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newsagents

If you’re chasing cost cutting in your newsagency, you may be chasing the wrong thing

Most of the conversations I have had with newsagents lately started with the same question. How do I cut costs?

Fair enough. I ask it in my own shops too. Rent is not going down and neither are wages.

But I have noticed something. Some newsagents are spending all their energy on chasing cost savings and none of it on the business.

Someone will spend an afternoon chasing lower EFTPOS fees or getting insurance quotes and feel productive. The same person has not looked at dead stock in a year, or brought on a new product category.

That is the wrong thing, I think. You can make more money today and into the future by working on your business, in your business. I know the business books don’t agree.

I think the cost saving wins because it is easy. A phone call, a form, done. Working on the business is harder. You have to look at decisions you’ve made and be honest about them based on the evidence. That is uncomfortable, and so it waits.

What I see in the numbers

Here is what I see when I go through the numbers in a newsagency, mine included.

A saving of a couple of hundred dollars a month is hard to find and disappears in one bad quarter. Meanwhile, there is stock on the shelves that has not sold since March. A section running at 25 per cent margin sits where something at 55 per cent could be. Prices on some items are lower than they could be without hurting sales. And every day people walk in, buy what they came for, and walk out without an impulse purchase.

That is where the money is. Not in a cheaper phone plan or insurance.

Where to start

My advice if you want to free up cash and make more money is to start here.

  • Run a report of everything that has not sold in six months. Mark it down and get it out within two weeks. That is cash you’ve already spent, sitting there doing nothing.
  • Rank gross profit contribution by floorspace allocation. Most who do this are shocked.
  • Reset your counter to attract impulse purchases. Surprise people, so they notice.
  • Audit where the labour you pay for is spent. Typically, 20 per cent of that time can either be freed for more valuable work or cut from the roster.
  • Look at your prices for the products over which you have price control. A 1 per cent price increase is unlikely to affect unit sales. You get to bank the 1 per cent.

None of that is exciting. It is where I have seen the biggest financial benefit, bigger than you will get chasing a cost reduction on insurance.

An offer

If you would like a second pair of eyes, I will look at your business for free and come back with specific opportunities to improve its financial performance.

I need two things from you. A monthly sales comparison report for the year to 31 August 2026 against the same period a year earlier, and a rough sketch of your shop floor layout showing each of your departments. Send them direct to mark@towersystems.com.au and I will come back to you myself.

I am not selling anything here. I want to show, with your own numbers, that working on the business is likely to make you more money than chasing a reduction in an operating expense. What you do with what I find is up to you.

…

Disclosure: I founded Tower Systems (sold it in 2024 and still work for the business today) and I own newsXpress, and I own and run newsagencies.

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Newsagency management

For newsagents who want more than an average newsagency delivers

I have owned newsagencies since February 1996. In that time I have seen the best of this channel and plenty of the worst, and I understand why some newsagents feel stuck. The categories we were built on are in decline. Papers, magazines, lottery. That is not a criticism of anyone. It is arithmetic.

I also understand what stuck feels like, because newsagents describe it to me every week. You open early, you work hard, you do everything the old model says you should do, and the numbers drift backwards anyway. It wears people down. Some of the most capable retailers I know have quietly concluded that this is simply what owning a newsagency is now, and that the best they can hope for is a slower decline than the shop up the road.

I do not accept that.

Watching hundreds of these businesses up close has taught me that average is a choice. The newsagents doing it toughest are usually running the model as it was handed to them years ago. The ones enjoying their businesses, making good money and looking forward to Monday, are running something quite different, often from the same shop, on the same street, with the same landlord.

The difference is rarely luck or location. It is decisions. What to stock, what to quit, how to use the space, where new shoppers might come from. Made one at a time, with evidence, those decisions add up to a different business. I have watched a wall of slow magazines become the most profitable run of shelving in a shop, and shops attract customers who would never have crossed the threshold two years earlier. None of it happened overnight, and all of it started with one decision made on evidence rather than habit.

So where is the growth coming from? Not from the old categories. In the shops that are growing, the customer traffic, revenue and gross profit contribution growth is coming from categories traditional newsagents do not stock. This is where real innovation lies in our channel. The shops finding a brighter future are ranging products the traditional newsagency never considered, and they are being found by shoppers who never thought to walk in.

That belief is why newsXpress exists, and I should be upfront here: I own the business, so read what follows knowing that. What we offer members is hope backed by practical support. Hope on its own is just waiting. So the support is practical. We start by listening to what you want from the business, because that is different for everyone. With your permission we look at your data, and we almost always find early wins sitting in plain sight. From there we work beside you on a plan specific to your shop, your resources and your goals, at whatever pace suits you. Nothing is mandatory, and what you build stays yours.

There is also the company of others on the same road. Our members share what is working in their shops with a generosity that still surprises me after all these years. Nobody has to figure this out alone.

I will be honest about the other side too. If your plan for the business rests on newspaper home delivery, lottery commissions and parcel collection, we are probably not the right fit, and I would rather tell you that in the first conversation than take your money.

But if you are wondering whether there is a brighter future for your business than the one currently in front of you, I am happy to talk. No pitch and no obligation, just an honest conversation about your situation and what might be possible. Email me at mark@newsxpress.com.au or call me on 0418 321 338.

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newsagency of the future

Fake NeeDoh is being sold in Australia. Check your stock today

Fake NeeDoh squishy product is being sold in Australia. Two wholesalers have been caught stocking it. The packaging looks like NeeDoh. The product is not. It is fake, it has not passed Australian safety standards, and every retailer selling it is breaking the law.

This is not a grey area. It is illegal.

