One of our suppliers sent us this cool MIO C310 satnav device as a rebate for our purchases last month. We’re using it as a prize to drive ink and toner sales. Newsagents don’t often have access to rebate products such as this from suppliers so it will be good to kick sales along and make one lucky customer very happy.
Valentine’s Day sales are usually made two or three days out from the big day. This year we’re seeing sales kick in sooner thanks, in part, due to this outpost we’ve been able to negotiate for a low price with the landlord. We used to run an outpost on another level but with Kmart going we felt we’re better off building noise on our level. Others tell me their sales are tracking well too.
The Valentine’s Day product which seemed like a good idea at the time.
Karma Sutra chocolate, how could this NOT be great for Valentine’s Day? We saw the samples and laughed. Yeah, a bit edgy with the designs but fun. And chocolate, who doesn’t like chocolate?
Plenty it seems. We’ve had our Karma Sutra Valentine’s Day chocolate out on display for two days and the complaints are rolling in. Some sales too, but more complaints. I am guessing that our complainers have not looked in some of our cards.
Below is a photo so don’t scroll down if you’re likely to be offended.
We picked the product as a point of difference from the usual Valentine’s Day fare. Those who have bought it like it for this reason.
Worst case if it does not sell is that we get to eat it.
Newsagents are fighting with the stationery wholesaler they own to stop newsagent competitors getting equal deals.
GNS (Group Newsagency Supplies) was established decades ago in NSW to give newsagents access to stationery at competitive prices. Now, with offices up the eastern Seaboard, GNS is the largest supplier of stationery to newsagents. It is 100% owned by newsagents.
Imaging the surprise when newsagents discover GNS branded product in non newsagent retail outlets – such as the Licenced Post Office shown in the photo below. In the yellow box is GNS branded product also sold in the newsagency next door to the post office.
GNS is transparent about supplying non newsagent retail outlets and I have no quarrel with that. What is wrong here is GNS supplying GNS branded product, the newsagent funded brand, to non newsagent outlets. I might also have an issue with the price GNS charges non newsagent outlets if I knew the pricing arrangements for them.
Why does this matter? GNS is the first to complain when newsagents purchase stationery elsewhere. They berate newsagents saying that they should support the warehouse they own. This also applies to GNS. The best way for them to lead newsagents to be loyal is for them to be loyal to their shareholders.
The newsagent who brought this situation to my attention has been treated poorly by GNS with no answers provided as to how GNS branded product gets on the shelf of the post office.
I am a shareholder in GNS and my newsagency buys its stationery from GNS.
Signatures on our petition to call on the Government to not allow the sale of scratch lottery tickets in supermarkets are growing. Without any pitch or fanfare customers read the sheet and sign up. More are commenting across the counter with extra comments about Coles and Safeway. If more newsagents put this or a similar petition out I am sure we could have thousands of signatures in a few days and surely the government would have to take notice.
I don’t want instant scratch tickets told in supermarkets because this would reduce sales in my newsagency and that would have a knock on effect through the business. I am sure most newsagents in Victoria would agree with me.
Unfortunately, the industry association does not seem engaged with this issue.
Magazine publishers are building extraordinary online traffic for established print brands.
Last year the Magazine Publishers of America published the Top 10 Websites Associated with Magazine Brands as collated by the Media Industry Newsletter. The growth experienced by some of these magazine websites is extraordinary. Take Vanity Fair – pageviews up 64% November 2006 over October 2006; unique visitors up by 65%. That’s extraordinary growth. Other magazines are experiencing similar: Premiere; Popular Science; Time; In Style; Men’s Health.
What’s interesting yet not unexpected is that many of the titles experiencing extraordinary growth in online traffic are experiencing flat or falling sales over the retail counter. Take Popular Science: 1,055,038 unique visitors. Great online growth while at retail the science category in retail is falling – down more than 10% in 2006.
Magazines are not dead. Many titles are using their online presence to stay in touch with readers as well as attract people new to the brand. Some categories are fading and the retailer challenge is to balance real-estate up to reflect this.
