The MPA pioneered category analysis for newsagents. I remember working with them throughout this project. Unlike many, we use it extensively. Soon though, we started hearing less from the MPA.

Today I was stunned when I was told that ACP had left the MPA.

I hope that ACP keeps the magazine categories intact and it does not let the same death that happened to the industry-wide greeting card category system.

The greeting card companies should be ashamed for themselves for what little happened with their category system.

The Chairman and CEO of News Limited, John Hartigan made what I thought a well-thought-out speech saying News Limited views about newspapers today and its future. It spells out where they want to go and their vision of the future.

If you want to read the speech, it is available here. {link removed}

My thoughts after reading it were that I agree with him that bloggers and other modern media are no replacement for quality journalism. Quality journalism needs money and professionals. Also, another advantage is that even if the public disagrees with a modern newspaper, they know these newspapers and reporters have a reputation to uphold, if only because they can be sued. Bloggers cannot give that! At best, bloggers are an echo to the existing news system.

He has some interesting points like the public are willing to pay for news. When we had the Victorian bushfires, many more newspapers were sold.

Today most money from news on-line is made by Google and Yahoo who pay nothing to produce it. Online readers generate about 10% of the revenue than a newspaper reader.

I also agree with him in the short-term, Australian newspaper market is strong with circulation only slightly down. Yet unlike him, I see the circulation drop that we have seen in the US and UK and not in Australia as lag, that we often see when developments occur.

He is clearly right that newspapers need to adapt their business models. By extension, so must newsagents. Interesting in his talk, there was not one word in the speech about them.

My now, you would have received a notice from Network Services that the days of paper returns are quickly over.

From 16th September, 2009 Network Services will only accept Supplementary Returns (early/late) via NETonline or XchangeIT LINK.

Both these methods are tested and work well.

POS Solutions clients, can select either of these two methods what will no longer be acceptable is paper reports.

There had a few surprises in this quarter report.

Overall newspapers show a 0.6% drop in circulation. At least, this is better than the 0.9% drop recorded in the March and a significant improvement on the 2.1% drop recorded in December. It is also much better than the US figures.

It certainly not all bad news with newspapers as in Sydney, the Daily Telegraph was up 1.1%, the Queensland’s Courier Mail improved by 1% and The West Australian by 0.7%.

Magazines are maybe starting to stabilise. This quarter they dropped 1%, which is good compared of nearly 10% a year ago. I noticed that Better Homes & Gardens did very well.

The big surprise was the monthly magazines, which were up. They grew by 2.1%.

"Test the waters" and get the feel of the smart newsagency software at this year's NSW GNS Market Fair.

Whether you have a big newsagency or just a small one, what you need is the best one. You can try it out at the show check out its flexibility.

See it for yourself.

If you already have posbrowser, then we have some exciting new technology to show you

It is a great opportunity as members of our sales team will be there, with experts from our support department!

It is this Saturday and Sunday

at
'The Dome'
Sydney Showground
Showground Road
Sydney Olympic Park NSW 2127

Regards

Garth

It had to happen after Western Australia then NSW, the government in Victoria is considering doing something similar for tobacco products. As in other states, it will not cost the government any money but thousands of retailers all over the state.

So I thought the Australian Retailers Association made a good point when they said

This is potentially a massive financial burden for small retailers to carry when we consider there is no international evidence that restricting the display of cigarettes actually reduces the uptake of smoking. In fact, New Zealand has dismissed similar regulations based on the huge expense and lack of supporting evidence.

…..

While retailers fully appreciate the health dangers associated with smoking, the financial impact of these regulations is not a public health issue. The ARA's concern is about an increased cost to retailers when they can least afford it.

Presently in Victoria unlike NSW, there does not appear that any software changes are required.

The Melbourne GNS show is this weekend and we are busy with last-minute preparation. It provides a great opportunity to meet everyone in the newsagency industry so we intend to have sales, support and programmers there.

We will also be showing the latest version of our software on the new generation terminals. Here is one being set up.

The screen is the computer too. So they are small. They can be run purely under touch so making them easy to use. Plus they are extremely cost-effective. Once seen, people's responses have been excellent.

If you are at the GNS Fair please drop in, say hello and see the latest newsagency software working.

The show is at the
Mooney Valley Racecourse
MacPherson Street
Mooney Ponds

Melway reference: 29 A7

The latest XchangeIT user manual for newsagency software was sent out. Unfortunately, it was so big that some had trouble downloading it. So what I have done is reduce it. What is great about the net for support is often I can do one job for many almost as quickly as for one. As I am sure others will want it too. So I have made it is available.

For those people that know XchangeIT, it provides a useful introduction to what it now can do. I was particularly impressed with its easier resending of old invoices.

[link removed]

Today with so much news free on the internet, many newspaper companies are struggling to get revenue. Rupert Murdoch thinks the answer is to charge the readers an access fee. If it works for him, he expects others will follow him.

Google responded about this here. While they agreed he could charge, they then pointed out that.

More than 25,000 news organizations across the globe choose to make their content available in Google News and other web search engines. They do so because they want their work to be found and read

Now I doubt all these 25,000 news organisations will charge, and I suspect the public will go to them.

Also, this debate is unlikely to affect us soon, as Stephen Browning, News Digital Media's Director of Corporate in Australia, said

that whilst the company was continuing to explore options, there were "no immediate plans" for pay walls on Australian sites.

Bottom line: In Australia, online news will continue to be free.

It was a pleasure to get a card supplier that had its electronic downloads worked out.

