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newsXpress

Ten years. That’s what I think this channel has left.

I’m back from our national conference in Perth. Two and a half terrific days with newsagents, newsXpress members and suppliers to the channel.

Two subjects took up most of the room. Where this channel is heading, and what AI is already doing inside shops.

Where the channel is heading

I’ll put it plainly. I think the newsagency channel, as a channel, disappears inside ten years. It gives me no pleasure to write that.


Australia sits one decision away from the closure of a capital city daily newspaper. Several of them lose money. They’re being held up partly by emotion. News Corp has always loved ink on paper. Kerry Stokes has his attachment to The West Australian. Nobody wants to be the publisher who switches the first one off. That decision is coming anyway.

Print stopped delivering news a long time ago. By the time the paper lands on the counter the story is old. Your customers already know.

Magazines tell the same story in slower motion. Deliveries went from three days a week to two, and now to one. In some places it’s a coin toss whether they turn up at all. Titles we missed used to be couriered out. Not now.

Are Media is publicly up for sale. There’s plenty of talk about a break-up, including Are Direct and possibly XchangeIT. Worth watching closely, because whoever ends up owning the distribution business owns the physical route into our shops.

Stationery keeps drifting to Officeworks. Dollarama buying The Reject Shop means a harder shove from the value end of the market.

And when we make the news, it’s a closure story. Another one bites the dust.

The answer we spent most of our time on

Most of the conference went on what to do about it. We call it decoupling.

Disconnect from being a newsagency. Stop identifying as one. Present as something completely different, ideally something local and yours, rather than another national group’s brand painted over the top of the old shop.

This is more than a cosmetic change. Once you’re not a newsagency, you can sell to people who would never have walked into one, and that’s the whole point.

Three retailers who have already done it spoke to the room. Former newsagents, all of them. They talked about de-identifying, and about how their businesses run now.

AI, live on the big screen

Nobody gave a presentation about AI. We put it on the big screen and worked on real businesses, no script, in front of the room.

One retailer is doing well with clothing and wanted to build it out. In front of everyone we looked at the mistakes being made, then at how to tell a better price and sizing story for the demographic in that town.

Another had already decided to decouple and wanted to know what else to sell. That session produced a series of opportunities needing little capital, and then a four or five page business strategy report.

We spent time on the risks too, on where AI gets things wrong. It’s useful in small business retail, but only with a human checking the work.

What I said to the suppliers in the room

This channel will lose two to three hundred newsagents this year. So think hard about what you pitch.

The smart operators want product that brings more people through the door, and a broader demographic than they have today. Product that panders to the history of the channel has no future.

If you’re not helping retailers reach further than they reach now, you’re worth less to them than the supplier who will. We’re in this together, and the ones who understand that will do well out of the next few years.

I have been called pessimistic before

A newspaper publisher once stood in front of a room and told everyone I was wrong about declining newspaper sales. Magazine publishers objected to me discussing magazine decline at all. Those calls have aged fine.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the traditional Australian newsagency has no future. A business built on lotteries, papers, magazines, stationery and greeting cards, and not much else, is already dead. The owner just doesn’t know it yet.

Now look at a shop leaning into sensory product, Pokémon and other collectibles, and good quality gifts. People walk in for completely different reasons. That business has somewhere to go.

Where we are

newsXpress has 194 members. We’ve never chased being the biggest, and we’re not your average newsagency marketing group. What we have is a group of retailers who want to move, and are moving.

Our focus is a strong back half of 2026, then 2027 and 2028.

Mark Fletcher
mark@newsxpress.com.au
0418 321 338

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newsagency of the future

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

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

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

How Many Newsagencies Are There in Australia? Industry Size & Store Numbers

There are roughly 2,500 local newsagency shops operating in Australia in 2026, and the newsagency industry is worth about $1.8 billion in annual revenue.

Now, some will disagree with this number so I want to explain how I reached 2,500. I considered the data I have access to from the Tower Systems dataset (Tower is the biggest software company serving the channel) as well as insights from the major magazine distributor and my own decades of experience working with newsagencies and my tracking of store closures over the lats 10 years.

Store numbers have fallen from just under 5,000 in 2000, but the surviving network is substantial and, in transformed stores especially, healthy.

