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Newsagents love Gotch magazine supply initiative

Last year, Tower Systems, my software company, introduced a magazine supply adjustment initiative with Gordon and Gotch.  It allowed newsagents to make adjustments at a more logical time and place in the business than any other adjustment opportunity available to newsagents.

At the recent round of Tower Newsagent user meetings newsagents have told me how much they like the facility.  By eliminating the need to call the call centre or use a website, they like being able to see the need for an adjustment, action it immediately and receive confirmation from Gotch.  In a couple of cases they say this is saving an hour a week.

The mission for all newsagency software companies is to focus on time saving opportunities.  Cutting the time involved in managing magazines is crucial to the viability of magazines in our newsagencies.

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magazine distribution

Not another kitchen magazine!

classic_kitchens.JPGUniversal Magazines is using the goodwill (or apathy) of newsagents with the launch of a new title (for us at least) yesterday. Classic Kitchens arrived in-store and required re-jig of space allocation to make way for this new title. Like other Universal Magazine titles, we received too many copies and are expected to keep these for three months. You won’t see this title in our major competitors because they are smart enough to dictate their own terms. We are not so smart.

I expect that Classic Kitchens will be loss making for all but a few newsagents, probably forever. The supply model – volume and long on sale – make it cash flow negative, especially in a shopping centre situation where you are paying more than $1,000 per square metre in rent.

While Universal may have used sales of other titles to determine the scale out for this new title, such a model does not take into account the limited space in newsagencies nor the cash flow costs of servicing a new title.

The only way newsagents will stop this is if we take control of our network and introduce a gatekeeper, a magazine czar as I have written previously.  We need Universal to jump through hoops before supplying a title to a newsagency for the first time.  The current magazine distribution system is too easy.

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magazine distribution

Good iTunes card sales at the counter

We are finding iTunes cards are an easy to offer item at the counter.  Having a display at the register is key to getting this impulse purchase business and extending the value of the basket.  Look at the supermarkets, they have iTunes at each register for a reason.

Greeting cards are the items most often purchased with iTunes cards.

Adding a $50 iTunes sale to a $4.95 card makes it a considerably more valuable sale without having to carry stock.

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Newsagency opportunities

Covering Dynamic Business

dynamic_business_cover.JPGThe cover of the latest issue of Dynamic Business magazine (out today) is partially obstructed by a post-it type for Telstra stuck on the cover. While it’s for a good cause – the Telstra small business awards, it’s a pity to see the cover of a magazine obstructed in this way.  My other concern with this issue is that our supply has been increased withoutjustification.

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magazine distribution

Doubling supply of Farms & Farm Machinery

farms_machinery.JPGI’d be interesting in hearing from newsagents about their supply of the latest issue of Farms & Farm Machinery which came out today. Our supply was doubled (from four copies to eight) without any justification in our sales history. I can’t see any reason for the increase in supply.

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magazines

Coles selling laptops

I noticed in a Coles supermarket recently that they are selling Acer laptops.  This is the Aldi effect.  Aldi pioneered selling items like laptops, DVD players and the like in their supermarket aisles.  Now, it seems, Coles wants in on the opportunity.

While newsagents tend to stay away from these items, I know of several who are having good success with these.  In Western Australia a couple of weeks ago one enterprising newsagent told me of the great success he was having with DVD players, printers and a range of electrical items for the office.  he has made some smart moves and is reaping good rewards.

It all comes down to finding out what is possible in your business.  We find out what is possible by playing outsidethe traditional newsagency model.  Who’d have thought thatwe could sell more ink than regular stationery in our businesses?

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Newsagency opportunities

Tiger Woods on Vanity Fair, finally

tiger_woods.jpgWe are giving the long awaited Vanity Fair issue with Tiger Woods on the cover feature treatment with placement above our newspapers.  It’s not a magazine many of our customers hunt for so it makes sense to get the cover in front of as many eyeballs as possible given the news coverage of Tiger over the last three months.

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magazines

March newsletter promotes a range of products

newsletter_mar2010.jpgClick here to see a copy of our March 2010 in-store newsletter. We distribute this from a stand at the front of the shop as well as to customers when they shop with us. The newsletter features products which are promoted elsewhere in the business – either in catalogues or on the in-store radio. It covers various categories – key to balancing the business.  We also have a version of the newsletter which we use for email marketing to our database.

We started producing an in-store newsletter many years ago. We have found it to be a useful part of our marketing plan.

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newsagency marketing

St Patrick’s Day products in Frankston

frank_stpats.jpegOur team at Frankston is enjoying excellent success with their St Patrick’s Day display. It’s looking a bit thin now with hats, glasses and other items selling well. While St Patrick’s Day is a tiny season, seizing all of these opportunities makes us to go-to place for them. It’s a good point of difference which customers will remember.

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Newsagency opportunities

Interesting approach to bagged magazines

A newsagent in Sydney places all bagged magazines together where possible.  In the motoring area, for example, they had a row of eight bagged titles.  Some were away from other titles in their segment – motor cycles for example.  Each title was given a single facing.  I liked the look and the idea of connecting bagged magazines in this way.

