The current practice of newspaper returns should be reviewed. The rule that most publishers make is the newspaper returns should be about 7% of the number of papers they deliver.
An example here is say a newsagency gets 100 papers.
Now say the newsagency has only home deliveries. Since their computer should be able to tell them almost exactly the figures. They should have no problem getting to 7%.
Say 70 of those papers were home delivery and 30 are the estimated shop sales. Then to get to the publishers 7% limit they need to get the shop sales right to plus or minus seven. That means they needs to be within (7/30) = 23%
If this newsagency does no home deliveries and it is all shop sales then they need to estimate the shop sales to 7%.
This is crazy and we have been talking to the publishers about this. Today when newsagents are selling rounds and dividing into wholesalers and retailers the publisher's requirement of keeping to 7% needs changing.
