One of our team cleverly placed the TV Week diary next to the magazine this week. It stands to reason that people buying the TV Week magazine are likely to buy branded diary from here than specifically look for it in our diary range. Hopefully the logic pays off and we see early sales.
Is it just my experience or are others finding that the sell through rate for NW magazine is such that the title is loss making? Weeklies should have a sell through rate of 75% or above. NW is nowhere near this. I was surprised, therefore to see a supply increase this morning considering the poor sales data we have for this title.
MOBILE carriers could become virtual newsagents following a world-first deal.
So starts a report from Lara Sinclair in The Australian newspaper this morning outlining a deal which will see Optus promote a subscription to The Australian to customers who sign up for a Samsung Galaxy Tab device on a 12 or 24 month plan.
This is a logical and smart partnership between Optus, News Limited and Samsung. Others will follow. I suspect that some newsagents will be angry at News. The reality is that News is doing what it needs to do.
The question for every newsagent: what are you doing to reinvent your business?
We are continuing our environmental push with the active promotion of the Kyoto carbon neutral range fof 2011 diaries from Collins Debden. Our push last year has paid off with customers coming in specifically to purchase a Kyoto diary from us. It is good to see shoppers making such a conscious choice. This year, we have the Kyoto diaries on our dance floor in a high traffic location.
The increase in the home delivery fee for The Age newspaper which takes effect from today will be welcome by distribution newsagents. That said, the model where the supplier of a service does not get to set their own fees based on operating costs and fair margin is out of date.
The Age yesterday published an excellent report on brain fitness and how completing crosswords and other puzzles can help combat dementia or Alzheimer’s. This is an excellent report to cut out and display next to your crossword magazine section. It is also worth sharing with staff so that they have more information with which to help drive crossword sales.
The report also promoted the Brain Fitness Challenge bring run by Florey Neuroscience Institutes. This is a team based online competition involving cognitive challenges. It is part awareness on brain health and part fundraising for the Institute.
With brain experts advocating more attention to brain fitness, newsagencies could become as important in this area as gyms are to physical fitness and Jenny Craig, Lite n Easy etc. are to weight loss.
Fairfax announced a newspaper home delivery fee increase for The Age late on Friday and as a result sent newsagents seeking out assistance on how to handle this with their newsagency software. They could have saved work for newsagents and software companies which provide weekend support by releasing instructions for implementing the delivery increase with their announcement of the rise.
The rise itself is good news for distribution newsagents, especially for customers they have acquired for themselves.
The Australian Women’s Weekly from ACP magazines has been named Magazine of the Year at the second Australian Magazine Awards. Runner’s up were Better Homes and Gardens and Vogue Australia. MasterChef won the launch of the year.
While I like the AWW sales volume and the changes they have made to the product, my choice of magazine of this year is Frankie. This is based on sales growth, efficient sell through and the customers it attracts to my business.
Alan Rusbridger the editor of The Guardian newspaper was interviewed on ABC radio’s PM program last night, talking about the fututure of newspapers and the success (or otherwise) of paywalls. Click here to hear an extended version of this fascinating interview including this quote:
The question is whether you believe that print is going to be that resilient. If you do then, you know, then I’m the last person to be saying that you should be bailing out of print but when you look at the, in Britain and American and most of Europe, you look at the slide in circulation, you just have to question the long-term survivability of print.
Newsagents, distribution and retail, must be thinking about these same issues as they plan for the future.
Alan Rusbridger is coming to Australia later this month to present the Andrew Olle media lecture on November 19th.
Wired magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson has pioneered new channels for his content, leading the way to the iPad. His attention has turned to Apps as a new model. Business Insider has published a fascinating interview with Chris Anderson about his plans.
This display of gifts for teachers at our counter is generating good interest. We have it placed next to graduation gifts. These teacher gifts are ideal for primary and low to mid high school. They are at a good price point – an easy impulse purchase decision.
End of year teacher gifts are another opportunity for leveraging better business from our good existing traffic.
