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I was doing some work for some new reports for our newsagency software that I saw overseas, I decided to check whether much changed in magazine supplies over the last year.

Here is an excel spreadsheet of what I got.

From these figures what I can see here, little happened about the problem of supply other than possibly network.

I then decided to compare the results with a magazine supplier Lovatt just because they made an effort a few years ago to look into this problem. They decided not to use the magazine distributor but do the distributions themselves.

Well here are their figures
Oversupplied 38.1%
Undersupplied 17.9%
Clearly, in this newsagency, Lovatt's have cut into their sales by undersupplying with little change for the oversupply rate. Possibly they would be better going back to the magazine distributor.

If anything happened about this issue in the last 12 months, it certainly does not show in these figures.

First what we do is a route calculation from our newsagency software for the subagent deliveries and customer rounds with the times needed for delivery. Then if you wish the route can be calculated to optimize either by the shortest time or the shortest distance for these deliveries. We then create a map of the route with clear instructions.

Then with this technology in every delivery vehicle, a unit is placed. This unit allows you to check every vehicle’s location, speed and direction via the internet. So while the deliveries are being done, you can monitor them continually. If the unit detects an accident or a delay, you get notice immediately via the internet.

You also get a history to review later. Say an accident occurred; you get reconstructions of the events leading to this accident.
If someone forgot to go down a street, you could see that. If a paper was missed, you could review every stop that vehicle made to find out what happened.

This technology is actually running now.

The estimated cost is about $2 a day a vehicle.

If anyone is interested in this technology, please let me know.

POS Solutions has been working very closely with XchangeIT, with the upcoming release of the new XchangeIT Link. We have had some sites testing the new XchangeIT Link with both PosBrowser and the POS Solutions DOS system, with great success! Here is what one such Newsagent has to say about PosBrowser and XchangeIT Link:

“We have had the good luck to be included in the pilot group testing the new functionality in XchangeIt and PosBrowser.

The stand out improvement, from our side of the fence, is the fact that NDC now accepts ALL returns immediately (yes, supplementary too!) and, courtesy of the integration between XchangeIT and PosBrowser, we immediately receive email confirmation of the acceptance of our returns and, if there are any over claims, then these would be notified as rejected. As PosBrowser users know, over claims are a thing of the past - POS will tell us if we are claiming too many. This combined with the missing stock reports ensure that we claim our full entitlement. The latest upgrade to PosBrowser and XchangeIT ensures that we receive that entitlement.

I commend this latest upgrade to all users of PosBrowser and suggest the sooner you upgrade to the new version of XchangeIt, the better off you will be.

Regards,

Kevin Brennan

Toronto Town Square News”

Regards

Garth

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I can tell you that you would not want to be a newsagent in Germany if you did not have smokes and alcohol. In Amsterdam, it is similar but they have some really interesting smokes in newsagencies.

Here are some pictures.

They do not have the range as we do for magazines. Also, their margins are lower.

They have more range in local newspapers. Note even in small towns they sell international newspapers.

Paypoint software allows other businesses on your behalf online to receive payments, change and enter delivery detail such as stops and starts and check customer accounts.

It also provides an alternative to selling off your rounds as with paypoint software several newsagencies can subcontract the distribution and still own it.

What it has now is an alert messaging system inbuilt. You can see some screenshots below of the new sections.

All DOS users in Victoria need to upgrade to 3I9 if they send data to News Limited.

This is the 20th update that DOS has had this year.

It is available now.

MPA in America is still going strong unlike Australia.

Recently they just released their 2009/10 Magazine Handbook Released

Looking though it, I could see the affect that newsagents have in Australia in magazines. There they depend on subscriptions for 68% of sales.

Overall it is worth a look.

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It is amazing how some paint and graphics on a wall can dramatically transform a shop at a fraction of the cost of a shop fit out.

Here is one Nextra concept has just done. I think it looks much better this new sign in blue.

This is how it looks in the shop.

I do not know if they intend to run with this idea of using red and black in the front and blue in the back. But I think it looks good as it draws your eye in without clashing as the red one does.

If you want to see more details on what Nextra wanted to achieve with this makeover let me know.

At the Nextra show, on the weekend we had comments from our customers along the lines that

They could see the changes we were making in our software

They liked the changes we were making

The changes we were making were the ones they were asking for

I was please to hear these comments.

I think we need to keep on our current path.

The following are two powerpoint presentations of circulation of newspapers which we received today.

One shows Australian newspaper circulation over time by title which includes the national and state figures.

The other shows the recent trends in newspaper sales.

These are from the ABC which are the total sale, so just in case before I released them I checked with our newsagency benchmarking data and it is showing a similar score.

