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ACP stuffs up Royal Wedding opportunity for Queensland newsagents

Newsagents in Queensland have not received their supply of Royal Wedding feature magazines from ACP today as promised last week.  Curiously, supermarkets in Queensland appear to be unaffected.

The (justified) anger of newsagents directed at ACP is heightened when you consider that tomorrow is a public holiday and traffic is expected to be down.

This is a right royal stuff by ACP.  To be fair, they have sent out an email today to try an explain the situation:

Please be advised that due to production difficulties there has been some delays to the scheduled early (Sunday) delivery of Woman’s Day (Bipad 01135) today.

To maximise the sales opportunity associated with the Royal wedding some production was shifted to QLD. Unfortunately this facility is running behind schedule. Trucks were held back as long as possible but ultimately many had to be dispatched without Woman’s Day.

Based on the latest production schedule Network Services plans to deliver your Woman’s Day stock tomorrow morning (Monday 02/05/2011). Please hold off reporting any shortages until then as at this stage we anticipate supplying you in full.

On behalf of ACP Magazines we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

While ACP often tells newsagents that they are a vitally important channel, that they have delivered today to supermarkets and not newsagents shows otherwise.  This is inexcusable.  The email today should not have been sent.  Why offer an apology without a reasonable explanation of how and why you have given a competitor such a free kick?

The ACP team decided to go early with it’s magazines today.  They promoted this to newsagents last week. Many newsagents made plans accordingly, even bringing resources so that they could create displays to make the most of the opportunity.  They then spend hours chasing answers as to why they did not receive magazines while their competitors did. At 10:43am they get their answer.

If I was affected I’d try and buy up tons of these magazines from the supermarkets.  Too not have these Royal Wedding titles available today would present too much of a risk to the business in my view.  While I shouldn’t have to do this I would.  I’d see no option.

In the meantime, maybe newsagents could consider some form of joint action against ACP for compensation.

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magazines

Frustrating sell out of newspapers by 12 noon

We were sold put of the Herald Sun by noon yesterday.  We chased more stock and our distribution newsagent said they could not get stock.  We bought up copies from Coles and they only lasted a few minutes.  Based on customer queries we could have sold at least double the usual number of copies of the Herald Sun.  By not long after noon at our centre every retail location was out of the Herald Sun.

We sold out of The Saturday Age by around 1:30.  The same deal.  No stock.

I am surprised that Fairfax and News did not see this coming given the extraordinary interest in the royal wedding.  But maybe they did – they make most of their money from advertising. Printing and distributing extra stock costs money.  We only make money from sales, extra stock is essential to us.

Very frustrating.

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Newspapers

Justin Bieber keeps selling stuff

biebermags.JPGHaving sold out of the Justin Forever one-shot from Pacific Magazines and being able to get yet another box of the Justin Bieber photo packs, we needed to maintain some presence at the counter and so we are using the current issue of MAD magazine and it’s Justin Bieber cover.  We have done very well out of Justin Bieber and will continue to do so until he stops delivering excellent sales.  I’d be curious to know if other newsagents have reordered Bieber stock when they have sold out – we have of each title and financially it has been well worth it.  We will even sell out of MAD magazine.

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magazines

Newsagents offered $1.00 for each extra copy of The Age sold

age-bonusdollars.jpgFairfax wrote to Victorian newsagents yesterday offering a bonus payment of $1.00 for each copy of The Saturday Age and The Sunday Age sold by beyond the retail sales target for the  newsagent.  This is an extraordinary and unprecedented offer by an Australian newspaper publisher, a generous offer for newsagents – $1.00 for every copy of the newspaper above the sales target and on the weekend of the Royal Wedding.

It is a pity that some distribution newsagents will not pass the offer on to their retail newsagents.  I heard that one newsagent said yesterday that it is not for sub agents.  Well, no, that is not true.  Fairfax has made it clear that the distribution newsagent will be paid based on all sales they achieve – through their own store and general retailers (sub agents). Read the letter.

Entrepreneurial newsagents will share the benefits of the bonus with sub agents to mamximise sales, delivering a classic win win.

Petty dinosaur newsagents who don’t understand or hate sub agents will refuse to share the bonus opportunity.  Sales of the Age will reflect this, delivering a classic and ignorant lose lose.

Fairfax should contact sub agents and find out if they were refused the opportunity.  I am sure that snubbed sub agents would dob in newsagents who refused to engage. I would be happy to.

Kudos to Fairfax for making the offer.  Now, if only they could make sure that all retail only newsagents could access this and show what could really be achieved.

Click on the image for a larger copy of the letter from Fairfax to newsagents.