Wired has the story. Okay, it’s a small circulation title with legal listings. That does not diminish the significance of the move.
I first read this story about Sweden’s Post-och Inrikes Tidningar somewhere else last month and thought it was not worth blogging about. Then, today, I heard Cemeron Reilly of the Podcast Network and James Farmer, the online Community Editor for The Age debating the role of ‘citizen media with Jon Faine on ABC local radio in Melbourne. Farmer was talking down the impact of online on mainstream media. Reilly batted well for the disruptors. Farmer would have us believe that most blogs are a waste of time and irrelevant. Traffic says otherwise. Feedback at blogs says otherwise. Blogs provide a better opportunity for transparent democracy than mainstream media could ever offer.
Mainstream media has lost its monopoly on access to the masses and it’s struggling to come to grips with that.
How we consume media is changing. In a small way I’m covering some the change in this blog – in the context of change impacting Australian newsagencies. There is no point resisting such inevitable and good-for-the-community change. Indeed, we ought to embrace it. The challenge is how we in small business deal with this when our suppliers do not adjust their behaviour.
Take computer magazines. Sales in the category are in free-fall. The top selling titles are doing okay but outside these five or six titles, everything else is in trouble. Newsagents are still being supplied at quantities reminiscent of the halcyon days. This is sucking their businesses of cash. Fixing the problem is taking newsagents away from adjusting their businesses elsewhere to address the challenge of consumers accessing online what they used to buy in a newsagency.
We have changed approach to offering free WiFi in our newsagency, using now the calmer blue posters to skirt our main display window. The original posters were getting lost in the visual noise of the shop. Plus we felt that WiFi users are more likely to be people outside the shop than inside. These window posters are generating queries and that’s great.
The launch of Windows Vista is not as well supported by magazine publishers as previous Microsoft Windows upgrades.
As of today, Australian newsstands have one dedicated Windows Vista title plus APC and PC Authority with good Windows Vista coverage.
This lack of Vista product may be sue to delays in local distribution of overseas titles or due to the decline in the computer title category in favor of accessing more timely information online. If Vista rolls out like iTunes titles, we will have three or four in the next few months – too late to capitalize on the considerable interest today.
UK newsagency Baxters has launched a website selling magazines. Onlinenewsagent focuses on selling single copies – offering same day shipping of over 3,000 titles. They even have some Australian titles available.
In the 1990s Australian newsagents made, on average, 26% of the cover price per home delivered newspaper. This includes delivery fees. Today, based on data from a sample of newsagents in four states, the average gross profit has fallen to 21%. This has come about because home delivery relationships have moved from being between newsagent and consumer to publisher and consumer with the newsagent a hired delivery service provider.
While some newsagents have altered their businesses to cope with the revenue squeeze, many have not. In one state we are seeing GP as low as 11% on some newspaper offers. This does not cover the costs of managing, wrapping and delivering the product. There is no doubt that GP per titles delivered will fall further this year.
In a flat (decaying?) market, GP and therefore cost pressure will increase significantly. One way newsagents can make the relationship more profitable is to take it beyond newspaper home delivery. Successful newsagents regularly market to their home delivery customers and through this achieve good stationery and other sales; they are visible in providing the service – well branded vehicles and employees; they promote to acquire their own home delivery customers outside of what the publishers do; they focus on their own costs. Unsuccessful newsagents deliver the newspaper and that’s it. This is where decay in newspaper sales will hit the hardest.
Newsagents across the country have setup feature displays for the latest issue of Ralph magazine as part of their commitment to in store promotions. Our display has offended some customers. If any more complain we’ll take it down. While we need to promote the diverse range of titles we carry, there is no point in getting our most regular and valuable customers, women 35 and older, offside. Part of the problem for us is that our feature display areas are right next to our women’s magazine area.
I was talking to the owner of a petrol outlet and asked why they don’t do displays like this. His answer was blunt: what and upset half my customers? No way. I suspect that the newsagent displays will hel;p boost sales in these non compliant petrol outlets.
I want to promote Ralph and other men’s titles – I’ll find a better wan to do this without our core customers.
