A blog on issues affecting Australia's newsagents, media and small business generally. More ...

XchangeIT set to move on newsagents who fail to comply with standards

XchangeIT has written to newsagents who are not meeting compliance criteria in an effort to get them across the line and compliant.  Here is what they had to say:

Since the beginning of May 2011, we have been alerting you to the fact that your store has not been compliant in passing your ITCs for sales inventory data in your last six (6) performance cycles.  Good, accurate sales inventory data is critical to improvements in magazine supply.

Subsequent to this we have also sent out Headlines on the XchangeIT Newsagent Client program, again alerting you or your staff to the fact, and pointing out that if you are not compliant, then you are no longer eligible for the discounted fee that you have been given since joining XchangeIT.

On the 16th January 2012 we will be generating an Invoice for you for 3 months in arrears on your billing cycle which is $112.50 plus GST ($123.75), and from your next billing cycle you will be charged at the base rate being $425 plus GST ($467.40). If however in this time you do start passing your ITCs for sales inventory data, you will not receive this invoice and you will remain on the Discounted Fee of $200 plus GST ($220.00).

Additionally, newsagents who do not pass their Performance Cycle will no longer be eligible for EDI returns via the XchangeIT platform from the 16th January 2012.  This means you will have to enter your Returns Claims manually into each distributor’s web site which will take you longer, be prone to mistakes and lead to credits being delayed.

Our aim is to have all Newsagents on the discounted rate, and to see all agents pass their performance cycles,  if you have any questions please call us on 1.300.551.212 or email support@xchangeit.com.au .

Be part of the solution, not part of the problem – send accurate sales data.

While I support this move, I remain frustrated with the poor customer service by XchangeIT as I wrote about recently.

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newsagent software

Is this evidence of magazine oversupply by Gordon and Gotch?

Some people at Gordon and Gotch are unhappy at what I write here about oversupply.  If what I am told is true, they have been known spin what I write, responding behind my back to complains I make.  Like anyone reading this blog, they are welcome to respond here, to my face as it were – for all to see.

I share this information as background to this blog post which documents, in my view, evidence of another decision to oversupply by Gordon and Gotch.

Click on the image to see a screen shot from my newsagency software showing supply and return data for Jumbo Ring A Word, a imported crossword title distributed by Gordon and Gotch.

My reading of the sale and return data suggests that we should get five copies of this title.  It is the kind of title which should sell out by week three before there is any increase in supply.

Without sales data support, the Gotch allocations system moved me from five copies to seven and now to eight.  While I am sure that they will have their excuses, the data is all you need to make your assessment.  As I have noted, maintaining supply at five copies is what I would suggest is reasonable.

Maybe they increased by a copy because it is the holiday edition.  I’d accept if the base off of which they increased me was reasonable.  Seven is not a reasonable base, as the data shows.

So, is this evidence of oversupply by Gordon and Gotch?  I think so.  Should I be concerned?  Maybe not if it was just this one title in one of my newsagencies.  Newsagents reading this will know, however, that this does not happen for just one title and not just in their business.

Think about that for a moment.  One extra copy by 4,000 newsagents.  That’s a high cost to the channel.

Every single increase in supply of a magazine beyond what I could reasonably sell sucks cash, time and space from our businesses.  That it happens with consistency is, in my view, unconscionable.

The problem is that when newsagents complain about oversupply Gordon and Gotch they act as investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury.  They say that oversupply does not exist.

What do I want Gordon and Gotch to do?  Here’s a start…

  1. Let newsagents decide what trigger they want for an increase in supply.  I think supplying to avoid a sell out is nuts for many titles.  Some newsagents may like this.  I don’t.
  2. Make it easier for me to select the titles I range.
  3. Agree on compensation for titles which fall below an agreed performance threshold.  Say, 50%.  Newsagents should not have to fund warehousing this inventory.

I am not out to bully Gordon and Gotch as their CEO alleges.  No, I want a fair magazine distribution system, one which treats newsagents with economic respect.

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magazine distribution

Is faux marijuana about to be more available?

I was at a trade show in Melbourne on Friday where several versions of a product aimed at the marijuana buyer were on show.  While packaged more more discretely, the products reminded me of the Tripping Weed product I saw in New Zealand in October.  The vendors were looking for retail partners in a range of retail channels.

They say the product is legal.  It’s a grass which is sprayed with a chemical to help achieve the same results.  NZ regulations recently changed which has presented them with some challenges.  This is one reason they are looking at the Australian marketplace.