Counting is imprecise because agencies, sub-agencies and standalone lottery agents can sometimes be lumped together. This page sets out the size of the Australian newsagency industry — revenue, store numbers, employment and the long-term trend — with sources, so you can see where the commonly quoted figures come from and why they differ.

Australian newsagency industry: key numbers (2026)

Measure Figure Source
Industry revenue (2025–26) ~$1.8 billion IBISWorld6
5-year revenue trend Declining ~5.2% a year IBISWorld
Number of businesses (IBISWorld count) ~1,750–1,784 IBISWorld
Number of local newsagency shops (industry estimate) ~2,500+ ALNA / Tower7
Broader lottery + retail + distribution agents 4,000+ ALNA (ACCC)8
People employed ~15,800–20,000 VANA / ALNA9

References:

  1. IBISWorld, Newsagencies in Australia, https://www.ibisworld.com/australia/industry/newsagencies/5495/
  2. Mediaweek, ABC report that newsagency sector in decline, https://www.mediaweek.com.au/abc-report-that-newsagency-sector-in-decline-fails-to-investigate-closures-claims-retailer/
  3. ALNA, Australian Lottery and Newsagents’ Association ACCC submission (April 2018), https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Australian%20Lottery%20and%20Newsagents’%20Association%20(April%202018).pdf
  4. VANA, newsagency industry statistics, https://www.vana.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Newsagency-industry-Statistics.pdf

Why the store-count figures disagree

Estimates of how many newsagencies exist in Australia range from about 1,750 to over 3,000. The gap is real and comes down to definitions:

  • IBISWorld counts registered businesses in the newsagencies industry classification: around 1,750–1,784.
  • ALNA and POS software providers count operating retail newsagency outlets: 2,500 or more, described as the biggest independent retail channel in Australia. This is the number that I consider to be most accurate as it is from on the ground experience.

Broader agent counts (including sub-agencies, distribution agents and standalone lottery agents) push past 4,000.

A retailer with a lottery terminal, an Australia Post agency and a magazine account can look like a newsagency without being classified as one — which is why headline “decline” numbers should be read with care.

The long-term trend in store numbers

Year Estimated newsagencies
2000 ~5,000
2007–08 ~4,635
2016–17 ~3,150
2026 ~2,500 (operating shops)

Long-term decline in newsagency numbers. Historical figures via Wikipedia; current operating estimate via ALNA / industry sources.10

The direction is clear — fewer stores over 25 years — but the network that remains is significant. Australian newsagents still sell close to half of all magazines sold in shops and around a third of all greeting cards sold nationally.

Is the newsagency industry dying?

No, it is transforming. Industry revenue is declining (around 5.2% a year through 2025–26 on IBISWorld’s measure, which I think is problematic) because legacy categories like newspapers, magazines and tobacco are shrinking, and even lottery sales are moving online (40%+ now direct to consumer).

Transformed newsagencies — those leaning into gifts, cards, specialty stationery and emerging lines — are growing revenue and basket value. The decline is concentrated in stores that have not changed their model.

Frequently asked questions

How many newsagencies are there in Australia in 2026?

There are roughly 2,500 operating local newsagency shops in Australia. IBISWorld counts around 1,750–1,784 registered newsagency businesses; industry bodies count 2,500 or more retail outlets, and over 4,000 when broader lottery and distribution agents are included.

How big is the Australian newsagency industry?

The Australian newsagencies industry is worth about $1.8 billion in revenue in 2025–26, according to IBISWorld, and has been declining at around 5.2% a year over the past five years.

How many people do newsagencies employ in Australia?

10Wikipedia, Newsagent, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsagent

newsagencyblog.com.au • Page 8 of 9

Estimates range from about 15,800 to 20,000 people, depending on whether broader lottery and distribution agents are included.

Are newsagencies in decline?

Store numbers and industry revenue are falling, driven by declines in print, tobacco and in-store lottery sales. However, transformed newsagencies focused on gifts, cards and specialty lines are growing, so the decline is uneven rather than universal.