The safety problem

NeeDoh is a sensory toy. Kids squeeze it, chew on it, carry it everywhere. Genuine NeeDoh is tested against mandatory safety standards. With a fake, nobody knows what is inside it or what happens when the casing splits in a child’s hands.

The law

Selling this product breaks the law in at least four ways.

It infringes the Trade Marks Act 1995. Selling goods with a false mark is a criminal offence under Part 14 of the Act, carrying up to 5 years in prison.

Not a fine. Prison.

It is passing off at common law, misleading or deceptive conduct under section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law, and a false representation under section 29.

It breaches section 106 of the Australian Consumer Law, which bans supplying goods that fail a mandatory safety standard. Penalties doubled in March 2026. A corporation now faces up to $100 million. An individual faces up to $2.5 million.

And under Part 3-5, a supplier is liable for injury caused by defective goods. With a fake, the manufacturer cannot be found. The retailer who sold it may be the only person an injured child’s family can sue.

No supplier invoice protects you. Buying in good faith is a reason to act fast. It is not a defence to keep selling.

The wholesalers

Wholesalers supplying our channel have been found offering fake NeeDoh. That any business person would sell fake product, risking public safety and all for profit, is appalling. It puts every retailer who buys from them at risk and drags the reputation of the whole channel with it.

What to do

Check your stock against genuine NeeDoh from the authorised Australian distributor – William Valentine. If in doubt, take it off the shelf now. Do not sell it down to clear it. Once you know it is fake, every sale is a deliberate crime. Report it to the ACCC and the distributor, and only buy NeeDoh from the authorised source. If a deal from another wholesaler looks too good, it is.

Why this matters

Local retailers trade on trust. Parents buy NeeDoh because they trust what is in the packet. One fake product on one counter damages that trust for all of us. Check your stock. Check your suppliers. If you find fake NeeDoh, it comes off the shelf today.

This one makes me angry. Risking the health of kids for a few bucks is disgusting.

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Ethics

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

Takeaways from The Odyssey

Okay, I saw The Odyssey and have some takeaways: Odysseus made it home through persistence and agility, not brute force. The same applies in retail. Progress comes one step at a time, every day. Standing still is not an option.

Watch for siren songs. Many fads are irrelevant to a bright future. And be wary of anyone selling a potion or a promise to fix everything. There are no shortcuts in retail.

Accept small, calculated costs where they serve the bigger goal. A good return policy or an introductory discount can cost a little today and build customer trust that pays for years.

Protect what matters most: cash flow, inventory shrinkage and customer feedback. Strict oversight of these three keeps your journey on course.

Keep moving. Stay nimble. Get home.

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Newsagency management

New Year New You: Stop Watching a category decline that you built your shop on

Watching a category shrink is a slow kind of frustration. Not overnight. Gradually, a few titles at a time. Fewer customers asking. Numbers that used to feel unremarkable now feel like something worth explaining at the end of the month.

For most newsagents, that category is magazines. For some, newspapers. For others, lottery products, as customers move to buying online. The specifics differ. The feeling is familiar.

The question is not whether the decline is real. It is what happens to the floor space, the margin budget, and the foot traffic that category used to carry.

The instinct is to hold on

Magazines once drove daily foot traffic. Newspapers brought customers in before 8am. These were not minor parts of the business — they shaped the layout, the staffing, the rhythm of the day.

Protecting what built the shop makes sense. But holding floor space for a shrinking category has a real cost. Every metre could be working harder.

What is actually working in newsagency businesses right now

Greeting cards are probably the best example. Customers still want to buy them in person, and a well-curated section with decent replenishment consistently performs. The category does not get talked about much but it delivers.

Gifts and homewares have become a genuine revenue contributor for many stores, particularly where the range is local, seasonal, or hard to find online. Not generic gifts — product the owner chose because they know the customer walking through the door.

Stationery (smart stationery especially), arts and crafts, and activity products have a much bigger audience than they did five years ago. That shift is still underexploited in a lot of stores.

Advice on making the shift

Rebalancing a shop is not a quick fix. It means rethinking the floor plan, finding new suppliers, and testing product lines that may not work before you land on ones that do.

The first move is usually to reclaim the space rather than fill it. Look at which sections are underperforming per square metre. Reducing a magazine section from 12 bays to eight can free up real floor without dropping the category.

After that, test small. A limited range, careful sell-through tracking, then let the numbers guide the next order. Filling space with volume before knowing what the customer actually wants is an expensive habit that is easy to fall into.

If your POS system is not clearly showing you what is turning and what is sitting, that is worth fixing before any buying decisions. The data is there — it just needs to be used.

And talk to other newsagents. The community shares information more openly than most retail sectors. What is working two towns over may be exactly what is missing from your range.

If you;re in a marketing group, start there – they should be all over this and giving you actionable practical help. Are they?

The shops struggling did not decline because the category did

They delayed the response. The ones doing well moved earlier, tested more, and were willing to look different from what they used to be.

A newsagency does not have to be defined by what it sold in 2005. The customers are still there. The question is whether the shop gives them a reason to walk in.

…
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

Not another boring EOFY post

No. Not from me.

You already know the required stuff. Run the stock listing, take the backup, ring the accountant. You’ve read that post a hundred times and you’ll read it a hundred more this week. I’m not adding to the pile.

What interests me today is the other list. The one you never write down. The jobs you keep meaning to get to and keep finding a reason not to. New financial year tomorrow, so it’s as good a night as any to stop dodging them.

Start with the dead stock. You know exactly what it is. You walk past it every day and your eye slides straight over it, because you stopped seeing it months ago. It’s been sitting there a year doing nothing. Mark it down hard, bundle it, give it away if that’s what it takes, but get it off the floor and put something that actually sells where it was.

