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I am not involved in the NSW newsagent meetings

An email has been circulated in NSW this week with a document attached which I wrote to help newsagents to trade through tough times. The email was encouraging newsagents to attend a meeting organised by NANA to look at some issues they are concerned about.

I am not involved in this or any related meeting.  I don’t endorse the meeting or any of the topics being discussed.

I was not consulted before my document was sent out. The version of my document appears to have been reformatted from the original.

My document should not have been sent without explanation from me as to its intent.  It is part of a package of information I have prepared to assist newsagents to improve their businesses. I didn’t write it with any political agenda in mind or for any political purpose in our channel.

I’ll help any newsagent doing it tough. But they have to want to help themselves. This starts with being accountable for your position and continues with focussing on driving business efficiency and decision quality and evolving the business to serve today’s needs and not yesterday’s history.

It would be a mistake to think that others need to fix out situation. If we are doing it tough we have to fix it ourselves. We have to be selfish about our businesses. We have to run our businesses for profit today and not in the hope of what someone might be encouraged to pay tomorrow.

Why am I writing about this here? I have received calls from NSW newsagents asking about my involvement in the meetings. ass I noted, I am not involved, I was not consulted.

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Newsagent representation

Creating more space for Fishing magazines

Last weekend, as part of out approach of continued improvement of our magazine offer, we moved our fishing magazines, creating a separate, bordered, space in the magazine department.  While we don’t have as many fishing titles as many other newsagencies, what we have sells well and is delivering growth.

In moving the section, we made it more accessible., easier for our customers to shop.

Grouping the titles in their own section in this way makes a stronger statement in my view than leaving them in among the broader magazine range.

We look for moves like this to make every week., to continually adjust the magazine offer … to keep it and us fresh.

 

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magazines

Why the increase in supply of Metal Hammer magazine?

Check out our supply and return figures for Metal Hammer magazine. At best we sell three copies of each issue. Somehow the magazine distribution experts at Gordon and Gotch think we need seven copies.  Based on our sales data we should get four copies of Metal Hammer and no more. This is a title which should sell out for a couple of issues at least before we get more stock. It sucks cash. If Gotch want us to be responsible for the cash they should give us responsibility for controlling what we get.

Gotch representatives, when challenged about the magazine supply model, say we can return stock. Sure enough. But what a waste of space, time and cash. The better approach would be for them to supply fairly, based on sales data.

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Magazine oversupply

Calendars selling well at 50% off

I was surprised to see a newsagency selling calendars at 75% off earlier this week.  We have the majority of our range at 50% off (in my stores where we still have calendar stock) and they are selling very well. The only exception is a range of calendars we purchased at $2 and we are selling these at $4 – their RRP is $24.95.

We plan to keep our main calendar range at 50% off through January.  For us, the decision to go beyond a 50% discount is more to do with quitting the category.  Once we get below 25 calendars we will want to be out of calendars so we can use the space for something else.

Our diaries remain at full price.

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Calendars

Tapping into the Back to School shopper

We have this simple display at the counter of one of my newsagencies, promoting educational posters.  While not directly a Back to School item, the posters play into the minds of shoppers thinking about educate for their kids.

We figured why not give the posters a go in this prime location – they rarely get time in the sunshine.

Hopefully the prime placement delivers some sales. At the very lease the poster placement lets shoppers who only visit the front portion of the store know that we carry these items.

Too often the wall behind the sales counter evolves into a miss mash of offers and products in a newsagency.  Wd prefer to keep a clean wall, a single product or category focus. It’s something we have done for several years and it pays off. It gives customers at the counter just one thing to look at … besides our beautiful faces of course.

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newsagency marketing

When magazines cover other titles

It frustrates me when a magazine uses a card insert to grab space from another magazine title – as is happening with the imported Weight Watchers Just Say Yum title.  They are using my space to sell membership to their weight loss program.  When I noticed this on the shelves I took out the blue card (after taking the photo).

I don’t mind the stick-out cards for a higher profile title which is waterfall displays – like Good Health – as they are only blocking their own cover.

Magazine publishers need to respect that they share space with other magazines and that this is space we newsagents own. Stealing space from another title is disrespectful, especially if you are using it to sell something from which we do not benefit.

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magazines

Promoting Home Beautiful magazine

We are promoting the latest issue of Home Beautiful magazine with this display facing the dance floor, at the entrance to our main women’s magazine aisle.  I like the poster, it is eye catching.  Personally, I like this type of poster which looks quite different to the cover of the magazine as it offers better visual cut through.