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newsagency of the future

Why men’s journals are worth space in your newsagency right now

Young men aged 18 to 40 are buying journals in growing numbers. Not diaries. Structured, guided journals built around habits, daily prompts, and goal-setting pages. They found the category through Stoicism podcasts, productivity YouTube channels, and communities built around self-discipline and mental health. Projects like Better health, Blokes Talk, men’s Shep and more speak top it. Local churches too.

Structured and guided formats now account for 54% of planner sales globally. Gen Z is 35 to 40% of that buyer base — well above where the industry expected them to be. The broader men’s wellness market is forecast to nearly double by 2030. Journaling is a small corner of it, which is exactly what makes it worth trialling. Low cost to test, no specialist range needed.

For a newsagency, there are two buying occasions worth understanding. The self-purchaser is deliberate. He checks paper weight, flips through the layout, and walks past a cheaper option that does not feel right. Matte black, charcoal, leather. Words like “focus”, “discipline”, “morning ritual”. He will pay $45 for a journal that suits him and ignore a $15 one that does not. Get the range right once and he comes back.

The gift buyer does not know the category but wants something that looks considered. A journal and pen together with a simple “Gift for him” sign does the job. She does not need to know anything else.

A small display near the counter — four to six SKUs, one pen, one leather sleeve, clean signage — is enough to find out whether it works in your store.

newsXpress provided its members a full brief on this category a while back, and it goes considerably further than what I have covered here. Merchandising detail, display headers, bundle pricing, paper specifications, what to avoid stocking and why. Built on market data and retail behaviour research. Not a supplier recommendation.

Finding new shoppers is the problem most independents are trying to solve. Categories like this one — real demand, accessible to trial, underserved by most newsagencies — are where that starts. The traditional product mix is not going to bring in people who have never had a reason to walk through the door.

If you are a newsXpress member, the full brief is in your member resources. If you are not a member and this is the kind of support you have been looking for, it is worth a conversation.

And, for what it’s worth, I know of a local retailer playing in this narrow segment and achieving $15,000+ a year in direct sales and more than double that if you consider what is added to the basket during the destination purchase.

It all comes down to whether you do want to attract new shoppers, or whether you are happy with things the way they are.

… Mark Fletcher is the CEO of newsXpress and founder of Tower Systems, a POS software company serving independent retailers across Australia. mark@newsxpress.com.au | 0418 321 338

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Newsagency opportunities

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

Selling your lottery business and keeping your shop might be a smart move

More newsagents outside of Western Australia are selling their lottery business. Not because they’re struggling — because they’re thinking ahead. I am seeing this move more and I guess others are too.

Some do it while winding down. The lottery licence has value, selling it separately makes the exit numbers work better than a whole-of-business sale. That’s been happening for years.

What’s newer is the transformation sale. Retailers actively rebuilding what their shop is and who it serves are looking at their lottery setup and seeing floor space, staff time, and capital locked into a product they no longer control.

The Lottery Corporation’s direction isn’t hard to read. Digital. Direct. Their money is going into moving lottery players onto their own platform. Every campaign pushing customers to the app reduces the long-term value of a retail licence. Newsagents paying attention are moving before the market moves for them.

Selling in that context isn’t giving up ground. It’s freeing it up.

The footprint a lottery terminal takes matters when you’re rebuilding a shop around gifts, collectibles, or homewares. That space earns more doing something else. The capital from the sale funds the change. The staff hours no longer absorbed by lottery transactions go somewhere that actually builds the business.

Buyers are around. Supermarkets adding a service draw. Chemists expanding their convenience offer. Standalone operators shifting the whole thing to a kiosk. For those buyers the licence fits traffic they already have. For the newsagent selling, it’s a clean separation.

This isn’t the right move for every retailer. If lottery is still generating foot traffic that converts into other purchases, the calculation is different. But look honestly at what lottery customers buy beyond their ticket. In a lot of shops the answer is not much.

The Aussie newsagency channel is mid-transition – well, for most retailers at least.

The retailers shaping what comes next are making deliberate decisions about what stays in the business and what doesn’t. Lottery deserves that same deliberate look — not held onto by habit just because it’s always been there.

I haven’t had lotteries in my newsagency businesses for 14 years now. It’s not necessary for success. What I love about not having it, having had it for years, is to not have to deal with what I personally found to be a bullying partner who thought they knew about newsagency retail, when they didn’t.

