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

Grazia off the counter at Woolworths

The Australian Financial Review today is reporting that Grazia magazine is being moved from the checkout counter at Woolworths outlets to the regular magazine section.

I like Grazia, it was a welcome launch last year.  However, the weeklies market is volatile at the best of times.  I know some enwsagents who do well with the title and others where sales are very low.  For those newsagents with reasonable Grazia sales, the lower profile at Woolworths is an opportunity.

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magazines

Marketing a brand of newsagency and not the channel

fhn_schoolzone.JPGnewsXpress is being promoted along with other national retail brands in a national TV and radio campaign for the School Zone product.  The recognition of newsXpress in this way by the company behind School Zone is tremendous kudos for newsXpress and for the 160 locations trading under the brand.  It coincides with a TV campaign being run by the group for its Back To School offer.

This latest national media exposure for newXpress, and media exposure for Newspower and Nextra, demonstrates the importance for newsagents to belong to a proactive marketing group.  As these newsagency marketing brands grow and expose themselves more in national media, the generic newsagent shingle will dilute in recognition and value.

While some may say it suits me to publish this view, it is a view being put consistently by shopping centre landlord and by national brands.

Disclosure: I am a Director of newsXpress.

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newsagency marketing

Sunday Mail botches Australia Day promotion

sm_flag.jpgQueensland Newspapers made a heap of noise a week ago about the Australia Day promotion they were running in the Sunday Mail. On the 18th they had a spread on page 3 about the free flag they were giving away on January 25 and listed all the things you would be able to do with the flag. I have been told by a friend that along with their 244 copies of the Sunday Mail yesterday they received 20 flags. While they were able to scrounge another 50 flags from their area manager, it was still not enough. This promotion tarnishes the reputation of newsagents in the eyes of consumers more so than Queensland Newspapers.

Newspaper publishers need to learn that they should not start a promotion unless they have the capacity and commitment to ensure it reaches its full potential.

Queensland Newspapers owns an apology to Sunday Mail readers and newsagents.

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Newsagency challenges

Win a Sunbeam Coffee machine for Valentine’s Day

brew_gift.JPGWe are giving away a Sunbeam Espresso Machine for Valentine’s Day courtesy of the Hallmark alliance program. It is great to have a gift which one of our customers will win – this makes it more accessible than a state or national prize. The gift itself is a good change for Valentine’s Day.  We are promoting the prize in the card department as well as at two positions at the counter.

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Greeting Cards

Lazy newspaper poster from The Age

age_poster_jan26.JPGWhat is the point of sending a poster to be displayed with newspapers if it does not connect with the news? None, I say. This poster sent with The Age today is a waste or paper and would be a waste of my retail real-estate.. We are not displaying it. We are using the space, instead, for a poster for The Australian which connects with the news of the day.

This poster from The Age is lazy.

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Newspapers

Promoting weekly magazines to lottery customers

fhn_weeklies.JPGWe took the opportunity this morning to promote the weekly magazines to the new customers we will see today. Being a public holiday, more than half our customers will not be regulars so we try and make every opportunity work. The display in the photo is what customers pass on the way to our main lottery counter. Woman’s Day and New Idea and other weeklies ought to drive  good easy add-on business.

Regulars here will see that we change this and other key magazine displays two and three times a week. I think it’s what we have to do in retail. Customers become as store blind as we do from the other side of the counter.

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magazines

Free newspaper subscription for French 18yo

French President, Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 600 Euro emergency aid package for French newspapers on friday which included a free one year newspaper subscription for every eighteen year old – to get them reading the newspaper.  A report in The Guardian quotes Sarkozy:

“The habit of reading a daily paper takes root at a very young age.”

While I’d like the commercial benefit of enforced newspaper supply to eighteen year olds, it makes no sense.  I’d be against the Australian Government financially supporting the newspaper subscription model because it is a model which is unfair on newsagents and because the government support would only benefit the publishers.

I would prefer to see more government support for an efficient and open channel for access to reliable news and information.  Here in Australia that means a reliable broadband network and support for professional, independent, journalism.

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Media disruption

Stop the Presses

Stop the Presses is a film which looks at the dramatic change going on inside newsrooms and around newspapers in the United States.  Go to the Stop the Presses website and watch the introductory video.  It is a sobering reminder even here in Australia and so far away from the US that this channel of ours, regardless of its long and proud history, is changing and that, therefore, our businesses must change.

