There has been quite a lot of discussion as to why the benchmarking figures for newsagents showed a similar figure to the ABC circulation figures, yet the newspaper sales are off.
The reason is home deliveries. Traditionally, newsagents have always seen home delivery as the base of their business which they can depend on, and these figures support this claim as the newspaper sales decline is much less for home deliveries than retail sales.
3.6% down in retail sales
1.7% down in home delivery
It works out to approx 2.6% down overall, which is what newsagents reported.
Based on these figures, efforts by the publisher to get as many people from retail sales to home deliveries should be encouraged by newsagents.
