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newsagency management

Most newsagents are giving their best space to their worst-performing departments

This post promotes a service my business sells. Read it with that in mind, and judge it on whether the argument holds.

Here is the argument.

The typical newsagency floor was laid out for a business that no longer exists. Newspapers and magazines got the front, the window, the walk from the door to the counter, because that was what people came in for. Print bays have been shrinking for fifteen years. In most stores the space they hold has not shrunk anywhere near as fast.

Now, while you may have made some changes, most I see are not enough for a bright future.

Meanwhile cards, gifts, stationery, art and craft, collectables, plush and the newer categories are squeezed in around the edges. They earn their keep in poor positions, which is exactly why they are worth more space. A category performing from a bad spot is telling you something.

I see this constantly. Not because newsagents are careless, but because layout changes slowly. Nobody wakes up and decides to hand prime real estate to a declining category. You take out one bay, then another, then you shuffle a fixture, and five years later the shop is a compromise between what it used to be and what it is becoming.

The numbers most newsagents never see side by side

Two figures per department. The share of your selling space it occupies, and the share of your sales and gross profit it returns.

Almost nobody has these two figures next to each other. Yet the gap between them is the single most useful number in a newsagency, because it tells you where your rent is being wasted.

There is a second pattern I look for, and it is the one that worries me most.

Revenue flat, transaction count down.

I see it constantly in this channel now. Revenue holds because prices rose and because lotto and agency lines carry a dollar value. Underneath, fewer people are walking through the door. Foot traffic is the whole basis of a newsagency, and when it goes, everything built on it goes with it, usually about two years after the owner could have acted.

You cannot see this in one year of data. It shows up plainly in two.

What newsXpress is offering

A Store Opportunity Review. Send two years of sales data from your POS software and a sketch of your shop showing what is located where. That is all.

It comes back as a written report — how your two years compare on revenue, transactions, average sale, items per sale and department performance; how your space allocation stacks up against what each area actually returns; research on your local area and who is in it now; and research on the category opportunities that suit your catchment. Opportunities listed in the order I would tackle them.

Three business days. Then a follow-up consultation with the retail professional who wrote it, included.

$595 inc GST. $395 inc GST until the end of September. Prepaid to qualify you. And you know what, since I own newsXpress, if the report you receive is of no value to you whatsoever, let me know and I will refund your payment.

It is open to any local retailer, not just newsXpress members and not just newsagents. Gift shops, bookshops, jewellers and homewares stores face the same space and margin questions.

help@newsxpress.com.au.

Why I think it matters more in this channel than any other

Because newsagents are running out of runway, and space is the lever they still control.

You cannot fix print decline. You cannot negotiate lottery terms. You cannot stop a masthead closing or a distribution frequency changing. What you can do is decide what occupies the best two metres of your shop, and most newsagents are making that decision by inheritance rather than by evidence.

The stores I see doing well in 2026 are the ones that stopped waiting for the old model to stabilise and started treating themselves as retailers with a good site. The layout usually changed before the results did.

And the honest caveat

A report will not save a shop in the wrong location on the wrong lease with the wrong rent. Nothing will, and I would rather tell you that in the follow-up call than take your money and pretend otherwise.

But if the business is fundamentally sound and simply arranged for a version of itself from a decade ago, this is a cheap way to find out what to move and what to back.

Draw the sketch badly. It is the part I find most useful.

To kick this off, email help@newsxpress.com.au.

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Newsagency management

Asking your landlord for a rent reduction? Prepare before you knock

Asking a landlord for a rent reduction is a reasonable thing to do. Rent is one of the biggest costs in any retail newsagency, and when circumstances change it makes sense to talk. But how you ask matters as much as what you ask for.

The first question is a hard one, and you ask it of yourself: are you making good money? A smart landlord will want to see your profit and loss statement. If it shows a healthy, growing profit, your argument may disappear before it begins. Think that through before you knock on the door.

If there is a case, build it before you make the request. Know why you are asking. What is the commercial reason? Gather the evidence and present it clearly. Bring your P&L. Bring your sales figures. Explain the situation rather than simply asking for a discount.

Too many retailers ask before they have prepared. I have seen it plenty of times. Some have no real case. Others have a strong case but never present it, so the request quietly fades away. It is hard to blame a landlord for saying no to an argument that was never made.

The detail matters. What is your occupancy cost as a percentage of revenue? Are sales up or down? Is the location delivering the foot traffic you expected when you signed the lease? Compare this quarter with the same quarter last year, and this half with the same half a year earlier. The Tower Systems newsagency software can produce these numbers in minutes.

Do not be afraid of difficult numbers if that is what the records show. Honest data builds a stronger case than vague complaints.

Remember, too, that landlords are more likely to help a tenant they want to keep. If you pay on time, look after the shop and bring traffic that benefits the stores around you, you are worth keeping. Neighbouring retailers may even support your case, and it is worth asking them.

