A BBC Strategy Review released earlier this week lays out a plan to move away from physical media – magazines. This is, in part, in response to an assessment of changes in how news and information are being consumed.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out for BBC related titles which have local presences here: Top Gear and Good Food.
Staples released fourth quarter and full year 2009 results overnight. They show tough trading for this international stationery business. Staples owns Corporate Express in Australia. The numbers are interesting to newsagents and their wholesalers who want to understand international stationery trends and how a major retailer in this space is facing these trends. Their focus in the tough market is to drive internal efficiency and adpot a steady approach to growth.
Reports have intensified over the last twenty-fours hours about magazine publishers readying their titles for distribution through the new Apple iPad. Condé Nast is the focus of much of the attention. Read the latest report from Wired about this here.
While we appear to be removed from iPad innovation here, I suspect we are actually not that far off given the interest in the iPad device. All it will take is good early sales for publishers to invest in delivering content through the new platform. Indeed, if I were a publisher, I’d have money invested in this channel already – it is an important part of the mix.
ACP Magazines has announced that it has acquired recipes+ magazine. This provides ACP with coverage across the full range of food titles from premium to budget. Given the strength of food titles, this has to be a good move.
The NSW state government announced this morning that Tattersalls was the winning binner to operate NSW Lotteries. The government’s announcement specifically mentions newsagents:
Mr Roozendaal said the Government appreciated input from stakeholders, including newsagent associations and employee representatives, who provided valuable assistance during the transaction process.
The Government has worked hard with these key stakeholders to strike a balance between ensuring appropriate protection for newsagents and employees, and achieving the Government’s transaction objectives and a great outcome for NSW.
I see this as a good move, offering a single operator in most states. The opportunities for cross border offers are especially good.
I was interested to read the news that two off the three new Directors on the Fairfax board have Australia Post Board experience. I am cynical when it comes to public company boards. I see them as clubs where past positions are often leveraged to develop ties between businesses.
The Gift Fair at Darling Harbour and the Home and Giving Fair at Homebush in Sydney yesterday. Both are terrific events, packed with product, business merchandising and business management ideas which newsagents would find useful.
It was good to see many newsagents at the fairs.
If you can get to Sydney today, visiting both fairs would be well worthwhile. You will see excellent new product ideas.
Newsagents are successfully evolving their businesses into the gift space. The best place to start is at these trade shows. Even in our own newsagencies, gifts is one of the fastest growing departments. Why just a couple of weeks ago we sold a lamp priced at over $200 which we brought in as an experiment. It was on display for a couple of weeks.
The key with gifts when walking the trade show floor is to remember that you are not the customer.
We are about to sell out of these Easter ducks in all of our stores. The entire stock will be gone after just two weeks on the shop floor. They’re a good deal – a sound toy for under $10. The margin is healthy too. They make for a different Easter gift.
The key with a success like this is to not get too greedy next time. We are better off selling out than taking on too much stock and being left with that. We all know that story.
The ducks are like so many successful gifts in our stores, a value-priced gift targeting kids.
We gave over more counter space yesterday to the new range of AFL cards which arrived. We have placed the cards in the same location for years. Our sales keep increasing so it makes sense to not mess too much with what we do. This is probably due to the cards being at a kid friendly height. The key merchandising hange this year is the placement of the select albums in a dump bin next to the counter.
Harper’s Bazaar is a challenge to display this month thanks to the hair care product in a sealed pocket to the side of the magazine. This requires more than the usual width of shelf space but now two widths as is often the case with premium gifts. In the latter case we can flow them out and take a double pocket. With the latest Bazaar gift we had to cramp the pockets on either side. The other challenge for some stores in the side of the pair product. It does not fit into magazine pockets meaning fewer facings for this month.
The merchandising challenges aside, the package itself looks compelling and should sell well.
We are promoting Famous magazine at our main newspaper stand. Twilight fans buy anything connected with the franchise so we figured the poster could drive extra business for us. We will change the display on Wednesday.