Then have an honest look at your hours. Are you open at times nobody comes in, just because you always have been? In there from eight when the first real customer turns up at half nine? Trading Sundays for a figure that doesn’t cover the cost of being there? You can reorder stock. You can’t reorder the hours of your life, so spend them where they count.

The roster is the same question, and it’s a harder one because it’s about people you like. Are you rostering for the trade or for habit? Two on when one would cope? Be fair and be kind about it, but be straight with yourself about what each shift brings in.

Put your prices up. There, I’ve said it. You’ve been frightened of it for years, sure the customer will walk. Most won’t even notice. The few who do were never the ones keeping the lights on. You were never the cheap option and you were never going to win that fight, so stop pricing like you’re in it.

And bring in something mad, new. Something fresh, something with no business being in a newsagency, something that stops a regular in their tracks to ask what on earth it’s doing there. Back a hunch. Take the punt you’d usually talk yourself out of. Worst case, you mark it down next EOFY with the rest of the dead stock. At least you’ll know.

None of this is on the required list. That’s the whole point. Get one of these done and next year is genuinely better than this one, not just compliant.

So before you flip the calendar, pick one. Just the one. Be ruthless about it. Start the next when that’s sorted.

Happy new financial year.

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newsagency of the future

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

Buying a newsagency in 2026: the questions to ask and the data to demand

A newsagency can be a good business to buy. Some buyers want a simple, traditional operation. Others see a shop the current owner never evolved and want to create something fresh in it. Know which buyer you are before you look at a single listing, because the business you should buy depends on it.

Thinking about this, a question I am often asked is: what should I ask for when looking at a newsagency? The question itself shows how green many prospective buyers are. So before anything else, get your head around the newsagency business of today. Not the agency-focused model of the past. The businesses worth buying in 2026 make their money from gifts, cards, collectibles and other categories the owner chose, not from commissions someone else controls.

Then get into due diligence. Here is the data I suggest you request from the vendor or their representative:

  • The accountant’s P&L for the last two years. The real P&L, not a spreadsheet created for the sale.
  • A list of add-backs used to calculate the profit figure behind the asking price.
  • Tax returns for the same two years, to cross-check the P&L where the business structure allows.
  • Sales data reports from the POS software for the last two years. This is the key data for verifying the income claim.
  • Sales reports from the lottery terminal, for the same reason.
  • BAS forms to confirm the P&L data.
  • A full inventory list showing purchase price and date last sold for every item, plus invoices you can randomly select and verify.
  • A copy of the shop lease, and of any equipment or other leases you are expected to take on.
  • A list of all forward orders placed on behalf of the business.
  • A list of all employees: name, hourly rate, nature of employment, start date, accrued leave and accrued long service leave.

This is basic information any buyer needs to assess a business. A business for which it cannot be readily produced is not ready for sale. Walk away or wait.

Once you have the data, analyse it yourself. Get professional advice on the legals and the lease by all means, but do not outsource the decision about whether this is a good business. You are the one who will live with it.

To newsagents reading this who plan to sell one day: look at that list and ask how your business would present against it. The time to prepare your newsagency for sale is every day you are in it. I have said it here for years: every day is your payday. Run a smart, lean, profit-focused business and you get a good payday now and another when you sell, because the price you achieve will be based on what the business is making at the time, not on its potential. If a buyer has to do the turnaround, the buyer gets the reward.

I first shared a list like this more than 15 years ago. This is the latest refinement.

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buying a newsagency

Do you spend too high time repricing stock in your newsagency?

I see newsagents waste hours on work their software could do in minutes, and repricing is the worst offender.

You know the job. A supplier sends through a price rise across their range, or you decide the plush department needs a margin tune-up before Christmas. Someone sits at the back computer opening one product at a time, keying the new price, clicking save, a few hundred times over. Everyone hates the job, so it gets put off, which means weeks of selling at old prices on new costs.

Or, it could be that you have finally decided to adjust your prices ahead of losing the credit card surcharge you currently have and need to cover costs another way.

The Stock Manager facility in the Tower Systems newsagency software handles this in bulk. Pull up everything from that supplier or department and change the lot together. A range-wide price rise is a five-minute job.

The part I want every newsagent to understand is the gross profit option. When a supplier lifts costs and you only pass on the dollar amount, your margin percentage shrinks without you noticing. Do that across a few suppliers over a couple of years and you have quietly given away points of margin in a channel that cannot afford to give away any. Stock Manager can reprice a whole range to the gross profit percentage you choose. Decide what margin your gift department must make, then make every item in it comply. That is managing, not just retailing.

Pricing is the headline but not the whole story. Details, images and descriptions can all be updated across a range in one go. The bulk tag tools matter if you run a connected Shopify store, because building a collection by opening hundreds of products individually is nobody’s idea of a Tuesday night.

My usual disclosure: I work with Tower Systems, so weigh my words accordingly. But the advice stands whatever software you use. If your system makes you reprice item by item, you are paying for that limitation in wages, and in margin you never noticed leaking away. Ask your software company to show you their bulk editing tools. If they cannot, that tells you something.

One tip from the Tower support desk: back up before any bulk change. Bulk cuts both ways.

Your time is the scarcest resource in your shop. Better spent out the front with customers than out the back keying prices.

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Newsagency management

A Sunday thought: back yourself

I spend a lot of words on this blog telling newsagents what to do. Cut this category. Chase that one. Review your card range. Watch your roster costs. Plenty of advice, week after week.

Today I want to say something different.

Back yourself.

You already know your shop better than anyone. Better than your suppliers, better than any consultant, better than me. You know which customers come in on pension day. You know which lines move and which ones sit there gathering dust while you tell yourself they will come good. You know, honestly, what you would change if you stopped putting it off.

That knowledge is worth more than you give it credit for.