Preparation is everything here. Have your evidence in hand and a specific number in mind, because a landlord can take a prepared case to their own decision makers.

Walk in ready.

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Newsagency management

Payments providers are chasing newsagents. My advice: don’t rush

Payments providers are chasing newsagents right now. Suncorp Bank exiting this space has plenty of newsagents thinking about what to do next, and the providers know it. The calls and emails have started, and reps are turning up in shops.

My advice is to not rush into a decision.

It is still early days. I know of three deals being pitched to newsagents right now, and I know of more options being prepared that are not public yet. Better deals may emerge. In my experience of moments like this, they usually do.

There is time, too. The new regulations banning surcharging start October 1. That sounds close, but for a decision like this it is not. You can watch the market for a few more weeks and still have plenty of time to move comfortably before the deadline. Nobody should feel pressured into signing with the first rep who calls.

When you do compare offers, look past the headline rate. What is the total cost per transaction once every fee is counted? What is the contract term, and what does it cost to leave early? Who owns the terminal, and who answers the phone when it stops working on a Saturday morning? When does the money land in your account? Cash flow depends on that last one more than people expect. Whatever answers you get, get them in writing.

Most of all, think about, and ask questions about, who is making money from the decision you make. Every deal being pitched earns someone a margin somewhere. Maybe the provider, maybe a referral partner earning a commission along the way. Once you know who gets paid and how much, you can judge whose interests the deal really serves.

This is not a criticism of the providers. They are doing what businesses do. But it is your decision and your money. Waiting a few weeks costs you little. A bad contract can cost you for years.

Take your time.  Do your research. The right decision could save you a ton of money, which will matter after October 1. So, be careful, do your due diligence. Ask the tough questions. Sign only when you are sure.

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Newsagency management

When there is no buyer: closing your newsagency well

I get asked about buying and selling newsagencies often. There is a harder conversation we do not have enough: what to do when there is no buyer at all.

It is more common than most owners admit. When a newsagent cannot sell, they often just close. I said as much to Mumbrella late last year, and the rate of closures lifted again through 2025. A business built on newspapers, magazines, stationery and lotteries, with little change over the years, has no goodwill a buyer will pay for.

This post is for the owner facing that reality. I am not selling you a turnaround. I want to help you leave well.

The no-buyer reality

Frank and Moya Livingstone paid around $600,000 for the Mansfield newsagency two decades ago. They listed it, waited two years, and got no takers. In the end they closed the doors and walked away. “Unfortunately, it’s an industry nobody wants to take on anymore,” Frank told the ABC.

Their story is not rare. McGills, once the largest newsagency in Victoria and a Melbourne CBD landmark, closed because no-one offered to buy it. Whole towns have lost their last news service.

If this is your business, the absence of a buyer is not a personal failure. It is the market telling you the goodwill is gone. The sooner you accept that, the better your exit will be.

I know one regional owner who did exactly that. They put the business on the market, wanted to retire, and set themselves a deadline. Theirs was a transformed business by then. It did not look or feel like a traditional newsagency and it was terrifically profitable. Even so, two years passed with no sale. When the deadline arrived, they closed in a calm, structured way, sold the building and retired happy. There was no drama and no shame in it.

They had decided how their exit would look, and they held to it.

Winding down well

A closure is still a project, and it deserves to be run like one. The owners who manage it well start twelve months out, not twelve days.

Start with the lease. Your exit date is set by your lease more than anything else. Know when it ends, what your make-good obligations are and whether you can hand back early. This shapes every other decision.

The lottery licence needs its own plan. It sits with the operator, not with you to sell freely. Speak to the Lottery Corporation early about surrendering or transferring it, as the process and timing are theirs to control. Do not leave this to the last week.

Stock takes patience. Resist the urge to strip the shop overnight. Wind supply down category by category, stop reordering slow lines now, and discount in stages so you protect cash rather than dump everything at a loss. Magazines and returns need a clean final reconciliation with each distributor.

Give your card, gift and stationery suppliers notice, settle accounts, and return what you can. A tidy close protects your name and any future dealings.

Your people will know something is coming, so tell them early and honestly. Work out entitlements, final pays and references. This is often the part owners dread most, and handling it with care matters.

And talk to your accountant well before you close, not after. There are tax outcomes to a wind-down, and a clean set of final accounts protects you. Two to three years of lead time is ideal, but even a few months helps.

The part no-one prepares you for

The practical steps are the easy part. The hard part is what closing does to you.

For many owners the newsagency is not just income. It is identity. You have opened the door before dawn for twenty or thirty years. Customers know your name. You have been the one who kept the paper aside and remembered the birthday card. When that ends, the loss is real.

Frank Livingstone put it plainly: “You just close the doors, walk away, and lick your wounds.” There is grief in that line. Do not pretend it is only a transaction.