I would usually have ignored this product.  However, I remembered that Tripping Weed, not the product I saw on Friday but similar, was being sold at the counter of several mainstream convenience stores in downtown Auckland.

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Ethics

Tapping into tennis and Australian Open interest

With the Australian Open just around the corner we are promoting Australian Tennis magazine with this display at the counter.  The counter position is next to where we sell tickets so we’re expecting to leverage that traffic for some good impulse purchases.

Australian Tennis is one of those titles which gets little time in the spotlight.  It’s a good title for newsagents as it reflects well on the range of titles available in our retail network.

I think it’s good that we make these decisions on which titles to feature at the counter ourselves, playing to local interests and events.

 

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magazines

Promoting Burke’s Backyard and garden magazines

We made Burke’s Backyard the feature of our garden magazine section with this simple display last week.  While sales of garden magazines are up in our newsagency, they are not up as much as the department overall so we are focussing attention to lift their performance.  We are doing this by expanding the range slightly (this is not an invitation for distributors to send us more titles) and running a regular feature of titles in the location for Garden related magazines.

 

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magazines

Christmas cash promotion working a treat

We are participating in a Cash for Christmas promotion for four weeks designed to drive sales of New Idea, That’s Life, Famous and Who.  This is a simple promotion which has hit at the right time of the year.  We are supporting it with the in-store display in the photo, promotions on shopper receipts, text messages and promotion at the regular location of the titles.  Because of this an other in-store promotions we are not running a Christmas shopper hamper competition.  This would have been too much … there are plenty of deals in-store already for Christmas.

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magazines

News Magazines changes name and intensifies digital focus

TheSpyReport reports on the change of name for News Magazines to NewsLifeMedia.  Here’s the reason for the change…

News Magazines chief executive, Sandra Hook, said: “This name change recognises the work we have done over the last few years to strategically reimagine our business. We are elevating our digital focus, creating new products and services, developing our presence in women, lifestyle and life stage, while building on the strength of our phenomenal print brands.”

“NewsLifeMedia’s print and digital assets reach an unduplicated audience of around 8.5 million Australians, and we are number one in the majority of lifestyle verticals we participate in. We are number one in food, fashion, health, parenting and weekends, and continue to grow our home vertical. With our magazines and websites working together, NewsLifeMedia will invest to accelerate the growth and commercialisation of our specialist verticals.

“In repositioning as NewsLifeMedia, we are harnessing the authority of our print brands and the power of our digital platforms, with an unwavering focus on audience and advertiser engagement.

News Magazines has certainly made some, hmm, interesting moves.  Killing Notebook magazine when the title could have recovered from the sales slump by going back to its roots and then this year mucking around with MasterChef magazine, driving a dramatic fall in sales.

Hopefully, the name change results in more success with print titles.  Not so sure that is the goal though.

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magazines

Move increases sales of craft magazines

In the week since we created the new, higher profile, home for our craft magazines at one of my newsagencies we have increased sales by 19 copies compared to our average sales.  While some of the increase will be purchases which would have been made elsewhere, some will be incremental business for the titles.

Newsagents can increase magazine sales by managing magazines in a deliberate way.

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magazines

The Moshie Monster opportunity for newsagents

Newsagents who want to tap into the lucrative teen market, and those who buy for tweens, listen up.  Thanks to the announcement on Friday from inComm about the launch of Moshi Monsters cards available through Touch Networks, we can now better tap into this marketplace.

Moshie Monsters is an online world where children adopt a pet monster and interact with the rest of the community in a virtual world full of kid-friendly things like Sabre-Toothed Splatterpillars and Marshmallow Mountains.

The cards we can now sell are like iTunes cards except they are for the Moshie Monsters site.

I think these cards will sell well, especially at the counter where parents and kids shop.  The key will be training our staff on identifying sales opportunities.

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Newsagency opportunities

Promoting The Australian Women’s Weekly

We are promoting the Christmas edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly in one of my newsagencies with this terrific display on a column adjacent to the main counter.

The value of this placement is enhanced as it is next to a major Christmas gift display.  We also have AWW in its usual location as well as in an impulse unit in  high traffic location.

Sales in the first five days of on-sale have been terrific.  We will continue to support AWW with feature location displays at least thoruhg the second week of on-sale.

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magazines

Nice increase in iTunes commission for newsagents

There was a terrific announcement yesterday for newsagents in relation to iTunes gift cards and a range of new electronic voucher products now available.  inComm is the new supplier and their products are available through Touch Networks.

inComm is the industry leading marketer, distributor and technology innovator of stored-value gift and prepaid including iTunes and Moshi Monsters.

inComm has a special offer for newsagents who engage quickly.  The value opportunity from iTunes alone makes this something to jump at.

