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

Tips for newsagents at Melbourne Airport

I am at Melbourne airport this morning heading to Perth for the day.  There are two new retail stores in the Qantas domestic terminal newsagents should see.  The Watermark business looks stunning.  It is a premium book retail offer which is inviting, easy to shop and very professional.  On the main concourse is the new Newslink shop.  This is another example of excellence by the people behind the business.  Well laid out and signed.  Again, easy to shop.

Both stores are well worth seeing.

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retail

Going out with Easter eggs

fhn_easter_10.JPGWe added Darrell Lea Easter eggs and a range of Easter gifts this week to the Easter cards we put out last week.  We have these at the front of our dance floor on our lease line.  Click on the photo for a larger version of the image.  While it is early to be selling eggs in volume, we know that having the range out now lets customers know we are in the space – so they think of us when they are ready to purchase.

Close by the egg display and the gifts (to the right in the photo), we have our Easter cards in front and out of shot.  This creates a nice Easter area which can be easily shopped – important for the shopper it attracts.  This placement drives efficient sales across the three categories.

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Gifts

Bagged magazines don’t increase sales

auto_salon_triple.JPGWhenever I criticise magazines bagged with old issues here I am usually contacted by a publisher or two who say that these bagged issues sell well.  I have been tracking this for a few months now and see no evidence of this.  Take the issue of Auto Salon which went off sale yesterday.  It was bagged with two old issues and did not sell any extra copies.  All it did was take up more space, frustrate browsers and frustrate me. So, until I see evidence, I don’t think magazines bagged with old issues sell any better than if they were not bagged at all.

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magazines

How sick is the magazine distribution model!

increased_supply.JPGI have two examples of a sick magazine distribution model.  They illustrate why newsagents get frustrated, especially when distributors chase newsagents for money yet they refuse to fix fundamental problems with contribute to cash flow challenges.  Healthy Food was increased last month because of a special offer.  It sold well.  This month we were cut to a point where we will sell out if we achieve average sales.  Ironman magazine, on the other hand, has been increased without any justification.

Guys, give me more of what I have shown I can sell and less of what I have shown I cannot sell.  It makes sense if you think about it.

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magazines

US magazines competing with Australian titles

prevention_usa.JPGGotch has increased our supply of the US version of Prevention magazine from three copies to five even though we donl;t sell our of the three we receive.  This is frustrating because we really want to focus on growing sales of the Australian edition of Prevention magazine.  This is far more important to us that the US edition.  these extra copies, while not beraking the back, take cash and space.  I can’t see any justification for the bump – even more so since Gotch handles distribution of the local edition.

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magazine distribution

Promoting Australian Women’s Weekly

fhn_aww_feb2410.JPGWe have gone out with a front-of-store promotion for the latest issue of the Australian Women’s Weekly from this morning.  It’s a nice looking cover and certain to drive good early sales.  More than 50% of our AWW sales are achieved in the first week.  This is why we prefer to go out strong on the morning of the on-sale rather than waiting for additional publisher collateral in the second week.

The display in the photo is out the front of our newsagency, in the mall.  we plan to leave it here for a week before locating it in a prominent position in-store next week.

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magazines

Promoting Girlfriend at the counter

fhn_girlfirend_mar10.JPGWe are promoting Girlfriend magazine at the counter for the next few along with a free cacharel perfume and mobile phone case.  We are part of a small trial participating in this offer.  Counter offers can be a challenge.  We feel good about this one as it offers good value gifts which appeal to the target consumer.

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magazines

Magazine distributor refuses mediation with newsagent

I have been talking with a newsagent colleague who has a dispute with a magazine distributor over the treatment of credits for returns. They have good documentation to support their case yet the distributor, acting as judge and jury, has refused their claim.

The newsagent, on my advice, took the matter to a state government arbitration process. This requires both sides to agree to independent mediation.

Many months on from the mediation application by the newsagent, the distributor has not responded. This has left the newsagent’s application for mediation in limbo.

This lack of response to an independent mediation is like commercial blackmail against the newsagent as the potential impact on their business of the issue not being resolved many many times the impact on the magazine distributor.

If the magazine distributor has nothing to hide they ought to submit themselves to mediation by an independent mediator. The only downside for them is that if they do agree it sets a precedent on their participation in a forum outside of their own processes for settling disputes on returns and other contentious issues. While I understand why they would not want to set such a precedent, they need to do this to demonstrate fairness.

While there are disputed magazine returns claims by newsagents which are dubious, many which I encounter are fair and deserve swift resolution in favour of the newsagent.