The regional owner I mentioned had one clear reason for retiring happy: they were open about the plan, inside the business and out. Staff knew, and so did customers and suppliers. There was no awkward secrecy. That openness turned a closure into a dignified ending rather than a quiet retreat, and it is the single lesson I would take from their exit.

A few things help. Give yourself time before deciding what comes next. Tell your customers properly, with a note in the window and a proper goodbye, rather than a locked door one Monday. Let them thank you, because it matters to them and it will matter to you. Keep some connection to the people and the work you valued. And be honest with your family about how you are feeling, because they carry it with you.

Closing a business you built is not defeat. What hurts owners is doing it badly, rushed and alone. Done on your terms, with clean accounts and your head up, it is something to be proud of.

The point

If you cannot sell, you still have choices about how you leave. Plan the wind-down properly, look after your cash and your staff, and sort the lottery and the lease early. Give yourself the same care you have given your customers all these years.
The shop closes either way. What people remember is how you closed it.

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Newsagency management

Reading your P&L and balance sheet: a plain-English guide for newsagents

Most newsagents I know don’t enjoy looking at their financials. The reports often arrive from the accountant. They get a glance. Then they go in a drawer.

That’s a missed opportunity I think.

Your profit and loss statement and your balance sheet are two useful management tools. They cost nothing extra. You already pay to produce them. Yet few retailers read them well, and fewer still act on what they show.

This is a plain-English guide. No jargon for its own sake. Just what the numbers mean, and the handful that actually matter in a newsagency.

The two reports, in one sentence each

The profit and loss statement shows whether the business made money over a period. A month, a quarter, a year.

The balance sheet shows what the business owns and owes at a single point in time. Think of it as a photograph taken on the last day of the period.

One is a video of the trading period. The other is a snapshot at the end of it. You need both.

The profit and loss, top to bottom

A P&L reads from the top down, and it narrows as it goes.

At the top is revenue, sometimes called sales or turnover. This is everything the business sold. In a newsagency it blends very different things: lottery commission, magazines, papers, cards, gifts, stationery, and whatever newer categories you have added.

A word of caution here. Total revenue can flatter you. A big lottery number lifts the top line but adds little profit. More on that shortly.

Next comes cost of goods sold, usually shortened to COGS. This is what the stock cost you to buy. Revenue minus COGS gives you gross profit.

Gross profit is the number that matters most in retail. It is the money left after paying for the stock, and it is what pays for everything else.

Below gross profit sit the operating expenses. Wages. Rent. Power. Insurance. Bank and card fees. Accounting. These are the costs of keeping the doors open, whether you sell much or little.

Take operating expenses away from gross profit and you reach the bottom line: net profit. This is what the business actually earned.

Why gross profit beats revenue every time

Here is the trap. Two newsagencies can report the same revenue and be worlds apart in health.

Imagine both turn over one million dollars. The first leans heavily on lottery and papers, low-margin lines. The second has shifted space to cards, gifts, and collectables. The second business keeps far more of every dollar. Same top line. Very different result at the bottom.

This is why a rising revenue figure is not, on its own, good news. What you want to see is gross profit rising, and rising as a share of sales.

Watch the gross profit margin. It is gross profit divided by revenue, shown as a percentage. Track it month on month and year on year. A margin that is drifting down is an early warning, often long before the bank balance shows it.

The handful of numbers that actually matter

You do not need to read every line. A small set of numbers tells the real story.

Gross profit margin. Covered above. The single most important percentage in the business. If it is falling, find out why before anything else.

Wages as a percentage of sales. Total wages divided by revenue. This is usually the largest controllable cost in a shop. Roster to sales, not to habit. The % should be 11% or less.

Occupancy cost as a percentage of sales. Rent, outgoings, and any centre levies, divided by revenue. It shows whether the site is earning its keep. The % should be 11% or less.

Stock turn. How many times a year you sell and replace your stock. Slow turn means cash tied up on shelves. It is the quiet killer of small retail.

Net profit, and the wage you pay yourself. Read these together. A business that shows a profit only because the owner takes nothing is not really profitable.

Get comfortable with those five. Ignore the rest until you have.

A note on the owner’s wage

Many newsagents do not pay themselves a proper wage. The profit then looks better than it is.

This matters most when you come to sell. A buyer, and a broker, will add a market wage back into the accounts to see the true earnings. Better to run the business that way now. It gives you an honest picture, and it protects the value of the business.

The balance sheet, without the fog

The balance sheet has three parts. Assets, liabilities, and equity.

Assets are what the business owns. Cash in the bank. Stock on the shelves. Money owed to you. Fittings and equipment.

Liabilities are what the business owes. Suppliers. The tax office. Any loans or finance.

Equity is what is left for the owner once you subtract liabilities from assets. It is the true worth of the business on that day.

The whole thing balances by design. Assets always equal liabilities plus equity. Hence the name.

What to look for on the balance sheet

Two things matter most for a small retailer.