Although some people keep going on about newspapers doom, the current figures in Australia are showing steady sales.

Nextra are the largest marketing group in newsagencies and extremely successful. This weekend they are having their annual conference in Melbourne. So Nextra members and their team are now gathering in Melbourne. Tomorrow it kicks off.

With so many newsagents coming to the Nextra annual conference, it will be an excellent opportunity for us too.

We will give a presentation there on the latest in benchmarking. How it works, how it is being used and what it does!

There we will also have technical experts including programmers available to answer questions and show you our software. We will be showing our latest retail management software and explaining the latest developments in computers, particularly XchangeIT where we will be explaining the latest in EDI compliance.

We will be on stall 14. If you attend, be sure to drop by and say hello.

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Since we released the google map integration a year ago, much has changed. So recently, we upgraded our integration.

Now when you call an address in our software, you can see now, a directions box (see the blue arrow).

Once you enter your starting or ending point, up pops a screen with directions how to get there. This is handy for someone that is not sure of the quickest way to get there.

Now note you notice the little man in orange with the red arrow pointing to him. If you click the arrow and move him around, he shows you a picture of what the location looks like. I find it useful going to a place to see this so I know what my destination looks like.

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has just granted authorisation allowing Victorian lottery agents to collectively negotiate the terms and conditions of their contracts with the two companies licensed to operate lotteries in Victoria, Tattersall's and Intralot.

The stickly point is that Tattersall and Intralot are free to choose whether to deal with the collective bargaining group or continue to negotiate with lottery agents individually.

In the press release issued by the Advertiser today.

Soon all the customer relations, administrative and financial work for home delivery of Advertiser in South Australia will be done by the Advertiser, not the newsagent. Stops, starts, billing etc will all be done by the Advertiser.

I was speaking to a few clients in South Australia about it. No-one was surprised. A few were concerned, some thought it was a good move. Nothing anyone can do about it.

Soon I am sure that most Australian newspapers will go to this model after all most newspapers in the USA do it like this too.

We were sent this marketing report on Australian newspapers, which I found interesting.

One comment certainly gave me food for thought.

Despite increasing internet usage, in 2008 substantially more people are reading a newspaper each week than are using the internet each month

I suspect it is true. I know my Mum, Dad and brother-in-law rarely go on the net but they read newspapers every day. Many like me that are almost wired to the net often read daily newspapers too.

I would also disagree with some of the section on “Recent trends in newspaper circulation”. I would say that currently, circulation is slightly down. Still starting from such a high sale figure for a typical newsagent, even a few percent down still leaves a big market.

There is a market report we have which is well worth reading about newspapers today if you are interested.

McGills is the largest newsagency in Victoria. It has a couple of floors. It was a landmark in Melbourne CBD and now it is closing in a few weeks as no-one offered to buy it.

I remember it well, as a kid, I had to go there to pick up magazines for our newsagency as they used to distribute magazines too.

From the manager’s comments on the reasons for closing were

"Newsagencies are a hard business, very labour intensive and along with high CBD rent it has been difficult over the past few years," he said.

"But I wouldn't say this is a result of the financial crisis."

Newsagents today need to look at much more then just the bottom line as McGill's example shows they have to look at the work involved and floor space.

Now in NSW, the proposed tobacco display laws will require retailers to spend a significant sum to convert the tobacco displays. For a typical shop, the costs are estimated would be about $8,000.

An immediate low-cost solution you may want to consider is converting the space to “hangsell” products like inkjets. This is fairly easy to do and should provide a short-term solution.

Here is one done in Victoria. See the area marked in red.

Reusing the tobacco space was also widely done in Western Australia when strict tobacco laws were recently introduced there.

In newsagencies leasing makes sense particularly if you intend to stay for a short time more, since the computer usually remains with the newsagency. You take a five-year lease. Not you immediately pocket the government 50% rebate off the total which is unreal as all you have paid is a year of leasing payments which is 100% deductible. You often pay nothing more as software maintenance is supplied on the first year free by the almost all vendors. Because it is new so you are less likely to suffer age-related breakdowns and if you do, it will often not cost you anything as it will probably be under warranty. When you add all this up, you are ahead already.

Plus over the year you have the advantage of the new and powerful equipment and software. That is something buyers appreciate too as who wants to buy a business with some old software that needs to be replaced almost immediately.

All this works if the leasing rates are low which they are now.

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Now New Idea magazine sales are not going so well, so it will be interesting to see how the new daily TV series starting tomorrow, which is based on the New Idea’s magazine, will do for the circulation. It starts tomorrow on Channel Seven.