As part of the magazine shuffle I blogged about yesterday was the move of Notebook and Real Living from the interiors area to the high traffic women’s area. These are hard titles to locate. Their covers suggest interiors but inside they cover a broad area. They are like several other new and refreshed titles which cross segments and make placement challenging.
We’re not sure that this is the right location – only time and data will tell us if the move is right. The challenge is where do they belong if not here?
Sales of health magazines are booming, growing more than 10% in 2006 compared to overall magazine category growth of just under 4%.
Responding to this growth and the opportunity of several new titles, we have broken with traditional newsagent magazine layout thinking and moved the Health category to better real-estate.
Our health titles used to be wedged between wedding and children’s titles. Now they are located near the top of our busiest magazine aisle and next to the popular food section. The move helped us address a location dilemma – the placement of food titles which focus on health such as the Better Homes Diabetic Living.
A side benefit of the move is people finding new titles when they get to an area their favorite titles used to be. Given the frequency of customer visits many become store blind so changes in magazine locations can boost sales.
Newsagents tend to see magazines as set and forget products. In some respects, with 1,300+ titles in stock, moving categories can be too daunting to contemplate. Our simple move took two hours of researching and planning and another hour and a half to execute. It was like playing a puzzle game, moving block by block and sometimes going backward until the goal was achieved.
The move is less than a week old so it is too early to assess any impact. We’ll measure carefully and adjust as guided by sales data.
The World’s first weekly digital men’s magazine has arrived and it’s 100% FREE forever! Yes! Give us your email address and every Wednesday you’ll get a link to the latest issue of Monkey. It’s honestly the best way to break the back of your week!
That’s the pitch at the Monkey website. Monkey is from the UK publisher of Maxim. I signed up and checked out a copy online – the product looks well targeted. I bet it’s a success. Curiously there was no age check to access what some would consider soft porn.
The publisher has opted to replicate the print experience at the moment. I’d expect this to change with time given the facilities available online.
I bet the readers of Australia’s now defunct Explode magazine find their way to Monkey.
I am ashamed that my country is prepared to sit on its hands as the justice we claim to crave and fight for is trampled and human rights are ignored.
I don’t know what David Hicks did, if anything. I do know that he has been held prisoner and denied justice for more than five years. I also know that our Federal Government has seemed disinterested in pursuing justice for one of its citizens. The government’s inaction and ignorance on David Hicks’ situation appalls me.
We know from the prosecution that Hicks never shot or threatened anyone yet we there cases in Australia where someone is convicted of far worse and released from jail after two or three years. Our politicians have become paralysed by American insecurities. We have been caught in the web of fear which has, of itself, made America weaker.
It is time for Australia to stand up for itself and for one of its own.
I hope that this blog entry in some small way adds to the voice online about the injustice meted out against David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay every day. It joins 680,000 Google references to David Hicks.
Bring him home.
Resources:
Wikipedia
Fair Go For David
The President Versus David Hicks
David Hicks campaign site
Latest coverage from The Age newspaper
Michelle Grattan commentary
Four months ago I wrote to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications (Minister responsible for Australia Post) presenting evidence which I claim shows Australia Post breaching the Act under which it operates. I’m still waiting for a reply. Well, I have received a reply but when you lay it next to my letter it does not address even remotely any of my concerns. It’s an off the shelf document right out of Yes Minister. The Minister’s office promised in a letter six weeks ago that I would receive a reply. So far, nothing. In the meantime Australia Post pursues newsagents and other small businesses relentlessly through its government owned stores.
Tired of waiting to hear from the Minister, I sent this letter yesterday. Here’s one paragraph from the letter which sums up my position:
In that past, correspondence from your office and others in the Federal Government shows you hiding behind the Act. If you are right and the Act permits Australia Post to sell non postal related items in greater numbers, the Act must be changed. A government established and owned enterprise with monopoly core products and services such as Australia Post ought not be permitted to use its monopoly supported brand to compete against small businesses, especially when the government has stripped those small businesses of any monopoly products and services they had.
The treatment of newsagents by the Howard Government is a scandal. That the government profits through its protected 863 retail stores competing with newsagents ought to shame it. Without media coverage, people won’t know the harm being done to small business.