According to a report in today’s Australian Financial Review, News Corp. is to launch a new national iPad (and similar) only newspaper for $1 a week. This was forecast months ago and is apparently now close to launch.
Bank Guarantees are a regular part of a newsagency business, indeed any small business. In our channel, landlords and some suppliers require them to reduce their financial risk in the event of an insolvency event. For example, every newsagent would have a bank guarantee lodged with Network Services.
Prior to the Global Financial Crisis, a Bank Guarantee was fairly straightforward to obtain. Your bank would usually write the guarantee based on your overall position with them. That all changed last year as the impact of the GFC reverberated through Australian banks.
Today, most major banks require Bank Guarantees to be backed by cash on deposit or 100% securitisation with property where only up to 60% (or thereabouts) of the bank valuation of the property can be used.
In addition to tougher rules, the fees associated with Bank Guarantees have increased. One major bank dealing with newsagents has increased annual Bank Guarantees by 400%.
These one relatively cheap instruments of protection for creditors are now quite expensive. Which brings me to my core point…
The cost to the newsagency channel of the Network Services required Bank Guarantees has increased dramatically over the last two years. This is an additional cost we need to factor into our assessment of the profitability of the magazine department.
I would like to see the use of Bank Guarantees reduced for products over which we do not have reasonable control over our level of indebtedness – such as magazines. Such a move could free tens of millions of dollars for the newsagency channel.
We are developing a poster at my newsagency software company promoting magazines as a Christmas gift. The image to the left is where we are currently at. We hope to have the artwork completed next week and available through this blog and elsewhere. Last year, our Christmas magazine poster was downloaded 300+ times.
Magazines make an excellent give as they cater to known special interests. We have the opportunity to sell single copies as well as several issues in a row as a putaway.
The poster is as much for newsagency employees as it is for shoppers. I think that we sometimes forget that we have plenty of items available, like magazines, which will appeal as Christmas gifts.
I know I bang on here about the inequity of the magazine supply model. That does not stop me from embracing every opportunity I can think of to drive magazine sales.
I was disappointed to receive the Australian Women’s Weekly and Good Health double pack priced at $10.95 on Wednesday when we still had more than half our AWW stock and had just that day received the new issue of Good Health. My view is that these now regular discount offers from ACP are training customers to not pay full price for magazines.
The other issue with the offers is that my stock holding increases for what appears to be no commensurate increased in return on inventory investment.
Also, customers considering the discounted pack will often still browse the full price products before making a purchase decision.
I created a successful loyalty program for the magazine department which focuses on the whole department. This program is now widely used in the newsagency channel. It is designed to get customers spending more on magazines. It does not target any specific publisher. These title specific promotions do not focus on the whole magazine department.
I understand why ACP does it. I am under no contractual obligation to like it.
I have now reviewed the magazine sell through data I have been sent by 175 newsagencies. This unprecedented pool of data along with the newsagency sales benchmark data as well as magazine cash flow data combines to provide an extraordinary view of the performance of the current magazine supply model on newsagencies.
I have spoken to two government organisations about how the data could be used. I am also seeking independent advice and should have this in the next week or so.
My next update will be to the newsagents who have shared the data and I hope that it will outline a possible course of action.
The number of newsagencies offering the ABC Shop range within their stores is growing. Those I speak with tell me that sales are excellent. The most successful I have seen recently are in newsagencies in rural and regional situations.
The ABC Shop franchise appears to be well managed and the appointment of ourlets well controlled. This is a significant benefit to the newsagents who take it on – both in day to day trading and when it comes time to sell the business and determine a goodwill value.
I mention the ABC Shop opportunity today since plenty of newsagents are looking at diversification alternatives.
Yesterday, we were subject to a 71% increase in supply of FourFourTwo magazine without justification. Over the previous four issues, starting with the oldest, we have sold 1, 4, 1 and 2 copies. Yesterday, Network Services increased our supply from 7 copies to 12 copies.