Home Beautiful is a title which responds well to promotion – either in this type of location, at the counter or with newspapers.

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magazines

Take care when buying a newsagency

I have been contacted by another newsagent this week who is considering taking legal action against the vendor and broker for the newsagency they purchased from and through not so long ago.  They think that they have a case based on the financial data presented.

In this case the business was purchased based on sales data and ‘standard’ margins by department.  The due diligence was arranged by the broker.

Anyone buying a newsagency should only do so based on audited financial accounts.  While this will frustrate some newsagents, it will ensure that you are purchasing the business based on real numbers rather than numbers based on assumptions.  Newsagents with nothing to hide will welcome this suggestion.

Buying a business based on profit assumptions made made by ‘standard’ margins is dangerous.

Anyone buying a newsagency should never buy a newsagency based on due diligence organised by the broker.  The broker has a conflict of interest.  They have a contract to represent the buyer. They are paid a success fee on completion of the sale.  Common sense should tell any purchaser to get their own due diligence. A small investment in independent due diligence could be the best investment ever made.

There are plenty of good newsagency businesses on the market. Take your time, do your research and buy well for the future of your business and the future of the channel.

Now is a good time to buy a newsagency, there is upside in the model and there are good opportunities for growth for a proactive business person.

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buying a newsagency

Making lemonade from lemons

Check out how Allan Wickham at newsXpress Eli Waters turned around the situation of massive lottery payouts last week.  By promoting how much they paid out, they promote the money their business has put into the pockets of local shoppers. This helps the business deal with the higher than usual payouts in a more positive way than just complaining about the amount of the payouts.  Who knows, the sign could top the trick and get someone buying a lottery ticket to be part of next week’s payout.

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Lotteries

Placing People’s Friend titles together works

Placing the People’s Friend Autumn Special with People’s Friend magazine drives sales of both.  We are set to sell our of the Special and I think this is primarily die to placement above the magazine itself.  This is an opportunity for newsagents to drive sales of both titles.

I love People’s Friend because it is what I’d call a habit-based title. readers are loyal. Once they know you have it in stock they come in every week. This weekly traffic is vital to our businesses today and in the medium term.  We each need to be aware of magazine titles which fit this habit-based criteria so that we can make the most of them. Hence my obsession about titles like People’s Friend.

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magazines

Promoting ACP cookbooks at the front of the newsagency

We are embracing the opportunity of holiday shoppers and promoting a range of ACP cookbooks at the front of the newsagency.  While sales are lower than those leading up to Christmas, they remain strong enough to justify using the stand in this way.

We have given best positioning to titles related to weight loss and health … it is the time of the year for considering these after all. More than half the people entering our shop pass the stand in its current location.

We like to change the offer in the ACP basket building stand every few wells as well as changing the location of the stand.  It only takes a couple of minutes and the effort is usually rewarded with sales.

It frustrates me when I visit newsagencies and see non ACP titles in this ACP supplied and branded stand.

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magazines

Helping guys lose their gut with Men’s Health magazine

In keeping with our promotion of diet related titles in this post holidays period, we are promoting the latest issue of Men’s Health magazine from Pacific Magazines with this aisle-end display in the men’s section of our newsagency. The Lose Your Gut cover story is sure to connect with guys this time of the year … and with girls who look after their guys.  I think the feature display will work well for us and drive some nice sales.

We also have the magazine in prime position in with our men;s health and fitness section next to car, motor bike and sports titles.  This category is performing very well for us, in part because we support it with excellent positioning and because the full covers are on display.

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magazines

New newsagency sales benchmark study almost complete

I am close to completing the analysis for the latest newsagency sales benchmark study.  I have data from more than 170 newsagencies, making it one of the most comprehensive newsagency sales benchmark studies yet.  The results so far are interesting – while confirming some trends there is some good news in some categories.  I hope to have the analysis completed and published here by Friday.

These studies are quite time consuming as before any analysis can commence I check the data to ensure that it is an accurate reflection of sales for each business. The number of newsagencies being rejected because of poor data is way down this year compared to the study I did for the same period a year earlier.

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Newsagency benchmark

Excellent sales of Melway

We bought 100 copies of the latest Melway street directory in the lead up to Father’s Day 2011.  Sales were okay but not great. Ten days before Christmas 2011 we decided to make this an in-store hero product.  That is, we only promoted it in-store – i.e. not in a catalogue or any external marketing.  We struck a price which gave us just a few dollars margin. Our goal was to drive impulse purchases.  It worked.  We sold more than 60 copies.  Most were basket extension purchases.