I have been around this channel for decades, and the retailers I have seen thrive were rarely the ones with the best location or the deepest pockets. They were the ones who trusted their own judgement and acted on it. They tried things. Some failed. They tried something else. They did not wait for a supplier, a landlord or an industry body to save them, because nobody is coming to save any of us. That sounds bleak. It is actually liberating.

If you have been thinking about dropping a category that no longer earns its space, you are probably right. If you have been eyeing a product area that excites you, something you would enjoy selling, that enthusiasm is data too. Customers can tell when a shop owner loves what they sell. It shows in the displays, in the buying, in the conversation at the counter.

The shops growing in this channel right now do not look like the newsagencies of twenty years ago, and thank goodness for that. Every one of them got there because an owner decided their own instincts were worth acting on.

Doubt is part of running a small business. Anyone who tells you they have never lain awake over a decision is lying. But doubt is not a reason to stand still. It is the toll you pay for doing something that matters.

So here is my Sunday encouragement. Make the change you have been sitting on. Start small if you need to. Measure it. Adjust. You have survived in one of the toughest corners of retail, through structural decline, a pandemic and everything since. That is not luck. That is you.

Back yourself. You have earned the right.

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Social responsibility

What we can learn from The Lottery Corporation Investor Day in Sydney

The Lottery Corporation held an Investor Day in Sydney last week and I am grateful for insights someone who attended shared with me. Here are takeaways that could interest newsagents who sell lotteries.

1. DIRECT TARGET: CONVERTING RETAIL CUSTOMERS TO DIGITAL

The absolute biggest priority for The Lottery Corporation (TLC) is converting unregistered retail shoppers into registered digital users. They said this in Sydney and they have said publicly elsewhere. The hiring decisions announced last week also speak to this.

The Gap: TLC currently has approximately 8,600,000 active players, but only 4,300,000 are registered. That’s what they are chasing. Some retailers see these folks as their customers. TLC sees them as their customers.

The Strategy: TLC intends to identify these in-store customers, transition them into app users, and market directly to them to increase playing frequency and retention.

Retail Impact: This represents a deliberate strategy to shift the customer relationship away from the physical counter and directly onto TLC’s own digital platforms.

2. RETAIL NETWORK FRICTION & STRUCTURAL CHANGES

The balance of power is shifting, which is expected to cause what some call a “tricky period” of tension between TLC and independent retailers.

QR Codes: The introduction of new QR codes on physical tickets is seen by  newsagents as a direct mechanism for TLC to poach their foot traffic and data.

Cap on Outlets: TLC is freezing the expansion of its physical retail network. That is a huge message on where TKLKC sees retail. Growth will no longer come from opening new outlets; instead, the focus is entirely on extraction, productivity, and quality over quantity from the existing footprint.

The Margin Shift: For TLC shareholders, this migration is highly lucrative: every 1% of turnover that moves from physical retail to digital adds roughly $6,000,000 to TLC’s EBITDA.

3. GAME REFRESHES AND PRICE INCREASES

TLC is taking a more active approach to game management, price increases, and margin optimisation than previous management.

Set for Life (S4L): A major refresh is launching in September 2026. Ticket prices will increase from 60 cents to 70 cents, introducing additional cash payouts while keeping the top prize at $20,000 a month for 20 years.

Oz Lotto: This is officially under review and is expected to be the next major game overhaul.

4. THE YOUNGER COHORT PUSH

TLC is repositioning itself from a traditional lottery operator into a “digitally led entertainment business.” A key focus of this transformation is capturing younger adults. TLC plans to introduce more social features, syndicates, subscription models, and AI-driven personalised recommendations to attract younger sports-betting demographics who are hunting for “lottery-style” high odds.

To me, the big note here are the tight focus on migrating shoppers to digital – evidenced by the QR code move, new hires, freezing new outlets and absolute clarity in the business about the commercial value of the transition.

COMPLAINING IS A WASTE OF TIME.

TLC is a public company with one requirement – to drive shareholder value.

In my opinion, complaining about what they are doing will not improve the situation of any retailer, investing money in lobbying them will not deliver a lasting benefit for any retailer.

If I was representing lottery retailers or if I was a lottery retailer, my focus would be on lobbying TLC for permission to place other products in the lottery area – to support retail and provide a smoother path to the transition TLC is seeking.

The best thing a TLC lottery retailer can do is to urgently recalibrate the business to bring shoppers in for products outside of lottery products, do the bare minimum to satisfy the franchise agreement and create a business that is strong without any lottery revenue.

If you have lottery products are feel you will lose your business as they migrate lottery customers to digital, you have to act today to improve your business. Nothing else matters.

If you’re in Newspower, Nextra or The Lucky Charm, ask what they are doing about this. I say this as what I have been sharing here on this is part of what I share with newsXpress members.

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Lotteries

Why Lottery Retailers Are Challenging the New Lottery QR Codes

I made this video this morning because I keep getting asked about it — what the QR code on lottery tickets actually means for newsagents and why so many retailers are quietly frustrated.

The short version: it is a channel shift strategy. Print a QR code on an in-store ticket, point the customer toward an app, and over time that customer stops coming to the counter at all.

Watch the video. I cover the commission economics, the foot traffic problem, and why the contract terms make the whole thing harder to swallow.

The numbers

A $126.00 entry sold over the counter earns the retailer around $15.50 in commission. The same entry sold digitally keeps that with the corporation. Their infrastructure cost is essentially fixed whether they process ten transactions or ten thousand. Every customer shifted online is pure margin gain for them.

That is not a coincidence. That is a strategy.

The foot traffic problem

Lottery customers are habit customers. They come in on the same day every week. While they are there, they buy other things. Point them toward an app and that habit breaks. The cross-sell opportunity goes with it.