The attack dogs of the Network Services accounts department demonstrate no interest in newsagent concerns about oversupply, all they want is ‘their’ money. The only reason they can claim that it is ‘their’ money is because of what they supply. What I saw yesterday in one of my own stores with FourFourTwo is a good example unjustified over supply.
With Netonline not providing newsagents with fair and reasonable mechanisms through which we can control supply, and with early returns carrying a high labour and freight charge, sometimes late payment of the Network account is the only option for newsagents.
If Network really cared about the wellbeing of the newsagency channel they would invest time in running numbers, numbers like those I have been running in newsagencies over recent weeks. They would see that outside of ACP titles, many newsagents achieve a sell through of 40% or less. They would agree to minimum performance criteria and they would compensate newsagents for titles which do not meet this.
Yes, we early returned excess supply of FourFourTwo. That is not the point. The crime should never have been committed in the first place.
For reasons which escape me, our supply of F1 Racing magazine has been increased. I see no justification in our sales data whatsoever. Looking at the issue, there is nothing special inside to warrant a supply kick. These types of decisions by magazine distributors ought to have consequences for them. Instead, they have financial consequences for us.
Check out this interview from MediaBistro with John Lima, CEO of ScrollMotion, the company behind the new Esquire magazine app.
This new digital channel is all about delivering a new experience, different to print.
We have had these App Magnets in for a week today and have sold 80% of our initial stock. We placed them at the counter, in an excellent impulse purchase location.
Their success reinforces for me the value of existing good traffic in newsagencies and how careful buying is central to leveraging the traffic for good value impulse business. Their success also demonstrates the value of tactical placement over attractive displays for some products.
I thought Ralph magazine ceased publication dur to poor sales. This morning we received another Ralph related title which is apparently recycling Ralph content including photos of girls. While it may sell in some newsagencies, I don’t see it working in most. Call me a cynic but the girls of Ralph did not save Ralph so why roll them out now?
Now, more than ever, every magazine on our shelves need to pay its way. In a shopping centre newsagency this means 60% sell through or better. I am not expecting a 60% sell through for the Girls of Ralph.
Retail is tough in Australia right now, consumers are reducing discretionary spending and looking for deals on non discretionary spending. We feel this across our counters and we read about it in reports into the state of retail in Australia.
Thanks to the interest rate rise decision by the Reserve Bank yesterday and moves by the banks to pass on, at a premium in the case of the Commonwealth Bank shortly after the Reserve announcement, retail is set for a tougher than expected Christmas.
As I wrote here recently, I have seen signs of a nice kick in every day sales in newsagencies. Only time will tell if this is short lived.
Until yesterday I was anticipating a better Christmas than 2009 – that was a tough year because of the GFC fall out. Now I am not so sure. It all depends on how consumers react to the interest rates rise over the next few weeks.
I know that some newsagents will be devstated by the rate rise while others will not feel an impact at all.
Newsagents are more challenged in a tough retail environment than many retailers given the percentage of our traditional turnover which is from items over which we have little or no control of the selling price and given the limited control over our stock levels in the same product categories.
Now more than ever, I am focused on products which generate their own traffic, deliver better than average margin and over which I have far more control.
Creating a better Christmas includes better buying, better marketing, better in-store presentation and better selling.
Media Bistro, has published an interview with Doug Carlson, magazing director of Zinio, a digital magazine publishing platform. It’s a video newsagents and others involved with magazines will find fascinating.
Of course, Carlson is going to talk up the digital platforms. Here in Australia we are still a couple of years behind US trends but I suspact we are catching up fast.
We enjoy the opportunity of demonstrating our social conscience through the promotion of products in our newsagencies. Take the Amnesty International calendar. Making it a feature calendar for the week demonstrates our support for their work while at the same time providing an opportunity for supporters to support the cause. Yes, our support could be seen as commercially focused. However, if that were the case we would only promote calendars with cute dogs on the front as they sell the best. We have deliberately sourced a range of calendars which support causes about which we feel strongly. This calendar from Amnesty International is one from that range. We are proud to promote it.