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Newsagency management

Promoting New Idea Royal Wedding special

ni-royal.jpgWe are placing flyers at the counter promoting the Royal Wedding special edition of New Idea which comes out Monday. We felt that this was important given the peak of interest today following yesterday’s wedding and the arrival tomorrow of Woman’s Day, a day early.  Our interest is in overall magazine sales … we want to make the most of the royal wedding opportunity across the range of titles we carry.

This flyer for New Idea also works with the pre-orders we are taking for the royal wedding calendar – which are going well by the way.

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magazines

Check out the Australian Traveller TVC

Check out the which have been running on TV in support of the latest issue of Australian Traveller magazine. Kudos to another publisher telling people they can get their title in newsagencies.

This is another reason to support Australian Traveller. In one of my stores, we have tripled our sales – by promoting it at the counter.

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magazines

Driving country themed magazine sales

countrytitles.JPGCountry themed magazine titles continue to perform well.  We facilitate this by ensuring that the titles are placed together.  I am pretty anal about this. Too often I see newsagencies (and my own stores) where country titles have been allowed to drift away from each other.  Placing them together like this is more likely to result in two or more titles being purchased in the same sale.  That is what I have found over the years.

We regularly refresh the layout to share the full facing opportunity at the front of the display – covers of these titles are vital to driving sales.

We have also had success co-locating country titles with a weekly impulse display (or at the counter is space permits), achieving a nice jump in sales.  Breaking a category of titles, like country,  out of their usual location is tremendously valuable for reminding shoppers that you have titles in this space.

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magazines

Are these iPhone magazines from Media Factory cash-sucking junk?

iphoneguide.JPGMedia Factory and Network Services have some questions to answer following a review of The Essential iPhone Guide (3rd edition) published last year (on the left of the photo) and The Essential guide to iPhone (6th edition), published this year (on the right of the photo).

The content on twenty-nine pages of The Essential guide to iPhone appears to have been lifted from The Essential iPhone Guide.  This is odd since the 2011 publication claims that its content is “fully updated for 2011”.  I wonder what the ACCC or Fair Trading would make of this claim with such a large amount of old content.  I am surprised that Network Services did not pick up on the recycled content.

Go to pages 92 and 93 of both titles and the content is so close to identical that it is not funny.  The same on pages 94 and 95, 96 and 97 … on twenty-nine pages of this.

Besides duplicate content across the two titles, the content itself is, well, mediocre.  It is what I would expect from an overseas content factory where you pay as little as US$7.50 for an original 500 word article.  Certainly not essential or valuable content.

As I have written previously, Media Factory and Network Services have a track record of recirculating under-performing Media Factory titles to unsuspecting newsagents, sucking up cash and space, causing us to incur costs for freight (for returns) and to carry the risk of theft.

This looks to me like a never ending line of credit model with newsagents as the bankers.  There is a constant recycling of cheap content, keeping a valuable chunk of newsagent cash flowing to Media Factory through Network Services.  As I said, a never ending line of credit.

Network Services has legal and ethical obligations to newsagents.  They control what we receive.  Their decisions incur expenses which we cannot avoid.  Their supply actions play a role in how we are perceived by shoppers.  Personally, I don’t think that they should be distributing these titles.

These two Media Factory titles look to me like recycled cheap junk.  Given the quality titles available in this same space, I do not see any merit for newsagents or consumers in the distribution of these titles.

Newsagents – go and check your shelves and see if you have these titles.  I am not receiving them, thankfully.  If I did, I would be returning them and requesting that Network cease supply of all Media Factory titles.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Girlfriend magazine and Justin Bieber

gf-bieber.JPGWe are promoting Girlfriend magazine along with the Justin Bieber one-shot at the counter as they both appeal to the same demographic. This counter location works well for us for teen girl titles, driving excellent impulse business from girls and their parents.

We have had terrific success with the Bieber title – ordering additional stock certainly paid off.

Connecting the two titles as we have should pay off for both titles, especially Girlfriend early in the on-sale.

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magazines

Royal Wedding drives magazine delivery changes

Here is advice from my newsagent software company Tower Systems for its newsagent customers on how to handle the changes to magazine deliveries by Network Services tomorrow and on the weekend which have been brought on by the royal wedding:

Friday 29/4
Cosmopolitan and Australian House and Garden will be delivered tomorrow however the physical invoice and EDI file will be dated 1st May. Once you have received this invoice through Invoice Arrivals your subagents will be automatically allocated orders dated on the 1/5 or 2/5 depending systems settings). However you may wish to deliver this stock to all or selected Subagents on Friday/Saturday. To do this you will need to change the date of the order in the Subagent Order Screen. Once in this screen go to the All Subagents Tab and enter the PLU for the title you wish to change. You will need to change the week ending date for the for the week that includes the 1st May. This will then display the titles and change the dates on the orders for each subagent to your desired delivery date.

