nickshanagher

There are two schools of thought about magazines and newspaper sales in the 21 st century and how they fit with a local convenience store. The one that is winning appears to be to stock a limited range of top sellers and get on with the day job. For a great many independent retailers, this makes good business sense. But in the rush to convenience, does this mean some retailers are missing a brilliant business opportunity? The answer is yes, according to Colin Mullins. Mr Mullins, who today heads the retail consultancy Fore, has a track record of building profitability for retailers through news sales. His current clients include Tesco, M&S, Asda, Spar and Nisa. He set up Fore in 2007 and sold to Menzies Distribution last year. One of the tasks he has been given is to breathe life into Superleague, the news sales club that Menzies set up in 1999 to get a piece of the “pay for display” action pioneered by WHSmith in its high street and travel outlets. The launch of Su...

While hacking may have put Rupert Murdoch into an unpleasant spotlight last month, the analysis of the direction of his business empire offers some uncomfortable truths for independent retailers who sell newspapers - which is most local shop owners in the grocery market. Mr Murdoch has been very successful and retailers need to acknowledge that over the past 40 years he has made them a lot of money, particularly in the UK, through his investment in and vision for national newspapers. A chart in the FT provided an interesting commentary on the development of Mr Murdoch's company. In 1980, newspapers and magazines accounted for 90 per cent of his revenues. In 1990, they accounted for 71 per cent. In 2000, they accounted for 45 per cent. In 2010, 11 per cent. In part, the decline is explained by the expansion of his companies into broadcast TV, cable networks and films. In 1990 they were worth 1 per cent, 0 per cent and 8 per cent of his business respectively. In 2000, they were w...

When we received the press release from James Murdoch's corporte affairs team my first thought was that it must be a hoax - the News of the World is to close after Sunday. What will replace it? Something must. We shall see. However it is worthwhile recording some of James Murdoch's words: "When I tell people why I am proud to be part of News Corporation, I say that our commitment to journalism and a free press is one of the things that sets us apart." "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself." "The News of the World is 168 years old...it is read by more people than any other English language newspaper...it has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation." I don't know James Murdoch and I did not hear him speak these words but they are fine words and add to the dramatic intesity of this moment. Printed ne...

"We're just fooling ourselves if we think that the staff at Tesco Express can't smile or be pleasant. We've got to be much more than just nice people," an un-named retailer tells wholesaler Menzies Distribution as part of its major research exercise to better understand its customers. David Cooke, its commercial and marketing director, writing in InPublishing warns publishers - particularly magazine publishers - that they risk losing a large and successful route to market. Why? His analysis splits the independent retailer universe into four types: entrepreneurs, who are doing well and join everything, always looking for better ways to do things and will pick up tips and tactics from wherever they can get them. They can compete with the multiples but they are prepared to cut out a category if they felt they would have a better or more profitable business by doing so traders, who mainly have one shop, know what they want to do but do...

This week's launch of i in the UK has received a broadly favourable welcome from the experts - buyers of advertising space and media planners - and a cautious welcome from news retailers. Taking a leaf from the Bauer book of launching to a mass market, the paper has offered retailers double margin for the first week and flooded the market with more than 100,000 free copies for the first two weeks - distributed in the evening. This tactic still seems to have wrong-footed some local retailers, who have withheld support from the newspaper because they simply do not trust publishers to treat them straight. However, it is probably a better rule of thumb for retailers to be positive about all launches because the ones that interest shoppers are ones that they should want to take part in. As it is half term, I was on holiday on Tuesday and it was interesting that a number of people mentioned the launch to me, suggesting that the Independent's marketing had worked in terms of...

The article from the front page of the Financial Times is perhaps evidence that newspapers will survive the launch of the iPad. The advertisement on the underground on the day of the iPad's UK launch may also be evidence of the same thing. Fresh from my first play with an iPad, I am sure that it will change a lot of things. I was surprised how small and light it was. Apps from the iPhone do not work on it. Apps written specially for the iPad look fantastic. My friend who is an expert says that the iPad is too middle class to be as successful as the iPhone. But if you have middle class customers, then you should expect it to change something. The newspaper story was about the creation of artificial life. I had seen the story on the internet the previous day and saw it on the television evening news. But putting the story on the front page of a newspaper made it more real for me. While we know that not everything that is printed is 100 per cent accurate, we also pay attention to ...

News this week that the average price of a CD has fallen below £8 for the first time, compared to more than £11 in 2000, tell all retailers that prices do not have to just go up. While the recording industry may blame the internet and supermarkets, which are accused of below cost selling, the business of music may not be suffering in proportion. Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien told Time magazine that "the music industry isn't in crisis, the recording industry is; it is an unbelievably good time to be a fan of music and new bands." Whatever, most corner shops are not big into music. However, the implications for book, magazine and newspaper sales is more sobering. The Boston Consulting Group has just studied the attitude of shoppers towards buying digital content in the US, China and Germany. They will pay $100-$150; $70-$120; and $130-$160 respectively for an e-reader. For a book the price ranges are $5-$10; $1-$2; and $7-$12 respectively. For a magazine $2-$4; $1-$2; ...

"After a while the crud kept rising. We not only had dirt, we had dirty dirt." This is a famous quote from a former A&P manager who was telling Jim Collins about why his company, which had been the leading supermarket chain in the US for most of the 20th Century failed. When shoppers no longer wanted cheap, its management simply refused to change what they did. It was not that the managers did not know that something was wrong. In fact, they set up a new store that told them what shoppers wanted. Clean stores, more choice, easy parking. But when they saw the solution meant change they simply chose to ignore it. If you are reading this column, ask yourself if this kind of thinking could affect you. Ask yourself how good your shop is. Be honest. Earlier this month, I visited 10 newspaper sellers (one a multiple) unannounced in one town centre. Only two of the shops were in pristine condition and one of these, a gift shop, did not sell newspapers. The other eight were tired...

Is Apple's i-tunes store a competitor for the local news shop in the UK? Yes, if the "success" of The Guardian's i-phone application is anything to go by. Priced at £2.39, the app gives readers unlimited (at the moment) access to the Guardian web site with up-to-date news every 15 minutes. Apple takes 30% of all revenue, which as the Guardian has sold 100,000 apps since December is now £72,000 and counting.

While the magazine and newspaper industry is fearful that its current distribution model, dependent on sales through corner shops, is at risk from the rise of the internet, the people who will make the decision are your shoppers not your suppliers. Free is the big selling point of the internet on the basis that access to the internet is cheap and easy and the advance of technology means vast amounts of data can be stored cheaply and easily. In the film industry, there is a widespread view that DVDs will disappear as people take to buying movies over the internet. However, a report from leading US media research group Screen Digest says that hopes for the rise of digital media have taken a hit - with it downgrading its forecasts following lower than expected sales last year. "The level of interest in digital downloads just isn't there," analyst Arash Amel told the Financial Times. Why? Becaue people don't like the restrictions that come with digital downloads, he sugg...

Wow. Steve Jobs says that his new iPad device is "extraordinary" and if you take time to look at his launch presentation on the web you may agree. Will it kill the magazine and newspaper industry? Perhaps not but it will change it! For example, if you are on a journey, devices like this make it easy to watch a movie rather than flick through a magazine. Armed with an iPad are you going to read a book or watch You tube? I reckon the latter. News and views in magazines and papers are key footfall driver for many local shops. The iPad is yet another competitor for shoppers' time. The biggest issue for local retailers is if its launch takes away the attention of publishers on making sure they do a good job for shoppers who like buying news and views from your store.