The cover of O The Oprah Magazine reads…
OPRAH’S PRIVATE MOMENTS: We gave her a camera, she gave us a snapshot of her perfect lazy Sunday.
I think it should read:
MY PRIVATE MOMENTS: I gave myself a camera, I gave my staff a snapshot of what I think will help sell my magazine.
Maybe I am getting cynical. The feature does seem a bit silly – O is her magazine after all.
OzLotto did not go off tonight meaning that next Tuesday the first division prize is $20 million. This is on top of the Powerball $80 million this Thursday and the saturday Lottto superdraw of $20 million. All these jackpots are greate sales but challenging in terms of competition between the games. Given the TV, radio and print coverage, we are focusing on the Powerball jackpot as this is what is bringing more traffic in.
GOOGLE is facing the greatest challenge yet to its might in Australia as two of its largest media customers threaten to pull their business over the internet company’s decision to enter the real estate listings market.
This is the opening paragraph of a story from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday. The opening paragraph could easily have been: News Ltd and Fairfax face a tough challenge from the move by Google into real-estate advertising.
The SMH article raises the prospect of the publishers boycotting Google. Hmm, newsagents have suffered poor treatment at the hands of publishers many times over the years. I wonder how they would have reacted had newsagents boycotted them in an effort to resolve a dispute.
The Inquisitor also has a good report about this story.
Google, or the Internet more widely, has won the battle of advertising platform of choice for real-estate, motor vehicles and employment. This was won several years ago. Any action by newspapers today to block or slow the migration will be futile.
The AIM Group in the US, has recently published a report on the state of classified advertising there. The report includes the results of a poll claiming that nearly 6 out of every 10 real estate agents polled think newspaper advertising is useless. I’d note, however, that the US situation is quite different because of the entrenched position of craigslist, the (mainly) free online classified site. While craigslist is here, it is yet to gain the same traction it has in the US.
This is why newspapers and newsagents need to find traffic and revenue from non classified advertising sources. It is why I invested $750,000 in Find It a free online ad portal designed to drive traffic to newsagencies. I pulled the plug on Find It mid 2008 due to lack of engagement from newsagents and their associations.
Google is not facing a challenge. Newspapers face the challenge. By association, newsagents face the challenge. Newspaper publishers and newsagents show no sign of understanding this yet.
A young girl, probably around six or seven, sat on top of the Australian Women’s Weekly flat stack on the weekend clumsily flipping through a copy of New Idea, licking her fingers before turning each page. The girl’s mother was standing across from her asking when she will be ready to get on with the shopping. The girl told her mother she was busy.
The mother could see the girl was disrupting a busy part of our newsagency. Her look to me was one of what can I do?
I am sure that this scene plays out every day in newsagencies and other retail businesses. It is a scene of poor parenting in my view – the child is disrespectful of my property, disrespectful of fellow shoppers, rude to her mother and being a brat overall.
I didn’t say anything because the shop was busy, I was serving and I didn’t want to make a scene. In hindsight, I should have at least left the counter and asked the girl to get off my stock. Actually, the mother should have done this. Indeed, she should probably have stopped the girl reading New Idea. I have nothing agaist the title but do feel it is not ideal for a six or seven year old.
While the whole scene played out in a few minutes, it weighed on my mind for a couple of days. I wonder if parents today do let kids get away with more today than previous generations. The mum was clearly controlled by the child. Back when I was a kid…
At least the mother was there. We are regularly used as a creche by parents who have to stand in line at the Post office opposite or mums who go next door to have their nails done.
The Ben 10 partwork series launched yesterday is an excellent opportunity for us to appeal to a young demographic. The popular Ben 10 character is well known here. Newsagents should take a moment and research Ben 10 online – the more we understand the appeal the better equipped we will be to promote the partwork. The partwork series includes new missions, comic strips and character fact files – we certainly need to understand what all this means.
What is most interesting about the Ben 10 series is that it includes a unique trading card collection.This is more than a usual partwork.
The key to success with Ben 10 is to get customers to commit to a putaway – paid for in advance for at least three or more issues.
The key to failure of achieving the full potential is inadequate scale out management from issue 1 through to at least issue 6.
We are showing the front and back covers of the latest issue of TV Week magazine on our shelves this week. The back cover promotes a feature of Twilight posters. I am certain this will drive incremental sales. While this move may seem small, it’s easy and costs nothing. It is another example of the value looking at what we sell.
I want every sale of TV Week and other magazines possible, hence the micro management I blog about here.
Woman’s Day gets our prime counter position this week thanks to the free pack of Allen’s lollies which comes with every issue of Woman’s Day we sell. We know we are the only retailer of Woman’s Day out of five in our shopping centre to have this offer so it makes sense to promote in a prime location. We are using a recycled acrylic unit next to Woman’s Day to show off the free lollies – this is easier than handing them out with each purchase.