Too often I talk with newsagents who complain that a product is not selling and that they are stuck with it.  It’s our job as retailers to do everything possible to move the product in our shops. This means trying different locations and different price points – for the products over which we have price control.

Okay so we didn’t make as much as we would have liked from the Melway product.  So what?!  We moved the stock, make more than 60 customers happy and provided them with a value retail experience which we hope counts for something when they think about us in the future.

We are constantly looking at our stock, moving it, repricing it and making sure that it is not weighing our business down. We do not see our newsagency as a dumping ground for products which don’t sell.

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Newsagency opportunities

Nothing like a good diet to sell a magazine

It’s good to see New Idea, Woman’s Day and NW all promoting diets on their respective front covers this week. With more people back into their regular routine now is the time to tap into the guilt of holiday season indulgence.  We are making the most of the opportunity by ensuring all three titles are in full face display – showing offer the diet promotion.

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magazines

Why the increase in supply of Glamour magazine?

Newsagents might want to check their supply of the British edition of Glamour magazine.  Click on the image to see how our supply from Gordon and Gotch has been all over the place with little impact on sales.  We sell one copy of Glamour if we are lucky. Gotch has supplied 4 copies, then 2, then 1 and now back to 4. There is no justification in the sales data for them supplying 4 copies. It makes me wonder if they have more stock than they know what to do with and would prefer to have us act as the warehouse rather than them.

If the Gordon and Gotch magazine supply system worked as they claimed we would not receive four copies of Glamour.

I plan to continue to publish details of oversupply like this to provide a record of distributors disrespecting newsagents and to document to other publishers why newsagents may not be behaving as they expect in terms of their titles.

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Magazine oversupply

Promoting Australian Tennis magazine

We  have kicked up our promotion of the latest issue of Australian Tennis magazine and some other titles with this front of the shop placement.  It faces into the shopping mall and is located next to the counter from where we sell our Australian Open tickets.  People walking past out newsagency can easily see this display. We also have Australian Tennis magazine in prominent display in our sports section toward the rear of the newsagency. This week and next are our best opportunity for selling tennis titles in Melbourne.

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magazines

Promoting House and Garden magazine

We have been promoting the latest issue of House and Garden magazine with this terrific aisle end display created by our team. We also have the magazine in prime position with other home and garden magazines.

While not a massive seller for us House and Garden, does respond to time in the spotlight. We will keep this display up for a week.

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magazines

Italian newspaper Il Globo cuts three issues a week

Italian newspaper Il Globo has cut from five editions a week to two.  While disappointing for some readers, it is more disappointing that they did not advise newsagents until today of the change to take effect today. Here is their notice:

ATTENTION NEWSAGENCIES
URGENT NOTICE
Starting Monday 9th January 2012
‘IL GLOBO’ WILL PUBLISH
ONLY 2 EDITIONS PER WEEK
MONDAY + THURSDAY

The Management of IL GLOBO has decided to reduce the number of editions printed each week from five to two, that is Mondays and Thursdays.

We are in the process of calculating the new expiry dates for subscribers and will advise as soon as possible.

In the meantime, if a client has a subscription for MONDAY only, you need do nothing at all.

If a client has only a TUESDAY subscription, please move it to THURSDAY as this has the RAI and TV Guides.

For clients who have subscriptions for 3, 4 or 5 days per week, please change to Mondays and Thursdays and we will advise of the new extended expiry date.

Thank you for your collaboration and should you need further particulars please call Anna or Walter on (03) 9481 0666.

Hmm, what collaboration? A collaborative approach would have been to discuss the change with newsagents in advance.

There is a broader question about foreign language newspapers. For many, these have been important to newsagents in recent years with sales increasing while local English dailies struggle.

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Newspapers

Good time to promote yen magazine

Kirsten Dunst on the cover of yen magazine provides a good opportunity to give the title some time in the spotlight. Dunst stars in Melancholia, an excellent current release film. The film appeals to the ideal demographic for the magazine. People who have seen or heard of the movie and Dunst’s brilliant acting are certain to at least browse the magazine … browsing is the first step toward purchase.

We have yen in an excellent position in with twenty something girl titles, next to frankie.