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Media disruption

Everything old is new again

classicmags.JPGIn today’s patchy magazine marketplace, magazines about old things seem to be doing well – from the data I see at least.  Old motorbikes, old trains, old cars, old homes, old trucks.  The magazines I have notcied are pitched around the Classic or Vintage or Period theme.  These titles attract loyal customers as shoppers and browsers.  While there is not much cross over between the segments, I am contemplating a feature display of the classic titles to try and attract mroe customers – since we know from sales they are out there.

Just knowing that the Classic / Vintage / Period interest is so strong in this marketplace is good to help drive decisions.

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magazines

Print magazine reinvents itself online

U.S. News, the US news magazine which competers with Time and Newsweek switched from weely to biweekly and then monthly.  Now, U.S. News is launching a weekly digital edition.   The editor sees this as a good move:

The upside for the readers, he notes, is that they’re only paying for content — and not for the expense of shipping and printing.

Portfolio has more on this.

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magazines

Wonder time magazine shuts in the US

The bad news just keeps on coming for the print publishing business with word that Disney Publishing Worldwide has closed Wondertime, its fledging parenting magazine. Disney cited the challenged economic climate in its decision.

Meadiweek has more on this at their website. There is no news on the future of the Australian edition published by ACP Magazines.  I know I bang on about this but it’s important – newsagents need magazine fixturing which will allow their businesses to evolve as magazines go through a transitional phase. I can’t see any reason for a shopfitter to build magazine fixturing in this marketplace.

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magazines

International standards

I have been involved discussions this week with magazine distribution stakeholders in two overseas countries about magazine supply and related IT standards.  The discussions are providing an excellent insight into how others operate in this space which is complex and frustrating for newsagents here.  In one case they are showing what is possible and in another they are showing what to avoid.

I am surprised at the lack of cross border dialogue between newsagent representatives on these topics.  With newsagent associations working on a code of conduct at the present with magazine distributors, I would have thought that cross border research would be on the agenda.

There is no outcome yet, just good shared information which is helping to guide strategies in a couple of areas.

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magazine distribution

Software support fees

Bernard Zimmermann one of the owners of POS Solutions has slammed a newsagent software company for announcing a significant increase in software support fees.  I agree with Bernard.  Software support coverage should be priced fairly.  This is one reason the 1,500 Tower Systems newsagents are not being hit with the price increases being applied by whichever company Bernard blogs about.

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newsagent software

Promoting Take 5 for Australia Day

t5_aussie.JPGWe created a display promoting the Take 5 Australia Day issue at the counter yesterday.  This is a risk for us because most of our Take 5 sales occur on Wednesday and Thursday – we are going against this trend.

The free Australian flag pin which comes with the magazine qualified Take 5 for this prime space.  We saw a lift yesterday.  The real sales test will be this weekend.

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magazines

What people buy

oldstands.JPGIt is surprising what people want to buy sometimes.  take the stand in the photo.  We used several of these to display Christmas product.  In one of our stores we sold three of these stands after Christmas to very happy customers.  Not that we have them on display – these customers ordered the stands during Christmas selling.  We were happy to sell the stands since the products they were used for will come next year with more stands (if we carry these items).

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retail

Selling pigs on Valentine’s Day, Marketing Tips for newsagents

valentine_pigs.JPGValentine’s Day is a short yet intensive season for Australian newsagents and retailers more generally.  Making the most of the season means planning a multi-faceted attack well in advance.  Here are some left-field marketing tips you could consider to supplement the traditional approach around greeting cards, plush and chocolates.  It is not too late to engage and pushthe boundaries this Valentine’s Day:

  • Heart wall.  Get customers to submit heart themed art.  Stick it all up on a wall.  Have a small prize for the winner.
  • Romance graffiti wall.  Put up a white board or butchers paper have invite customers to write anonymous notes of romance on the wall.
  • Romantic poetry competition.  Invite your customers to submit a romantic poem.  Invite the local school English department to adjudicate.
  • Papier mache heart competition.  Newsagents are the best place to source what you need to be creative at home.  This idea is about creating a worthwhile activity and connecting with the season.  Put them on display and award a prize.
  • Romance vouchers.  Create a sheet of vouchers which could be given with a Valentine’s Day card.  The vouchers could be for a home cooked meal, a back rub or a day at the beach together.  This idea connects with a do-it-yourself approach for the cost conscious.
  • Have good gifts.  Don’t rely just on cards.  Create a good gift offer beyond the usual chocolates, flowers, plush and balloons.  Consider cuff links for men and a gift voucher to a local spa for women.
  • Do some good.  Connect with a local charity and offer donation to them from each Valentine’s Day sale – promote the connection.  Charity cards do well at Christmas so why not Valentine’s Day?