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magazines

Managing magazine space allocation

We take care in managing space allocation for the top selling magazine titles in each category. We push back against a (deliberate or unintended) land grab by a publisher which may give them an unfair advantage. If a title is packaged with free products we work hard to ensure that its competitors are allocated the same number of facings in its regular location – even though it may get extra attention in a feature display.

With more magazines including free gifts, or so it seems, managing space allocation is a challenge. If left unchecked, some titles will get more space just to accommodate the larger packaging. While this helps their sales, it hurts competitor titles and this would not aid the health of the overall magazine department.
We need to be thinking of the whole category or department in our space allocation. We need to balance space so that all key titles have a fair shot.

I’d encourage newsagents to walk through their magazine department and look at space allocation. Are there titles being given more space than competitors because of the space required to accommodate the free gifts? If so, pull the space allocation back to give all key titles in a category a fair shot.  You are paying the rent after all.

The health of the magazine department in our businesses is reliant, in part, on the balance of the mix of titles. Our space allocation decisions can alter impression shoppers have of our mix. Hence the need for us to make sure that we are allocating space based on what we want to achieve and not just to accommodate gifts which are packaged with a title.

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magazines

Promoting Easter in the newsagency window

fhn_easter_window_2010.JPGWe are promoting our Easter range of chocolates, soft plush and gifts in our window facing into the mall at Forest Hill. We also have the three prizes up for grabs in our easter colouring competition on display in the window.  We have four additional Easter displays in the shop.  Over the last five years we have grown Easter significantly.  While cards and eggs are the top selling categories, we are seeing excellent growth in gifts and and books.  It’s in our top five seasons of the year thanks to hard work from our store team and suppliers who support us.

Our book sale catalogue draws plenty of new traffic and our brilliant product displays drive the effiency of this traffic for us.

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visual merchandising

Promoting Cosmopolitan magazine

fhn_cosmo_mar2010.JPGWe are promoting Cosmopolitan magazine to shoppers as they leave our busiest magazine aisle. This location, on the back of an ACP magazines stand, has been a successful location for us. Toward the top of the display is an acrylic shelf off of which customers can purchase the title.

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magazines

Debate at LA Times re newspaper front page ad

It is interesting reading about the debate at the Los Angeles Times about the placement of an ad covering the front page of the newspaper in the context of regular ad placement on and over the front page here in Australia by Fairfax newspapers.  There is plenty of coverage by the LA Times move.  See the New York Times, CNN, Reuters and The Huffington Post.

While the LA Times as is different in that is fakes a front page, the principle is the same when the newspaper masthead is incorporated in an ad or it and or editorial is covered by an ad.

How can we expect the public to trust and respect a news medium when the publishers do not?

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newspaper masthead desecration

St Patrick’s Day cards sell well

st_patricks_day_cards.JPGOur St Patrick’s Day cards are selling very well, especially this past weekend. One customer purchased eight cards.  They came in to buy a newspaper and left with $31.00 worth of cards. The other items (hats, glasses, stcikers) in our display are also selling well, demonstrating that a minor season can be valuable for the business.  We have all St Patrick’s Day products in the one display unit.

Newsagencies can be the go-to places for all of these minor seasons.  There is excellent money to be made.  If only more in the channel embraced the opportunities.

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Greeting Cards

The opportunity of People’s Friend missing again

boyle_peoplesfriend.JPGPeople’s Friend did not arrive on Friday (again!) so we pinched twenty copies from one of our other stores. This did not even fill putaway requests. Gotch tells us that we will have our stock on Monday. In the meantime we placed the Susan Boyle book where we usually put People’s Friend. She is Scottish and probably appeals to the People’s Friend audience. Selling one or two copies of the book will soften the frustration at not getting People’s Friend.

I mention this today as an example of how we try and mitigate supply misfortune with a popular title by placing another product which appeals to the same shoppers. Sometimes it works while other times it does not. Banking the results from sometimes is better than leaving the space empty and getting nothing.

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magazine distribution

Magazine promotion drives Better Homes sales

fhn_bhg_mar10.JPGThe considerable promotional work we have done for Better Homes and Gardens over the last four days (see here and here as well as the display in the photo – this is near the entrance to our shop) has paid off well.  Comparing sales for the first four days of this issue with the first four days of recent issues, sales are up more than 125%. We are thrilled.

Some newsagents think that investing resources into magazines is a waste.  I disagree.  The success we are experiencing with BHG is proof of the financial payoff.  This is a profitable title and even more so this issue for us.  We have similar evidence with plenty of other titles.

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magazines

Rolling Stone responds to promotion

Our Rolling Stone promotion is working very well.  A 50% sell through in two days.  It was interesting watching customers buying their newspaper today.  Tow who came in to buy a newspaper left with this and a copy of Rolling Stone.  One even mentioned that he had never bought it before.

I hope other newsagents have it placed next to their newspapers.

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magazines
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