ACP has announced a change to managing the return of cookbook titles. The next round of returns, due May 31, newsagents need to return via NetOnline of a supplementary return from their computer system. The list of titles up for return this round can be found by clicking here. This is the last opportunity newsagents have to return these titles so checking the shelves is vitally important.
We are pitching the new Macaroons & Biscuits Women’s Weekly cookbook next to the Australian Women’s Weekly as well as in our food section. I expect this title will do well for us – hence the high profile co-location decision. Co-location also helps us with a shortage of space for the now over-crowded food space. The attractive pastel cover stands out among the sea of brightly coloured magazines. The new seques of ACP cookbooks is working very well.
We have opportunistically placed Who next to newspapers because of the Carl Williams cover story. This story is BIG in Melbourne so I’d expect Who to pick up some extra sales – based on the cover alone. In addition to stock in a pocket above the Herald Sun, we’re using posters to draw attention to the title. We also have Who in its usual place as well as at one of our counter points.
Despite the recent increases in newspaper home delivery fees, I have heard from newsagents contemplating giving up their newspaper distribution runs. In a couple of cases I have looked at this week, the new fees still do not get the run to a break-even point.
I have advised several newsagents recently consider not giving up their runs since in their particular circumstances they would most likely miss the customer traffic and revenue from their lucrative sub agent business.
While the home delivery side of a newspaper run may be loss-making, in-store traffic to pay accounts and otherwise engage in run related activity and or sub agent business can make the overall distribution business profitable or least break even.
The home delivery database can be used to drive traffic through email and print newsletters as some newsagents already do with tremendous success.
Five or six reasonable size sub agents, nurtured and cultivated, can provide an excellent return for the time invested.
It is important to carefully do the numbers before giving up the distribution business. Have them checked over to ensure that you have covered all bases in your analysis. It may be that keeping the run is better for the business. You’d want to find this out before you make the move.
I know I have written here before about the downside of newspaper home delivery. My point with this post is to reinforce that each newsagency is different and that care needs to be taken to assess all factors before you make the decision for your business. As one newsagent has found out recently, a year after giving up the run, poor research can lead to a decision which hurts the business.
The last issue of Auto Salon goes on sale in newsagencies across Australia this morning. The publishers have printed two different covers. It’s a pity that newsagents will each receive only one version – some customers would have bought both as we often see with other titles with multiple covers. No matter, we will give the title a push to help it go out with a bang in our newsagencies.
With water the cover story on the latest issue of National Geographic, we placed it yesterday with our newspapers as well as in its usual location. The image will draw attention as much as the topic. We will maintain stock on the newspaper stand until Monday – longer if we’re getting a good sales result. National Geographic is one of those titles which can work on impulse with the right cover story.
The free umbrella with InStyle this month is proving to be a popular gift with our customers. We have given the magazine a power-end more to properly display the value gift with the title – regular magazine shelving does not do it justice. Sales have been good since the display went up Monday. In one of our shops the team opened the umbrella for the display – for a while at least until superstitious customers encouraged them to take it down.
Powerball did not go off tonight so we have a $30 million jackpot next week. This is great news and will drive a nice kick in traffic and sales from tomorrow on. We will make the most of the opportunity with more syndicates and a range in promotions. We are also leveraging the Powerball traffic with considered impulse opportunities presenting as they enter and leave the business.
Is it just me or has the gloss faded on AFL footy cards (all sets – the various stand alone packs as well as the packs tied to the Herald Sun) this year? Sales are down not only in my stores but in several others I have spoken with. I’d be interested in knowing how they are performing elsewhere. It could be that I am seeing a slower start to the card season.
I have been asked recently by several newsagents how we use the back of the ACP Magazines stand. The photo shows what we do – we are using the back of the stand to promote ACP’s Good Food title. We slip an acrylic easy-access shelf into one of the slots on the back of the unit – we have found the higher slot works better for us.
On the shelf we place the title being promoted on the posters and other collateral we stick on the back of the unit.
It is vitally important that shoppers can buy off of a display – otherwise the display is a billboard and the interest piqued by the display is lost.
We have been using the back of the ACP stand in this way for several years now. It gives us more display space which can be easily moved based on the title we are promoting. Changing the location of displays is also important to disrupt regular shopper’s expectations.
Guys spend more time browsing magazines in newsagencies than women. That’s my unscientific observation at least. Check out any newsagency on weekends, evenings and even weekdays and you are more likely to see guys browsing car magazines and sports magazines. So, I was surprised to see the latest issue of Alpha bagged when it turned up yesterday. They will say that giving away an old copy will drive sales. Maybe so, I doubt it, but maybe so – the bag will block browsing and I would have thought that advertisers would not like that. If I had my way magazines for guys would not be bagged.
