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

New software for newsagents

My newsagent software company, Tower Systems, is rolling out a significant new version of its newsagency software.  This new software introduces a new level of greeting card performance reporting, streamlined stock management processes, enhanced EDI capabilities, enhanced business performance reporting, greater visibility of gross profit when bringing new stock into the business and tighter management of the sale of age restricted products.

60% of the enhancements in this newsagency software were suggested and voted on by newsagents through the exclusive Software Ideas process.

The software has been in beta release in more than 25 newsagencies since early this year.  The customer feedback has been excellent in assisting further enhancement.

With more than 1,700 newsagents as customers, Tower Systems has to follow a structured process with all updates and even more so with an update of this scope.  Previewing the update has been instrumental in encouraging more newsagents to switch to Tower Systems already this year.

I think that newsagents will see a consolidation of software companies serving the channel as supplier standards further evolve and demands on software increase.  While I have said this previously, I have seen the pace of churn pick up over the last few months.

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newsagent software

Children’s magazines in trouble

dmag.JPGIs the kids magazines category set to be the first to disappear from newsagent and other retailer shelves.  This is a reasonable question to ask on the back of the latest circulation numbers.  Dmag sales fell 20.05% in the six months to December 2010.  K-Zone dropped 16.13%, Mania 15.75% and Little Angel 15.00%.  There are more kids titles in the top twenty biggest circulation declining titles than any other category.

This is a most concerning situation for newsagencies since we tend to pride ourselves on being family friendly stores.

Children’s cards continue to sell well in newsagencies, making the decline in Children’s magazines even more concerning.  Maybe the medium is the challenge as opposed to the demographic.  I am noticing more Children, from stroller up to 10, shopping with their parents and distracted by technology in their hands like an iPhone or a Nintendo device.  Maybe the time passing fun accessed through the magazines has been replaced.  If so, the December decline will be repeated in the numbers released in July.

I have supported Children’s magazines during the period covered by the audit in my newsagencies with good locations, feature promotions and even counter promotion.  Titles from the category did not get the lift we get from other categories, such as food, living and auto.

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magazines

Apple releases subscription service for magazines, newspapers

Apple yesterday released a subscription service for iTunes, removing a barrier complained about by magazine and newspaper publishers.  Expect to see a renewed push by publishers to the digital delivery platform.  Cnet has more on this move by Apple.

There is no real surprise in this move yesterday.  It was long expected.  From the perspective of Australian newsagents, this move ought to be seen as an even clearer welcome mat to publishers to deliver content through iTunes.  It is another reason for us to seek to have more control over the newspaper and magazine products which get into our channel.

By being able to purchase a subscription from within an app for a newspaper or magazine, the publisher can more easily get the sale and Apple can more easily guarantee their 30% share.

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magazines

Promoting I Love Magazines behind the counter

ilovemags-knox.JPGI am often asked for ideas of what to place behind the counter in a newsagency.  The photo shows the terrific display created by the team at my newsXpress Knox store.  This is excellent support for the ACP I Love Magazines promotion.  It raises awareness, promotes the prizes on offer and supports the specific titles in the promotion.

We will leave this display up for a week.  This is in addition to a front of store display unit and header cards in the magazine department above the promoted titles.

This behind the counter space is valuable for us, driving impulse purchases and connecting the counter with overall seasonal opportunities.

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magazines

Desperation in the gossip

You can tell how much a newsagent supplier trusts their products and services by how much they gossip about their competitors.  Smart newsagents see this gossip for what it is.  Unfortunately, some take gossip as true and find out later that they have been duped.

Professional gossipers are smart, they usually don’t gossip in writing.  Their goal is to fan a fire of Chinese whispers.

Next time a supplier tells you something about a competitor, ask them why they think you should know this and ask them for proof.  Who know, your challenge could stop their game playing and force them to focus on their products and services.

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Ethics

Not so great deals from Network Services

networkoffer.jpgI was interested to see the recent offer from Network Services promoting some firm sale items to newsagents – greeting cards, colouring books and puzzle books.

