You will see that I take a considerable swipe at magazine distributor NDD today along some publishers.  They deserve it.  They permit titles to be oversupplied and on terms which financially abuse newsagents.  NDD can fix this.  In fact, they will tell us they have been talking to publishers and to the ANF and that progress is being made.  Progress is not being made.  NDD has no financial interest in fixing this, no distributor does.  Magazine distributors are paid a fee to distribute titles.  They get paid regardless. Newsagent, on the other hand, are only paid for what they sell.  We provide capital to magazine publishers and we weather the cost of theft.

I like the folks at NDD and I like many of their titles.  I just wish they had the balls to act fairly for newsagents.  More important, however, I wish newsagents had the balls to act against unfair publisher behaviour.  Mat action by us could kill off some of these poor performing magazine titles.

The over supply and long shelf life of the three titles I focus on today is an example of the cancer hurting newsagents.  Other suppliers ought to care about this – for the good of the channel.

Renovate & Extend magazine is a good example of an un-viable title from Universal Magazines about which I blogged last week. The five month on-sale is an unreasonable financial and space impost on newsagents. A fairer solution would be that we are paid for stock as it sold. The technology has been able to facilitate this for years.  This takes the financial risk and the cost of theft away from us. 

In addition to the unfair long shelf life there is the supply model itself. I have received too many copies, considerably more than I sell. The distributors know this. The publisher knows this. Yet they continue to supply.

The proof of their gross overprinting is seen with each issue when they bag it with old stock – the never seem to run out of old stock.

Universal Magazines causes the problem by printing far more than they sell. NDD, their distributor for this title aids and abets this crime against newsagents by permitting poor trading terms and supplying too much stock.

I am early-returning part of what we were supplied yesterday as I should not have to carry the cost of their bad behaviour.

The cash Universal sucks out of our channel with titles like Renovate & Extend reduces the cash we have available for better selling magazines and other product categories.

The latest issue of New Home Trends is the other title which received yesterday which has been provided on unfair terms.  We have been sent considerably more than we could be expected to sell, thereby demanding more real-estate than is fair.  The seven month on-sale is too long – this is what really suck our cash.  If the publisher and distributor want a seven month on sale they need to back themselves and let us pay based on scanned sales.  Otherwise they let us pay once they have the returns.

Newsagents will continue to be treated poorly by some publishers and distributors unless we stand up to this appalling behaviour.

We returned every copy of Printing Digital Photos magazine which we received yesterday from NDD.  This publication will not sell inn our shop where we are well satisfied with digital photo magazines.  A copy or two may be stolen because it is small and convenient to steal but it will not sell.  The six month on-sale period is another reason we early-returned the title.  This title is an unfair impost on newsagents.  It should not have been allowed into our channel, certainly not on the terms NDD has negotiated on our behalf.

The only way to teach the publishers and distributors that we will not be abused this way is if we return titles like this and not pay for them.