A client calls me to ask me to change his system into a retail only newsagents system. I know the other guy well so I start to talk “What happening?.....You selling?”. He replied “Nah just getting out of home delivery….Isn’t worth it…. Had enough!…. Then what do you think about it?”
I told him, it is very dangerous in the long-term as you are selling your business. Deliveries are what make you unique! Maybe you should consider just contracting out the delivery and still do the rest of it. At least you will have control over that side of the business. I doubt I got though to him but I think I am right. A newsagent without territory in the long-term is what?
Still I can understand people selling their territory. The economics are marginal unless you are doing a lot . It is very time-consuming. The long-term is a long way away. Extra cash now is appreciated. Possibly the most important is the energy that used in home delivery is often better spent in the shop.
Still at the rate it is going I am wondering how many newsagents will remain doing home deliveries? Looking at one of our larger delivery agents, I noticed that he is doing about 18,000 home deliveries a week. Fifteen years ago his territory would have been serviced by eighty newsagents. This I suppose is what the major newspaper publishers News Corp and Fairfax want! Instead of eighty accounts all they have to worry about is one account. As these newspaper distribution businesses become bigger still, it gives them fewer accounts and drop sites.
More and more these publishers for home delivery only need retail newsagents for their special offers. I suspect this is in the long-term is quite dangerous for the retail newsagent.
