T2020: Newsagents for the Future a new distribution model poised to deliver

Sophie Foster
August 09, 2012
The Courier-Mail

“CAUTIOUSLY optimistic” was how one Brisbane newsagent greeted a long-awaited plan that’s set to transform the future of the newspaper distribution and retail industry nationwide.

The T2020: Newsagents for the Future distribution model will be made public by News Ltd, publisher of The Courier-Mail, today , but rolled out first at a launch region south of Brisbane over the next six months.

“The upside has got to be instantly better than where we’re at right now,” said Grahame Bunyon, of Palmdale News in Upper Mount Gravatt, who’s among 56 Brisbane newsagents forming the vanguard for implementation of T2020.

“There’s bound to be a call for newspapers for years to come.”

In a statement to newsagents nationwide, News Ltd executive commercial and operations director Jerry Harris said the company remained committed to all forms of media, including print, with newsagents a fundamental part of that future. “We recognise that T2020 is a big step forward for all of us,” he said.

The most visible change was expected to be the creation of dedicated distribution businesses run by newsagents as co-operatives or joint-venture partnerships, which would control much wider territories of about 10,000 newspapers a day, said News Ltd national retail circulation director Catrin Thomas.

“What we’re trying to create is a much more sustainable future for newsagents but also for our readers as well who want to have home deliveries of their newspapers,” she said.
Apart from allowing for better economies of scale for distributors, T2020 would also create secure five-year contracts for newsagents who opted out of distribution altogether to focus purely on their retail business.

“You could choose to be both a distributor and retailer or just a distributor or just a retailer, and if you’re either of those things, we’re going to make sure that you’ve got a business that’s stand-alone and sustainable on its own,” she said.

Queensland retailers would see a 2.5 percentage point rise in their commission structure, going from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent, she said, with newsagents also eligible for a $20 bonus payment every time they signed up a new subscriber as well as processing fees for such payments.

For distributors a single, all-encompassing service fee would be put in place, determined on a case-by-case basis which recognised larger territories were more expensive to service.

Among the changes were built-in annual CPI increases for distribution contracts, alongside a guaranteed minimum income level that allowed for decreases in newspaper volumes of up to 20 per cent.