The contract makes it worse

Most lottery agreements require retailers to maintain prime counter space exclusively for lottery branding — no competing products, financial penalties for non-compliance. So retailers carry the cost of that space while the supplier uses it to redirect their customers elsewhere.

What to do

I said it in my post earlier this week and I will say it again here. Do the minimum required to hold your contract. Then build your business so it does not depend on lotteries. If losing lotteries tomorrow would threaten your viability, that is the problem to solve — not whether the QR code is fair.

This is urgent, I think.

WA is the exception. The government-owned model there works differently and the retailer relationship is genuinely more cooperative. In the eastern states under private corporate frameworks, the direction of travel is clear.

If you want to talk through how to restructure your range and reduce reliance on restricted categories, contact me at 0418 321 338 or mark@newsxpress.com.au.

12 likes
Ethics

Be Careful What You Buy Right Now

I want to say something plainly to newsagents who are buying new ranges over the coming weeks, whether at trade shows or through rep visits.

Some suppliers in this channel have not caught up with what is happening. They are pitching stock sourced at last year’s prices. That stock is arriving in Australia with this year’s freight costs baked in. The margin you think you are buying is not the margin you will actually get.

FOMO is the oldest sales tool there is. A rep will tell you this range is selling hard in other stores, that you will miss the season if you do not order now. Some of that will be true. Most of it cannot be checked in the room, which is the point.

Ask for evidence before you commit. Which stores are performing with this product? What does the sell-through data look like? What happens if it sits on your shelf? Vague answers mean the pitch is not ready to become a purchase order.

Here is something worth remembering: every sales person who walks into your store has a target. Your order helps them hit it. That is their interest in the transaction. Whether the product sells through in your store is entirely your problem once the invoice is signed.

Freight costs have shifted significantly. Products sourced offshore last year are landing now at higher costs. Some suppliers have absorbed that. Others have passed it on quietly through margin compression or reduced pack values. You will not know which category you are dealing with until after the sell-through.

Buy tight. Buy what your customers are already asking for. Buy what you are confident will sell within sixty days. Do not buy on a rep’s enthusiasm, on manufactured urgency, or on the hope that your store will perform the way another store did.

Your cash flow runs your business. Guard it.

…
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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Newsagent suppliers

The Iran Situation Has Pushed Up the Cost of Stock. Newsagents Need to Respond.

The conflict involving Iran has pushed up fuel costs globally. Those costs flow through the supply chain quickly. Newsagents are seeing it on their invoices right now.

The most common approach from suppliers is a fuel surcharge, added as a percentage on top of the order total. From what I am seeing, these surcharges range from 5% to 20%. Some suppliers are also lifting product prices directly, separate from any surcharge. That means some newsagents are absorbing both — a higher base price and a surcharge on top of it.

That is a significant hit to margin, especially for businesses already operating on thin returns.

Some suppliers are already on their third increase.

Passing the Cost On Is Not Optional

I do not think newsagents have much choice here. Absorbing these increases is not sustainable. The business has to cover its costs to survive. That means prices need to reflect the current cost of doing business.

Raising prices is never comfortable. Customers notice. Some push back. But the alternative — holding prices while margins shrink — is a path toward serious financial stress.

The adjustment does not need to be dramatic. A modest, consistent increase across relevant product lines is usually enough to recover most of the additional cost without triggering significant customer reaction.

Transparency Matters

What I think matters most right now is being honest with customers about why prices have moved.

Most people understand that global events affect the cost of goods. Fuel prices are in the news. Supply chain pressure is not a new concept. If you explain briefly and calmly that your costs have increased due to higher fuel surcharges from suppliers, most customers will accept it.

A short note at the counter, a line on your receipts, or a post on your social media page is enough. You are not making excuses. You are being straightforward about your situation.

Having the Australia Post price increase announcements handy is a good move to legitimise your move.

What to Watch

This will not resolve quickly. The situation in the Middle East remains unsettled, and freight and fuel costs are unlikely to fall in the short term. Review your supplier invoices carefully. Track the surcharges being applied. And make sure your pricing reflects the reality of what you are paying.

Running a newsagency well means managing costs tightly and pricing honestly. Right now, both of those things require the same response.

4 likes
Newsagency management

Queensland’s Crackdown on Illegal Tobacco Is Working

For years, illegal tobacco operators undercut licensed retailers without much consequence. Newsagents watched competitors sell illicit cigarettes, loose tobacco, and unregulated vapes at prices no compliant business could match. Enforcement was patchy. The damage to legitimate retailers was real.

Queensland changed tack. The results are worth knowing about.

What Changed

From late 2024, Queensland Health gained new powers to act directly against illegal operators — and act quickly. The previous reliance on lengthy court processes gave way to on-the-spot closure orders. Legislation introduced in late 2025 went further, allowing Queensland Health to shut a store for 90 days without needing a court order at all. The state also hired 43 new enforcement officers to back the expanded operation.

The Numbers

Between November 2024 and August 2025, Queensland Health seized more than 52.4 million illicit cigarettes, 420,000 illegal vapes, and 7,500 kilograms of loose tobacco. More than 140 interim closure orders were issued and over 3,000 fines imposed.

In December 2025, a single 10-day operation, Operation Major it was called, shut down 148 stores and seized over $15.7 million worth of illegal products, including 11.8 million cigarettes, 1.7 tonnes of loose tobacco, and 87,000 vapes. One business was fined $45,000 earlier in the year for selling illicit tobacco and vapes.

Why Newsagents Should Care

Licensed newsagents carry costs that black-market operators never did, licences, display compliance, tax obligations. The Queensland enforcement model shows what happens when authorities are properly resourced and the legislation has real teeth. Less illegal product in the market means a fairer environment for retailers doing the right thing.