Can the business pay its bills? Compare what it owns that is easily turned to cash, mainly bank and stock, against what falls due soon, mainly suppliers and tax. If the short-term debts are creeping up on the short-term assets, tighten up before it bites.

Is cash trapped in stock? A large stock figure is not a sign of strength. It is often a sign of dead lines and over-ordering. Stock does not pay wages. Cash does.

Read the balance sheet alongside the P&L. A shop can post a profit and still run short of cash, because the profit is sitting on the shelves as unsold stock.

Build the habit

Set aside 10 minutes at the end of each month.

Open the P&L. Check the gross profit margin against last month and the same month last year. Glance at wages and occupancy as a share of sales.

Open the balance sheet. Check the bank, the stock figure, and what is owed to suppliers and the tax office.

Write down one thing you will act on. Just one. Do that every month and the numbers stop being a mystery. They become a guide.

The bottom line

Good retailers are not those who avoid the reports. They are the ones who read them, calmly, on a regular schedule, and let the numbers shape the next decision.

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Newsagency management

Sales Rep Visits In-Store Are a Waste of Time in Most Cases I Think

How long do you give a sales rep who wants to meet to pitch a new range? I give them none. Send it to me in an email instead.

That’s not me being rude. It’s a decision I made after noticing how much time these visits were eating, and how little most of them changed what I actually stock. Twenty minutes here, forty there, add it up over a month and it’s a working day gone, mostly on ranges I was never going to take.

An email pitch has to work harder, and that’s the point. If you want my shelf space, tell me:

  • What the range actually is, in a few lines, not a slideshow. If it takes ten minutes to explain, it’ll take my customers longer to understand.
  • The evidence behind any claim you’re making, sales data, a case study, something I can check. “Retailers love it” isn’t evidence.
  • Who the target shopper is, specifically, not “everyone.”
  • How this range gets me in front of shoppers I’m not already reaching. Recycling the same faces already through my door doesn’t count.

A rep standing in my shop can talk around all four of those. An email can’t hide as easily, and it doesn’t cost me the time it takes to be polite while it happens.

Something else: a lot of rep visits are social, on purpose.

Reps and the companies behind them know retailers often buy from people they like, and that this counts for more in the decision than it should. A friendly half hour costs them nothing and buys a lot of goodwill, goodwill that shows up later as shelf space the product hasn’t earned.

So the question worth asking yourself: how much time do you actually spend with sales reps in an average month? And when did you last sit down and work out whether that time is buying you better ranges and more sales, or just buying the rep goodwill at your expense?

If you haven’t audited it, that’s the exercise. Not every visit is wasted, some earn their keep, but you won’t know which until you actually look.

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Newsagency management

What Do You Do When “Australian Made” Quietly Stops Being True

For years, we backed a supplier whose whole pitch was Australian made. We believed it, and used it, in our stores and in our marketing to customers who care where things come from.

Then we found out the manufacturing had moved to China. No announcement, no change to the packaging except for a single small print sentence, nothing on the website. We found out because we went looking.

That’s the part that stuck with us. A business that changes something this material to its customers, then says nothing, already knows how those customers would react if they found out.

So we went quiet too. We found a new supplier, one that actually makes the product locally, told them directly why local manufacture matters to us and our customers, and made the switch.

If a supplier moves manufacturing offshore and doesn’t tell you, that silence is the answer. They already know what you’d decide if you knew.

A few things worth checking if you carry products built on an Australian-made story:

  • Ask suppliers directly, and periodically, where the product is actually made. Packaging from two years ago doesn’t tell you much.
  • Watch for small wording shifts, from “Australian made” to “Australian owned” or “designed in Australia.” The change usually shows up in the fine print first.
  • Line up an alternative before you need one. Switching suppliers on your own timeline beats scrambling once customers start asking questions you can’t answer.

We’re not naming the supplier here. This isn’t about calling anyone out. It’s about the fact that “Australian made” is a claim customers trust you to have actually checked. When it stops being true, the business behind it owes you an update. Whether they give you one is up to them.

This experience has changed how we deal with suppliers now. We take extra care on manufacture location for those items for which this does matter, where we are likely to promote locally made.

If you make a shop local pitch when promoting your business, locally made will matter to you for sure. Start by doing an audit of the items you think are locally made. You might be surprised, as we were.

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Uncategorized

If you are feeling challenged by Payday Super

If payday super is creating a cashflow challenge for your business, you need to work on your business. That sounds rude, I know.  It’s true, though.

Since 1 July 2026, employers must pay super guarantee into staff accounts within 7 business days of each payday. The quarterly float is gone. Weekly wages now mean super leaves your account weekly.

The quantum of obligation hasn’t changed, only the timing. It was always your employees’ money. Paying it out when it’s owed just means your business is now in step with when it’s actually due.

If payday super exposed a cashflow gap, that gap already existed. The old quarterly cycle was just hiding it.