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Lotteries

Your rent problem started the day you signed the lease

When a retail business hits financial trouble, rent is usually the first thing that gets blamed. The landlord is charging too much. The centre isn’t generating the foot traffic that was promised. The deal that looked reasonable three years ago now feels impossible.

Sometimes those complaints are fair. But more often, the rent problem was created the day the lease was signed — by the retailer, not the landlord.

A rent problem started the day you signed the lease

This video unpacks that hard truth.

Signing a retail lease under pressure is one of the most common and costly mistakes in small business retail. It happens two ways. The first is optimism — a retailer projects the sales they hope to achieve rather than the sales they can reasonably expect, decides the rent is workable on those numbers, and commits. The second is FOMO. A good site comes up, there’s competition for it, and the fear of missing out pushes them to sign before they’ve done the work.

Neither is a business strategy. Both create the same outcome: a cost base the business can’t sustain.

The lease you sign determines your occupancy cost for years. It determines how much revenue you need to generate just to cover the floor you’re standing on. Get that number wrong at the start and you spend the life of the lease trying to catch up.

Before you sign anything — whether you’re starting fresh, expanding, or moving — stop. Get independent advice from someone with no stake in the deal going ahead. Map out a strict budget based on conservative trading figures, not optimistic ones. Understand what the landlord can and can’t control, and know the difference between a shopping centre lease and a high street lease before you commit to either.

Shopping centre leases come with restrictions that high street locations don’t. Trading hours, fit-out requirements, centre levies, exclusivity clauses — these affect your operating costs and your flexibility in ways that aren’t always obvious from the headline rent figure.

The numbers have to work on paper before they can work in practice. If they don’t stack up in a spreadsheet, they won’t stack up in a shop.

…

newsXpress works with members on lease negotiations and landlord issues. I’ve seen what goes wrong and we know what to look for. But this can only help if you seek help before you’ve signed, not after. Once the lease is executed, the options narrow fast.

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retail leases

Is your newsagency remarkable?

Seth Godin wrote an excellent book — Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. It was (is) an excellent book, one I highly recommend. It applies today as much as it did in 2003 when it was published. The book inspired me, and it still does. The message is simple: you’ll notice a purple cow on the side of a hill because it stands out, it’s remarkable. The question for newsagents is: is your business remarkable, does it stand out?

Start with your front window.

Not your floor plan. Not your product mix. Not your loyalty programme. Your window. It is the one thing every person who walks past your store sees, and most newsagency windows are invisible. Not ugly. Not offensive. Just invisible. Generic. Expected. Easy to walk past without registering.

Is your window remarkable?

That is a missed opportunity, and it costs nothing to fix.

A remarkable window does not require a budget. It requires a decision to stop displaying what suppliers provide and start displaying what stops people. Those are different things. A supplier poster tells passers-by what you sell. A remarkable window makes them curious about who you are.

Think about what people do not expect to see in a newsagency window. A single unexpected object on a plinth. A handwritten question that makes someone pause. A display built around a local event, a local team, a local story. Something that changes every two weeks so the people who walk past every day have a reason to glance over.

The window is not an advertising space. It is a first impression. It is the thing that decides whether someone who has never been in before thinks your store is worth trying.

Most newsagency windows say: we sell a bit of this and a bit of that. Some say we sell newspapers, magazines, and lottery. Anybody walking past already knows that. You are not telling them anything they did not know, and you are giving them no reason to stop.

A window that shows something unexpected — something that does not fit the category assumption — plants a question. What is that? What kind of shop is this? I did not know they did that. That question is the beginning of a visit.

This is the lowest-cost, highest-visibility change available to any retailer. No supplier approval required. No capital outlay. No staff training. Just a willingness to put something in the window that people do not expect to see there.

Do it this today. Change it in a week. Yes, I know that’s work. It’s worth it! See what happens to the way people look at your store as they walk past.

Remarkable does not have to start big. It just has to start.

Go for that purple cow remarkable.

