The folks at The Age have deemed the HSBC Hot Summer sale to be more important than the lead news story in the newspaper today. Browsers are expected to pick up the newspaper based on the ad and not the lead story.
I feel for the editorial team who put in the hours on the lead story of the day. Being trumped for a buck would hurt.
The free travel bag which comes with the latest issue of Vogue, on-sale today, is a challenge to display. It will not work in regular magazine fixturing so we are displaying it in a feature space. To me, Vogue is a destination purchase. I have no evidence to support this, it’s just a hunch. The large bag means that our regular Vogue customers may miss the title. The other challenge is that the magazine is in a plastic bag with the free travel bag. This will frustrate browsers who enjoy flicking through Vogue.
The upside is that the free bag may drive some impulse business – I guess this is what the publisher wants. In an ideal world, I could see Vogue being supplied bagged as it has been with a copy un-bagged, a free travel bag and a purpose created stang to display the gift, the magazine and to house the stock for customers who wish to purchase. I appreciate the cost of this approach would be prohibitive. The problem with what he have this morning is that every newsagent will handle this differently and this may reflect poorly on the brand.
We’ll sell out of the official program for the Australian Open thanks to our co-location display of this with newspapers. We have sold more copies from this location and not the sports magazine location where it is often placed in newsagencies. Not every magazine works with newspapers – we choose titles carefully for this premium space. We have an acrylic pocket for a single title above our stack of The Age and the Herald Sun. It’s terrific seeing a newspaper customer purchase the tennis program on impulse.
I am told that this is the last week electronic invoices will be provided to newsagents still using the old XchangeIT platform. If XchnageIT moves proceed as planned, next Monday’s invoices will only be provided to newsagents through the new XchangeIT Link platform.
There will be no excuse for the small number of newsagents who have not made the move given the considerable coverage about the change throughout 2009.
Newsagents wanting to know more about complying with IT standards for magazines are welcome to book for the free Tower Systems online workshops on Magazine Management. To book, click on the workshop title.
Check out the report on the Skiff e-reader at geek.com. The Skiff is a black and white e-reader designed with magazine and newspaper like content in mind. It’s large screen and slim design make it appealing to road warriors – take the reader and you have hundreds of magazines and newspapers in less space. Click here to see it in 306 degree rotation.
2010 will be the year of the e-reader with major announcements set to hit regularly over the next few months.
While there will be a lag before they hit here, they will make it. Publishers say the e-readers will generate incremental business. I don’t full agree with this. Sure, they will drive some incremental business. They will also attract some consumers who purchase magazines and newspapers over the counter today.
We have placed Prevention and Good Health on display alongside our main newspaper stand because it’s the time of health and fitness resolutions. We see a significant change in customer traffic through school holidays – the opportunity for impulse purchases increases. Given the space the display takes, we’ll leave the display up only for a week.
With the considerable media coverage the February issue of marie claire has attracted in the last 24 hours, we are making sure that we have prime space set aside for tomorrow morning when it goes on-sale.
I listened to plenty of the debate on talkback radio and read many of the stories online. While not an expert in the field, the fuss does not resonate with me, especially once I read the story in the Sydney Morning Herald and the interview with the General Manager of The Butterfly Foundation.
Demand for the issue is bound to be strong – newsagents ought to be ready and with a good display in prime position. While there are challenges around the issue, our job is to sell magazines. This is why we ought to be completely opportunistic.
Since customers will comment about the story, be sure to read some of the media coverage from the last 48 hours so you are up with it. Talk with your employees about the issue too. There is an opportunity here to be informed and ready to show off the difference in a newsagency shopping experience.
We are promoting Burke’s Backyard to shoppers leaving our women’s magazine aisle this week. This title has been out a week and has already sold well thanks to our initiatives so stock is limited for the ACP display initiative we have been asked to do this week. The best time to promote a popular title like Burke’s Backyard is from the day of on-sale. A week later has challenges.
These displays we do on the back of the ACP basket builder stand continue to work well for us. We use them to drive impulse purchases – with success.
We are promoting the latest issue of Prevention magazine at our main newspaper stand. It’s been tremendously successful for us in this location since launching last year.
While we also have copies in our women’s health area, the newspaper location is best for us.
As I blogged last week, I consider Prevention to be the launch of 2009. It connects particularly well with newsagency shoppers.
I asked the creative team at my software company, Tower Systems, to create a poster to promote crossword titles as a New Year gift for newsagents. I was looking for something to connect with crosswords as a holiday activity, something with which I could promote the category in the front of my own newsagencies. The version we have gone with is the second option they developed.
Click here to download a PDF for local printing. Use it anywhere you feel it will help you sell crosswords.
I am happy to continue to leverage the resources I have at Tower to create marketing collateral for newsagents to use. It’s another way of putting something practical back into the channel.
Jeff Jarvis has written an excellent post about News Corp. and advertising at his BuzzMachine blog.