What to do now

  • Forecast cash weekly instead of quarterly. Track super the same way you already track wages and stock payments.
  • Talk to your bank or finance partner early. A short-term facility to smooth the transition is a normal planning step.
  • Review your pay cycle. Moving from weekly to fortnightly payroll, where it suits your team, cuts the number of super payment events each month.

Penalties and the ATO’s approach

Errors attract the Super Guarantee Charge: 25%, rising to 50% for repeat issues. The ATO says it will take a more supportive approach in year one for businesses making a genuine effort to pay on time. Use that grace period to fix your process now.

Advice on improving cashflow.

If you’re a regular here you’ve probably seen this advice before. In my experience working with newsagents here are the best steps you can take to free up cash in your business. My advice is to do all and compound the benefits:

  1. Quit dead stock. Free up cash, space and time. Get into something that works!
  2. See if theft is an issue and if it is: fix it!
  3. Reduce your out of stocks.
  4. Trim the roster.
  5. Know what’s working and do more of that.

Reach out for advice. There are plenty in our channel who can help resolve cashflow challenges. It starts with putting your hand up.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

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Newsagency management

Your Google Business Profile in 2026: what’s changed, what’s still true, and one thing to fix

This advice first went to newsXpress members 3 years ago. It went to ALNA members after that. I’m sharing an updated version here to reach more newsagents, because I went back and checked it against Google’s own current guidelines and against what’s actually changed since it was written. Most of it holds up. One part of it doesn’t, and it’s worth fixing today.

It’s still free. It still takes a few minutes, not a consultant. And local search still converts better than almost anything else you can do with your time.

Why this is still worth doing

Roughly 46% of all Google searches carry local intent, and some 2026 estimates put that closer to 50%. Of the people who run a “near me” style search, 76% visit a business within 24 hours, and 28% of local searches end in a purchase. Local search is mobile-heavy too: around 70% of these searches happen on a phone. A complete, active Google Business Profile is how you show up in that moment.

One thing to fix: your categories

Here’s the part of the original advice that needs correcting. It said to select as many categories as apply to your business, on the basis that retailers too often pick just one. Google’s own current guidelines say the opposite: choose the fewest categories it takes to describe your core business, as specifically as possible, and don’t add categories just to cover more search terms.

Categories aren’t a keyword list. They’re meant to answer “what IS this business,” not “what does it sell.”

If your profile has picked up five or six categories over the years to catch every possible search, it’s worth trimming back to the two or three that most specifically describe what you are. A newsagency that also sells gifts and cards is still a newsagency, just with specific, accurate secondary categories, not a business wearing every hat in the shop.

What’s changed since this was first written

Posting no longer requires a third-party tool. Google Business Profile now has scheduling and recurring posts built directly into the posting screen: set a post once, choose “weekly” or a custom pattern, and Google keeps publishing it for you. Tools like Loomly, Sendible or OneUp still work fine if you’re already using them, but they’re no longer the only way to plan ahead.

The business description limit is 750 characters, not 750 words. Google displays roughly the first 250 characters before a customer has to tap “read more,” so put the important information first. Google’s guidelines also ask that the description itself not read like an advertisement: no “everything on sale” or price call-outs. Save the sales pitch for your posts, and use the description to say plainly what you are and what you offer.

Posts can technically run up to about 1,500 characters, but the data on what actually gets read and clicked favours something much shorter, well under 300 characters, closer to a tight paragraph than a full page. If you’ve been writing longer posts, trimming them will likely help rather than hurt.

What hasn’t changed

Posts still archive after six months, same as when this advice was first written, and profiles with something posted in the last week or so are the ones that show up looking active. That’s the real reason to keep posting weekly rather than setting and forgetting. Hashtags still do nothing on Google posts, so don’t bother. And the core advice against handing this over to a marketer or a friend still stands: you know your shop and your customers, and that’s worth more here than someone else’s template.

New this year: Gemini can now help run your profile

The one genuinely new development since last year is that Google connected Gemini directly to Business Profile, for single-location owners, from June 2026. Once connected, you can ask it things in plain language: how did my business do this month, help me respond to this review, or post something about our new stock this week. It can draft, and you can edit before anything goes live.

This doesn’t change the advice about doing this yourself rather than outsourcing it. Gemini is a tool you point at your own knowledge of your shop, not a replacement for it. It’s worth trying, particularly for retailers who found the interface itself the biggest barrier to getting started.

The short version

Set up or claim your profile if you haven’t. Pick the fewest, most specific categories that describe your business, not the most. Write a plain, accurate 750-character description with the important part up front. Post about one product a week, with a photo, in a couple of short sentences rather than a couple of paragraphs. Keep doing it yourself.

It still costs nothing, and it’s still one of the highest-return things a small retailer can do this year.

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Newsagency management

Collins Debden has a journal range that works for the male journalling opportunity

I’ve been talking a while about the male journalling opportunity: young guys 15 through 35 who are journalling more now than ever.