Before newsagents say they did not get this promotion – is is exclusive to the top tier of Connections newsagents.
Promoting Zoo magazine is a challenge this week as it is a feature title in the ACP Connections marketing program yet sells at a low volume for us. We have higher volume titles which will deliver a better return from premium magazine display space. Our solution is to pitch Zoo next to the Herald Sun for the week. While not a pretty display it is opportunistic. We expect to sell out of all of our stock – especially given the less than half price offer. This is a good example of where I’d like newsagents to be rewarded for results more so than a pretty display.
Given the success we have with British weekly magazines, we have expanded our range to include several more titles. Gordon and Gotch has been particularly helpful through this process of identifying titles and providing a process through which we can test them in our store.
Newsagents tend to take what they are given and complain about getting too much stock. While I complain about this as well, I also look for opportunities for expansion of the magazines we carry. The process is easy, especially with the folks at Gotch who can list titles by segment and let you determine your supply quantity while you feel your way.
I like pulling new magazines to our businesses rather than relying on the push system. We see opportunities based on what sells from other departments and also from customer feedback.
Jeff Jarvis writing at his BuzzMachine blog outlines why the cost of mail in the US will continue to rise. Jeff”s post fits with the application by Australia Post for an increase in the standard letter rate in Australia.
That said, there is a huge difference between the US Postal Service and Australia Post.
This is a reminder to all newsagents to rally support for the daughter of slain Epping newsagent Min Lin and his wife and two children. Click here for a copy of the letter sent to newsagents in NSW and the ACT about the trust fund established by NANA to support the daughter of the slain newsagents.
We are finding that sales for the Powerball $80 million jackpot are strong already, especially for syndicates. This is a change on the previous week where it took several days for the opportunity to kick in. We are also finding that sales for the $20 million superdraw next Saturday and the $15 million OzLotto are good too. This is, in part, due continuing to pitch these opportunities and not just focusing on the Powerball $80 million jackpot.
Newsagents and dedicated lottery outlets I have seen are demonstrating their value as a retail channel by actively promoting the Powerball jackpot. 7-eleven, however, is not from the stores I have seen. That is good for newsagents.
Jonathan Miller, News Corporation’s chief digital officer, is reported as indicating that the company plans to increase its revenue from online news and entertainment. This is a move that should interest newsagents given the lack of movement in the cover price of newspapers generally here in Australia over the last ten years. What publishers charge for newspapers today does not reflect the costs associated with the product. NewsFuturist.com published an excellent piece on this earlier this month.
I was interested to read that ACP has appointed a new editor-in-chief for the Australian Women’s Weekly. AWW is experiencing a sales resurgence this year from the sales data I see. From a newsagency store-level perspective, I’d put this down to excellent cover choices. However, I am sure that improved loyalty has to do with content as well. I hope that Helen McCabe’s appointement continues to improve sales for AWW as it is a cornerstone honey-pot magazine for newsagents and, indeed, all magazine retailers. We need it to be successful.
By honey-pot, I mean a title customers are drawn to and around which we can build other success in our businesses. Newsagents have just ten or twelve true honey-pot titles. AWW is the stand out. This is why we need the latest moves around the title at ACP to work and continue to strengthen the title.
We have started to put gifts out for Father’s Day. Many of these gifts will sell outside the season. This move is part of our expansion plans for the gift department at newsXpress Forest Hill. We have taken this from a seasonal-only department in to an all-year department in the last six months.
Each season provides us with an opportunity to take another step in expansion of our gift department.
We are in a shopping centre with ten gift shops including one of our own Sophie Randall card and gift shops. Buying decisions for the Forest Hill business focus on playing to the strengths of the newsagency. This is done through assessing what card categories sell best as well as sales for calendars, magazines and other key departments. This is deliberately a slow process.
Going out early with Father’s Day also gives us an opportunity to further capitalise on the Powerball $80 million jackpot traffic. The display in the photo is next to our Father’s Day cards.
Newsagents may want to check the Food & Exercise Diary. We received extra stock yesterday when we still had three copies of the stock we received in April. This is where sales data could be better used to stop unecessary supply. While Gordon and Gotch, the distributor are usually good at this, the Food & Exercise Diary has fallen through the cracks.
Ann Arbour News printed its last issue yesterday. While circulation was small, 45,000 daily, the newspaper has a 174 year history. Editor and Publisher has more.
Australia Post is reportedly seeking an increase in the price of delivering a basic letter – from 55 cents to 60 cents. As I blogged here two and a half years ago, the European Union is seeking member countries to end mail monopolies.