This announcement has been a long time coming.  I’ve respected the confidentiality request from inComm and am pleased that the details of their offer are now in the open.  Click here for more details.

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Newsagency opportunities

A good shopping centre landlord story

Kudos to AMP for their promotion of a couple of products from one of my newsagencies in their Christmas catalogue for Knox City Shopping Centre.  It’s good to be promoted in this way along with other retailers, including majors.  Besides the sales bump the marketing will bring is the benefit of raising awareness of our newsagency brand to those who read the catalogue.  This nicely supplements our own marketing in the lead up to Christmas.

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newsagency marketing

Nice to be in the top list of Christmas gifts

Jingle the Dog, part of the Hallmark Christmas range has been promoted in News Limited newspapers this week as one of the top gadgets for Christmas.  This publicity coupled with the TV campaign promoting Jingle which starts on the weekend is terrific for the many newsagents and other retailers with Jingle.

We are making the most of the opportunity with a refreshed display for Jingle.

Media coverage like this is terrific to put these gadgets on the radar of shoppers who otherwise might not have considered them.

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Gifts

Casual leasing by shopping centre landlords hurts small businesses

I have been in five shopping centres so far this week and in each one, just metres from a bookshop or a newsagency with a terrific range of books was an outpost offering cheap books.  In two instances when the newsagents affected approached the landlords all manner of excuses were given.  The fact is that the landlords did deals focused only on their revenue goals and not the financial health of their long-standing tenants.

Newsagents are especially vulnerable to damage by casual leasing as our categories of books, calendars and toys are often brought into centres on a casual basis.

I have encountered this a couple of times in recent years and thankfully the landlord responded and moved the casual leasing operation quite some distance from my newsagency.  In one instance the casual leasing booking was cut short.

Casual leasing operators are vultures in my view.  They do not financially or operationally support the long-term health of the shopping centre.  The often act as a barrier to good traffic flow.

I’d encourage newsagents who encounter casual leasing situated close to their business and with products which compete with their business to complain to the landlord.  If there is no joy there, look at alternatives for resolution.

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Book retailing

Here is the pain of a long on-sale magazine

Publishers should read about the impact a long on-sale for a poorly performing title can have on a newsagency.

We have had Summer Shape Up from Women’s Health & Fitness on sale in one of my newsagencies for two months.  We have not sold a copy.  The publisher wants us to keep the title for another four weeks.  Based on our rent, this title has already cost us $12.  Add to this a labour cost and a cost for the cash outlay.

This is a problem for newsagents.  It is why we do not like titles with a long on-sale and which are not covering their cost and generating profit for us.

In this newsagency I need to make $6 GP per magazine pocket per month just to cover rent.  If I am not getting that return from a magazine profit, the magazine in the pocket becomes loss making for me.

Now there are some who will say that I can’t look at it that way and that it is not fair to expect a single pocket to be profitable.  Hmm, tell that to Coles or Woolworths.  It’s how they assess the performance of products in their businesses.

Publishers who want to use my space for more than 30 days should back their request by financially covering me if their product fails to perform even at the most minima requirement level.

With various changes to be magazine distribution model being discussed and considered – margin, full copy returns versus covers, on-sale period, target sales efficiency – we need to ensure that all factors are considered in any discussion / negotiation for to make progress on one and not another could be a pyrrhic victory.

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magazine distribution

Promoting The Australian Women’s Health Diary

We are promoting The Australian Women’s Health Diary with our diary range as well as with this simple display above our women’s magazines.

The idea of this second location is to capture purchases by people who did not enter the newsagency to purchase a diary.  Diary shoppers will shop the diary department – stands to reason.

We use this space above magazines for a few related promotions like this.  It works a treat, driving sales and shopper efficiency.

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Diaries

Cats and dogs help sell boxed cards

Customers love these boxed Christmas cards with cats and dogs on the cover.  They are different to the usual Christmas care fare and so are easily noticed.  Put a cute cat or dog on just about anything in a newsagency and it will sell based on my experience.

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Greeting Cards

Schools cancelling school newspaper deliveries

I heard from a newsagent yesterday that two schools had cancelled their (substantial) newspaper deliveries from next year.  In one school, all students from year 8 and above (if I remember correctly) will have iPads.  In the other school the move is about cost cutting.

The newsagent involved will lose thousands of dollars a year in sales.