Kmart has been a key traffic generator for all the businesses on level 2 at Forest Hill Chase for 18 years. It’s closure on Jan. 31 has delivered an immediate drop in traffic past our door. It is too early to assess the sales impact. It will be at least 9 months before a new Target opens.
We knew the Kmart closure was coming but have felt somewhat paralysed as to what to do in advance. Only time will reveal the impact. In the meantime, it is driving us to work harder on the business, ensuring that our offering is the best it can be and that we’re driving good word of mouth.
Our petition has been out for less that a day and customers are registering their opposition to any move by the State Government which would see scratch ticket lottery products available in supermarkets such as Coles and Safeway / Woolworths. They are also writing comments which make it clear they think that the two major supermarket companies have too much power.
We’re not promoting the petition – it’s on a clipboard on the counter without any other material – making this early response most encouraging.
Here is the petition people are putting their name to:
We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens who urge the State Government of Victoria to ensure that lottery ticket and scratchie games are sold only in independent small businesses in Victoria to protect jobs.
The Bracks Labor Government and Intralot would do well to consult Victorians before they seal a deal to put scratch ticket lottery products in supermarkets.
Name and address details have been covered for privacy reasons.
Interesting to see the public gnashing of teeth by here and here Fairfax over Fred Hilmer’s book about his time as CEO of the publisher. While these attempts to control history may be important to the players, they weaken the public perception of Fairfax which ought only focus on today’s proposition and not yesterday’s opportunities.
Newsagents today are missing opportunities as Hilmer did in his time as CEO of Fairfax. While there is considerable activity impacting the core products on which newsagents rely, they (we) are not sufficiently engaged about their future. Opportunities abound for bright lateral thinkers to reinvent the newsagent offering. This is one reason I thing newsagent businesses will continue to sell – to those who will drive consolidation and evolution.
Time Inc. has announced That its Sports Illustrated Group has signed an agreement to buy sports enthusiast Web site FanNation.com. Read more at MediaPost. Watch for more moves by magazine publishers connecting their established print brands with high traffic online brands through acquisition. Such acquisitions have been very successful for newspaper companies in the last two years.
This is the window display at my local chocolate shop. It’s inspirational – the photo does not do it justice.
Newsagencies take on a new excitement over the next two weeks as love comes to town. Many do amazing displays like this chocolate shop in Brighton and sell plenty of cards, plush, chocolates and other gifts. Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to relax and enjoy retailing.
This display by Jane and the team at our shop is drawing good interest from people looking for a keepsake tribute to Steve Irwin.
We will use this opportunity to remind people of his Wildlife Warriors legacy and how people can support their work.
I’m often critical of one off titles but not this time. This tribute is timely and connects well with the community.
NDD is the worst magazine distributor from a newsagent cash flow perspective according to the 2006 magazine sell through rate data I have sitting on my desk. I’ve been trawling through this data from many newsagencies seeking a fair and accurate subset to share with the Australian Newsagents Federation for use in their representations to government and for another project within my software company. Across the board in 2006, NDD magazine sell through rates were lower than those for Network and Gotch. This means that NDD is tying up more newsagent cash as a percentage of its total newsagent billings than any other company.
In most newsagencies I have data for, the NDD sell through rate is below 50% for the whole year across all categories. This is unacceptable for a company with exceptional IT systems and a wealth of sales data from newsagents which can guide it to provide more equitable scale out to newsagents.
NDD clearly does not respect the newsagent channel otherwise it’s sell through rate average would be significantly better.
To the NDD folk reading this and angry at what you will again claim is my ‘bashing’ of NDD. Treat newsagents with commercial respect and you won’t be embarrassed by the harm you are doing to the small business newsagency channel.
There are several stories out this week about developments around the Plastic Logic e-paper technology I have discussed here previously. Editorsweblog has the best summary. E-paper – newspapers which can update themselves as news breaks. Portable. Foldable. Sell once and update many times. No need for the daily retail purchase. Amazing! Take note newsagents. Adjust your business plans now.