Sunday 1/5
Most agents (All VIC, NSW, SE QLD, Metro WA) will receive their entire Monday Deliver on Sunday in order to capitalise on the Royal Wedding. This should not cause you any concerns the only thing to remember is when asked “If you want to change the Delivery Day” that you answer YES. This will ensure the Customer and Suborders are changed and dockets and runlists are correct.

I am blogging about the changes here to try and reach the widest community possible so that newsagents can prepare for the impact of the one-off changes.

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magazine distribution

Re-launching Large magazine – an opportunity for newsagents

large.jpgHarry Rekas, the publisher of Large magazine, has contacted me seeking feedback from newsagents in advance of the re-launch of this quarterly ($10) title.  This is an excellent opportunity for newsagents to engage directly with the publisher prior to launch.  I see Large as presenting some excellent opportunities for city based and some regional newsagents.

As Harry says …

Large is provocative in nature with a blend of irony, satire, politics, images, essays, fashion, interviews and stories…. Vice and virtue done in an irreverent manner

The launch issue of the new Large has a political satire/cartoon theme featuring a photographic interpretation of one of Robert Crumb’s illustrations on the cover. The magazine will be packaged in a brown paper bag (not sealed) with the ‘piss boy’ logo on the bag which I hope will differentiate the product and via its use in the marketing and PR will help make the product standout and recognised on the shelves

While not for every newsagent, Large is a title with which we can show off our point of difference over other retailers of magazines.  I’d certainly give the title a crack in my newsagencies.  I like that it comes in a brown paper bag – this will make it stand out and attract browsing.

Harry would appreciate your feedback on the title.  Click here for the media kit.  Click here to email Harry.

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magazines

Herald and Weekly Times apologises for supply problems

Kudos to the Circulation department of the Herald and Weekly Times for writing to affected sub agents to explain that due to circumstances beyond the control of distribution newsagents, an insufficient number of copies of the Sunday Herald Sun being delivered last Sunday.

The letter and accompanying apology are important in reinforcing the relationship between sub agent and newsagent and newsagent and publisher.

If only all publishers were always this open.

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Newspapers

Promoting Better Homes and Gardens magazine

mag-bhg-may11.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine with this aisle end display facing shoppers who enter the newsagency.

We are also promoting Better Homes and Gardens with our weeklies, on an impulse unit next to our photocopies as well as in the usual location for the title – between food and home and living.

All of this effort is about low hanging fruit – easy incremental business Better Homes and Gardens is one of those magazines which can easily deliver incremental business, especially in the first week or two of the on sale period.  Hence the extra effort we are happy to undertake.

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magazines

Promoting Delicious magazine

mag-delicious-may11.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Delicious magazine with this in-location display in with our growing range of food titles.  We also have a pocket located with our weeklies impulse purchase display – in a co-location tactic which will run a week.  The in-location display is the only one in this magazine aisle – it stands out!

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magazines

triple j magazine promotes newsagents

Kudos to the marketing people at triple j magazine for promoting that it is available at newsagents.  Check out the ad they ran in The Herald Sun yesterday:

tjmag.JPG

I am sure that newsagents would join me in wishing that more publishers promoted newsagents as the go to location for their titles.   Those who don’t promote us are leeching off our traffic.  The health of the channel relies on external promotion.

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magazines

What’s up with partworks this year?

partworks-ferrari.JPGSeriously!  What is up with partworks this year?  Last year was lean with a limited number of releases.  This year, over the last couple of months actually, we have been flooded.  And I mean flooded.  There is tremendous competition on retail space – at a time when we have little space to give thanks to Easter, Mother’s Day and school holidays.

Who is deciding when to release all this product into the channel?  Who decides to release it late into the month to suit distributor and or publisher cash flow? Who sets supply quantities?

Come on Gotch and network, you are supposed to be specialists.  I am seeing little evidence of specialist consideration in your supply decisions this year.

Take The Official Ferrari Model Collection which launched earlier this week.  Yes, Easter Monday, Anzac Day. Not a smart move there.  But the folks at Gotch probably wanted to make sure it hit our accounts before the end of month cut off.  this title should have been out around Grand Prix time or closer to Father’s Day.

Someone needs to admits that they stuffed this up and that newsagents are carrying the cost as a result.

Distributors will blame importers or publishers.  Importers and or publishers will blame distributors. Newsagents are left carrying the cost.