Anyway, here is a new video from me about a terrific range from Collins Debden: https://youtu.be/aP4dyCswFGU

Now, if the opportunity of selling journals to young guys is new to you, here’s more context:

Journaling has shed its old image. It’s now widely treated as part of a healthy lifestyle, and one of the fastest-growing groups taking it up is younger men, roughly aged **18 to 35**.

AFL footballers are journaling and talking about it openly. Olympians describe it as part of how they manage performance. Outside sport, plenty of people talk about journaling as a mental health tool and a way to build a steady daily routine. Whatever’s driving it, the trend is real, and it’s showing up in what customers are asking for at the counter.

## Why structure matters for a first-time journaller

Handed a blank notebook, most people freeze after the first page. What gets someone journaling regularly isn’t a nicer cover. It’s a bit of structure to work from until the habit sticks.

Collins Debden has built a range around exactly that idea, called Jumble. It includes titles such as Routines, Doze, Passion, Flex, Thankful and Believe, each built around a single clear theme.

Take the Passion journal as an example. Once the marketing slip comes off, the layout does the work. There’s space to sum up the week in one word, simple prompts with small icons to circle covering how the week felt, the hurdles overcome, the ways people supported each other, and a favourite memory, then open space for free notes alongside.

Routines follows the same logic from a different angle. It asks for a main goal for the week, the steps to reach it, weekly habits to track, and a quick read on mood and energy. Both journals, like the rest of the range, come with a sticker sheet.

A little scaffolding at the start makes it far more likely the habit sticks, and that’s really the whole idea behind the range.

## Why this is worth stocking

Collins Debden is an established international publisher of diaries and journals, and the Jumble range is a solid place to start for any retailer looking to serve the male journaling market. It gives a first-time journaller somewhere obvious to begin, rather than a blank book and good intentions.

It’s also worth talking about on social media. Local men’s sheds, mental health groups and community organisations are exactly the kind of audience who’ll want to know these journals are stocked nearby, and a short post is often enough to put your shop on their radar.

To find out more about opportunities like this, get in touch with the team at help@newsxpress.com.au.

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Newsagency opportunities

Why newsagents can’t afford to run old software anymore

Software security has changed more in the last eighteen months than in the previous five years, and small retailers, like newsagents, are squarely in the firing line.

Newsagents handle sensitive data: EFTPOS transactions, lottery and gift card sales, loyalty accounts, customer details. Running old software is a commercial risk to your business and to the people who shop with you.

What’s changed

Cyber criminals have worked out that small businesses are easier targets than large ones, and just as valuable.

According to the Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2024–25, the average cost of a cyber incident to a small business rose 14% to $56,600. The ACSC’s cyber security hotline took more than 42,500 calls that year, up 16% on the year before, and the agency issued over 1,700 warnings about malicious activity targeting Australian organisations, an 83% jump. Read the full report.

Payment security rules have tightened. PCI DSS 4.0, the standard that governs how businesses handle card payments, made a set of new requirements mandatory from April 2025, including multi-factor authentication for anyone accessing systems that touch card data. If your POS provider hasn’t talked to you about this, it’s worth asking.

Attackers are going after software supply chains too. Industry research on retail breaches found close to a third involved a compromised third-party vendor rather than a direct attack on the retailer, nearly double the rate from the year before. A weakness in a POS provider, a payments processor, or an IT support company can expose every retailer connected to them.

And a lot of small business software is older than it should be. Security researchers still find point-of-sale systems running operating systems that stopped receiving security patches years ago, because “it still works” felt like a good enough reason to leave it alone. Unsupported software is an open door. Nobody is watching for weaknesses in a system the vendor stopped maintaining, and attackers know it.

The businesses ransomware groups target most aren’t the ones with the least valuable data. They’re the ones with the least resistance.

Why this matters more for newsagents specifically

Most newsagents have grown beyond newspapers and magazines. Gift cards, loyalty programs, mobile recharge, lottery accounts and card payments all run through the same till, and all of it depends on software that’s connected to the internet, connected to your bank, and often connected to a support provider with remote access to your systems. That’s real exposure. It’s a profile attackers look for: valuable transactions, limited in-house IT support, and a temptation to delay updates because the shop is busy and the software “still works fine.”

What keeping software up to date means

Keeping software current is more than clicking “update” when a pop-up appears. A few questions worth putting to your POS provider or IT support:

  • Is your point-of-sale software still actively supported, with regular security patches, or is it running on an older version the vendor no longer maintains?
  • Is multi-factor authentication switched on for anyone who can access your systems remotely, including your support provider?
  • How quickly does your provider apply security patches after they’re released, and do they tell you when they do?
  • Are your backups tested, and stored somewhere separate from your main system, so a ransomware attack on your till doesn’t take your records with it?