The Age newspaper today covered half the front page with a house ad. This was obviously deemed more important to the company to the newspaper than the lead story of the day to the readers. Pity.
Greg Talbot, National Manager of Newspower, the largest newsagency marketing group in Australia, wrote to Newspower members last week expressing concern at reports of claims being made to Newspower members to get them to switch to another marketing group:
The claims of being able to offer massive increases on sales and profits are not supported by fact or substantiated by documentation.
Newsagents are doing it tough enough without having to deal with this type of rubbish and our industry would do well to reject, expose and remove those who say and do anything to achieve their end. Unfortunately, there have been too many examples of this type of behaviour in our industry over the years and too often, hard-working newsagents have been left to carry the financial burden of their lies and deceit.
newsXpress, the newsagency marketing group of which I am a Director, shares Greg’s concerns. We, too, have heard of wild claims of massive profits and of offers of cash inducements to newsagents if they switch marketing groups and card companies. We have heard that the promises are not put in writing and the obligations on newsagents if they do switch are not fully explained.
newsXpress and Newspower make it easy for newsagents to switch to another group because neither requires newsagents to sign a contract binding them to the group for five years. This easy get out holds newsXpress and Newspower more accountable to their members.
A locked in contract suggests, to me, that the group does not back their claims with action and thereby needs a contract to maintain numbers.
Aggressive marketing and cash inducements can divert newsagents from asking tough questions and wanting the claims documented.
A bag of cash today will do little to add value to your business when it comes time to sell. Newsagents are better off engaging with their marketing group, adding value, increasing profit and reaping the rewards through better goodwill when it comes time to sell.
We saw this last year with a series of good sales for newsXpress members in Queensland.
Last year, I co-wrote How to Choose a Newsagency Marketing Group. The advice in this document is good for any newsagent considering joining a marketing group. It is fair and not aimed at directing newsagents to any one group. Newsagents reading this document would be well prepared for the triple punch from the marketing group targeting newsagents at the moment ad documented in the Newspower letter.
There are two marketing groups in the newsagency channel which lock newsagents in for five years: Nextra and The Lucky Charm. Five years is a long time to be bound to a group if you are not happy.
The last time I saw this heavy-handed type of marketing to newsagents, it was being undertaken by Bill Express. Two of the people involved then are involved in promoting one of the marketing groups today.
Newsagents should be suspicious of high-pressure heavy handed marketing where claims and promises are not put in writing. They should be on alert when the marketing pitch for a marketing group, or any supplier for that matter, is more about attacking the competition than pitching and documenting their offer. The lack of documentation around the Bill Express claims made it challenging for many when newsagents wanted to get out.
Click here for a copy of Greg Talbot’s letter. I have his permission to make it available through this blog.
Ultimately, newsagents have to make their own choices. There is no rush. Take your time. Shop around. Start by working out what you want from your newsagency. Talk to other newsagents and decide what is right for you and your business today and for when you decide to sell.
I can be reached on 0418 321 338 if anyone wants to discuss this or any other post.
The display unit we received for Real Living from ACP Magazines is improving our sales of the magazine. The title was struggling (declining) for us. Since we started displaying it here and not in higher in the traditional magazine fixture pockets, sales have improved. We are now requesting an increase in supply given that the last issue sold out and this issue is set to sell out.
I was sceptical when I first the Real Living display unit as it challenged the approach of giving a title prominent space at eye level in maxing mixtures. Indeed, I was thinking about not using the unit at all because of the footprint required on the flat space.
Different magazines respond to different tactics in different retail businesses. Clearly, in our situation, Real Living responds well to the display unit. We plan to keep this in place – we have made sure we have the space available and there is no point in messing with something which is working so well against a poor 2009.
I’d note that House & Garden us usually in this display unit. It, too, is responding well to the consistent placement.
