticism is a very powerful commercial driver … as we have seen with magazine sales.

I was in a newsagency in Brisbane last night talking about magazines and training newsagency team members about best practice. One of the best opportunities we have in this area right now is with the pacific Magazines Barina car giveaway. This is a newsagency exclusive promotion, targeting the top 1,000 newsagencies in the country. If you are part of the promotion, go hard as it’s likely to be exclusive to you in your area.

Click on the image to see a large version of the display I created in a location to be seen by all shoppers in the store.

While the promotion has only been running two days, it looks like a terrific sales driver.

ACP is publishing the next issue of Woman’s Day early, this Friday, with an exclusive interview with Share Warne and Elizabeth Hurley.

This special issue includes: Shane’s first ever magazine interview, never seen before photos (9 pages) of Elizabeth and Shane’s Family, the couple talking about marriage, babies, wedding plans, plastic surgery and more.  It also includes part 2 of the Royal Wedding lift out.

Here are the details on when this special issue will be available: NSW/VIC/QLD on Sale Friday 20^th of April; SA/WA/FNQ/NT/TAS will remain on sale Monday 23^rd of April.

We have will give prime space to this issue.  The supporting TV and other promotion should drive bonus traffic this Friday.

We have been promoting the Women’s Health Training Guide with the Women’s Health magazine in our women’s aisle. It’s selling well, very well in fact.

These health related titles are in the middle of a bright sales period in part thanks to the weight loss shows on TV. Just about every night there is a show promoting exercise and fitness. I try and leverage this by making sure that we give the health and fitness titles, men’s and women’s, prime positions in their respective areas. The result is good sales growth.

Check out where you have Women’s Health Training Guide. Make sure the full cover is on show. Try it with your weeklies – I am sure that this placement wiklkl drive impulse purchases.

We have been promoting the new Cakebaking title which is part of The Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook series out the front of the newsagency as part of a cookbook promotion. It’s selling well.

Since newsagents have this title available around six weeks before supermarkets it makes sense for us to go strong and promote it outside the usual cookbook section, making the most of the blue ocean opportunity.

Once we move it from the front of the newsagency we will give it a run with our women’s weeklies titles for a week or two.