A short checklist for your shop

None of this requires becoming a cyber security expert. A few habits make most of the difference:

  • Turn on multi-factor authentication on every account that offers it, not just your bank login.
  • Keep the operating system and browser on any device connected to your POS current.
  • Treat unexpected “urgent” emails about supplier invoices or EFTPOS settings with suspicion, and verify by phone before acting.
  • Back up your data regularly, and keep at least one copy separate from your main system.

Treat your POS software the way you’d treat your shop’s front door: locked, current, and not something you put off dealing with because business is busy. The retailers who get hit hardest are usually the ones who assumed it wouldn’t happen to a shop their size.

Now, here are some valuable sources:

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Newsagency management

The sale that walked out the door

A customer walks into a local shop looking for NeeDoh, one of the best-known names in sensory play. Out of stock. The assistant holds up a generic off-brand substitute when asked of they have NeeDoh.

No but, we have these off-brand products.

Right next to that substitute, on the same shelf, sits a full range of Crazy Aaron’s Putty, a premium brand that does exactly what Nee-Doh does. They don’t point it out. The don’t ask what the customer actually wants, or offers to let them try it.

If you’d rather head about this, here’s a video that I made today reflecting on the experience.

The shopper turns and leaves with nothing

The shop has lost a sale it didn’t need to lose.

Why how we engage matters

Shoppers rarely walk into a local store for one planned purchase. They browse, and they react to whatever catches the eye. People buy sensory and novelty lines for all sorts of reasons: arthritis relief, sensory needs, or just something to fidget with at a desk.

That’s exactly why these products deserve better than a spot near the counter as an afterthought. Stock the brands people recognise, know the range, and be able to talk about it like you mean it. That’s what turns a browser into a buyer.

What went wrong

A team that doesn’t know its stock, its trends, or its alternatives well enough to mention them naturally will lose sales like this one and never notice it happened.

An out-of-stock answer with no real alternative can be enough to lose a customer for good, along with every repeat visit and word-of-mouth recommendation that would have followed.

Independent retailers compete on service. Every interaction either builds the relationship or ends it, and there’s rarely a moment in between.

What good service looks like instead

It doesn’t take much to turn this around: a mention of the putty on the same shelf, a question about what the customer actually needs it for, an offer to try before they buy, or just a heads-up that new stock is on its way.

The takeaway

Train every team member to treat a stock shortage as a chance to offer something else, not a dead end.

Independent retailers can’t compete with the majors on price, but they can out-curate and out-serve them, provided staff know the range well enough to make a recommendation without having to think about it.

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retail

5 ways your newsagency can profitably deal with the award wage increase, a rent increase and the surcharge ban

Award wages went up 4.75% on 1 July. Rent is tracking 4–5% higher for most. From 1 October, the RBA surcharge ban means card fees you were recovering from customers need to be absorbed or built into prices. The combined hit is around 1.5% of turnover for a typical newsagency — real money when margins are already thin.

Here are five ways to recover some of it, using tools already in  newsagency software.

1. Reprice the stock you control

Magazines and newspapers are priced for you. Stationery, gifts, art supplies and general merchandise are not. If you have not looked at those prices recently, there is a reasonable chance you are undercharging.

A smart stock manager lets you update prices across a category in one pass, in bulk, accurately, safely. Some newsagencies mark up stationery at 100%; others run 125% and see no drop in sales. Worth checking where you sit.

A small increase of 1% across what you control might get you nicely into positive ground.

2. Stop entering invoices by hand

Five to ten hours a week on manual invoice entry is a full day of wages, every week, on admin. AI invoice arrivals imports supplier invoices directly — no typing, fewer errors, no chasing up mistakes.

Those hours go back to the counter or to something that actually earns revenue.

3. Clear dead stock

Stock that has not sold in six months typically accounts for 10–15% of total inventory value. It is taking up shelf space, paying rent per square metre, and returning nothing.

The software flags these lines. Get them out through clearance, supplier return or bundling, and the capital goes back into stock that moves.

4. Find your stockouts

Missed sales are invisible unless you look for them. The insights dashboard makes them visible: it shows the dollar value of sales lost because a product was not in stock when a customer wanted it.

Match that with automated reordering and the lines that drive your sales stay on the shelf.

5. Use theft detection tools

Theft typically accounts for 3% – 5% of newsagency turnover. Most of the volume is customer theft; the highest individual losses tend to be internal.

The audit log and early detection tools in the software catch discrepancies well before a stocktake would. Earlier detection means a smaller problem to deal with.

Contact the Tower Systems team at sales@towersystems.com.au.

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Newsagency management

One sale, or three hundred newspapers

Sell a newspaper for $3.50 and you make about 12.5 per cent. That’s 44 cents in your hand. Sell a $250 item at 55 per cent and you make $137.50.

Do the division. One $250 sale is worth more than three hundred newspapers. You could sell a paper to every adult who walks past for a week and still not match what one good sale puts in the till.

We all know this. So why do we keep leaning on the 44 cents?