But I actually believe the experience that one has reading a magazine, sitting on a couch, in bed, on an airplane, wherever you choose to read, is a very different experience than just going online, finding out “I need to know x or y or z.”
This is Cathie Black, President of Heart Magazines, speaking in an excellent interview published by Forbes. She acknowldges the role for devices – the Kindle and iPad – yet reinforces the experience loved by many when interacting with a print magazine.
Our landlord at Forest Hill Chase is giving our ink promotion sign an excellent run in the centre. This week, the sign faces shoppers as they walk through the entrance near our shop. It is between us and Australia Post. In the background you can see Dick Smith. Aussie Post and Dick Smith are key competitors in the ink space.
We are given the space in the poster display unit for free. All we have to do is design and print the artwork (this was easy because we have newsXpress artwork). There are multiple locations in the centre where the posters are used – we are happy for placement anywhere. Attracting someone to the business to buy ink when they are in the centre is easier than getting them to actually visit the centre.
The poster works because it visually connects with the flyers we send to homes around our business and to the display of ink we have in store.
We are grateful for the free space from the landlord. We take up every opportunity for free marketing like this we can.
Today is National Magazine Day in the US. I am not sure that this is a national day or that the message that they are pitching is right.
Magazine Day: a celebration of magazines and attacking the stack of unread titles piling up next to your bathroom sink.
They are seeking people to get to a bookstore in San Francisco and browse, read and talk about magazines for the afternoon.
I love the idea of National Magazine Day but for me it needs to be about discovery: discovery of titles you never knew were covered, discovery of resources for hobbies which will help you enjoy your leisure time, discovery of the ultimate personal guilty-pleasure companion and discovery of the joys of the magazine department in Australian newsagencies.
In the UK they have run Magazine Week, a celebration with more structure than the US event today.
I’d like to see a Magazine Week here in Australia. I am sure that publishers and distributors could work together on this.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has reached agreement to purchase its rival, the Honolulu Advertiser. This continues a tred to one newspaper cities and towns in the US. read more on the Honolulu move here.
You’ll never need to pick up another newspaper.
I heard this on a Perth FM station last week when they were promoting an iPad as a prize for a competition. Their other comments were about how cool the technology was and that the iPad was the must have gadget.
I am not sure how I feel about this Steve Irwin limited edition collectible which we are offering in a few of our stores. I guess it will appeal fans of the Crocodile Hunter. It is raising funds for his Zoo and that’s a good thing. We the statue in the window and it’s certainly drawing attention.
I have been approached by an MBA student looking for numbers on bag sales versus wrapping paper over recent years. If you have anything to share, particularly on trends, please let me know.
I was at newsXpress Redcliffe in Queensland earlier this week and noticed this sign they had made and placed strategically around the store. I think it will act as an excellent theft deterrent. It stands out. It also looks professional, like they mean business. Research I have seen shows that people are less likely to steal if they think there is a reasonable change of them getting caught.
Further to the discussion here recently about Speedway Racing News, the Melbourne Observer shows how a publication can support newsagents. Every week they run this ad on page 3 or page 5. It encourages customers to use the newsagent putaway service and even includes a coupon for making the putaway request. The newspaper also lists newsagencies which stock the Melbourne Observer from time to time. This support is excellent, most welcome.
There are plenty of ways publishers can (and some, like the Observer, do) support newsagents. In their publications and on their websites it is easy to promote the channel which is key to their success.
While publishers have multiple revenue streams from their magazines – advertising, retail sales, subscriptions – newsagents only have retail sales. Naturally, we push back when we see our channel being used to promote other channels, especially in such a negative way as they did with Speedway Racing News. The Melbourne Observer offers a good model, promoting newsagencies prominently while still offering a direct subscription.
The National Library is looking for old issues of the Australian Women’s Weekly from when it was first published in 1933 to 1982. They are digitising the the magazine for future reference. Since we see more magazine buyers than any other single retail channel I figured that newsagents ought to know about this project.
The ABC has more on this story.