While testing it, we found no problems. All products had a unique barcode and supplier code and all products have relevant categories. It was also properly supplied, in the standard newsagency stock file format.

Many other card suppliers should take note from their example.

If you For this and other supplier files please visit here  (Outdated file - decommissioned)

[site removed]

If you do your paper rounds by walking or biking, I think you will find this site useful. It is made for sportspeople.

First, you plot your rounds. This is easy, as you print out a round sheet and plot the addresses on the computer. Then, it gives you details such as the round distance. Then, it gives you the calories a person consumes on the run, considering their gender, age, and weight. Then you get the average speed they took. This quickly lets you determine how much exercise you or your staff are getting. I found it easy to use.

If there is much interest, I will create an automatic import from our software.

{links no longer active}

There are several such stories today about a new electronic reader for newspapers. Contrary to what the stories say, these A4 readers are not new. What is news is the fall in price for A4 readers. At $US299, it is now close to a year subscription cost of a newspaper.

I expect early models will probably be released here in two years.

Although I do not know what these new designs look like here are some from a rival company, that do look good.

I find the current ebook readers not comfortable to use but I confess these readers do look good.

The advantage of using these for newspapers is they will always have a current edition, they use touch screens and allow hyperlinks on an A4 sheet that keeps the current layout of the newspaper and magazines intact.

Operating System Upgrades

People who want to go on the new version of XchangeIT should be aware that often you need to upgrade your windows version. This is free and available from Microsoft.

If you use Windows 2000 you need Service Pack 4 (SP4)

If you use Windows XP, you need Service Pack 2 (SP2)

For Windows Vista users, Service Pack 1 is required.

Please do not start any of these service pack updates until you are sure that you have technical support immediately just in case something goes wrong. We have had some issues with people updating.

If you are running Windows 98, which is not recommended for running XchangeIT please contact us first, rather than try to hack XchangeIT to make it work. The advantage you have with us is we have people here that have been working for quite a while on this to make sure the new XchangeIT will work for you.

http://www.retailbiz.com.au/news/article/AEBFYNPYRE.html

Do you want a politicians helping out in your shop for an hour or two behind the cash register? The Australian Newsagents Federation (ANF) believes it is a good idea.

With all the doom talk about the internet destroying newspapers, the reality is that newspaper sales have held up and despite increasing internet use, substantially more people read newspapers than using the internet.

Newspapers are a good product. Here is the report {Report removed}

I decided to see how distributors overtime are handling a common problem in newsagencies of sending items that just do not sell in a newsagency.

As there is a wealth of information in posbrowser newsagency software, I decided to check this in a newsagency’s database. I put it into excel to create a unique report here.

Decide for yourself how the magazine distributors have gone. I think in 2003 they did a good job but by 2008, they were no better than 1997 in this newsagency.

hi guys,

...

can you please blog my following comments on your site.

Thanks

Lyle
LUCKY CHARM VICTORIA POINT

_______________________________________________________

...

For months now i have been sending my returns data back to the magazine companies via EDI returns in my POS Browser System. (I have not had to hand write any forms for a long time now)

Yes, It is correct that I am not receiving my credit in 2 minutes as .. advertise. But this is Only because I have not been part of the initial trials of the New XchangeIT LINK Platform. Had I Been Included in this trial, then I too would be receiving my credits in 2 minutes through my POS Solutions Browser Platform. I am though looking forward to the New XChangeIT Link platform and have registered my interest to be in the next round of roll outs.

While POS software suppliers have been working with XChangeIT to make this work, The Instant Credit service is related to X-Change-it rolling out the New XChangeIT Link Software. When the Roll out happens, then and only then can it be claimed that instant credits on returns are available to all users.

If you are a POS Browser User and have received these faxes also, Please talk with POS Solutions & XChangeIT about getting your system set up to be ready for these instant credits as soon as XChangeIT LiNK is launched.

Lyle
Newsagency Manager

>removed>

There is an article in the Daily Telegraph about how some customers of Lotto who bought it online felt cheated because they paid 14% more.

Punters who entered last week's $106 million Lotto draw online via Oz Lotteries' website paid a premium above what newsagents charge for a ticket.

A ticket which costs $126 in a NSW newsagency costs $18 more online

When a customer complained, Oz Lotteries replied

that it charged a premium for its service, which it said was "superior" to newsagencies

So what is this superior service that the online service provides?

These services include; maintaining records of orders received, operating accounts on behalf of players and providing a secure internet based selling system that safeguards players personal and financial information

..

customers were able to cancel transactions at any time.

..

a facility to open gambling accounts with credit cards

Besides being a putdown for newsagents' service, it is not fair competition. A newsagent could provide all of this, too, if they got an extra 14%, which would more than pay for the increase in accounting costs and credit card fees. Somehow, Lotto never asked the newsagents about this.

The only positive is that the online fee is much higher than that of a newsagency, and the higher, the better for the newsagents.

Unlike our windows version, our DOS version does not automatically update (sigh).

So now in Victoria, HWT is slowly working through the list of POS DOS agents who are not sending a weekly file. They need to update to the latest version. Then they need to check the setting for automation.

Arie Benezra

Hi Guys

Before moving on, I would like to thank you guys for the support provided for the last 2.5 years

It has been a pleasure working with you guys, mainly with the team i have worked with such as Grant (Teacher), Dean (Original Setup),Ben , Tristan , Paul and Leong.

Moving to Pos Browser 1.5 years ago was the best move for the business, and who knows we may be working again in the near future
( I can hear some people say Shit....)

Thanks Again.

Arie...