…
Mark Fletcher is the CEO of newsXpress and founder of Tower Systems, a POS software company serving independent retailers across Australia. mark@newsxpress.com.au | 0418 321 338

5 likes
newsagency marketing

What good foot traffic in a retail newsagency actually looks like in 2026

Foot traffic is one of those metrics newsagents talk about constantly but rarely define. When someone says their traffic is down, what does that mean exactly? Fewer people through the door? Fewer transactions? Smaller baskets? The same customers buying less?

The distinction matters because the response is different in each case.

Here is what I see in the businesses that are actually performing well right now. Their traffic story is not about volume. It is about who is coming in and what they are buying.

The old model is not coming back

The newsagency of 2010 ran on high-frequency, low-value visits. A paper every morning. A scratchie. A magazine. Frequent visits, small baskets, thin margin.

That traffic is declining structurally. Newspapers are bought online or not at all. Lottery players are being pushed to apps — deliberately, by the people who run the lottery. Magazine readers have moved on. You cannot run a campaign that fixes a habit change.

The businesses I respect have stopped trying to. They are building something different.

What the better businesses are doing

The stores growing right now attract less frequent but higher-value visits. A customer who comes in three times a year to buy gifts, cards, and a collectible is worth more to the business than one who comes in five days a week for a paper and nothing else.

That requires a different shop. The product mix has to give people a reason to come in when they are not running an errand. That does not happen by stocking what your rep suggested. It happens when you look at what your customers actually respond to and build around that.

Seasonal traffic compounds

Newsagents who take seasonal execution seriously — real displays, a genuine reason to visit around Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas — see something interesting. The spike visits convert. A customer who comes in for a card and finds a gift range they like comes back.

That repeat visit did not come from advertising. It came from having something worth discovering. You earned it.

The number worth watching

Stop asking whether your traffic count is up or down. Ask whether the traffic you have is getting more valuable.

Check your average transaction value over the past year. Look at whether repeat customers are growing as a share of your total. Ask yourself whether the people coming through the door are browsing or just transacting.

If those numbers are moving the right way, the business is in better shape than the foot count suggests. If they are not, the problem is almost certainly in the product mix and presentation — not in how many people walk past the window.

Volume is a vanity metric. Value is what you actually manage.

… 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

What’s your newsagency marketing group done for you so far in June?

What newsXpress has delivered to members so far in June

We are halfway through June, so here is a look at what newsXpress has delivered to member businesses in the last two weeks. Our job is simple: help members find new shoppers, grow basket size and improve gross profit.

Here’s a new video I did this morning: https://youtu.be/rXdXbr2rvC8

A free Father’s Day traffic driver

Every member store has received a MasterPro 13″ indoor/outdoor electric pizza oven, free. We bought the stock, paid the freight, packed the boxes and shipped them. Marketing collateral came with it.

The oven retails around $450. Stores can run it as a prize draw for card shoppers in the lead-up to Father’s Day. A prize like this gets people in the door and gives them a reason to buy cards from you rather than the supermarket.

All up including the price, in-store collateral and delivery in-store, newsXpress has invested $100,000 in this promotion.

The retail benchmark report

We sent members our benchmark report covering January through May, built from data supplied by 33 opt-in stores. Each store can see how it compares against state averages, the group overall, and categories including greeting cards, stationery and magazines.

One owner called it a kick up the bum. That is the point. Several stores spotted their average card price sat below the group benchmark and have started shifting space to premium cards.

We also produced an anonymised version for suppliers, so they can see how newsXpress stores perform and stock us better.

Category insights and new inventory

Members received a 21-page report on one of the strongest traffic-driving categories in our shops. It covers current performance, what we expect for the rest of the year, and our read on 2027.

On the product side, we secured access to the Royal Australian Mint’s Steam Giants collection and the Dawn Service coin program. Newsagencies have always done well with train and military history customers. These coins suit that shopper, and your local competitors will not have them.

We also introduced new journaling ranges with humour built in. They support the move away from low-margin agency lines toward gift shoppers.

Two more preferred suppliers

We added two preferred suppliers this month, taking the total to 153. More than 100 of them do not deal with regular newsagencies. That is a product mix the shop down the road cannot copy.

One-on-one help

Over the past fortnight our team has worked with two members on lease and landlord negotiations, answered HR and award questions, helped members under financial pressure manage creditors and cash flow, and represented members in lobbying on credit card surcharge reform and the move to payday super.

