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

Beware supplier reps who place unauthorised orders

Newsagents ought to consider establishing a rule that unless the business owner or manager signs for an order, the business will not accept responsibility for the order.

All it takes is one representative from a supplier to order something you did not need or want and you can find yourself in a protracted battle to have the stock which ultimately arrives taken back for a credit or dealt with in some other way.

Since most newsagency businesses do not have agreed order approval policy in place, some supplier representatives can easily place product which might otherwise not have been ordered.

It has happened to me and the runaround process to get to the bottom of $400 worth of stock I did not need, did not want and did not order was almost not worth the hassle.  So, I am establishing a policy requiring a signature from myself or the store manager otherwise we accept no responsibility for an order.

It’s my money at risk so I have every right to set the terms.

The best approach, of course, is to place orders only through your Point of Sale software.  Some suppliers conveniently do not accept this.

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Newsagent suppliers

Diabetic Living and Weight Watcher’s magazine co-location tip

diabetic-weight1.JPGWeight Watchers and Diabetic Living both respond well to co-location.  So, in addition to prominent placement in the health section of our magazine department, we give each title two pockets above popular weeklies.

This week, we have started Weight Watchers and Diabetic Living off above That’s Life and Take 5.  The placement switches on Monday when we place them above New Idea and Woman’s Day.

In the right situation, tactical co-location like this can result in more sales from the second location than the main location for a title.  This is certainly true for us with Diabetic Living.  This suggests that in our newsagency it is not as much a destination purchase as an impulse purchase.  there is where co-location reaps good rewards.

Co-location needs to be a considered tactic.  Considered in terms of the titles you co-locate, where you locate them and the duration of the co-location.  I have found that it is important to watch your customers and understand the parts of the magazine department which attracts the target shoppers.

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magazines

Greek newspapers popular

tanea.JPGWe have been ensuring that our Greek newspapers are in an easily seen and accessible location through the crisis which has brought Greece to a stand still over the last two weeks.  While we don’t want to profit from the misery of others, we are providing a valuable service to our Greek speaking community.  Foreign newspaper sales continue to grow more than sales of metropolitan dailies.  They are an important traffic generator and a valuable product category for us.

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Newsagency opportunities

Another coverup at The Age this week

age-feb9.JPGNo, fganistan is not a new country, despite what this newspaper headline looks like.

For the second time this week, The Age newspaper has covered its page one lead store with an ad, this time a house ad for subscriptions.  I feel sorry for the journalists and editors having their good work covered in this way.

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newspaper masthead desecration

Check Bowhunting Downunder

A colleague newsagents has alerted me that at least some copies of the latest issue of Bowhunting Downunder have a major print error and pages have been repeated throughout magazine – not all but most. Maybe check your stock.

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magazines

Newsagents still chasing money from NDD

I have heard from four newsagents this week who are chasing money owed from the now closed NDD magazine distribution business.  If you are chasing money, consider contacting IPMG, the parent of NDD.  You can reach them on: (02) 9469 5000 or my mail at PO Box 7000 Alexandria NSW 2015.

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magazine distribution

How does your Network Services account look?

I have heard from several newsagents who are facing a significantly higher than expected statement value from Network Services this month.

We are still seeing the impact of titles acquired from NDD, more than half of which have an utterly abysmal sell through – considerably below 50% for many of the titles.

We are also seeing an impact from delayed billing.I am told that you can see delay billed invoices as they appear with a Saturday date. While I am sure that newsagents appreciate the small cash flow benefit of delayed billing, there is frustration with challenges over early returning as well as needing to track that we will be billed down the track.

My biggest concern with Network invoices is the high cost of many of the old NDD titles. NDD closed because it was not a viable business.  Network picked up plenty of titles from this unviable business and continues to send then through to newsagents.  Newsagents are funding Network keeping its trucks full – it is a logistics company after all and full trucks has to be their core goal.

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magazine distribution

Yet another classifieds newspaper!

trader-mate.JPGWe received Trader Mate yesterday, another classifieds newspaper.  No question on whether we wanted, needed or had space for the title.  It just turned up.  This is a New South Wales publication trying to gain traction in Victoria, a marketplace already well served with free and paid for classifieds titles.  I really wish we had control over every new newspaper and magazine title so that we could choose if we wanted to invest our time, space and money into the venture. The current supply model assumes we will be willing investors.