The headline on the flyer, SUPER VALUE SALES!, is unfortunate as these deals are not great.  Much better deals for similar products are available from other suppliers – some even with the benefit of sale or return.

While I appreciate that Network has given newsagents the choice, I am disappointed that the distributor is spending time on this wile there are issues with the magazine distribution model which need addressing.

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magazines

Valentine’s Day Balloons sell well

val-bal.JPGOur range of Valentine’s Day Balloons sold very well yesterday.  It worked a treat having them inflated with helium ready to purchase with a card.  A fast, easy and high margin sale.  Our team did an excellent job keeping up with freshly inflated stock ready for last minute shoppers.  One key to the success was the variety of balloons.  having the balloons at the front of the story and moving with the air in the centre helped draw attention to them.

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visual merchandising

Promoting Men’s Health magazine

mag-menshealth.JPGWe are promoting Men’s Health magazine with this simple in-location display.  It’s the only title being featured in the men’s aisle, making it more noticeable to shoppers.  The display is located half way down the aisle.

The bottom pocket is full facing, allowing customers to see the cool fresh deodorant which comes free with this issue.

We will run this display for at least a week.  beyond that it depends on sales and demand for space by a title which offers what we perceive as premium value.  That’s what we like to promote with these displays, premium value.

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magazines

Promoting the NW / OK! double pack

nwokpack.JPGWe placed the NW / OK! discount pack with our newspapers as I wanted to attract only impulse shoppers and not our regular NW shoppers.  It’s selling.  As I have written here many times previously, I am concerned that these packs educate shoppers to not pay full price.  There are plenty of retailers with stories about this happening with calendars.  Some would suggest that the management team at Myer is learning about the cost of educating shoppers to not pay full price.

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magazines

Not all newsagents are the same when it comes to magazine returns

If what I have heard is true, Newslink newsagents are not required to return unsold copies of magazines.  Entering returns data is all that is required for them to be provided with credits.

No returns processing in-store.

No freight shipping unsold stock back to the magazine distributors.

How would you like that fellow newsagents? Not having to return any unsold magazines?  In my own situation, I would save more than $4,000 a year on freight and at least $2,000 a year in labour.

I suspect that my magazine cash flow situation would improve too since the magazine distributor would not be able to charge their usual returns processing fee they would take more care in determining supply.   My guess is that this would see my magazine bill drop by around $4,000 a month without any negative impact on sales.

So, yes, I would love not having to return unsold magazines.

If my information is right and Newslink newsagencies do not have to return unsold magazines then why are other newsagents treated differently? If I am right, what will we do about it?

Of course, as I noted here in December, there is a question over whether Network Services can force newsagents to do full copy returns of non ACP titles.

Gordon and Gotch and Network Services ought to make a statement on this, so that all newsagents know the truth.  I’d be happy to publish a retraction if my information is wrong.  Likewise, I’d be happy to lead the revolution of newsagents if I am right.

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magazine distribution

Valentine’s Day magazine boost

We saw a significant jump in magazine sales in two of my newsagencies yesterday.  I put this down to an overall traffic increase due to Valentine’s Day shopping.  In one store, the magazine increase over an average Sunday was 55%.  Seriously!  Maybe magazines are a Valentine’s Day gift this year.  Whatever the reason, the boost was welcome.

While I am on Valentine’s Day, how frustrating is it that it is not on a Saturday or a Sunday. I think we feel this most out in the suburbs as we miss out on day of shopping.

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magazines

Promoting Dolly and the beach bag

dollyfeb.JPGWe are promoting the latest issue of Dolly magazine with this aisle end display in the women’s magazine section of one of my stores. Our team added some treatments to draw attention to the beach bag gift which is packaged with this issue.  This display gets a week as demands on space are as strong as ever.