Some magazine distributors have a zero tolerance when it comes to account issues. Newsagents are not permitted the right to zero tolerance on misbehaviour by magazine distributors. I’ll explore that further in another blog post.

What the newsagent is seeking by requesting mediation through the state government arbitration process is to have the matter considered in a forum which is fair and equal to both sides. This is just. The apparent refusal of the distributor to participate is unjust.

For the distributor this is a small issue. They can afford to lose the account. For the newsagent it is a serious and expensive matter. It is this very issue which the federal government said it would address in its changes to the Trade Practices Act. Sadly, those changes were cut by the government last year. Small business is the poorer for this decision by the government.

Hopefully, the newsagent will get the matter discussed in front of the independent mediator as they seek. That this opportunity is blocked by the distributor ought to be of concern to all newsagents.

This experience should not stop newsagents taking magazine distributor issues to other forums such as the Consumer Tenancy and Traders Tribunal in NSW or the Small Business Commissioner in Victoria. We need to fight for our rights.

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magazine distribution

Apology from Speedway Racing News publisher

The publisher of Speedway Racing News magazine issued the following apology to newsagents this morning:

UNRESERVED APOLOGY TO NEWSAGENT OPERATORS

This post has been submitted due to the understandable backlash concerning a subscription advert appearing on the back cover of issue #401 of Speedway Racing News Magazine.

I am extremely concerned by what has transpired and suffice to say the subscription advert will never appear on the back cover again. In fact, if there is to be a subscription advert appear anywhere in the magazine again in the future, it will be significantly overhauled to ensure that newsagent operators around Australia are not offended by its contents.

I do wish to extend a sincere apology to all newsagents and I can assure you there will not be a repeat performance.

Everyone in business is entitled to make a mistake and that has been the case on this occasion.

It goes without saying this is a difficult business (producing a fortnightly niche title is no place for the feint hearted).

I also regret my initial response when a newsagent wrote to me to express their concern. Once again I was under enormous pressure at the time and would handle things differently given another opportunity.

I am extremely remorseful and hope that our valued partners at retail level stick with a title that has been around for 25 years (I have been the publisher for 12 of those years).

The thing that amazes me in this instance is the “personal nature” of some posts I have seen submitted relating to this issue. People that don’t even know me have posted, in some cases defamatory comments, that are grossly inaccurate. One would hope things will be kept in perspective going foward and individuals that have made an error in judgement are not character assassinated in a public forum.

To be blunt, our sales have been impacted on due to the “internet” in recent years; which I’m led to believe has had a negative effect on almost every title on the market. Therefore, we can ill afford to endure further losses in sales.

Once again I sincerely apologise to all stakeholders.

Regards

David Tapp
Publisher
Speedway Racing News Magazine

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magazines

A table is all it takes

gift_display.JPGThe table in the photo is from Ikea.  Its simplicity, elegance and flexibility make it one of our most favourite display fixtures.   It is easily extended, light and can be easily moved.  This table holds plenty of stock.  We can use it in our gift department or on our dance floor with other fixtures for sales.

The size of the table allows us to efficiently bring out a range offer like in the photo without cluttering the store or ruining sight lines.  It works much better for the product shown that a trestle table.

While there is a place for purpose built floor units, this simple table from Ikea shows that low-cost off-the-shelf units can also work well.

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Gifts

Farewell Krystal

untitled.jpgKrystal Forscutt has been a star on the pages of Zoo magazine for the last three to four years.  The cover of this week’s issue proclaims it’s her last time in the magazine.  We are promoting this issue, and its discounted cover price, at the exit of the men’s magazine aisle.  This display, the price cut and Krystal’s last appearance should generate incremental business.

I appreciate that Zoo does not take itself too seriously.   Not all of our customers share this appreciation – this is why we place it within the men’s aisle and not in a more public place.

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magazines

A different approach for Top Gear

fhn_topgear_feb2210.JPGWe are taking a different approach with Top Gear Australia this month.  We have created the display in the photo at the entrance to our main women’s magazine aisle.  We would usually place this display at the exit to our men’s magazine aisle but the broad appeal of the Top Gear franchise encourages us to take a broad approach to promoting the title.

The relaunch of the Top Gear TV show and the broad appeal of the characters guided us to change tack with how we promote the title in store. As the photo shows, we have tried to connect the display with the popular Stig character.

If we see sales over the next couple of days we will leave this display in place for a week.  I think this location will work well for the title.

