We are thrilled to be promoting the 200th edition of marie claire magazine.

The new look (and size) marie claire looks stunning. The supporting collateral is excellent. I love that some of the posters included copies of pages from the magazine – this makes it easier to take the browser into the title. See the posters above the magazines on the shelf – I’d like to see more posters do this.

The main collateral has excellent visual cut through, just stunning, as does the magazine itself in our regular magazine shelving.

On the back of the look of marie claire we yesterday ordered 100% of our initial order. We’re confident we will sell all of this stock.  It’s a collectors item as well as a magazine shoppers will want to read.

The marketing around the 200th issue has been excellent, we had customers asking abut the title before it went on sale.

Special magazines issues like this present newsagents with an excellent opportunity to stake our claim as the magazine specialists.

The promotion with the latest issue of Dolly magazine, out yesterday, is sure to drive sales. We have given the display prime position in-store, facing on to the dance floor.

The collateral for the Dolly promotion is particularly good – offering excellent visual cut through.

We ordered extra stock as we are certain to sell out. We sold out of the last issue of Dolly with a few days of the on-sale period to go.

We are seeing an excellent response from customers to the latest Pacific Magazines promotion which offers $10,000 in cash prizes. We are promoting the opportunity at each of my newsagencies with displays facing into the shopping mall to attract shoppers and show off a point of difference for us in each of the shopping centres.

I particularly like the campaign because it has hit at a good time of the year – after Back to School, before easter really kicks in and at a between season time for many retail businesses in shopping centres. It’s a campaign that helps us stand out and that’s important in retail.

The promotion gives participating newsagents a reason to put the related titles under the spotlight. It also gives shoppers a reason to consider purchasing the titles.

The other aspect of the campaign is that it’s simple … it’s about a cash prize.

I am seeing a sales lift of as much as 40% for some titles and, curiously, at no impact to competitor titles.

I am not happy with the adventure pack sent out by ACP Magazines yesterday.  Our caravan section was full already so we had to find room. With each pack containing three magazines we can only fit two per pocket. This means a three pocket allocation or we store stock somewhere and remember to replenish. Either way there is a cost.

Given the Sales based Replenishment program at ACP / Network Services and given that we do send accurate sales data on time, I would have preferred to receive less stock and sales based top ups. Instead, I am made to be the warehouse. To fit the title in we have had to reduce space to a title from another publisher. I am not happy about that.

There are magazines which are regularly bagged and I have come around to accepting and understanding that based on the customer research by the publishers involved and the sales data I have seen. My concern here is that this is not usual for this title – certainly I don’t recall it as being usual or regular.

This is not a unique challenge presented to us by ACP. There are other publishers who chase sales with occasional bagging or one shot bagging. They all need to understand that our stores have a finite amount of space. Send a new title or a much bigger package and there are consequences for us.

Check out one of the magazine displays at a Newslink store at an airport yesterday. Two magazines, Woman’s Day and OK! on the top row are upside down While NW has an insert left in front of the cover. While one could argue that this was unusual I see this regularly at airport outlets and supermarkets. It would not take much to ensure that all stock is placed right side up from the outset and to regularly check the stand so that all titles look good.

These corporate outlets appear to not care as much about how magazines are presented as we do in newsagencies. Their shops are usually staffed to have just enough to run the counter let alone take care of the shop floor through the trading day. If I was ACP I’d not be happy about how my products look in the photo.

We have been promoting the two Bride to Be titles next to each other. It’s how we approach all magazines published under a common banner where appropriate in terms of display segmentation. I find this drive purchases of both titles. I mention this because I noticed one newsagency this week with these two Bride to Be titles separated. It’s not rocket science that we do this. Indeed, it is this type of placement which shows our care about magazine placement.

We have plenty of baby boomers shopping with us so it makes sense to promote the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine with a double pocket display. The David Bowie cover is stunning – it has excellent visual cut through.

This is a good example of when showing the whole cover is vital to achieving the sales potential of a magazine. Sure you get a feel for the Bowie theme if you can only see the top third but the whole cover … now that’s a different story.

We will be giving this issue of Rolling Stone some time with newspapers – to get it in front of Bowie fans who may not browse our music titles.

I’d urge all newsagents with a good baby boomer population to give this issue of Rolling Stone time in the spotlight.