One Concern Worth Noting

Some retailers have raised concerns that competitors are using the complaints process as a tactic, reporting legitimate businesses to cause disruption. This appears hard to do in practice. Complaints are not anonymous. Anyone lodging a report must provide their own details. That keeps the process honest and makes bad-faith reporting a genuine risk for the person making it.

What Comes Next

Hopefully, other states are watching Queensland closely. There is growing pressure to match the approach, and calls for the Commonwealth to do more at the border to stop illegal stock entering the country.

Queensland has shown the model works. The question now is whether other states move quickly enough to follow it.

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Tobacco sales

How do we prepare for the October 1 card surcharge ban?

October 1 is not that far away. Retailers should already be implementing a plan to deal with the situation.

Know what you’ll lose. Look at what you pay in card processing fees annually. Request a clear, itemised breakdown from your bank or payment processor detailing your current cost of acceptance for debit versus credit. That’s the figure you want to cover in other ways.

There are two obvious options to deal with the RBA imposed surcharge from October 1:

  • Cut costs. Typically, this will mean labour as that’s usually the second biggest operating cost in the business. While you can cut the dollars, you risk cutting revenue too.
  • Increase prices. A small adjustment (1.0% to 1.5%) broadly based offers a good option. The thing is, if you can gently increase prices without negatively impacting sales volume, why haven’t you done this already.?

There are other options to throw into the mix:

Least Cost Routing. Ensure Least-Cost Routing  is explicitly turned on by your provider.

Look at processing alternatives. We are already seeing companies offer new deals to lock retailers in ahead of October 1. Do your research. Under the new rules, payment providers processing over $10 billion annually must publish transparent quarterly fee structures. Use this data to benchmark your current provider and negotiate a lower rate.

Work on your business.

  • Make sure it as efficient as possible.
  • Make sure all your stock is performing well – i.e. no dead stock.
  • Make sure you have and engage with a theft mitigation strategy.
  • Make sure you have what people want when they want it.

In a typical retail business, landing well on these four points can account for more than half of the net profit. What I am saying here is that by relentlessly pursuing these four things you can have a business performing such that the merchant fee situation is nowhere near as noticeable to you. Unfortunately, though, too many small business retailers will ignore these four things.

Now, it’s important to note that the surcharge ban does not currently cover American Express or Buy Now Pay Later services.

The bottom line is that October 1 is coming – are you ready for it?

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Newsagency management

What You Control Is Enough

There is a simple framework that can change how you run your newsagency. Four lines. Easy to remember. Hard to ignore.

Control what you can. Let the rest go. When action is yours to take, take it. And be self-aware enough to tell the difference.

Most retail stress, and stress in any business or personally for that matter, comes from worrying about or fighting battles you were never going to win.

In retail, it’s: Foot traffic shifting. Print declining. A supplier decision made in a boardroom nowhere near your shop.

These things are real. But they are not yours to fix.

What is yours? Your floor layout. Your product mix. How your team greets someone who walks in. The categories you back. The decision to change before the market changes you.

The noise is everywhere. Industry rumours. Economic headlines. What the shop down the road is doing. Some of it matters. Most of it is a reason to avoid the actual work.

The hard part is not knowing what you can control. Most retailers know. The hard part is acting on it. Backing a new gift range and actually ranging it, merchandising it, telling customers about it. Cutting magazine space and doing it now, not after Christmas.

That is where the fourth line matters most.

Self-awareness is the check on all of it. It stops you building a story about why you cannot move when the truth is simpler — you have not decided to. It also stops you wasting a week on things that were never yours to fix in the first place.

The retailers doing well right now tend to share one thing. They know what they own. And that is where they show up.

This is a mantra I have embraced for years:

Control what you can.

Let the rest go.

When action is yours to take, take it.

And be self-aware enough to tell the difference.

Footnote: I am sharing this today because I know there are folks out there investing too much energy in fighting things then cannot change, worrying about things outside their control. This mantra, which has its roots in the serenity prayer, it is designed to help you see through that which you cannot control to green fields and blue oceans of what you can control. Without wanting to be to weird about it.

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Social responsibility

2026 newsagency performance benchmarks / goals

Benchmarks are data points that let you compare your business against similar ones. What I share here today is a significant update to the last benchmark data points I shared, in 2023.

Gross Profit

For product sales only — exclude agency business revenue and costs.

  • Traditional newsagency average: 28%–32%
  • Transformed newsagency goal: 40%+

The traditional newsagency has no future.

The gap between traditional and transformed businesses keeps widening. Smart newsagents that have moved into clothing, artisan gifts, and other categories. They have products hitting gross profit margins of 50% to 65% on those lines. Businesses still leaning on legacy categories are finding that model harder to sustain each year. The 409% overall goal is a good low-point and attainable target for a business that is actively managing its mix.

Minimum Stock Turn

Stock turn is how many times you sell through your inventory in a year — current stock holding divided into total annual revenue. These are minimums. Below them, a department is not earning its keep.

  • Cards: 3 (the channel average is 1.55 — too low)
  • Gifts: 6 (tight range, fast movement)
  • Toys: 5
  • Plush: 5

Gift Revenue to Card Revenue Ratio

Minimum: 100%. Goal: 200% or more.

If cards bring in $50,000 a year, the target is $100,000 in gifts. Gift revenue is growing in businesses that have committed to it. It deserves floor space and buying attention.

Revenue Per Employee

Minimum: $250 per hour.

Labour costs have kept rising. This target matters more now than it did three years ago. Count the owner at fair market rates — a business that does not is not measuring itself honestly.

Revenue Per Square Metre

$4,500–$8,500. Where you land depends on location (country versus city), tenancy type (high street versus shopping centre), and product mix. Higher gross profit means you need less revenue per square metre to stay viable.