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Newspapers

Promoting I Love Magazines

ilovemags2.JPGWe are promoting the ACP I Love Magazines promotion at the entrance to one of my stores with this display facing into the shopping mall.  While we are only two days in, I am tracking incremental business for Women’s Day and TV Week plus Grazia in one store.

I think that prime position placement is a key factor, prime position showing off the full cover, making browsing and the purchase choice easier.  While the prizes on offer draw attention, I don’t see them as the key factor in driving sales. However, I am not the customer so who knows.

We will move this I Love Magazines display to the other side of our entrance a couple of weeks in otherwise it will be lost like other displays which do not move.  With regular customers visiting several times each week, store blindness is a big challenge.

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magazines

The Age covers up bushfire coverage

age-feb08.JPGPeel back the advertisement which covers half of the front page of The Age newspaper today and you see the words respect and remember – referring to the two year anniversary of the Victorian bushfires.

I hope that the marketing people at The Age are happy with their cover up of editorial coverage of what is still a difficult event for so many Victorians.

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newspaper masthead desecration

New Fairfax CEO says print media companies must adapt

No surprise that Greg Hywood, the latest CEO at Fairfax, said on his appointment that print media businesses must adapt to the today’s conditions.  Newspaper publishers started publicly saying this, in the context of technology driven disruption, six years ago, in February 2005 in coverage in Business Week magazine.

What Hywood has said equally applies to us newsagents.  We must adapt if we are going to have a future.  How we adapt will depend on our local circumstances.  Plenty of newsagents are doing this already.  Not enough however.  More need to embrace new product categories to build a healthier overall margin.

Whereas in the past our channel has relied on suppliers for leadership, we have to find this within ourselves and the local, state and national levels.  Newsagents have to create their (our) own future.  Individually and collectively we must adapt … or die.

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Media disruption

Promoting the I Love Magazines campaign

ilovemags1.JPGWe have placed the I Love Magazines display unit at the entrance to each of my newsagencies.  With the TV and other media coverage for this ACP Magazines campaign, there is no other place for the unit, to ensure that we leverage maximum potential.  We are taking care over title placement and have trained our teams to ensure that the range is fresh and relevant throughout the consumer promotion.

Newsagents of every size ought to get behind this campaign.  It’s a free kick for us, promoting our channel, offering prizes to our customers and helping us feel relevant in today’s marketplace.

The other reason newsagents need to get behind this campaign is because we should be able to say I Love Magazines ourselves. While this campaign focuses on a range of titles from ACP, the whole department can benefit from new eyeballs looking over the range.

Now would be a good time for newsagents to:

  • Relay magazines.But do this seriously to give your magazine department a fresh look.
  • Drive a co-location strategy at the counter.
  • Re-train employees about your range.
  • Use top selling magazines in each category to signpost the category – this is called Beacon Branding.
  • Use top selling titles to help lower volume titles – see my earlier post today.
  • Promote your magazine range in your newsletter, on customer receipts and in other ways – your magazine range is probably one of your most important points of difference.

I urge every eligible newsagent to get behind I Love Magazines.  make the most of this opportunity.  Leverage the investment in promoting our channel to the fullest.  If we all do this then we amplify the benefits.

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magazines

Tactical placement can grow magazine sales

kitchenbathroom.JPGWe have placed the latest issue of Melbourne Kitchen + Bathroom Design next to the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. We want to use the excellent high sales of the second title to drive browsing and sales of the first.

Nothing smart in that when you think about it … except that not enough newsagents use the real-estate on either side of their top selling titles to drive sales of the lower selling titles.

If you are thoughtful about your placement, you can achieve some excellent incremental business as we are finding with the latest issue of Melbourne Kitchen + Bathroom Design.  It is a natural fit with Better Homes.

Newsagents who are growing magazine sales, yes there are some, are usually engaged in this type of thoughtful tactical placement.