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magazines

Promoting Woman’s Day at the counter

fhn_ed_feb2210.JPGWe are promoting Woman’s Day at the counter for the next few days.  It’s the last week of the free cookbook offer series so pitching this at the counter makes sense. We also have Woman’s Day on offer at our main lottery counter as well as the usual location with our weeklies.

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magazines

Why newsagents deserve Conroy largesse

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said the federal government decided to give the free to air TV networks a $250 million discount on licence fees because they are in terminal decline.  While the networks deny this (see The Australian report on this today), it’s what the government believes.

The challenges for newsagents are as great:

  • In 1999 the federal government facilitated the removal of the newsagent monopoly over the home delivery of newspapers.
  • During the 2000s some publishers and magazine distributors actively cultivated direct relationships with petrol, convenience and supermarket retail channels.
  • In 2009, new newspaper contracts further reduced the commercial security around distribution newsagencies.
  • Newsagents rely on printed products, newspapers and magazines, for more than half of all foot traffic.  This is stagnant and, in some niches, in steep decline thanks to new technology like e-readers and smart phones.
  • Devices like the iPad and, more importantly, what will follow, will seriously challenge the newsagency channel.
  • Environmental concerns are changing practices in newsagencies.
  • Newsagent suppliers have set a new benchmark on minimum standards.  To meet these standards, newsagents are having to increase their investment in business infrastructure.
  • To compete, newsagents are having to enter into new business areas.

Newsagencies are fundamentally changing and while this is good, it has a significant short to medium term cost.  The same as Conroy sees for the TV network.

Newsagents have a strong case when considering the Conroy benchmark for financial support.  Further, pharmacies in the 1990s set a precedent, receiving federal government compensation for channel consolidation.

A government concerned about small business would know this and would be on the front foot to offer support.  Instead, they focus on the big end of town.

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Media disruption

Women’s Health works at the counter

womens_health.JPGWomen’s Health has been a great success for us at the counter this past week. While we have had the magazine in four locations, 75% of copies sold were from this counter location. We pocket count so that we know where sales come from when we co-locate. While some of these may have been as result of the title being elsewhere, I suspect that most purchases have been on impulse on seeing the title on offer.

This is good to know. We will plan promotion of Women’s Health at the counter in the first week of on-sale for future issues.

Placement at the counter was made easier thanks to the counter unit we had from when the title first launched. We hoard these things and take good care of them for this use every so often.

There is an argument that brining title like this to the front of the shop reduces browsing. I think this would be true for some titles and in some store configurations. In our situation, I see many customers shop only the front 25% of the shop. Our co-location / counter strategies are about trying to build the efficiency for us of these shoppers.

We are careful in our selection of titles we place at the counter, near our newspaper stands and at the front of the shop. We support titles which are more likely to be purchased on impulse and or which have a compelling premium offer for this issue.

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magazines

Lucky shopper campaign works

While we did not find the “lucky shopper” I blogged about a month ago, we have noticed a considerable reduction in suspicious behaviour in the stores where theft was of most concern.

In one store we were encountering at least two potential shoplifting situations each day.  Now, we are seeing this once, maybe twice a week.

The lucky shopper approach is not the solution, but it is a useful tactic to employ from time to time.

It all comes down to risk.  Is they suspect there is a reasonable risk, they will not try it on.

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theft

Lottery sales up 17% year on year

Our lottery sales are up 17% in the last three months compared to the same period last year. We feel this is pretty good given that a year ago federal government stimulus money was still around. OzLotto was growing to $40 million and this was driving sales.

Some of our growth has been built around our syndicate business. This is developing well thanks to the efforts of our team at Forest Hill. The rest of the growth has come from regular sales.

Factors we feel have helped us achieve this 17% growth are:

  • Promotion of lottery products outside the dedicated lottery area.
  • Good traffic management – lottery customers like not having to wait for their purchase.
  • Menu based price offers for each game at each counter, even outside the lottery area.
  • Not forcing customers to buy only at the lottery counter.  We are happy to process lottery salesat any counter position.
  • Being open long hours. While most lottery outlets around us are closed on Thursday and Friday evenings and Sundays, we are open.
  • Cheerful customer service.
  • Happily doing payouts for larger amounts and for tickets not purchased from us.
  • Connecting with the theme of luck in a variety of ways.

Our growth numbers and how we achieve them are more important than running the business to rigid rules.  We are proud of the outcome we are achieving by being flexible and proactive.

I’d be interested in ideas from others as well as their growth percentage.