Because the paper is easy. The customer comes in, knows what they want, pays, leaves. No risk, no money tied up, nothing riding on your judgement. It feels like business because it’s busy. But busy isn’t the same as making money, and the newspaper proves that every single day.

The $250 sale is hard, and it’s hard in two ways we don’t talk about honestly.

You have to find the item first. That means backing your own read on a range, spending real money on stock that might just sit there, giving it decent space and light, and waiting. Some of it won’t work. You’ll buy the wrong thing now and then. That’s the price of playing in the part of the shop where the money actually is. The paper never asks any of that of you, which is exactly why it pays you 44 cents.

Then you have to find the shopper. And here’s the bit that stings. That shopper is already in your shop. They come in for the paper, or the lotto, or a birthday card. You see them twice a week. You know their name. It has just never crossed your mind that they’d spend $250 with you, because somewhere along the line you filed them as a paper buyer and left them there.

They’ve filed you too. Years of selling them a paper has taught them what you’re for. They don’t look at your good stock because they don’t think of you as the shop that sells it. So they buy the $250 thing somewhere else, from someone who bothered to see more in them than a paper sale.

That’s the real work. Not just buying the right product. Looking again at the people who are already in front of you, and shifting what they think you’re for.

The maths was never the hard part. The habit is.

Now, what is the gift item you sold was worth $1,500? yes, there are ‘newsagents’ doing this.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

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Newsagency management

The customer who brought scissors

We had a humour card with a small floppy balloon penis on it. Funny card. Customers loved it. Sold consistently.

Then cards started appearing on the display with the balloon missing. We assumed a product fault — attachment not holding, supplier issue, something in the handling. We chased it down. Nothing explained it.

We checked the security footage.

A woman, late seventies or early eighties. She’d come in, browse, wait until no one was close, and snip. Clean off. She’d done it to several cards before we caught on. Came back and did it again after that.

It’s genuinely funny in hindsight. A dedicated, recurring mission to rid the shop of a balloon penis.

It also points to something that isn’t funny. Some customers believe they have standing to decide what a shop carries. Not by choosing not to buy something — that’s their right — but by removing the choice for everyone else. She didn’t want the card there. So she solved the problem herself, repeatedly, with scissors.

We see other versions of this regularly. Customers who complain about products they didn’t buy. Who tell you directly that you shouldn’t stock something because they find it offensive. Who seem genuinely surprised that their discomfort doesn’t automatically override your ranging decisions.

A retail range isn’t built for the most easily offended person in the customer base. It’s built for the whole of it. That card made people laugh and it sold. One person felt differently and handled it with craft supplies.

Stock what your customers want. Not what survives the most conservative person in the shop.

Back to our snipper. We confronted them and asked that they stop it. They complained. We invited them to shop elsewhere.

While our approach may have lost us customers through word of mouth (we certainly heard the complaint had reached others) we felt better for being true to the retailer we see ourselves as, stocking what more customers like and what we can have a laugh about.

…
Mark Fletcher founded newsagency software company Tower Systems and is the CEO of newsXpress, a marketing group serving innovative independent retailers, including newsagents, who continuously evolve their businesses to be enjoyable, relevant and successful. You can reach him on mark@newsxpress.com.au or 0418 321 338.

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Social responsibility

The price increase you most likely haven’t tried yet

If you are like a ship I visited a few days ago, you are likely sitting on hundreds of well-selling products right now where a 50 cent or one dollar increase would go completely unnoticed by customers but would add real dollars to the bottom line by the end of the year. Not a dramatic margin overhaul — just a quiet, deliberate look at what you’re charging versus what the product is actually worth to the person buying it. That gap exists in almost every shop. The retailers who go looking for it find it.

When did you last put a price up just to see what happened?

Not because a supplier raised their cost. Not because the margin report flagged something. Just because you thought a product might be worth more than what you’re charging for it.

Most newsagents never do this. Prices move when costs move. Margin percentage drifts down without anyone noticing, and the business quietly earns less than it should for years.

The products worth testing are the ones customers want rather than need. A card for a specific occasion. A gift that’s genuinely hard to find locally. A collectible that’s selling faster than you can reorder it. For those products, shoppers will often pay more than the current price suggests — you just haven’t asked yet.

Put one price up. Watch it for a couple of weeks. If it keeps selling at the same rate, you’ve found margin you were leaving behind. If it slows, adjust it. Neither outcome is a problem. One earns you more money. The other tells you something useful about your customers.

The retailers doing this well aren’t testing everything at once. That’s not experimenting, that’s chaos. They pick lines with strong, consistent demand and move carefully. Over time those small experiments add up to a margin position that looks nothing like where they started — without a supplier negotiation or a ranging overhaul in sight.

Your POS data already shows you which products are moving consistently. Start there. Pick something with steady demand, nudge the price, and watch what the data shows over the next few weeks.

The worst that happens is you learn something. The best is that you find margin that’s been sitting there the whole time, waiting for you to notice.

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Newsagency management
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