While there are newsagents who discourage browsing, I am not on their side. Browsing is an important part of the newsagency shopping experience.
I am seeing the latest issue of Vanity Fair perform better than the previous issue which has a pumped up Tiger Woods on the cover. We are already ahead on sales and it is still early days in the on-sale for this issue. I am surprised as I expected the Tiger Woods issue to be a stand-out success … it just goes to show…
The Anzac Day cover on the Melbourne Observer this week will connect with our customers at Forest Hill so we have adjusted its position (with our main newspaper stand) to ensure that they see it.While the display itself is nothing special, the location is and that is what will make this work for us and the newspaper.
There is plenty of interest in Anzac Day yet not that much for people wanting to connect with the occasion until the newspapers on the day – except for the National War Memorial publication.
We are promoting the latest issue of Shape magazine in our women’s health section as well as with newspapers for the next few days. We will then move it to the counter. We’re chasing impulse purchases. With Pink being on the cover, the magazine demands being promoted in high-traffic areas. Pink’s tour of Australia was one of the most successful ever so leveraging that into impulse magazine sales makes sense to me.
When we see opportunities to promote titles outside their usual location based on the cover story and its connection with our customers we act. From what I see, not enough newsagents do this. I take it as my responsibility to look for these opportunities.
This is another reason putting out new magazines in the morning is specialist work and not something to be treated as menial.
If you carry Shape magazine, I’d encourage you to get the latest issue into a high traffic area.
US Office retailwer Office Depot is supporting Earth Day today is giving members of its Worklife Rewards® loyalty program 100% back on their purchases of green products. It’s a clever way to promote green credentials and drive business.
Henderson Greetings has released several ranges of boxed greeting cards. These Simon Elvin designed cards look sharp. They are a value offer – six cards for $9.95 – without looking cheap. We have had them out on the shop floor, on a gift table next to our card department, for just over a week and they are moving well.
Here in Australia we tend to do boxed cards only at Christmas time. I am hopeful that these and other boxed cards from Henderson show that they can work year round.
We were surprised to receive the Build Your Own Lancaster Bomber partwork series yesterday morning. All we received was stock – unannounced. No marketing collateral, no support at all. We are used to being given an opportunity to set our own quantities for partworks. This enables us to help them achieve maximum sell-through. The lack of support for this partwork is odd. Maybe they do really only want us to sell the first couple of issues to get subscriptions rolling. I hope not.
I was disappointed to see the full page ad promoting MasterChef magazine subscriptions in the MasterChef branded giveaway with the Herald Sun on the weekend. Don’t miss out on Issue 1 – Pre-order now! 6 ISSUES FOR ONLY $20. The ad said. A better approach would have been to promote newsagency putaways in the magazine. This would help garner newsagent support and let people warm to the magazine. Instead, the publisher is using a steep discount to get people to make a six-month commitment – these are people who won’t buy the magazine in a newsagency for the next six months.
While I accept that subscriptions are essential in the mix for magazine publishers, to go out prior to launch and not offering a similar newsagent-focused customer acquisition campaign is disappointing and frustrating.
The publisher can turn this around with a campaign designed to drive newsagency customers for MasterChef. A smart campaign will use the pages of the magazine to encourage in-store putaway.
These days, I am looking for publishers to do more than provide posters or offer a prize for the most attractive display. I want publishers to engage commercially in true partnership. I want them to show how much newsagents mean to them and to encourage a framework through which newsagents can show how much they like working with engaged publishers.
Publishers need to remember that we only make money out of what we sell.
We are promoting Real Living magazine in prime position at the counter for the next few days – even though it is not part the ACP Connections marketing program this. I decided to create the prime location display yesterday morning because Real Living sales are growing nicely for us. The last two issues have sold out and we have secured additional stock for this issue. I’d like to see how far we can push the title – hence the prime counter position.
We are promoting Women’s Health and Men’s Health together at the front of our newsagency. The majority of our lottery customers past this busy location. It is also seen by people leaving the shopping centre. We plan to leave both titles on display for a week. It’s a good move by Pacific Magazines to bring both titles out on the same day – they sit well next to each other in a feature display.
We are promoting Cleo and the free Bec & Bridge tote bag which comes with the magazine at the entrance to our women’s magazine aisle this week. We also have a considerable display of Cleo deeper in the aisle where the magazine is usually located. We have left our Good Food display on the rear of this stand as our view is that this is more likely to generate sales from this location than Cleo. We will leave the Cleo display up for a week at this stage.
Less than three hours after Carl Williams was bashed to death in Barwon Prison today, the Herald Sun had rejigged tomorrow’s print run and announced to newsagents a bump in supply to support the interest in the story. That will give him two cover stories in a row.