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magazines

Early returning the Mad magazine mega pack

I am early returning the MAD SUPA DUPA MEGA PACK because the copies I have left are, in my view, unmerchantable. While there is a nice cover sheet, the titles in each pack has old price stickers from other newsagencies.  This is not good enough.  Publishers who want to send products for a second go around by repackaging them ought to at least tidy the product so as to make it more presentable. Having a price label from another newsagency visible on product in my store is not something I am happy with.

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magazines

New Idea crossword title sells well

We achieved a 60% sell through of New Idea Jumbo Puzzler from Pacific Magazines in the first ten days of on-sale. While some of the sales have come from the crossword section, most have come from the placement in the photo – in with our women’s weeklies titles. This is where we sell plenty of our Lovatts crossword titles as well.

It is tactical placement like this which helps newsagencies drive impulse purchases and strengthens the overall performance of magazines in the business.

We have ordered more stock of New Idea Jumbo Puzzler since we think we can achieve sales beyond the initial allocation.

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magazines

That’s Life Reader’s Recipes selling well

We have sold more than half our allocation on the latest issue of That’s Life Reader’s Recipes from Pacific Magazines in less than a week thanks to their aisle end display at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle as well as prime placement in with food titles.

While this is an easy title for shoppers to purchase with the $5.50 price point, I think that the real appeal is that the recipes are from everyday people. I’ve certainly had one customer comment with a smile that they can cook the recipes.

We have ordered more stock as we are set to sell out of our current stock.

 

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magazines

The 10,000th blog post

While I’m not a big milestone person I couldn’t let this 10,000th blog post pass without comment.

What started on January 27, 2005 with a tentative first post has evolved considerably over seven years, 10,000 blog posts and 27,180 comments.

I didn’t really have a plan when I started the blog other than to write occasionally about life in my newsagency.  Within the first few months that changed as I realised I could use the blog to write about issues beyond my own business,  issues affecting the newsagency channel more widely.

I have learnt plenty along the way – from the practical of writing for public consumption to learning to be more accepting of alternative views to mine.

I think that my voice has changed as a result of blogging. I think that my other writing, away from this place, has improved.

I am proud of the blog being a record of some of the challenges (and opportunities embedded in these challenges) faced by newsagents, those who work in our businesses and those who work with our businesses.

I am pleased to have been able to use the blog to document appalling treatment by some of newsagents.

For what it’s worth, I think the most important issues I have written about are:

  1. Australia Post and the economic harm the government owned post offices continue to wreak against newsagents. Both sides of politics are to blame for this.
  2. The failure of successive governments, the ACCC and suppliers to be fair in their treatment of newsagents through deregulation. Today’s print media distribution model disadvantages newsagents while giving commercial advantages to our competitors.
  3. The failure of magazine distributors to provide a model which is fair. They hold us accountable for the financial liability yet do not provide reasonable business levers with which to manage that liability.
  4. The disruption of print media and the impact this will have on the traditional newsagency business model … and the opportunity for financially rewarding change.
  5. The failure of many newsagents to manage their businesses for day to day profit. Too many newsagents expect their pay day when they sell and do not realise that their pay day is today, tomorrow and next week … and that this determines what they will receive when they sell.
  6. The failure of the leadership of the newsagency channel: in 1999 to lead through deregulation; and,  in the mid 2000s to put the needs of newsagents ahead of their own ego and interests.
  7. The day to day … sometimes mundane stuff about hiring and firing people, customer theft, employee theft, how we did things, why we did things.  These narrow focus topics often led to some wonderful comments which added tremendous value to what I wrote.

I smile when a supplier contacts me saying that they rarely read the blog but have been told about a post relating to them … yeah. I know that posts and comments are being noticed when people complain about the blog or me in an ill-informed or derogatory manner.

This is a place of conversation. Everyone is welcome to join in. If I am wrong, tell me.  If you want to apologise, do so.

In terms of actual achievements, that is for others to judge.

We go into 2012 with some good progress having been made in 2011.   Morrison Media, Universal Magazines, Express Media Group (EMG) and Pacific Magazines are closer to newsagents in part as a result of engagement here, showing that publishers follow posts and comments and respond in pursuit of a more valuable relationship.

I don’t have a plan for the future of the blog, never have. I’ll write about that which I want to write about … to reflect the newsagency narrative and to help and represent newsagents.

I care passionately about the channel and its place in Australian society. What we have is unique, important and valuable. It is also vulnerable. We all in this channel need to work hard to combat our vulnerabilities and to play to our strengths.

To the visitors, 1,100+ every day, and to the commenters, responsible for 27,000+ published comments, thank you for being part of this thing.

Let the blogging continue…

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