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magazines

AFL tipping comp. trumps news

agefeb14.JPGAn AFL tipping competition is more important that the lead news stories of the day accounting to The Age newspaper this morning.  Half the front page of the newspaper is covered with a wrap around advertisement for the Pro-Tipping competition for this year’s AFL season.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Saying goodbye to customers

nxpfh.jpgWe had our last day of trading at Forest Hill yesterday and it was a real treat.  The shop was crazy busy, busier than Christmas, thanks to the deals we ran, the lottery superdraw and it being our last day.

Customers came in to say goodbye, some bearing gifts.  It was bittersweet in many respects … keen for the next experiences we will encounter yet thoughtful of the wonderful memories and good times from the last fifteen years in what I am told is Victoria’s oldest shopping centre.

Forest Hill is surrounded by retirement villages, nursing homes, assisted living and plenty of residential areas. Like any newsagency, we, all of us who worked in the shop, established connections and even friendships as much as you can serving the same customers once or twice a week for years.

We had some putaway customers tell us that they travelled 30 minutes by car to get to us because of our putaway service.  Some of special interest magazine customers – model railroad, aviation, crafts, music, old cars – told us that they looked forward to shopping with us because of our coverage of their particular interest.

The well wishers were wonderful as were the jokes.

Yes, there was the odd customer angry that we did not have the stationery item they wanted and demanded to know what sort of newsagency is this? Our explanation that we were running down stock at the request of the purchaser was not enough. It was as if they wanted something to be rude about. It was sweet hearing another customer put them in their place.

The day was a reminder of the difference we newsagents can make in our communities and in the lives of those we serve.  It felt as if we did make a difference for many people … compared to major retailers … as if some really did depend on us.  Indeed some made the point of saying that they would never buy their magazines in Coles or Woolworths and that they loved out kind of shop.

Yep, made us feel pretty good. Newsagencies do matter!  What a delight for the last day.

I’ll blog with some observations about how shoppers reacted to some of our deals later in the week.

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Newsagency management

So much for rebranding The Saturday Age newspaper

agefeb12.JPGAfter a sizable advertising campaign, media interviews, plenty of commentary and a ton of hype, The Saturday Age newspaper finally launched last weekend.  The new design, the new masthead and other changes were going to staunch the financial bleeding of the newspaper.  Victorians were told this was a new newspaper, a newspaper we had to try. They want to get old readers back.

This week, a week later, the new newspaper is so important to the folks at Fairfax that they were prepared to take money from an advertiser to cover up their new masthead.  Yes, some bucks promoting Coon cheese is more important than the new name, The Saturday Age. I was shocked to see this, even for Fairfax and their penchant for these nasty post-it type ads which are all too often stuck on the front page of the newspaper, over editorial coverage or over the newspaper masthead itself – as they did yesterday.

Where is the pride and trust in their rebranding of the newspaper?  Given their treatment of the new name yesterday I wonder at the money spent promoting it all around Melbourne in the weeks leading up to the launch.

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newspaper masthead desecration

How to sell That’s Life Reader Recipes

tl-readers.JPGWe enjoy good sales with That’s Life Reader Recipes by not treating this as a food title.  Sure it contains recipes.  However, it is targeted at That’s Life and would-be That’s Life readers.  While we do have some stock of this title in with food magazines, the bulk of the stock is placed next to and near That’s Life.  This is where I find that it works best – in all of my newsagencies.  We try and leave a pocket below the title free for the first couple of weeks of the on sale so that the delicious food can be seen and hopefully entice more sales.

I’d encourage newsagents to take a look at where this title is placed in their stores. If it is not adjacent to That’s Life, at least move some stock there.  You want sales right?!

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magazines

Trivial Pursuit drives Herald Sun sales

Yesterday I saw an excellent example of the Trivial Pursuit promoting driving Herald Sun sales.  Several customers purchased multiple copies of the newspaper, saying it was for the Trivial Pursuit card.

If I had more time I would have asked whether the copies were for friends of themselves.  If themselves then the copies purchased will drive audit numbers but not advertiser results.