Parlay this move out to, say, 100 schools in one state and you will see a serious dent in newspaper circulation.

With governments trimming budgets I can see more schools cutting back.  With private schools chasing students, I can see them embracing iPads and similar devices more … for the hip factor.

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newspaper home delivery

What’s happening with Volt magazine?

Our supply of Volt magazine was increased from 2 copies to 3 copies with the latest issue.  We have received Volt three times including this latest issue.  In May 2010 we received 2 copies and sold both.  In May 2011 we received 2 copies and sold none.  Today we received three copies.  Okay so one extra copy is not a big deal.  However, there is no justification for the increase in the sales data.  If I have sold both copies from May this year then yes, increase supply.  If I had sold one of those copies maybe (but probably not).  But I sold none and the allocations system at Gordon and Gotch increases me by 50% – one copy.

I appreciate that at the low volume level of supply, four copies or less, it is challenging to get the scale out right, especially ifhistoric sales have been volatile.  With only two issues of sales data to go off and the results noted, Gotch could play the volatility card.  I’d disagree.  Based on limited sales history and for a low volume title, the rule should be to be more cautious in favour of newsagents.  The opposite appears to be the case, shifting the obligation and risk to me.

There are people at Gotch who will spin this blog post and have a reason for the increase in supply.  They will complain that I have not come to them before writing about it here.

There is no justification for sending me an extra copy of Volt other than them needing to place it somewhere other than at their warehouse.  I should not have to go to Gotch.  Their system should be better than to increase supply based on the data they have for the previous two issues I have received.

Every increase in supply needs to be justified in the sales data.  It must have at least a 75% chance of selling.  Otherwise it is just a cash grab, focusing newsagents to provide cash-flow for others.

I am not on a vendetta with this type of post as has been put to me.  The data speaks for itself.  Had the increase not been done, I would have not been able to write what I have.

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magazine distribution

Advent calendar sell out

We have sold out of our 2011 Advent calendars in good time.  We positioned them at the front of the newsagency and used the traffic they generated to drive sales of other Christmas related items.  It’s worked a treat … selling our of the Advent calendar and delivering excellent sales of nearby items – making for more valuable shopping baskets.

Having the Cadbury brand Advent calendar helped sales as it make customers more confident about the quality than what they get from businesses which sell generic brand Advent calendars.  It fits with our commitment to brands in-store.

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confectionary

Making the most of the TV commercials for Feast magazine

With the current issue of Feast magazine being promoted on SBS and commercial TV and with newsagents being tagged as where the title can be purchased, we have made sure that Feast is in two good locations and is easily seen.  The TVC shows off the cover, making displaying the full cover very important.  I’d encourage newsagents to check out where they have Feast positioned and whether they are showing the full cover.

It’s terrific that Pacific Magazines continues to promote newsagents as a destination for magazines in TV commercials promoting their titles.

If you have missed it, here is the Feast TVC.

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magazines

Promoting The Australian Women’s Weekly

We are promoting the heck out of the latest issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.  Besides this display with our daily newspapers, we have a waterfall in the usual location, placement in our ACP impulse stand and an impulse purchase unit in a second location in our busiest magazine aisle – away from the main display of the title.  This first week of the on-sale is key … hence all of our activity.

On the magazine itself, the Sarah Murdoch cover continues the focus on a younger reader for the title.  It is a pity that the full cover is covered by a cookbook stuck on the bottom half – the impact of the cover shot is lost in my view.

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magazines

Promoting Street Machine

We are promoting the latest issue of Street Machine with this display on an aisle end in the reading area of our newsagency.  It faces into all the men’s magazines area.  This is where guys congregate and where they are most likely to notice what we promote.  As I have mentioned previously, guys tens to talk in blind to anything until they get to their destination in-store.  Our car magazine sales are performing significantly better than the industry average so we must be doing something right.

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magazines

Facebook key to Playboy marketing plans

Check out the article at Folio about how Playboy is using Facebook to promote the title.  Playboy has 5 million followers, more than any other magazine, almost twice more than the next popular title on Facebook.  Facebook is giving Playboy an excellent, low cost, platform through which to cultivate new followers of the brand.

While I think that Facebook can plan an important role in marketing any business, I am not relying on it because, as I have noted previously, the owners of Facebook can make a decision which could quickly eliminate the value of building Facebook followers.

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Media disruption

Magazines and the Power of Print

Check out a video published a year and a half ago featuring magazine executives explaining why magazines in print have a future.

While some of what they say is what you would expect, it’s good to watch, good to see their passion for the medium.

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magazines
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