News Limited favours new retailers over newsagents in its Valentines Day promotion

Mark Fletcher
January 9th, 2013
Australian Newsagency Blog

News Limited has emailed newsagents in NSW, asking them to promote the Valentines Day edition of The Daily Telegraph to other retailers on terms not available to retail newsagents.

This move disadvantages retail newsagents. It is a disrespectful move by News because of the trading terms advantage given to these other retailers and by chasing sales outside the well-established and loyal newsagency channel.

In this year of extraordinary change driven by News and their T2020 project, they should be more sensitive toward newsagents than ever. This move goes against the spirit of support for newsagents the company has been espousing when promoting T2020.

Here is the email from News:

Valentines DAY DAILY TELEGRAPH OFFER
Attached is a Valentines Day Daily Telegraph offer to help you increase sales on the day.
Valentines Day falls on a Thursday this year.
Please approach all florists, restaurants or any small businesses in your area that would be interested in taking up the offer:
 50-99 x The Daily Telegraph @ $0.75 per unit (cost saving 37%)
 100-199 x The Daily Telegraph @ $0.65 per unit (cost saving 46%)
 200+ x The Daily Telegraph @ $0.50 per unit (cost saving 58%)

If you would like me to print off any flyers for you, just let me know. All orders need to sent back before Feb 6th.
Several newsagents who have contacted me have expressed their disgust at this move.

Its an issue newsagents might consider taking to the ACCC. While the ACCC will question the consumer impact, newsagents could explain that it is moves like this that make newsagencies less profitable and could add to the closure of businesses.

It would also be reasonable to question why a florist should get up to 58% GP when a retail newsagent will get anything from 12.5% to 25%. We could also argue that this is an abuse of market power by News.

If News Limited wants retail newsagents to support its products it ought to urgently reconsider this Valentines Day promotion. Either it gives retail newsagents the same terms or it withdraws the offer to florists and others.

News Limited needs to prove to us that its words of support for newsagents in 2012, through its T2020 presentations, were real and that we can trust the company.