Kudos to the folks at Russh magazine for promoting newsagents to their more than 40,000 Facebook friends and more than 14,000 Twitter followers with a couple of messages this week along.  here is the message sent the day prior to on-sale:

In the spirit of issue 43 which hits stands TODAY. To be wild or tame? Head to your local newsagency and make the call.

This support for newsagents is terrific.  It’s to their own network and is clear in its support of newsagents as the go to retailers for the title.

An iPad App for Russh has also been launched.

Just as we have done with food titles, we have brought together Christmas themed craft titles and placed them at the front of our craft magazine section.  I figured that we have only a limited time to sell Christmas themed magazines so they deserve prime space even though we have had to move some of them a couple of pockets away from where they should be.

I appreciate that it can be time-consuming moving magazines around like this to serve seasonal opportunities. The payoff is incremental magazine sales.  This is one way newsagents can drive sales efficiency – getting more sales from the same or even less customer traffic.  It can be done.  I know of newsagents achieving real sales growth while experiencing a customer traffic decline.

Here is a good example of an allocations increase I agree with.  Our supply of Psychology Today was increased from two copies to three on the back of sell outs four issues in a row.

Click on the image if you want to see the supply and return data for the last year.

While we were left without this title on the shelves for four issues, I’d rather than than having a copy left at the end of the month.  Without empty pockets into which move titles not displayed full face newsagent could not do justice to everything they receive.  Just ask any newsagent, I am certain their would advise that they receive more titles than they have pockets for.

We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens and the new Australian Women’s Weekly Preserves cookbook next to newspapers for the next week.

Both titles are sure to work a treat from this location.  They look good, are easily understood and work as gifts.  hence this high traffic impulse purchase location.

We are also supporting them in their usual location to make sure that we don;t miss the shoppers who go looking for them -= this important with displays, to not forget the regular shopper for a title.

Newsagents should take a moment to check out the new look Riptide magazine, especially if you have customers interested in surfing titles.

The Morrison Media website has published some excellent background on the new look title.  It includes a link to a video with more details – this would be good your newsagents and their employees to see.  The more we know about a new or refreshed the title the easier it is for us to sell.

We are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine with this aisle end display facing out into the shopping mall. The display sure is a beacon at this front corner of our newsagency.  It brings a terrific summer feel to the shop which is a nice counter balance to the traditional colours of Christmas.  BHG sales are excellent in this newsagency, so it’s an easy choice to devote space to promoting each new issue of the title.

We are promoting the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine with a terrific in-location display.  We have folded the package out so that shoppers can see the value of what is on offer with the magazine.

Having tracked results for the last year, there is no doubt that in-location promotion of women’s interests titles works better than aisle end or other out of location feature displays.

I expect that we will sell out of this issue of Marie Claire.

Every time we co-locate Weight Watchers magazine with weeklies we see an increase in sales.  While we have the title in its usual location, it is this second location which facilitates impulse purchases.  We try and remember to do this second placement for the first week or two of the on-sale.  As the photo shows, we don’t give the title the best position – this is reserved for the weeklies.  Even with just the masthead on show it works from here.

We are promoting the latest issue of Coach magazine with this aisle end display facing into our men’s magazine reading area.

Coach is performing well for us.  It is a top selling title in the sports / men’s health / men’s fitness section of the magazine department.  During the on-sale we give it a run outside the usual location as it’s a title girls can pick up for their guys.

We also plan to include Coach magazine in our range of titles we recommend as christmas gifts.  If father’s day is anything to go by this promotion will work a treat in driving magazine sales.

We are supporting the latest issue of MAD magazine with this full cover showing placement.  Anything to make fun of the Twilight movie franchise right?! MAD sales are not great for us so hopefully this timely cover will generate some incremental business. This is one of those titles which will be purchased on impulse based on the cover.

We are promoting the latest issue of Australian Traveller magazine with this in-location display – the only such display in this magazine aisle.

Besides featuring the readers’ choice awards, this issue of Australian Traveller magazine makes for a good Christmas gift.

We plan to maintain this display for two weeks, encouraging shoppers to consider it as part of their Christmas buying plan.

We have been promoting the New Idea Test Kitchen TV show in-store over the last few weeks.  With the TV tie-in for Better Homes and Gardens working brilliantly, we figured it made sense to promote this connection with New Idea. Simple steps like this can add a sale or two each week.