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Lotteries

Conroy defends $250 million gift to TV networks

Communication Minister Stephen Conroy was on the Jon Faine morning program on ABC Radio in Melbourne yesterday defending the federal government decision to hand $250 million in the form of licence discounts to the TV networks.  It made for interesting listening.  Click here to hear the whole interview.

Conroy pleads the case that the TV networks are going through considerable structural change and that the government should support them in this.

He also defends his regular meetings with heads of networks and other media outlets.

Newsagents are going through a more extensive and expensive structural change and the federal government, this one and the last one, is not offering any support.  In relative terms, the impact of structural change on newsagents is greater than the TV networks yet we don’t even get anywhere near the table for a discussion.

The best way for us to express our disappointment at the $250 million to TV networks and continued ignorance of the cost of structural change on our local family-run businesses is to write to our local members – regardless of their political colours.  I did this recently on another issue and received excellent support.

It is around this issue of the cost of structural change that the government has, through Conroy, articulated a precedent.  We can meet the ‘test’ laid down by Conroy and should therefore be in line for financial support to help us navigate structural change.

Listen to the interview and judge for yourself whether Conroy was successful in defending the government decision.

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Media disruption

Cat magnets sell out

cat_rocks.JPGThese Cat Magnets have sold our at the counter in less than two weeks at our newsXpress Forest Hill.  They are a good margin impulse purchase item.  While we would not usually order more of a counter offer, we have in this instance because of their popularity.  Sourced by our manager through Gibson Imports, they are a good example of pitching an impulse offer to your average shopper.  We only have them at one store – where we knew they would work.

The basket in the photo shows that a beautiful display is not always necessary to drive good sales.

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Gifts

Mini cookbook sale

cookbooks.JPGWe are running a mini cookbook sale on a table where will place Easter gifts and which held part of our Valentine’s Day display.  While the cookbook range is not big, it is enough to provide range and an offer.  The cookbooks are selling.  This display has the dual purpose of showing that we have a book offer in-between major book seasons.

I’d note that not all books on the table are discounted.  We also have our full price and popular kitchen and cookbook journals.

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Book retailing

A good iPad business model for news

Martin Langeveld writing at the Nieman Journalism Lab has written an excellent piece on business models for the iPad.  He works through challenges within publishing businesses on how to leverage the iPad.

I like the assumptions on which based his suggested strategies:

  1. The mobile web will be ubiquitous — upward of 70 percent of adults will be connected to the web on mobile platforms virtually all of their waking hours.
  2. All forms of media consumption will move to mobile platforms, especially the iPad and its competitors and successors, at an increasing rate.
  3. Marketers will shift their budgets to mobile platforms (and out of both newspapers and direct mail) at an increasing rate.
  4. Consumers will respond strongly to mobile pitches in the form of ads, video, social recommendations, online catalogues, deals-of-the day (like the explosively growing Groupon — an operation newspapers should be partnering with), and other channels yet to be invented.

Go to the article to read the strategies which flow from these assumptions.  They come down to a call to action to publishers to embrace devices like the iPad.  It or something like it is the next generation distribution channel.

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Media disruption

Publishers complain about BBC iPhone app

UK publishers are rallying against the BBC and the plans of the corporation to launch iPhone apps to provide easier mobile access to BBC content.

Every smart content providor, government owned or not, will be in the iPhone App space.  The challenge for commercial publishers is real as it is for us who live in the print world.

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magazines

Another People’s Friend screw up at Gotch

peoples_friend_weekly.JPGIn two of my stores this morning we received bulks of My Weekly labelled as People’s Friend magazine.  In each case, People’s Friend is in out top five weekly titles.  This screw up will leave many unhappy customers.  It will also make us look bad, again.  I say again because there have been regular People’s Friend supply issues ove the last year.

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magazine distribution

Food magazines strong in latest audit

Most food titles performed well in the latest audit.  From the high end to the supermarket connected titles, the food category delivered the best category level growth.

We saw this trend last year and created a column for co-locating food magazines as I blogged in June last year.  The column of food titles we integrated with our weekly magazines display has helped is drive excellent sales.

Now that the audit data is out newsagents have more reasons than ever to refresh their food title offer, ensuring it is in a good location and finding space for co-location strategies.

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magazines

Which is better: Holden or Ford?

holden_vs_ford.JPGThe Holden vs Ford cover for Australian Classic Car magazine, their 200th issue, is why we are promoting this at our main newspaper stand.  This quintessentially Australian debate should drive a good sales kick – that’s what we hope for at least. By placing the title with newspapers shoppers can see the Holden vs Ford pitch whereas in traditional magazine fixturing it is missed.  That said, it’s also in its regular location.

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magazines
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