With both News and Fairfax announcing plans to apps for the new Apple iPad, maybe now newsagents will start to take notice of the emerging digital channel.
For years most newsagents have remained silent, even ignorant, of the new channel for news and information. As servants of publishers, magazine and newspaper, many Australian newsagents act as if their suppliers, those who created the channel in Victoria in the 1800s, would provide a future path.
The writing has been on the wall about news and information distribution for a long time. Back in 2005 the risk to our print centric channel became obvious:
“Within our lifetimes, the distribution of news and information is going to shift to broadband,” Sulzberger says. “We must enter the broadband world having mastered the three key skill sets — print, Internet, and video — because that’s what’s going to ensure the future of this news organization in the years ahead.” Arthur Sulzberger, Publisher, New York Times. Business Week, Jan. 17, 2005
This was the first time a major publisher has spoken so openly about the digital future. Rupert Murdoch joined in…
“So, media becomes like fast food – people will consume it on the go, watching news, sport and film clips as they travel to and from work on mobiles or handheld wireless devices..” Rupert Murdoch speaking at Worshipful Company of Stationers And Newspaper Makers, March 2006.
Fast forward to today and the message is clearer, more specific:
“If you have less newspapers and more of these [iPads] … it may well be the saving of the newspaper industry.” Rupert Murdoch, April 2010
Last week, The Australian announced the imminent launch of an iPad app. Today, The Australian reports that Fairfax has announced their iPad app plans.
Newspaper publishers are chasing this new channel. They say they are doing it while remaining focused on print. Revenue will determine how long they focus on print and digital for delivering the newspaper. Paper and distribution costs are high.
Once publishers can achieve the return they want from a digital platform the costs of the print model will come into focus.
While I am not predicting the end of print newspapers, I am suggesting that newsagents need to develop reflect the latest moves in their business plans.
The launch version of the iPad is not a newspaper killer. Maybe it will take several versions to get close to that experience. Maybe it won’t be the iPad at all. There are many devices being developed around the world in this digital news and information delivery channel space. The size of the competition is a testament to the scope of the challenge us print-centric newsagents face.
This is why we have to wean ourselves off print. We need to lead our own life away from our parent as it is possible they may leave the nest. They will deny this is an option as they should. However, we need to plan as if this will happen.
What would a newsagency look like without newspapers? Once you get over laughing at what you probably think is a ridiculous question, think about it.
Some newsagents would see a newsagency without newspapers as a business which is finally free. Others would see it as a business which is dying.
Of course, it won’t happen all at once. The importance of newspapers to newsagencies will face with time. Indeed, we have been seeing this for the last five years even though publishers and many newsagents would deny this.
The iPad is our call to action. It ought to be the topic newsagents and their associations ought to discuss. Its imminent launch here in Australia is the most significant challenge to the print distribution channel, the Australian newsagency channel, since we began.
In the 1800s the publisher of The Bulletin created Australia’s first newsagents because of the need to distribute product. Today, publishers are embracing the iPad because it looks like it may more efficienctly solve their distribution challenge in today’s world.
Unlike the 1800s, our future will come from within. These are exciting times.
We are promoting our latest ink offer through a two-page catalogue in thousands of letterboxes as well as in the shopping centre and some other external marketing initiatives. The result is a terrific sales spike.
You know you have a catalogue which works when customers bring it in with the items they want circled. In-store we connect with the promotion with flyers as well as shelf compelling price labels – as shown in the photo. This whole of business approach to a category pays off as we are seeing at the moment.
Too often, newsagents will engage in one tactic – an external ad or a flyer or a display in-store – without using this as one of several tactics to form a campaign. As we are seeing with ink right now, we can convert shoppers visiting for something else into an ink customer while at the same time attracting new customers because of our external marketing. Operating on multiple levels and attracting business from different customers makes it an efficient campaign.
Ink responds very well to marketing investment. There is plenty of market research around to indicate that consumers think newsagencies are expensive. We use it to promote that our newsagency is not expensive in this competitive category. Once we win a new customer on price they are highly likely to stay with us.
Sundays used to be a power day in the retail week. No longer it seems – not just based on data from my newsagencies but many I speak with, data from the last three months. Sunday trade is down this year while other days are up (Thursday and Friday).
The problem with the drop in Sunday day trade is that it’s the most expensive day of the week to be open. This is why most newsagents who have a choice, those not in major shopping centres, choose to not open.
We use the day to get work done which would otherwise be done during the week and make labour savings there. We need to do more though to make the day work. We’re contemplating Sunday offers and other tactics to make the day work better for us. They will focus on the higher margin products as it’s these which will pay the high operating costs.