Is your marketing group doing this?

All of the above happened in two weeks. Five new members joined newsXpress this month.

If you want help turning your shop into a profitable gift and lifestyle business, email help@newsxpress.com.au.

What’s your newsagency marketing group done for you so far in June?

7 likes
newsagency marketing

Beyond the hype: why I travelled to Singapore for SuperAI

Today, I am at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore for the opening day of SuperAI, Asia’s largest AI conference. Over the next two days, some of the most influential people working in technology will be here. Actually, it kicked off yesterday with some side sessions that were terrific.

I want to be clear about why I made the trip.

This was not tech tourism. It was not about watching demos of products that will not ship for three years. It was a practical decision driven by a straightforward observation: for anyone running or supporting a small business retail network right now, understanding where AI is headed has stopped being optional.

The conversation has shifted

What made SuperAI worth the flight is that this conference has moved on from where most AI events still are. Frontier lab demonstrations and theoretical research discussions are elsewhere. Here, the focus is on real-world deployment — how organisations are running AI tools at scale, what is working operationally, and what the actual results look like on the ground.

In local retail, we are already seeing tangible results. I am in my shop. Plenty others are too.

Automated invoice processing is saving small businesses hours of manual data entry every week. AI-driven inventory insights are surfacing patterns that would never appear in a standard report. These are not pilot projects. They are running in shops now.

But we have barely started.

What I am here to find

Being here gives me a clearer view of what is coming before it arrives. Three areas I am focused on across the two days:

  • Inventory autonomy — how autonomous agents are predicting stock trends, managing supply chain variability, and cutting dead stock without requiring specialist skills to operate
  • Accessible data insights — how complex business analysis is being simplified so a local shop owner gets deep, actionable information without needing a data analyst to interpret it
  • Operational efficiency — which tools are removing friction from back-office administration so independent retailers spend less time on screens and more time on the floor

Why this matters for local retail

The tools demonstrated at events like this do not stay at the enterprise level. They filter into the software platforms small businesses use every day. The gap between what a large retailer can do with data and what an independent newsagent or gift shop can do is closing faster than most people realise.

Being here on day one means seeing what is coming before it lands. That lead time is the point. The goal is to bring what is genuinely useful home and turn it into something practical for local businesses — not eventually, but as soon as it is ready.

… Mark Fletcher is the CEO of newsXpress and founder of Tower Systems, a POS software company serving independent retailers across Australia.

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2026

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.

10 likes
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

What Has Your Newsagency Marketing Group Done for You This Month?

May is almost over. A good time to ask: what has your marketing group actually delivered?

I am Mark Fletcher, owner of newsXpress. Here is what we gave our members this month.

Ink and toner. We published a three-page analysis of the ink and toner category in Australia — opportunities, market leaders, and strategies for both city and country stores. Most newsagencies underestimate this category. The numbers suggest they should look harder.

Credit card chargebacks. Clear, step-by-step advice on handling chargebacks from online transactions. Follow it and your chances of winning a claim improve. For some stores, that is hundreds of dollars recovered.

AI tools for your team. Two resources. First, an AI Acceptable Use Policy you can hand to staff. Second, an AI Starter Guide with 19 ready-to-use prompts for saving time and cutting costs. Not sure yet? Non-members can request a shorter introductory version by email.

Winter retail ideas. Winter is close. We put together 30 ideas for gift and related retailers: 10 micro-events, 10 marketing ideas, 10 lesser-known strategies. The back page has a low-cost business plan that works for any newsagency format.

Mother’s Day sales analysis. We pulled data from 15 newsXpress stores. Members who shared figures got a detailed report with action plans specific to their numbers. Others received an anonymised version to benchmark against.

Royal Australian Mint coin program. We have been working with the Mint on an exclusive coin program launching through newsXpress stores in October. The implementation plan is already with members. It is designed to bring new customers through the door.

The question I started with matters, it speaks to value: What Has Your Newsagency Marketing Group Done for You This Month? Put another way, what have you banked from the relationship? or, is your business better off because of the relationship?

Retail is changing rapidly. Your business needs to chan ge rapidly.