Revenue Mix Targets

  • Cards 25%
  • Gifts / Toys / Plush. 35%
  • Stationery 10%
  • Magazines / Newspapers 5%–8%
  • Other / Emerging. 22%–25%

Print is in terminal, structural decline. Magazine unit sales are down around 10% year on year. Newspaper unit sales in capital city stores are down as much as 13%. That floor space and buying budget needs to go somewhere more productive.

Clothing, coffee, homewares, and more are generating real money in transformed stores — some close to $100,000 annually from a single category. Build your own target here based on what is actually working.

Category Notes

  • Stationery The best stationery is that which people love, more so than the stationery they need. This type of stationery can attract a higher price, and higher margin. .
  • Magazines Niche and special interest titles are holding up far better than mainstream ones. Curate, if they let you.
  • Greeting Cards Lifestyle cards should be more than 40% of total card sales, with at least 12% year-on-year growth in this segment.
  • Counter Impulse Sensory and impulse lines should be more than 10% of toy and related sales. Engaged stores are growing this category. The product works; the question is whether you are backing it.
  • Online Revenue Online not an optional.

Floorspace Allocation

  • Cards 20%
  • Gifts / Toys / Plush 35%
  • Stationery 8%
  • Magazines / Newspapers 5%
  • New and emerging traffic lines 10%
  • Other products 12%
  • Counter / office / back room 10%

Newspapers should be is low cost space, away from the front door and counter. Keep the back room small — it does not generate revenue.

Mark-Up Goals

  • Stationery: 125%
  • Gifts: 110%
  • Plush: 110%
  • Jewellery: 300%
  • Clothing: 120%–150%

Occupancy Cost

Target: 9%–11% of total revenue (product sales plus agency commissions).

A shopping centre site will sit higher in that range than a high street one — that is expected. You control both margin and revenue. Both sides of that equation are your responsibility.

Labour Cost

Target: 9%–11% of total revenue (product sales plus agency commissions).

Use tools that handle repetitive work so your team can be on the floor. Count the owner at fair market rates. If you are not doing that, your numbers are not telling you the truth.

A Final Note

These are targets, not rules. Set your own based on your own situation. But think about it.

The stores doing well right now are run by people making decisions based on data and broader retail trends. Not on habit. Not on what suppliers suggest. On what is actually working.

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Newsagency management

It’s 2026. No website means no online customers

If your newsagency does not have a website, you are invisible to anyone who is not already walking past your door. That covers most people.

Your current customers are likely mostly locals. Regulars. People who found you years ago and kept coming back. That is not a bad thing — but it is a ceiling.

A website reaches the shopper in another suburb, another state, who typed “gift shop” or “greeting cards” or something else into Google and got results. Right now, none of those results are you.

The wrong website does not fix this.

A page with your address and trading hours is not a selling tool. Your site needs to show up in search, look right on a phone, and connect to wherever else you might sell — eBay, for example. A cheap site that dates badly inside a year costs you twice: once to build it, again when you have to redo it.

Your POS software should drive the whole thing.

Product names, descriptions, pricing, stock levels, images — all of it should come from your point of sale data. When something sells in the shop, the website should reflect that without you touching anything. If it does not, you are doing double entry. You will make mistakes. Customers will be annoyed.

The POS software and website platform need to talk to each other properly — not approximately, not with a workaround.

Now for the pitch:

Tower Systems builds this for newsagents.

Tower Systems is the POS software most Australian newsagents run on. It also builds Shopify websites specifically for newsagents — connected to your inventory, set up to handle payments and other things vital to success online.

The service is a fixed price. No scope creep, no surprise invoices.

Get in touch: sales@towersystems.com.au.

The thing about getting online is that it offers a plan B option – you can experiment with new product categories that may be far away from what you do in the shop. You can do this using existing infrastructure, like starting a second business with minimal capital.

I can’t imagine a reason any any retail business to be a physical only business. Not today. It doesn’t make sense to me at all.

…
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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newsagent software

Want to discover ways to improve your business: visit it as a stranger

This may sound like a weird idea. Stay with me. It works. To regulars here, it may sound like something you’ve read here before. You have.

How to see your shop as your customers see it and what actions you can take to improve business.

Walk into your shop like a stranger. You might not like what you see.

Walk out, go to the end of the street, turn around, shake your head a bit to clear it, and walk back in as if you have never been there before. Not as the owner. As someone who has no idea what you sell, whether you are friendly, or whether it is worth their time to stop.

What do you actually see?

Most retailers cannot answer that honestly. They have been in the same space so long they have stopped seeing it. The cluttered corner near the door has been cluttered for two years. The handwritten sign that was meant to be temporary is still there. The window that has not changed since Easter is still there.

Your regulars have stopped noticing too. First-time visitors notice everything.

Do the audit properly

Walk in slowly. Do not rush to the counter. Give yourself 60 seconds near the entrance and take it in.

Ask yourself:

  • What is the first thing my eye goes to? Is that the right thing?
  • Can I tell within ten seconds what this shop sells?
  • Does the space feel welcoming or cluttered?
  • Is there anything that looks tired, broken, or out of date?
  • What does it smell like?
  • Is there music? Is it right for the space?
  • Are the price labels clear and current?
  • Is there anything near the entrance I would want to pick up?

Write down what you notice. Do not edit yourself. The instinctive observations are the useful ones.

The front third is doing most of the work

Everything within the first three metres of your entrance works harder than the rest of your shop. That space is where the decision to stay or leave gets made. If it is stacked with point-of-sale materials, dead stock, or products that have sat in the same spot for months, you are wasting it.

Rotate what is there. Make it seasonal. Give passing customers something new to see.