The Government ought to thoroughly review the operations of Australia Post, from a policy perspective. This protected, government-owned, organisation ought to come under more scrutiny in terms of charges for its monopoly mail service and its use of this monopoly protected brand to take revenue in non-post areas such as greeting cards, stationery, gifts, calendars and books. They take this revenue, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, from independent small retailers like newsagents through their corporate owned stores.
The previous Government did not have the guts to investigate Australia Post despite solid evidence of the cost to small businesses. Hopefully, the current government will look at the economic cost of shifting revenue from independent retailers to Australia Post.
I hope that the government steps in on the price rise application by Australia Post and takes this and the broader Australia Post issues on board from a policy perspective. I am certain that business owners and many individuals would welcome an opportunity to be heard on the matter.
Since Tattersalls collateral for the Powerball $80 million jackpot will not arrive until tomorrow and there posters were not available from the website, we created our own poster this moning to tide us over. The goal was to grab attention over the next 24 hours. We want to drive sales at the start of the week for Powerball and not rely on the last day as happened with the last draw. To achieve this we will be trying a range of initiatives including enhanced counter pitches, a staff incentive program and fresh in-store displays to pitch our point of difference.
We have also taken time this morning to ensure that we have excellent impulse purchase opportunities for other categories (gifts, books, magazines and art supplies) for the additional traffic which the Powerball $80 million jackpot will generate.
Better Basics from Pacific magazines under the Better Homes and Gardens brand gets prime position at our counter this weekend because it is will be seen as a new title and is likely to get coverage on TV or radio on the BHG programs this weekend. We received an excellent pack of collateral – making the display easy to create.
Better Homes and Gardens itself sells very well for us over the weekend and we are hopeful that Better Basics repeats this success.
I like brand extensions like this as they are easier to pitch than completely new titles which are unable to leverage an existing brand.
We are promoting Wheels magazine on the back of the ACP stand to guys leaving our men’s magazine aisle. Our experience is that Wheels responds well to promotion here – even from a very simple display like this. The key to impulse purchases is that people can easily buy off the display.
US stationery retailer OfficeMax has announced that it will run its Back-to-School for Pennies promotion again this year as part of its back to school strategy. The pitch included in their press release includes this:
For back-to-school season, OfficeMax is lowering its prices on more than 100 items. The promotions will feature competitive deals on school supplies common to most school lists, including 70-page, one-subject notebooks, 24-count crayons, rulers, folders, compasses & protractors. Each week, OfficeMax will feature new “Penny Offers” that will rotate from a single-priced item for one cent to bundled offers such as “Buy one, Get one for one Penny” deals on supplies throughout back-to-school season. Customers can view the weekly specials in OfficeMax’s weekly circular advertisements or on the OfficeMax Weekly Ad page.
OfficeMax provides a one-stop shopping experience for time-pressed parents during back-to-school. From eco-conscious to high-style to budget-friendly, OfficeMax’s back-to-school products enable students to express their personality while doing their best work. In addition, OfficeMax offers computers and technology products, desks and furniture, organization products and printing services for students preparing for back-to-school.
Back to School is big for newsagents, but not huge as it used to be. We struggle to compete with Officeworks, Big W and other majors who buy, price, promote and manage as one. What I especially like in the OfficeMax pitch is their broad appeal from the environment to budget to style. They have all buying triggers covered. The overall pitch is so positive.
We tend to focus on price and ignore our real points of difference are convenience, local community connection (and support), quality and service.
I’d encourage newsagents to take time to look at the OfficeMax back to school pitch. There are opportunities to learn from this in crafting the story for BTS here in Australia – even at the local newsagent level.
While interest in Michael Jackson stories in weekly magazines has quickly passed, there remains strong interest in tribute publications – such as Remember the time which we have on display near our newspapers. We will sell out. Hopefully, publishers do not overload us with tribute product as this market will have its limit.
AdNews has announced new magazine awards. This follows the end of the Magazine Publishers of Australia awards. I’d like to see some retail focused categories – voted for by retailers. Awards along the lines of: Best Magazine, Best Retail Support, Best for the Category Publisher, and, Best Over the Counter Word of Mouth Title.
Lottery retailers and enjoying a tremendous run with jackpots lately. Tonight, Powerball jackpotted. Next week, division one of Powerball is worth $80 million. OzLotto has jackpotted too and it is worth $15 million on Tuesday. Plus we have the Saturday Lotto superdraw on August 1 for $20 million.
The Powerball $80 million jackpot means the focus of the next seven days shifts. The opportunity is too great to miss. It starts tomorrrow morning with dressing the shop and ensuring that we make the most of lottery traffic as well as converting non-lottery traffic into lottery sales.
The most crucial activity for newsagents with lottery products is to ensure that non-lottery departments benefit from the lottery traffic.