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HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 10)

Even in a major shopping centre, there is an expectation about the local Aussie newsagency, that it’s a shop for papers, magazines lottery tickets, instant scratch tickets and, often cigarettes. It never did bill payment, parcel pickup, money transfer or any of the other agency services that are pushed to newsagents.

Too many journalists and news outlets when they write about newsagencies, they write with this in mind, with the view of our businesses as they were 20 or so years ago.

My business at Westfield Knox, which I had for eight and a half years, played against tradition, it played against ignorant assumptions. It never had any lottery products, never sold cigarettes, never sold everyday confectionary. This was a collectible, gift and expressions shop that constantly evolved over its life. It was a good example of a local newsagency that was fresh and modern.

From the way it pitched framed beautiful wrap to one of the first major full-face card walls to the range of gifts, this business was loved locally.

We traded through the full 7 year lease and an extension the landlord asked us to consider. We planned to leave at the end of year 7 and concentrate on high street and online businesses. It turned out that staying gave us more opportunity for change, which was wonderfully successful.

When Aussies think of the local newsagency, I’d like them to think of it as unique, because every newsagency is unique, and to think of it as a place to find gifts and ways to express ourselves. This is what innovating newsagents have embraced, it is where they are finding growth in terms of basket depth, business GP% performance and personal satisfaction as a retailer.

What we did in this shop in-store is what many newsagents are doing, playing way outside what has been traditional for local retail newsagencies. What we did online many years ago and until the store closed was ground-breaking, and we’re proud of that.

The local Aussie newsagency is not what journalists, editors and many Aussies think it is. The more we as a channel share this publicly the better the opportunity to shift perception and that is key.

I don’t want to read the sky is falling for newsagents type articles, because it is not. Print newspapers will end, for sure. But that will not end us. Too many newsagents are growing their businesses. There is so much good news in our channel, so much innovation, so many good retailers. It’s wonderful!

This series over the last 8 days is a small push back against the ignorant narrative in newspapers and elsewhere about newsagents struggling. Sure, some are. but the challenges were first identified 20 years ago. There has been plenty of opportunity to evolve.

Now, if only some of the old-school suppliers to the channel let newsagents evolve by dropping arcane rules and out of date processes. Now that would be a win!

In the meantime, checkout more local newsagencies and be ready to see fresh an innovative retail.

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Social responsibility

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 9)

Continuing the series of shining a light on businesses that offer outside what is assumed to be in a local Aussie newsagency in newsXpress Candlewood in Western Australia. This business is close to the the Indian Ocean so it makes sense that their products have the beach flavour as you can see in these photos. This is a shop local visitors love for the gifts and other things they can pick up as a reminder of their trip.

The other different is product price range. Many of these items are gifts beyond trinkets some think are in a newsagency.

newsXpress Candlewood is a good example of a business that has transitioned beyond what many journalists and others think of as the local Aussie newsagency. It’s a testament to Julie and the team for what they have created is relevant locally and certainly not the traditional old-school newsagency.

I am grateful to newsagents like Julie for sharing photos so I can share them here, to reinforce the pitch that the local Aussie is not what many people think it is.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 8)

newsXpress Bairnsdale was your local traditional newsagency, and then things changed. Now, it’s a vibrant gift shop attracting not only local shoppers, but people from outside of town, as well as online – from interstate. David (Tas as he likes to be called) and the team are constantly innovating. During Covid, they pivoted to creating personalised gifts and doing so very well.

Here are some photos of the business that speak to it as a business outside of what many in Australia would consider a Newsagency. Remember, I am sharing these photos to combat the assumptions too many Aussies, including journalists, tend to make about the local newsagency.

Thriving local Aussie Newsagency are not what they used to be, as these photos show. newsXpress Bairnsdale is in a regional Victorian town, far from Melbourne, and on the road to New South Wales. back in the day it would be traditional, but now it has to be innovative retail, and it is. It’s a testament to the vision and work of David and the entire team in the business.

What makes this business even more interesting is that it does not have lotteries – a further break from the traditional.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 7)

Randalls newsagency in Bourke New South Wales is a perfect example of innovative retail in our channel, offering products outside what has been traditional for the local newsagency business, and taking that diversity online to reach shoppers far away from Bourke. In a town of less than 2,000 that is 800km from Sydney, here you have inspiring retail.

Nancy and the team at Randalls newsagency and their website, Back O Bourke Collective run an awesome business, a business that challenges what we think of as a newsagency.

This series is about showing journalists and others that the local Aussie newsagency has changed and while, for sure, there are some running old-school newsagencies rooted in the 60s and 70s, many have transformed their newsagency businesses to be fresh, inviting and vibrant. many are running local newsagency businesses that are changing, evolving, meeting new opportunities.

This is retail in 2022 and beyond, especially local retail, and even more especially local newsagency retail.

The Aussie newsagency channel was created in the 1880s to deliver news publications to the goldfields of Victoria. For decades ours were agency businesses, doing the bidding of the companies for which we were agents. It is only in the last 20 years that some in our channel decided to be retailers rather than agents.