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Newspapers

Some magazine customers chase free gifts

We received a call yesterday from a customer asking if we had a specific certain magazine which came with a free gift.  They wanted this specific gift.  They were chasing a free pack of makeup and wanted a certain colour.  When I advised that we had sold out they said that I was the twentieth newsagent they had spoken to.

Weird.  Twenty phone calls and all that time chasing some free make-up.  I imagine that my caller was not the only one interested in the gift.  Maybe her call was an example of much bigger word of mouth.

I started to wonder if there is something I am missing about these free gifts that people would spend an hour on the phone chasing and then be prepared to drive 10 or 15 kilometers to pick up (as my caller would have had to do).

Are the deals really worth it.  Some can be I know but make up?

I guess that sometimes the desirability of a gift can go beyond the counter value of the gift itself.  It all depends on how the gift is promoted and maybe a celebrity connected with the promotion.

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magazines

Great cover sells pool magazine

pooldesign.JPGThe latest issue of Melbourne Pool + Outdoor Design has been out for two days and is already selling nicely.  I put this down to an attractive cover.  This was confirmed by a customer yesterday who was browsing the title and made the point of saying this cover was the best magazine cover she had seen.  I asked what she liked about it and she said it looked real.

The same is true for sister title Melbourne Kitchen + Bathroom Design – attractive and authentic covers.  I blogged a few days ago about our tactical placement of this title.  This has worked a treat with a sell through of 90% in a few days.  A 90% sell through for a title like this in a few days is excellent.  I reckon that almost any newsagent could achieve the same with tactical placement.

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magazines

Another ad covers the newspaper front page

age-feb11.JPGThe front page of The Age newspaper yesterday was again half covered by an ad, meaning that the lead story of the day was obscured.  This is okay for shoppers who purchase the newspaper based on their belief in the masthead.  What about those who purchase the newspaper based on the front page.  there must be plenty of those as publishers want newsagents to display the front page to drive sales.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Great sales news from frankie

The folks behind frankie magazine issued a press release today announcing excellent growth…

frankie magazine’s phenomenal growth spurt continues, with sales up a whopping 32.57%* year on year. This makes frankie the fastest-growing magazine in Australia, a title it’s held for the past three audit periods.

And the result – released today as part of the ABC Aust ANPS Audit Jul-Dec 2010 – has given the frankie team yet another reason to smile. They’ve cracked the 50,000 issue mark and now sit at 50,832*, with a total readership of 199,000 (RMR).

Regulars here would know that I love frankie magazine.  The sales growth it is delivering for newsagents is phenomenal and against the trend of so many titles.  Well done frankie!  We have successfully used frankie to drive sales of other titles by careful placement with the popular title.

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magazines

Thirteen ways newsagents can combat declining sales

As the latest newsagent sales benchmark study indicates, newsagents experienced a difficult Christmas and fourth quarter of 2011.  While we each need to reflect the current conditions – economic challenges and structural changes – in our own business plans, there are steps we can take immediately to improve sales.

Here are thirteen simple and low cost steps newsagents can take to arrest declining sales or improve sales if they are not experiencing declining sales:

  1. Rebuild your sales counter.  De clutter.  Think about every item you put on the counter and behind the counter.  Have a plan for moving the items around.  Look at your counter from the customer’s perspective.  Ensure that you are showing customers on the counter and behind the customers – especially at eye level – what you want them to buy.
  2. De clutter your shop floor and shelves.  Walk through the store from a shopper’s perspective.  Make paths easy to navigate.  Make what you want to sell obvious.  Newsagents are great at buying (or being sold) stock and lousy at selling.  Less can be more.  Less stock on the shop floor can increase sales.
  3. Promote deals.  Between the front door and your top selling hot spots and the sales counter, ensure that you have strategically placed deals – preferably in dump bins. Promote on price and create an impression that yours is a GREAT DEAL place to show. Talk to your suppliers about end of line or other exceptional deals they may have which work with your plans.
  4. Remove all old stock.  If something is more than six months old discount it or throw it out – unless there is a very good reason it should stay.
  5. Undertake a magazine relay based on your sales data.  Build better title adjacencies. Create more more shopper friendly zones. Support better selling titles. Cull dead titles.
  6. Refresh your greeting cards.  Contact your major card supplier. Have them undertake an urgent review and develop a re-plan as a result of this review.
  7. Make business decisions.  Look at the return from each department and category in your business.  Make tough business decisions based on your data.  Maybe you are carrying departments or categories which do not justify the investment.  be prepared to make tough decisions.  Also plan for what you will place in the freed space.
  8. Use your top selling items.  Look at the top ten items in your newsagency by unit sales.  Brainstorm other products you have which could be easily promoted with these. develop a plan to use your top selling items to lift sales of other items.  For example, it lottery products are your top seller, what are you promoting with lottery products.  yes, your sale people need a simple pitch. If they resist, ensure that they understand the business imperative.  If you resist, sell your newsagency as you are not a hungry enough retailer.
  9. Community engagement. Through a local area marketing campaign (talk to your marketing group for ideas) engage with local community groups and charities.  Mobilise their members to promote your business.Your local connection is a key point of difference you have over national supermarkets and other businesses which may be competing with you. Create offers for community groups.  Speak at their meetings.  Find ways to engage and encourage their support.
  10. Use your business data.  If you have a Point of Sale system, use it.  Make sure that you know what business decisions you can make from it. get your data checked and tested by your software supplier for quality.  Have them tell you what decisions you could make based on your data.  they should do this for free.
  11. Refresh displays.  Ensure that you promote with excellent value based displays as customers enter AND leave.  Too often displays are one sided and the exit opportunity is missed.
  12. Establish new rules.  That you, the owner or manager, must approve all orders.  That all staff wear uniforms and badges. That up-selling at the counter is part of the business.  That all supplier reps MUST make appointments. That all supplier reps stop placing orders – use your computer system to do this. That ALL SALES are rung up through your software. No eating or drinking at the counter by staff.  No mobile phones at the counter. No stool at the counter.
  13. Clear up your front window. Let people see into your store.  Be proud.

Share these ideas, discuss them, challenge them, add to them.

This list of ideas is by no means difinitive.  Consider it a starting point.

It is easy to complain that sales have dipped. Smart business people see the numbers and act.  How about you?  Start today.

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Newsagency benchmark

Newsagent loses newspaper subscription to iPad

A Victorian newsagent has had a customer cancel their Herald Sun home delivery citing that they now get the newspaper delivered on their iPad.

This is the first report I have heard of this happening.

Such an occurrence should not be a surprise.  It has been inevitable since the Herald Sun iPad app was released. The question for each newsagent is what you doing in your businesses to respond to the disruption of new distribution channels for content which was formerly only distributed via print?

I firmly believe that these are days of opportunity, when we can redefine what we stand for and set for ourselves an adjusted direction.

The challenge is dealing with some suppliers who need us to be the newsagents of old for another three years or so.

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Media disruption

Good gift with a magazine

super-food.JPGThe latest issue of Super Food Ideas comes with four chopping mats.  Since I bang on here about frustrating and inappropriate cover mounts, I should also acknowledge good congratulate good moves.  These chopping mats are a great gift for this title.  They are also a great gift from a retailer’s perspective – easy to display and well packaged.

I expect to see excellent sales for this issue as a result of the chopping mats gift.

We are making the most of the opportunity with tactical co-location outside the food section.  Gifts like this are designed to get irregular customers buying a title. Hence the importance of co-location.

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magazines

Promoting Limelight magazine

limelightjan2011.JPGWe have been giving the latest issue of Limelight magazine the full face treatment.  We figured that the Anthony Warlow cover shot promoting Doctor Zhivago and the free CD are bound to resonate with some of our Melbourne customers.  We have the title in with our weeklies as well as in a feature display nearby – both showing the full cover.

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magazines
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