So I think we’re seeing News Corp. milk the dying cash cow. Newspapers aren’t going to grow and will shrivel and sometimes die. The value of local stations is only going to shrink. (MySpace was a mistake.) So News Corp. is begging for cash wherever it can get it — from readers online or viewers on cable (via cable companies’ billing) — no matter that there’s no strategy there.
Australian newsagents are wrestling with the new take it or leave it newspaper distribution and retail contracts from News Ltd. In the documentation accompanying the contracts, News makes it clear that it is reviewing its newspaper model in Australia. This review is about News and its costs and revenue requirements. It is not about newsagents.
Given that a review is under way, newsagents could argue, in a court or some other appropriate forum, that it would be more appropriate to extend the current contracts than to sign these new non-negotiable contracts which weaken the position of newsagents.
At around 5:30am yesterday someone tried to kick in the front door and a side window of one of my shops. The police have video evidence from centre management as well as from our own security system.
While they were not successful, the damage and resulting disruption is considerable. There is a very large glass window to replace and two doors to re-hang.
My thoughts on this go back to some of the comments from my arrest post last week. If they are caught they will get a slap on the wrist and no real punishment.
I plan to find out the legal position on creating a retail crime shame site where we can all post images of people convicted of crime against retail businesses.
It’s a week since Christmas and boxed Christmas cards are still selling well. With most other retailers now out of this space and having a good range we are the local go-to place in the four shopping centres in which we have boxed Christmas cards.
We’re at 50% off and are achieving slightly above 50% margin on sales.
Based on experience and current stock levels, we feel that we have another week of good sales left before we quit the remnants at a deeper discount.
We have found that boxed cards work well when you mix the range from mainstream card suppliers with specialists (like Cardpac) in the field. Our most successful outlet displays the range on tables and not in the card company stands. This makes shopping easier for the power shoppers. We go out in late September / early October.
Sales have grown every year.
Boxed Christmas cards should work anywhere.
Thinking about the year ahead and resolutions and hopes in particular over the last few days, here is what I would like to see in 2010 for the newsagency channel:
News Limited pauses the introduction of their new newspaper distribution and retail contracts and undertake greater group consultation with newsagents and consumers on issues surrounding newspaper distribution.
Magazine distributors agree on new trading terms with newsagents which reduce the costs to us for failed titles (<50% sell through) and long on sale periods (>30 days), recognise the increased cost of retail space and labour, and, give us genuine control of the titles we receive. There are newsagents who struggle to expand specialisation because of the failure of the current system and others who will close this year due to the financial distress of the current system.
Newspaper and Magazine publishers realise that the retail newsagent network is a valuable asset and finally engages with them on customer acquisition in a way which financially respects the network and rewards them handsomely for success.
Card companies stop ten years of inaction and finally release the common data structure for cards to enable better business management by newsagents.
Newsagents realise that they have more control over their businesses than they use. They experiment more with new product categories, new layouts and new ways to grow their businesses. Too many newsagents are waiting for others to lead them. They need to lead themselves, store by store. Some are, but not enough.
More newsagent associations realise that newsagents want strong representation. Associations competing with GNS for the supply of stationery, for example, is ridiculous.
Newsagents understand that GNS is a key asset of the channel. Like it or not, the health of the channel is dependent to some extent on the health of GNS. Buying from them strengthens our buying power.
This is by no means complete. While there are many more points I could add, the points above are those I see as vital to the core health of our channel.
In terms of resolutions, I’ll continue to use this place to champion the place of newsagencies in the Australian landscape and to lobby for fairer treatment by suppliers.
While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do know that 2010 will see considerable change presented to newsagents. Probably more than 2009. The best way for us to engage with change is to encourage it, to ride atop the wave rather than being dumped by it.
Here’s to a successful 2010!
We doubled our sales of the Christmas 2009 edition of Family Circle magazine compared to the same issue in 2008. Our success has been achieved through proactive engagement with and promotion of Family Circle on our part. We are thrilled with the result. It’s a terrific reward for the effort we invested in the title. We did this not because of the offer of a publisher reward or a demand but because we sensed that we could achieve a lot more from this title. We were right. The success shows what you can achieve through promotion and embracing change – moving the title around was key to our success.
There are some who are critical of the time I give magazines on this blog. While I see changes with the medium and am frustrated with the distribution model, magazines are currently the best channel-wide point of difference we have. This is why I aggressively manage the category. Results like what we have achieved with Family Circle show that the effort is paying off.
Myer in Melbourne discounted their 2010 calendars by 75% three days ago (December 30). They clearly want to quit the category quickly.
We have stocked our business with calendars to keep us going well into February. Based on previous year’s of experience we will sell plenty of calendars through this time and mainly at 50% off retail. A couple of my stores are only discounting at 25% – we choose the discount level based on demand and competition nearby.
Moves like this by Myer present smaller retailers like us with excellent opportunities. Calendar sales after January 1 are easier to achieve. Just like boxed card sales are right now – with so few retailers in the space range is more important than price as long as it is fair for the time of year.