There are plenty of other ideas.  Keep thinking.  The keys are to have fun, engage with your customers and be unique.

Click here to see the tips I published last year.

And the pigs?  They are part of the Valentine’s Day range we have for our Sophie Randall businesses.  They are different and something different is what gift customers like to find.

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marketing tip

Appealing back to school stationery

young_stat.JPGI have been contacted by several newagents about my post on Tuesday about funky looking back to school stationery.  The Spencer Burford range is proving to be very popular with primary and secondary students.  It is well priced and gives newsagents carrying it point of difference over many others in this back to school space.  Newsagents have tended to approach stationery in a conservative way.  This product breaks with that tradition and makes is seem ‘with it’ and connected to today’s BTS consumer – a crucial challenge in retail, today especially.

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Stationery

Optus the stand out for mobile recharge

Optus is the stand out brand in the mobile recharge business in our newsagencies.  In one of our stores it accounts for more than 40% of all recharge product sold – twenty five vouchers last week.

I am tracking this because this is the business we lost for a time when Bill Express and related businesses collapsed last year.  Optus recharge is an important traffic generator.

Some newsagencies I see are still winning lost customers back, others have passed previous numbers.  Optus is the key.  It is a brand consumers know and trust.

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Bill Payment

Good Valentine’s Day sales already

val_swing.JPGSeveral newsagents I have spoken with over the last  few days tell me that Valentine’s Day card sales are good even though the big day is three weeks away.  I prefer to go out early with seasons like Valentine’s Day because it shows customers who like to browse that you have the range.

The challenge is to balance seasonal space allocation such that it does not distract from regular card sales.

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Gifts

Where IT compliance helps newsagents

Newsagents received an Off-Sale Date and Return Method Changes Notification from Network Services last week.  This is the first of what we expect to be many.  The newsagents operating according to industry standards did not have to do any extra work.  Newsagents not following industry standards or not using compliant software have had to engage in manual processes to deal with the three pages of magazine return changes notified by Network Services.

These change notifications are coming through weekly as Network Services moves to its weekly returns model.

To newsagents who wonder about the value of up to date industry-standard software, the time saved for many in handling these Network Services notifications is the answer.

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magazine distribution

Blocking newsagents from magazine direct supply

There are several battles being waged at present around which businesses can get direct supply of magazines.  I know of newsagencies selling more than $8,000 in magazines a week which are being denied direct supply access while a small supermarket nearby selling considerably less is given a direct account without challenge.

There are some who would say that the distribution newsagent must be protected.  These same people do not fight when a new supermarket or convenience outlet opens and gets a direct account – because newsagents lost that fight years ago.  They only fight when a newsagent (subagent to them) wants to go direct.  They do this because the magazine distributors will probably agree with them – the individual newsagent wanting a direect account is not as powerful as, say, IGA, Coles or Woolworths.

In situations of which I am aware right now, goot retail newsagents are being blocked from accessing direct supply of magazines.  This will encourage them to reduce focus on magazines.  Publishers will be the losers.  I wonder if they know how magazine distributors are managing the representation of their product in the changing newsagency channel.

I agree it would be difficult to let go of revenue, especially from a business you have helped grow.  However, competition policy is on the side of the consumer.

Behaviour I have seen recently shows that some playing in this area do not understand competition law.

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magazine distribution

The timing of magazine returns

I was surprised to learn that there are newsagents who continue to process magazines at the end of the week (for weekly returns) or at the end of the month (for monthly returns).  In our newsagencies we scan the magazines as they come off each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  We do this regardless of whether we have the electronic returns file from the distributor – the software will allocate to the right form once it has been received even after we have scanned the titles.

This approach of scanning magazine returns daily saves considerable time and space.

A newsagent I know who made the switch to the daily returns approach last year, after changing software, is saving at least eight paid hours of labour a month – $152 a month or $1,824 a year – plus on-costs.

I cringe when I see stacks of loose magazines in the back room of a newsagency.  This is like leaving cash for anyone to pick up or saleable stock to go missing.  I prefer to see tied or strapped bundles of magazines which have been scanned – ready for collection and return.

Too often, software companies fail to train newsagents on proper processes around tasks like magazine returns.  This is where the Tower Systems online Magazine Management training works – it is being run by someone who managed this in his own newsagency for years.

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magazine distribution
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