Magazine body disputes claim distribution changes will leave newsagents uncompetitive
The organisers behind a proposed pilot program to test changes to the magazine supply model has disputed claims the changes leave newsagents at a competitive disadvantage.
On Friday Mark Fletcher, director of newsagency marketing group newsXpress, told Mumbrella proposed changes to the distribution model will continue to leave newsagents at a disadvantage against supermarkets as they cannot do things like pick their own range and did not have the support of the industry.
However, Magazine Publishers of Australia executive director Mary Ann Azer told Mumbrella the industry body is in the process of putting together a revised submission to the the Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC) to cover gaps such as allowing the newsagents to choose the right range for them, bringing them in line with supermarkets’ practices.
“Supermarkets don’t have their own supply, they choose the range,” said Azer. “In the pilot we will do that, we will make the stores work with the distributors and publishers to choose the right range for them. We are supporting that.”
Explaining the process Azer said the pilot aims to reduce the over-supply of magazines in newsagencies.
“What we’ve taken to the ACCC for approval is to conduct this pilot because it’s effectively limiting the supply of a product into the market and redesigning those stores, looking at category education, how you revamp the shelf, look at the adjacencies and the category and use all the shopper insights to develop the layout of the magazines in these stores,” she said.
“If you want to do such a big project like limiting the supply, there will be around 11m copies cut out of the market, that’s a huge deal for the distributors. What we’re trying to do is test that and see what will happen to the market, how the titles will react.”
“This is a very exciting project. We have the support of the Australian Newsagents Federation (ANF),” she added.
When pushed on Mark Fletcher’s claim the ANF has not done its research Azer said he was “not the only voice in the market”.
While Fletcher suggested the pilot program had put on hold while the ACCC reviewed submissions, Azer said it was the MPA itself who had pushed it back from a planned April start to a May 25 start date.
“It’s not hold, we’ve got approval to go ahead with the pilot stores initially. We’re on track to do the pilot stores. We ourselves pushed it to May 25 because we had a lot of data to analyse,” she said.
Miranda Ward
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
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The Distributors already receive all the sales information daily electronically from newsagents. *(the newsagents pay a subscription for this to happen)
This process has been happening for many years now. So if the Distributors are genuine about basing supply on sales data they already have the ability to do this.
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All magazine outlets would be happy to work with the distributors and publishers to select the right range for themselves. They do not need a pilot to do that.
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Yes I agree Bruce. MPA (read Distributors) did not need to go to the ACCC to put in place a supply system that allows Newsagents to choose the range (just like Coles & WW have) it already has the sales data sent to them from Newsagents for yonks.
So a pilot is not needed to allow Newsagents the same deal as WW/Coles.
So why is the ACCC involved? Are the Distributors seeking to somehow legitimise efficiencies for themselves by involving them?
Why has discrimination existed for years in the Distributors model for the Duopoly when compared with Newsagents?
I am aware the ACCC recently held what they called a Pre-decision conference so that concerns by Mark Fletcher and other Newsagents could be heard. The ACCC has said they will consider what was learnt by them at this pre-decision conference and make an announcement in mid-May. Sounds like it’s been put on hold to me.
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The MPA want to sell more magazines. Newsagents want to sell more magazines as well. If the MPA sat down with the agents I suspect a lot more would be achieved than this hare-brained trial.
Newsagents are a little tired of being ignored.
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@”The MPA want to sell more magazines. Newsagents want to sell more magazines as well.”
If you read the story you’ll find that newsagents want to sell _fewer_ magazines. And make magazine producers pay them rent as well !
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John do you really believe that newsagents want to sell fewer magazines? Surely the more they sell the more they make.
Furthermore, no-one but you has mentioned rent.
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The MPA want to reduce oversupply? They have the levers in their hands, they don’t need a trial or ACCC help to behave ethically toward us.
The ANF are supporting the MPA at the expense of its own membership, the loss of the ability to early return dud/surplus stock will kill half the industry.
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