It’s been an interesting year. Here is my somewhat random selection of highlights:
Magazine launch of the year – Prevention. Brilliant marketing, excellent demand and good on-going sales.
Best magazine promotion – Hair straightener with Dolly. Excellent traffic generator. Great sales. My only concern is what for 2010 and the gifts which come with Dolly? Will the market tire of the strategy?
Magazine of the Year – Better Homes and Gardens. Nails it every month. Excellent cross-promotion with TV. Easy sales.
Best magazine refresh of the year – Australian Women’s Weekly. Much improved – and not before time.
Best imported magazine – People’s Friend. A selfish choice based solely on my experience. Ranks in top 10 magazines every week. Excellent traffic generator. Loyal customers – I love ’em.
Worst newspaper moment of the year – not a moment as such but a worsening frustration: Fairfax and their increased use of ads stuck over editorial content on the front page of the newspaper.
Best newspaper promotion – Discovery Channel DVD series with the Herald Sun. Great traffic generator. Well managed in terms of supply.
Best greeting card launch of the year. Hallmark sound cards. Genuine innovation. Excellent sell through (2 times in three months in some stores). Customers love them. They bring theatre to our stores.
Wake up call of the year – new contracts from News Limited and how the company is handling them. Their introduction will change newsagents forever.
Biggest frustration of the year – the continued poor performance of the magazine supply model. Magazine distributors push stock on newsagents offering barely lip service to newsagent requests / demands yet pursue newsagents aggressively for payment – often for stock which will never sell.
Best feeling of hope moment – contact from a range of independent magazine publishers who share newsagent frustration with the sick magazine distribution model.
2009 has been a good year, not as bad as we expected and plenty of green shoots in the last quarter of the year and a good Christmas trading season.
Feel free to add your own awards.
Network and Gotch advised that there would be magazine deliveries today. I confirmed this with Gotch again yesterday. In one of my newsagencies we received a bundle of OK! and in another we received a bundle of Who. The communication from distributors has been poor.
There is a phishing email doing the rounds purporting to be from Western Union. Some newsagents received this yesterday:
Dear Valued Customer,
This is an official notification from Western Union. Your account access has been limited due to a login attempt failure.
To restore your account we have attached a form to this email. Please download the form and follow the instructions on your screen.
Fraudwatch International has the details. Their latest update was overnight. If you receive an email like this: Do not respond, do not click on the link.
Our small display of New Year’s Eve products, placed in front of the counter, is working well. The various party goods, hats, 2010 glasses and glow sticks are selling from the re-purposed Letts Diaries display unit. We are expanding our range of party goods in 2010 so we want to take evry opportunity possible to promote party times – like NYE.
Click on the image to see a larger version of the display.
The latest issue of Girlfriend is packed with great gifts so we are pitching this at the counter to attract impulse purchases. The magazine was well packaged – meaning that our stock arrived in tact. The timing of the offer is good since we have more girls shoppingin our centre this time of the year.
Superstars of New Moon sells of US$9.95 in the United States. Here, it is priced at A$27.50. I am surprised at the price difference given the current exchange rate between the two currencies. Either someone bought badly or are making a ton of money. The $27.50 price tag makes Australian newsagents look expensive. This title is also late. The New Moon market slowed once the movie was released.
Who wants a $27.50 magazine title on the shelves anyway? Add to that the long shelf life – I don’t see much upside for newsagents in distributing this title to us now.
It is a good feeling when the police arrest someone for stealing from your shop. While they are likely to get a warning or some other soft sentence, enough of these and they may learn a lesson – or, maybe not. Either way, it feels good to have the police arrest someone.
Theft makes me angry. I don’t like the term shoplifting for this reason – it feels soft. I’d like to see tougher penalties. I’d also like the victim, us in this instance, have the right to post the photo of the criminal on display in our shop along with their name. This would play a practical role in deterring this activity.
Blogs, websites and mainstream news outlets are abuzz with reports of an imminent announcement by Apple of their new tablet reader. Many think it will be called the iSlate.
Publications (books, magazines and newspapers) are ready for their iPod moment as I have blogged here for some time. While I don’t know if the iSlate (or whatever it is called) will deliver this, Apple is better placed than most to deliver such a moment because of their profound understanding of human interface needs.
We in the newsagency channel, where half of our traffic is derived from print product sales, need to understand that this moment will come. We ought to be adjusting our businesses today. We do this with new traffic, new money and better people to people connection.
This digital future is the key driver behind changes in print supply and distribution businesses.
I like the merchandising unit provided by Darrell Lea for their new Pineapple liquorice and Pineapple Paradise Bar. The small footprint, promotion of two products, bright colour and fun design should help drive good sales.
The display unit doubles as a reminder to our customers that we carry Darrell Lea products in-store.
The key with this display as with all counter offers is to ensure that the space around is not cluttered.