There is a big difference in what the different groups offer and do for newsagents. The list I have shared here from newsXpress work this month is only part of the newsXpress story.

Everything we produce is optional. We put the resources in front of you — what you do with them is your call.

Want to do more with your store? Email help@newsxpress.com.au. Or, call me on 0418 321 338.

12 likes
newsagency marketing

How newsXpress Is Helping Retailers Win Winter 2026

Winter is the quiet stretch that most independent retailers simply endure. Mother’s Day is done. Father’s Day is still weeks away. The foot traffic dries up, the social media ideas dry up with it, and the days start to feel flat.

newsXpress has decided to treat that problem seriously.

The group has produced a structured, practical resource for its members covering exactly this challenge: what to do in the weeks between the big gift occasions to keep shoppers coming through the door, keep the business moving, and use the downtime well.

What the Resource Covers

The document is divided into three clear areas.

The first focuses on drawing people in. Not through discounting or desperation, but through low-cost, community-centred micro events that give shoppers a genuine reason to visit. The ideas are grounded in what gift and related retailers actually sell and how their communities actually behave. Some require almost no budget. All of them create social media content as a by-product.

The second area addresses marketing. Not generic advice about posting more often, but specific strategies for building loyalty, deepening community connection, and extending the selling window into Father’s Day earlier than most retailers would think to start. Several of the ideas involve partnering with other local businesses — the kind of cross-promotion that costs little and tends to work.

The third area is operational. Winter quiet periods are the right time to do the business-building work that never gets done when trade is strong. The resource covers stocktaking, roster reviews, supplier audits, front counter rethinks, and content planning. It is a realistic list for a working retailer, not a consultant’s whiteboard.

There is also a bolt-on business idea included, a practical expansion strategy suited to main street retailers looking to attract shoppers they are not currently reaching.

Why This Matters for Independent Retailers

The gap between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day is predictable. It arrives every year. Most retailers treat it as something to survive rather than something to use.

That is a competitive opportunity for the ones who think differently.

newsXpress has framed the resource around that premise: Winter is not a problem to wait out. It is time that most of your competitors are wasting.

The document runs to 30 specific, actionable ideas. Each one is explained in enough detail to act on without further research. Taken together, they represent a genuine playbook for the quiet months, the kind of structured thinking that most independent retailers do not have time to develop on their own.

Access

This resource has already been provided to newsXpress members through the group’s regular comms programme.

If you are an independent gift, homewares, or newsagency retailer and you want access to this kind of practical, retail-specific support, it is worth finding out more about what newsXpress membership involves.

Visit www.newsxpress.com.au or contact the team at help@newsxpress.com.au.

This post was written by Mark Fletcher. Mark has been involved in independent retail in Australia for more than 40 years.

6 likes
Newsagency management

Will the Boxing Day $90M OzLotto jackpot impact sales?

Several lottery retailers have contacted me to discuss this. The thing is, we won’t know until the day.

Boxing Day sales are bigger in some states than others.

In locations where it is a big sales event, lottery customers may impact store traffic and this could dampen sales results.

In locations there Boxing Day sales are not a thing, the jackpot presents an opportunity.

If I had lotteries and was running a Boxing Day sale I’d prepare the shop layout and register placement such that any lottery traffic bounce did not hurt hoped-for Boxing Day sales.

I’d also try and leverage each opportunity for the other.

Lottery jackpots are a terrific boost sales, but unwelcome when they hinder better margin business.

A Boxing Day sale has more opportunity for return business that a lottery jackpot I think.

4 likes
Lotteries

Pitching Christmas to younger card buyers

It’s terrific seeing Gen Z and Millennials buying Christmas cards. Their preference from what I’ve seen is humour and relevance to what interests them.

Outside of the regular card department we have around 60 Christmas cards and ornaments selected to appeal to them. We have them situated so they can be easily seen from outside the shop, on the street – we do this to attract them inside.

While not for everyone’s taste, it’s important we play outside tradition if we want to reach more shoppers and, after all, we are not our own customers.

Here are some of the cards from this range.

We started playing in this space two years ago and it’s grown since, without any negative imp[act on traditional card sales. We play in this space all year round now and it’s delivered more than $15,000 in additional card revenue this year.

8 likes
Greeting Cards
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