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magazines

Great Better Homes and Gardens display unit

bhgstand-feb2011.JPGWe are fortunate to be among the newsagents who have received the excellent display unit for promoting Better Homes and Gardens.  Pacific Magazines always gets these display units right.  They are strong and easily assembled.  I love that they can be used in a variety of locations without impacting on floor space too much.  We will move the stand each week using it at the front of the store as well as other busy locations – some distance from where we have our Better Homes stock placed.  This unit is about achieving incremental business.

Since the units are expensive, they cannot be sent to everyone.  The best way to get this and other premium collateral is to go above and beyond for a title and to communicate with the publisher about this.

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magazines

Newsagent story on ABC TV today

The interview I recorded with the ABC on Thursday will run as part of the Midday report on ABC1 at 12 noon today – it was held over on Friday due to the story from Egypt.  We covered considerable ground in the interview which I hope hakes it to air.  I express concern about the number of newsagencies closing, the inequity in the magazine distribution model which sees us disadvantaged over other ,magazine retailers and the success entrepreneurial newsagents are having in embracing change.

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magazines

Promoting I Love Magazines

ilm.jpgWe are promoting the ACP I Love Magazines campaign with this coupon on customer receipts.  The coupon / ad is being included on all receipts for the duration of the promotion -directly from our newsagency software.  I love the campaign as it is designed to drive traffic to newsagencies.  The campaign encourages consumers to indulge their passion for magazines.  There are cash prizes for shoppers as well as for newsagents.  It’s  a terrific campaign to kick in now that the school year has started and we are all getting down to business.  Kudos to ACP for running this promotion and for providing participating newsagents with such an excellent range of collateral.

Newsagents using the Tower Systems software can download the coupon for free from the user area of Tower website. Other newsagents who want to use the coupon should email me and I will send it to them.

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magazine distribution

Greek cookbook selling well

greek-feb20111.JPGOkay we have had a few days promoting the new Greek cookbook from ACP in several tactical ways.  I blogged last week that I expected this new cookbook to sell well.  It is.  The counter approach is working particularly well, generating some good impulse business.  You can see from the photo that one of my stores has it as their Magazine of the Week.  This counter placement follows the principles outlined in my blog post yesterday – an un-cluttered counter with feature items given appropriate space and placement to shine.  It’s nice weeing someone add this cookbook to their existing purchases when they reach the counter.  It certainly says something about the value of what can be sold on impulse at a newsagency sales counter.

I’d encourage newsagents to give this title a go in tactical locations, in addition to placement with the ACP cookbook range.

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magazines

Promoting GQ and the sports bag

gq-feb2011.JPGDespite my whinge here about the size of the sports bag with the latest issue of GQ magazine, the creative team at one of my stores put up this excellent display.

The display looks terrific and draws your eyes as you enter the store.

I especially like that it is promoting a good value deal … better value than a magazine with a free cookbook which I see too often at the moment.  Well done to the team members who created this display!

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magazines

Great newsagent sales counter offer: nail files

counteroffer-nails.JPGWe continue to enjoy good success selling nail files at the counter of a couple of my newsagencies.  Granted, these are cute looking fashion items, not your traditional nail file.  They are an easy item to add to an existing purchase, often using up loose change.  They are great for us in that they deliver a 50% margin.  A nice add on to a newspaper or a magazine sale.

Too often newsagents clutter their counters with products which suppliers request be placed at the counter.  Every item in such a prime location should be there because it is delivering the premium financial return befitting the premium nature of the space.

We give a new product a week.  If there is sales movement, it stays.  If there is no movement, it is either moved to a different counter location or elsewhere in the shop.

At the counter we have had tremendous success with: lip gloss, nail files, key rings, seasonal pens, novelty items, seasonal candy, branded stationery items being promoted in high rotation on TV and items which connect with news of the day – such as a shredder connecting with identity theft.

These are just some of the counter opportunities for newsagents. The keys are to have a crack … you will soon find what works for you.  Don’t obsess about the ticket price.  For example, something which sell for $1.00 and which has a 50% margin is great value if added to a newspaper sale.  You are doubling your dollar margin (depending on your location and situation) for less than double the sale value.

Look at your counter from where your customer stands.  Be critical about it.  De-clutter – by taking EVERYTHING off and rebuilding.

Remember, you own the counter, you ought to control what is placed there.

