Newsagents need to get tough with publishers over what they stock, says NewsLifeMedia CEO
The boss of publishing house NewsLifeMedia has said newsagents need to be more critical about the range they stock and emulate the way that supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths operate.
Speaking at Wednesday’s Publish conference, Nicole Sheffield said: “Every time there is a range review [at a supermarket] it’s got nothing to do with anything emotional, social, digital – it’s what that pocket is yielding me and if it’s not doing it, you’re off the range.
Nicole Sheffield: Publishers need to help make newsagencies a destination again
“Newsagents are under enormous pressure. There’s a lot less of them. Running a newsagency today is a very difficult, challenging business. You’ve got print products that are in decline and you’re heavy reliant on lotto.
“People used to go there for a lot of different reasons and we have to be a reason to make them a destination again.”
Sheffield’s comments followed those made by Ash Hunter, the chairman of Publishers Australia and CEO of Hunterfive Group, who said the influx of new, poorly trained newsagents is causing problems and it is something the print publishing industry needs to address.
“There is a fundamental failure that’s taking place within the newsagency network and part of it is quite challenging, it’s around cash flow,” he said.
“Many of the new newsagents coming in don’t understand the business as well as they should and they have to manage cash flow.
“When you get sent a whole bunch of magazines you now owe distributors a bunch of money. You have to manage your returns, consider how you place magazines, what you send back and what you don’t and make sure your accounting is done properly. Fundamentally these newsagents, especially the new people entering the marketplace, don’t understand how to run that business.”
Hunter admitted it was hurting his business. Hunterfive includes Just publishing group which publishes the likes of Just Cars, Just Bikes and Just Trucks and Autotrader, which is an automotive publishing brand operating out of Western Australia.
“We have newsagents, once the agency has changed hands, stop paying their bills,” he said.
“Distributors can’t send magazines to them anymore. They go to a third party who send them magazines at a lower rate, they’re chasing their tail to pay their bills and eventually they close or they reduce their range.
“The issue is reducing range and sending back their returns. This is an area where part of the (print) decline is due to neglect to that distribution network.”
He said it was handing the power to the likes of Coles and Woolworths who typically stock magazines from the larger publishers like Pacific Magazines, NewsLifeMedia and Bauer Media.
“It’s probably ostracising those niche, print based publications that aren’t taking advantage of new media, different means of distribution and new ways to engage with their audience. There is an issue around power. Supermarkets work on a yield per pocket.”
Magazine Publishers Australia (MPA) is running a pilot program testing changes to the code of conduct for newsagents in an effort to make them more competitive with supermarkets. Mark Fletcher, director of newsagency marketing group newsXpress, has previously warned that the proposed changes to the distribution model will continue to leave newsagents at a disadvantage against supermarkets.
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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I can’t believe what I’m reading. Putting aside all the secular trends in print circulation, the key issue for these products is a very restricted distribution network. Go back to news agencies? Forget it. Provide paid product access at transit points, CBD corners, coffee shops etc., and support the broader distribution network with real-time headlines in key day-parts (between 6 and 9am) on digital OOH.
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The very reason I stopped going to newsagents was because of the lotto. It was a pain in the proverbial to have to squeeze past the lotto queues on the way in and then wait for ages to make a purchase. Everything I bought from them is available elsewhere, usually cheaper, and definitely easier. My teens probably will never step foot in one, they don’t need to. Shame.
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Hi,
I own a Newsagency and you need to look at Newsagencies now like you look at coffee shops. There will be good ones and there will be bad ones but we can’t be all classified under the same umbrella anymore. The reputation of my business suffers because of poorly run Newsagencies yet a well run coffee shop has no connection to the poorly run coffee shop in the next town which is using the same resources…
I think Nicole is lucky I do not run my Newsagency like a Supermakret or half of her companies titles would be cut from my range due to declining sales (even with full facings and waterfalls) yet other niche titles are seeing large increases. The magazine system is broken at both ends and the blame has to be shared as has the solution.
I personally hope the amount of Newsagents declines and the only ones left are the high performing retailers who are not legacy Newagents.
Lou – one of the biggest demographics that comes into my store are school children from ages 6-16 and the reason they come in is because my shop is relevant to what they need.
Cheers
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Agree that they need to make it a destination again.The newsagent ‘Experience” is generally quite uninspiring. Very little has been done with the model to address change.
Low flat stacks, cumbersome racks and hard-to-navigate rows are layouts stuck in the 80s. Many are located in shopping centres with little regard for trolleys. Some have become ‘Lotto kiosks’ because the rest of the store offer very little enticement to move in further. The supermarket model does not compare as it already has the consumer inside the store and only needs to use strategic sales points and display.
It’s disheartening to see all that print locked in a time-warp retail frame
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Whilst most newsagencies are super icky and make me want to find what I want then leave, Magnation tried to do the ‘lovely customer experience’…
They shut down because people would come in and treat it like a library. No one ever bought anything! Maybe being in Newtown, a place where people think it’s ok to pay $2 for a meal, wasn’t very smart.
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Put the magazines in on consignment
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It’s not the newsagents that is the problem. It is the distributors who are ripping off both the publishers and the newsagents. Name another industry where the distributors demand that the newsagents pay them for magazines on delivery but then don’t pay the publishers for at least a month. In some cases the publishers have to wait three months to be paid. The only winners are the distributors,
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