I was speaking yesterday to a person who is trying to get newsagents to sell magazine subscriptions. What he offers the newsagent is a commission that is good for a virtual product. I then mentioned that newsagents are concerned, that this commission is much less than the profit that a newsagent would earn if a client buys the copies of a magazine in the shop. He replied that magazines bought on subscriptions are not really the same as those that sell in the newsagencies; so many newsagents could open themselves up to a new type of customers by selling magazine subscriptions.
After he left, I decided to investigate on the magshop
I looked around and saw their top ten listing. I then compared it to our benchmarking project for network products.
I then made this table.
Description---------------------Mag No------Newsagents
TOP GEAR-------------------------------1-------------64
AUST WOMENS WKLY-----------------2--------------9
WHEELS---------------------------------3-------------32
GOURMET TRAVELLR-------------------4------------142
SHOP TIL YOU DROP------------------5-------------36
COSMOPOLITAN-----------------------6-------------15
MONEY MAGAZINE---------------------7-------------43
CLEO-----------------------------------8-------------16
Australian GoodFood-------------------9--------------?
AUST PC USER-------------------------10-------------27To explain the table
The top selling magazine in MAGshop.com.au is TOP GEAR; to newsagents from network it is the 64th best seller.
WHEELS ranks 3 in the MAGshop.com.au but in a newsagency it ranks 32.
MONEY MAGAZINE ranks 7 in the MAGshop.com.au but in a newsagency it ranks 43.
Australian GoodFood has a ? because it is new.
Overall these magazines make up about 6.3% of the newsagencies network magazine account. Of course there are many more magazines in MAGshop.com.au than just these, so you could probably double it.
But he is right when he said the typical subscriber is not buying the same magazines as the customers in the shop.
