Alpha magazine faces newsagents’ boycott

Tim Burrowes

April 5, 2009 8:16

Alpha magazine is facing a newsagents’ rebellion which could threaten its position as Australia’s top selling men’s monthly after it changed its terms of distribution without consultation.

Alpha was launched in 2005 as a sister title to News Ltd’s newspapers. Unusually, customers had to buy a newspaper when they picked up the magazine. Newsagents got a much larger greater slice than they normally do for magazines and in return gave Alpha a higher profile in their stores.

But News Magazines has now changed the deal, triggering threats of a boycott of Alpha by angry newsagents who say they’ll remove it from displays in a bid to hurt sales. The move sees many newsagents get roughly 40% less for each copy they sell, no longer enjoy the lucrative home delivery business, while the magazine will now be supplied directly to supermarkets rather than viia the newsagents.

They learned of the change in a note from publisher Rob Pegley, previously Alpha’s editor. The change threatens a collapse in the magazine’s current circulation, which News puts at 113,000, making it the country’s top selling men’s monthly.

Be a member to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Become a member

Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.