Your window is free advertising

Most small retailers underuse their front window. If yours looks the same as it did six weeks ago, change it this week. You do not need a designer or a budget. You need one clear idea, one dominant product or theme, and the discipline to keep it fresh.

A window that stops people is worth more than most paid advertising.

Get someone else to do the walk

This is what I actually recommend. Your own blind spots are hard to see. Ask a friend, a supplier rep, or a family member who does not visit often. Tell them you want the unfiltered version.

The things they mention first are the things that matter most. Do not disagree with them. What they see — and what they miss — is what your next new customer sees too.

Then do something about it

Do the walk. Write the list. Fix what you can fix today and book in what needs more time. That is it.

Your shop is your best marketing tool. Make sure it is doing the job.

5 likes
Newsagency management

Marketing Groups for Newsagents: Why Australia Leads the World

This post draws on publicly available information from industry websites, association pages, and newsagency sector resources, researched using AI tools as at May 2026. I have done this to reflect what the world sees, rather than what I see, or think.

If you run a newsagency in Australia, you have access to something almost no newsagent anywhere else in the world enjoys: a dedicated commercial marketing group built specifically for your business.

Most operators here barely register this. It becomes background noise quickly. But step back and look at how newsagents are supported in other countries, and the Australian model is genuinely unusual, and it works. You only have to consider newsagency closures in the UK compared to Australia to see a difference.

What these groups actually do

A newsagency marketing group pools the buying power and marketing resources of independently owned stores. It negotiates supplier deals, runs seasonal campaigns, supports store branding, delivers retail training, and gives independent operators scale they could not generate on their own.

This is different from an industry association. Associations advocate and represent. Marketing groups put money and effort into the commercial performance of member stores directly.

The three Australian groups

newsXpress launched in 2001 on a non-franchise model. Membership is voluntary. Fees are not based on turnover. The group runs exclusive seasonal marketing campaigns under the Seasonal Edge banner, negotiates supplier deals, and provides retail business coaching. It spends over $1,500 per member annually on prizes and collateral. A Perth conference ran in May 2026.

Newspower is the largest by store count and has been operating for over 20 years. Based in Padstow, NSW, it focuses on printer supplies and consumables alongside product and range negotiation for members.

Nextra (The nextra™ Group) is the franchise model of the three, established in 1995. It runs two store formats — nextra™ for flagship stores, news extra™ for medium-sized stores — and provides fuller franchise infrastructure covering marketing, business management, and product negotiation.

These groups sit alongside Australia’s industry associations, not in place of them. ALNA (the Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association, formerly the Australian Newsagents’ Federation) handles national advocacy. State bodies like NANA (Newsagents Association of NSW & ACT, operating since 1891) cover employment relations, insurance, and state-level lobbying.

A note from me: None of the AI searches I did for this included The Lucky Charm in their results. It could be because it’s too small of a group, or that it’s not broadly based geographically, or that it’s quite a different structure. Anyway, the search results are the search results. I mention it here to note that The Lucky Charm does exist and that it has newsagency business members.

What exists elsewhere

In the UK and Ireland, newsagents have trade bodies, not commercial marketing groups. The Fed — formerly the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, founded in 1919 — represents around 8,000–10,000 independent retailers across both countries, including newsagents, convenience stores, and card shops. In Ireland, the CSNA covers over 1,500 retailers with a similar advocacy and member-deal focus. NewstrAid is a welfare charity for people employed in the news trade, not a business support body.

In New Zealand, Canada, the United States, South Africa, and most of Asia, there are no dedicated newsagent marketing groups at all. Newsagents either fall under broader independent retail associations or operate with no sector-specific support. News publisher associations exist in some of those markets — New Zealand’s News Publishers’ Association, for instance — but they represent media owners, not retailers.

Why this matters

Australian newsagencies developed inside a tightly integrated distribution and retail ecosystem. Marketing groups grew out of that as a practical response to a practical problem: how does an independently owned shop compete on range, marketing, and supplier terms without the benefits of professional support?

In most other markets, that question has no structural answer. UK and Irish newsagents have advocacy. Elsewhere, newsagents mostly have nothing.

Having three competing groups in the one market is also worth noting. It creates genuine choice, pushes each group to deliver real value, and lets operators pick a model that suits their business rather than taking whatever exists.

Quick reference

Organisation Country Type Primary focus
newsXpress Australia Marketing group Business growth, supplier deals, campaigns
Newspower Australia Marketing group Product supply, community retail
Nextra Group Australia Franchise/marketing group Full franchise system
ALNA Australia Industry association Advocacy, lottery and newsagent support
NANA (NSW & ACT) Australia State association Employment, insurance, advocacy
The Fed (NFRN) UK & Ireland Industry association Commercial deals, lobbying, training
CSNA Ireland Industry association Retailer advocacy, member deals
NewstrAid UK Charity/welfare fund Support for news trade workers

The bottom line

If you are an Australian newsagent not yet connected with a marketing group, it is worth knowing what is actually on the table — and recognising that it does not exist in most other markets. newsXpress, Newspower, and Nextra (and The Lucky Charm) each operate on a different model and suit different types of businesses. The right question is which one fits yours.

…
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.

10 likes
Newsagency management

Cutting through the AI noise

There are a lot of people selling AI workshops right now. Some are good. Many are expensive, generic, and aimed squarely at business owners who do not yet know what they do not know.

At my newsXpress business , we are taking a different approach.

I think AI literacy is the new computer literacy, something every retailer needs, not a premium add-on. So we are offering free AI training and support to our members and the broader retail community. No fee, no pitch, nothing to sign.

Just practical guidance, grounded in real experience running independent retail businesses in Australia.

If you are a small business owner trying to make sense of AI without wading through the noise, reach out. mark@newsxpress.com.au and ask for it.

5 likes
Newsagency management
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