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Counter offers

Oprah Winfrey goes nuts for the iPad

Paid Content reports on Oprah Winfrey going nuts over the iPad on a show broadcast a couple of days ago in the US.

This is exactly what happened with the iPod.  Early adopters were gen. Y, geeks and the like.  Once mainstream people, the Oprah type audience connected, the new music distribution and play channel was established.  A while after that, music producers got it.  Then, some retailers got it.

Of course, the Oprah iPad hype is all staged and, I suspect, driven by big bucks from sponsors.  However, so was the push of the iPod.

It doesn’t matter what newsagents think about the iPad, Oprah has blessed it again.  We all know what her blessing of some novels did for their sales.

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magazines

Magazine newsstand sales decline in the US

Advertising Age in the US is reporting a decline in US newsstand sales of magazines in the second half of last year.

Magazine subscriptions and overall audiences usually grow or at least hold up from year to year, but their continued newsstand weakness is worrisome because advertisers consider single-copy sales a gauge of consumer demand while publishers use newsstands to attract potential subscribers.

Then there is this interesting par about the channel:

Conde Nast, where newsstand sales decreased 10.3%, stressed as it has in the past that it is increasing cover prices and abandoning inefficient newsstand outlets in a successful bid to make its newsstand sales more profitable overall.

While our market magazine retail channels are different to the US and consumer engagement with magazines equally different, the latest newsagency sales benchmark study suggests we ended 2010 with some challenging numbers.

Newsagents can read this and worry or they can be proactive.  There are plenty of proactive steps we can take in our businesses to show up and even grow magazine sales.  While some of the steps we can take are challenges by poor decisions and damaging actions by magazine distributors, doing nothing will increase the pain from the decline.

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magazine distribution

The Monthly looks very royal

monthlyfeb2011.JPGThe Monthly has a terrific cover this issue featuring the Queen.  The whole cover need to be seen for it to work.  This is one reason we have it located in a pocket above our newspapers.  The other reason we have it in a high-traffic area is that we sell a lot of British magazines including Majesty and all the UK weeklies.  This beautiful cover will appeal to some of those customers.

Newsagents will be interested in the latest issue of The Monthly for more than the article about the British royal family.  Margaret Simons has an excellent article about about Fairfax. It’s a must-read for newsagents and those interested in publishing in Australia.

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magazines

Why we need Sales Based Replenishment for all titles

caloriecounters.JPGGordon and Gotch is taking too long to introduce its Sales Based Replenishment model.  Newsagents continue to get treated as warehouses and cash cows.  Check out the Alan Baroushek’s Calorie, Fat & Carbohydrate Counter and The Pocket Food & Exercise Diary.

Both products have an on-sale of a year!

Rather than sending a single display unit based on sales history and topping up as we get close to selling our, Gordon and Gotch loaded us with too much stock.  Taking up valuable retail space (or creating a storage problem) and sucking our cash long before they should.

Newsagents, the weakest link in the magazine distribution model are once again carrying more than their fare share of financial burden here.  If the publisher wants to print enough stock to last a year they should carry the cost of warehousing and distributing that stock based on need.  They have the data.

Supermarkets and some other retailers would not put up with this.  They do not put up with this.  Why do newsagents?

With 65% of magazines cash-flow negative, effectively losing money for us, we have the financial incentive to control our key asset, our retail network. All we lack are a plan and will.  More fool us.

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magazine distribution

Promoting the AFL Record Preview

aflrecord2011.JPGWe are promoting the AFL Record Preview between our daily newspapers for a few days.  There’s no other place for it than this tactical location … to get the maximum impulse potential from the title.  Sales yesterday were good – as were all magazines sales.

It’s good that school holidays are over.  Now we can get down to the regular habit-based business which is so vital to newsagencies.

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magazines

TV interview on magazines and newsagencies

The ABC is running an interview on their Midday Report news program on ABC1 today at noon on newsagencies, the GFC and magazines.  I filmed an interview with them late yesterday.  It is good to see mainstream media interested in the challenges and opportunities facing newsagents.

Not sure how much of what was discussed will make it to air – there was a good discussion about how newsagents are treated by suppliers compared to supermarkets and others and the challenges we face from the current supply model.

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magazine distribution
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