The latest orgy of supply of partworks leaves me, once again, doubting the viability of this mix of products.  In my view, 2011 is proving to be the year of the partworks stuff up.   Poor decisions are killing what should be a golden goose for newsagents, publishers and distributors.  instead, newsagents are being ripped off.

I am on the record at this blog of being a fan of partworks.  Not sure how much longer.

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partworks

Making the most of the wedding opportunity

weeklies-news.JPGWe have been promoting New Idea and Woman’s Day with newspapers this week, as well as their usual in-store locations, to leverage strong interest in the all things royal in the lead up to the big wedding at the end of this week.  It will be interesting to see if their use of Diana on the cover drives sales.  Personally I would have preferred to see a different cover offering from each of the titles.

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magazines

Newsagents: what have you done about the EFTPOS issue?

Newsagents who have not taken action to protest the move by the banks and Coles and Woolworths to rip small and independent businesses off on EFTPOS fees need only read the report in The Australian this morning.

If you remain silent on this issue you are supporting the rich banks and helping them get richer.

I have written to four four Senators and two members of the House of Representatives.

Please, get engaged and share with us your feedback.

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EFTPOS fees

Interesting ACP research on magazines

Research conducted for ACP and released to advertisers earlier this week will interest some newsagents who want to know what consumers are thinking in this marketplace.

The How We Live: A Love Affair With Food and Homes study found that over 87% of respondents look to magazines for solutions for their homes and 82% want magazines to provide food ideas.

Home and Living and Food are two solid categories in newsagency magazine departments.

Hopefully, ACP will share the report from the stud with newsagents.  From the bits I have read it would be most useful in ranging and marketing decisions.

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magazines

Unfortunate timing of the royal wedding

With Mother’s Day now in full swing, it will be challenging for newsagents to find space for promoting all the Royal Wedding special issues, one-shots and other giveaways and maintain a good presence for Mother’s Day.

It’s no one’s fault … just another challenge for newsagents this week.

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Newsagency challenges

How to engage with your local politician on the EFTPOS issue

It is dead easy for newsagents to let their local politicians know how the new EFTPOS fee regime will affect their business.  Click here for a list of house of representatives members and here for a list of senators. With this information you can easily, call, email or write to your local parliamentarians and get them engaged on this issue.  Many newsagents already have.  The more individual newsagents who engage the better.

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EFTPOS fees

Connecting product categories in a newsagency

cardsxc2.jpgA newsagent earlier this week was surprised and thrilled to discover that more than 10% of their card sales are for religious occasions – confirmation, christening, baptism.  They knew that religious cards were popular in their newsagency but not to the extent they now know.  Religious card sales are more than double they thought was the case.

Knowing card sales at the category, segment and card level, by drilling down into card performance data and comparing trading periods, provides an insight which can change a business.  It certainly is in the case of this newsagent. Armed with factual data, they are planning several changes to leverage the extraordinary traffic and sales they are generating around religious occasions.

The discovery of the value of religious cards in this newsagency was made as a result of the new Hallmark category level reporting developed in association between my newsagency software company, Tower Systems, and Hallmark Cards. The new and exclusive reporting provides a hitherto unavailable insight into the performance of cards, from the top level down, and in a format which newsagents can use to drill down into micro level data.

I have seen excellent examples over the years of greeting card sales data being extraordinarily valuable to newsagents in expanding other product categories.  Take the example of the newsagent discovering this week the value of religious card sales.  They can now, with certainty, expand the range of gifts they sell with religious cards.  Indeed, since they have the data breakdown by religious occasion, they can expand gifts in a targeted way.

The card performance data allows the newsagents to act in a pull approach to cards and gifts rather than accepting a push approach.  The data in a newsagency is far more valuable for determining what products should be carried in that newsagency than the data held by a supplier.

Newsagents who I see expanding their businesses are usually doing so by analysing the performance of a department, like greeting cards, and using that data to expand other departments in their business. I’d be happy to be a sounding board for anyone looking for such expansion opportunities in their business performance data.

Newsagents with the Tower Systems software should implement the free change to produce the new Hallmark reporting.   Those with John Sands cards will have access to something soon. Newsagents with other software will get access soon as the Tower initiative has some approach Hallmark.

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Greeting Cards

Magazine publisher slows iPad roll out

US publisher Conde Nast is slowing adding more titles to iPad distribution because they are that conditions aren’t quite right yet to deliver the ideal app editions.  Probably code for – sales are not great.

Read the original: The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

As an iPad user, there are several factors newspaper and magazine publishers need to overcome – price, speed to market and breaking stories free from aggregation.  This last point is crucial.  People are getting used to finding stories based on content rather than navigating to stories after entering through a masthead – as I blogged recently.

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Media disruption
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