Today, the newsagents who are growing their businesses are retailers first with either no agency business or modest agency business that does not dominate what they do in their businesses.

The local Aussie newsagency has come a long way from what Aussie journalists and others think of us as. The more show how far we have come, the better. This series is about shining a light on some good examples of this, some good examples of retail newsagency businesses that are quite different to what people expect when they think of the classic Aussie newsagency.

Shops like Randalls newsagency in Bourke NSW are a beacon not only for retail newsagents but for local retail more broadly. They are showing that location and size do not matter. They are showing that you can grow by thinking outside of the physical boundaries of your local town.

Whether it is in-store online, there are no borders to what a local newsagency can be, and this is exciting.

What is the future of the local Aussie newsagency? Well, that is up to each newsagent, each retailer in the channel. There is no channel-wide problem. rather, there are thousands of local retailers making decisions every day that will determine the future, and from where I sit, with what I get to see from many colleagues, the future is bright.

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Newsagency management

HEY AUSSIES, THE LOCAL NEWSAGENCY MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK IT IS (PART 6)

Too many journalists and too many Australians think of the local Aussie newsagency as a paper shop selling magazines, lottery tickets, cigarettes, lollies and stationery. That may have been case twenty or more years ago. Today, it’s different, the local Aussie newsagency is different. A good example of how different is newsXpress Numurkah in Victoria. In this small town of under 5,000 people you can find newsXpress Numurkah, a wonderful and vibrant shop, which is also home to a terrific online baby shop.

These photos tell the story of a vibrant and attractive retail created by Andrea and the team:

The mix of products and price-points plays against out of date assumptions too many make about what a local Aussie newsagency stock and offers.

newsXpress Numurkah is also an excellent example of excellent retail in our channel in regional and rural Australia. The whole team in the business should be proud for their representation of the local newsagency in Numurkah.

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Newsagency management

The 10,000th blog post

While I’m not a big milestone person I couldn’t let this 10,000th blog post pass without comment.

What started on January 27, 2005 with a tentative first post has evolved considerably over seven years, 10,000 blog posts and 27,180 comments.

I didn’t really have a plan when I started the blog other than to write occasionally about life in my newsagency.  Within the first few months that changed as I realised I could use the blog to write about issues beyond my own business,  issues affecting the newsagency channel more widely.

I have learnt plenty along the way – from the practical of writing for public consumption to learning to be more accepting of alternative views to mine.

I think that my voice has changed as a result of blogging. I think that my other writing, away from this place, has improved.

I am proud of the blog being a record of some of the challenges (and opportunities embedded in these challenges) faced by newsagents, those who work in our businesses and those who work with our businesses.

I am pleased to have been able to use the blog to document appalling treatment by some of newsagents.

For what it’s worth, I think the most important issues I have written about are:

  1. Australia Post and the economic harm the government owned post offices continue to wreak against newsagents. Both sides of politics are to blame for this.
  2. The failure of successive governments, the ACCC and suppliers to be fair in their treatment of newsagents through deregulation. Today’s print media distribution model disadvantages newsagents while giving commercial advantages to our competitors.
  3. The failure of magazine distributors to provide a model which is fair. They hold us accountable for the financial liability yet do not provide reasonable business levers with which to manage that liability.
  4. The disruption of print media and the impact this will have on the traditional newsagency business model … and the opportunity for financially rewarding change.
  5. The failure of many newsagents to manage their businesses for day to day profit. Too many newsagents expect their pay day when they sell and do not realise that their pay day is today, tomorrow and next week … and that this determines what they will receive when they sell.
  6. The failure of the leadership of the newsagency channel: in 1999 to lead through deregulation; and,  in the mid 2000s to put the needs of newsagents ahead of their own ego and interests.
  7. The day to day … sometimes mundane stuff about hiring and firing people, customer theft, employee theft, how we did things, why we did things.  These narrow focus topics often led to some wonderful comments which added tremendous value to what I wrote.

I smile when a supplier contacts me saying that they rarely read the blog but have been told about a post relating to them … yeah. I know that posts and comments are being noticed when people complain about the blog or me in an ill-informed or derogatory manner.

This is a place of conversation. Everyone is welcome to join in. If I am wrong, tell me.  If you want to apologise, do so.

In terms of actual achievements, that is for others to judge.

We go into 2012 with some good progress having been made in 2011.   Morrison Media, Universal Magazines, Express Media Group (EMG) and Pacific Magazines are closer to newsagents in part as a result of engagement here, showing that publishers follow posts and comments and respond in pursuit of a more valuable relationship.

I don’t have a plan for the future of the blog, never have. I’ll write about that which I want to write about … to reflect the newsagency narrative and to help and represent newsagents.

I care passionately about the channel and its place in Australian society. What we have is unique, important and valuable. It is also vulnerable. We all in this channel need to work hard to combat our vulnerabilities and to play to our strengths.

To the visitors, 1,100+ every day, and to the commenters, responsible for 27,000+ published comments, thank you for being part of this thing.

Let the blogging continue…

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