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Landlords invite newsXpress into their centres

newsXpress is receiving more and more invitations to consider locations in existing and new shopping centres around Australia.

With a footprint of close to 160 locations nationally, attractive businesses, a commitment to professional retailing, national TV and print advertising and good compliance principles, landlords see newsXpress as a national brand they want in their centres.

In response to approaches, newsXpress has developed a set of principles and guidelines for handling invitations from landlords.

We do not approach landlords in centres where there is an existing newsagent.
We only consider locations which are on the open market.
There are instances where we have helped existing newsagents lift their businesses and stay in a centre by providing support services and other guidance to lift their offer and retain their business.
We ensure that a newsagent already serving the centre is given the opportunity to open the newsXpress location offered to us by the landlord – we have helped existing newsagents expand in this way.
Using our professional lease negotiator, we pursue the best possible terms for the business.
We invite existing newsXpress members to consider taking up available tenancy offers.
next, we invite non newsXpress newsagents to take up the new tenancy offer.
If these steps do not uncover a good candidate, we may market the opportunity more widely or invite the landlord to see suitable tenants directly.

newsXpress goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure newsagents covering an existing location and first bite at a new opportunity. There are excellent instances in our history where this has worked well for the newsagent and the landlord.

2010 calendar workshop for newsagents

newsXpress is hosting an online workshop on 2010 calendar opportunities for for newsXpress newsagents. This workshop will be held on March 10 and will cover the 2010 range, guidelines on what to order and other opportunities to pursue now in order to make the most of the lucrative season.

This is a terrific learning opportunity from newsXpress – we are committed to helping our newsagent members have access to the best resources and advice.

This workshop is another cross-border networking opportunity for newsXpress members.

Bonus round of members meetings scheduled

newsXpress has added another round of member meetings to the cycle planned for 2009. This is response to the excellent feedback from the round of member meetings just concluded. To be held in late April, this next round of member meetings will further develop our theme for 2009 of standards, introduce new and exclusive product offers for newsXpress newsagents and open for discussion business management initiatives.

newsXpress is committed to helping its members deep into the back room as well as in the body of the shop. This is why we include operational topics in our member meeting agendas, so that our members can talk with each other and learn about best practice in areas of their business.

Meeting newsXpress members in Perth

Our members meeting in Perth yesterday was a ripper of a success. We covered new opportunities and talked business growth strategies. Facilitating regular meetings of proactive newsagents is part of the newsXpress offer. newsXpress members networking always unlocks new opportunities and yesterday was no exception.

Giving away Nintendo Wii

newsXpress has shipped out twenty Nintendo Wii to newsXpress stores where customers won a Wii as part of our Back To School competition. Entry was only through a specially developed facility on our corporate website. We then randomly selected the winners and notified each along with details on how to collect the prize. The full winner list was published in The Australian over a week ago.

The Nintendo Wii competition has made twenty customers very happy, participating members happy with a successful promotion and our web developer happy to bring so much extra traffic to our new website.

newsXpress is embracing the Internet in a range of ways to help our member newsagents more effectively connect with their communities and to find new customers. Our back To School competition was part of a much larger strategy.

Structured advice for newsXpress members

newsXpress supports its in-store training of newsagents with documentation in the form of advice sheets. These are useful for newsagents to share with staff engaged in executing newsXpress strategies. They act as a library of support materials for our members, documenting the newsXpress point of difference in many areas.

We review our advice sheets regularly and release new versions to reflect changes accordingly. This commitment to constant review and improvement is important in any best-practice operation.

From the perspective of our members, they can rely on having access to up-to-date written advice for implementing key newsXpress offers and points of difference.

We rely on advice from our members as to topics they would like to see covered in future advice sheets.

National conference details announced

We have announced the details of our 2009 National Conference at our series of member meeting being held last week (and next). With last year’s conference such a success there is considerable pressure on this year’s event. The city is Melbourne and the dates are October 14 through 16. We will publish mroe details soon.

newsXpress Chippdendall Sugarland rewarded

Congratulations to newsXpress Chippdendall Sugarland for winning $1,000 from Pacific Magazines from their Youth Sales Club promotion.

Pacific Magazines’ Youth Sales Club was established exclusively for our Top 500 selling newsagents of Girlfriend, Total Girl and K-Zone magazines. Each holiday period members receive additional gifts, exclusive posters and cash incentives for top sales performance!

Pacific Magazines’ investment in Youth Sales Club newsagents is proving successful with members outperforming other newsagents on average by 9.6% for Girlfriend, 12.8% for Total Girl and 6.1% for K-Zone during school holiday periods.

newsXpress is proud to facilitate the Pacific Magazines Youth Sales Club initiative through its member newsagents.

Free lottery training for newsXpress members

newsXpress has organised a free half day lottery training program to follow our members meeting in Western Australia next week. This training is for newsXpress members only and provides another opportunity for our members to learn and work together on business building strategies around lottery products.

Our Perth members meeting starts at 10am on Tuesday March 3 at Heystbury House in Subaico.

Beating Big W by 14.6% on price

Shoppers comparing the price of ink in the latest Big W catalogue with the new Hot Ink! offer from newsXpress will see that newsXpress newsagencies beat Big W on some popular ink items. newsXpress newsagencies have ink from HP, Canon and Brother at excellent prices.

Big W claims they are “Helping you spend less everyday” yet when it come to ink, right now, newsXpress is helping consumers spend less on some items. Big W is advertising the HP 56/57 twin pack for $81.98. Our price is $69.95. That is a saving of 14.5%.

newsXpress is proud to be helping its members position themselves as offering excellent value brand name products backed by friendly and knowledgeable service.

This is a terrific newsXpress difference and another reason our members love our ink and toner offer. That said, we know that price competition will see Big W react and we need to watch that.

Melbourne members meeting full

Our meeting of Victorian newsXpress members yesterday filled the room at the Malvern Valley Golf Club. We had a terrific discussion about newsXpress strategies and offers and an excellent open forum session where we discussed a myriad of topics. As we found in Sydney and Brisbane earlier this week, our members are the best source of ideas for newsXpress to research and consider.

Member meetings such as yesterday’s in Victoria demonstrate newsXpress’ commitment to transparency and how we go about putting the needs of our members first.

Meeting newsXpress members in Brisbane

Our Brisbane members meeting yesterday was well attended given that it was on a busy Wednesday. we had a terrific discussion about new product offers, initiatives by newsXpress plus a review of recent campaigns. Best of all, members got to share ideas with each other. When you put proactive newsagents in a room together, good ideas get out in the open and we all leave motivated and wiser.

Advertising for a new Business Development Manager

We have placed an ad online at Seek yesterday for a new Business Development Manager in Victoria. As the ad says, practical newsagency experience is essential to this vital role for building stronger newsXpress newsagencies in Victoria. Other key skills are good clear communication, excellent organizational skills and a commitment to staying out of industry politics.

Full-house at NSW members meeting

Our full-house NSW members meeting yesterday was a busy few hours. Taking the form of an open forum, newsXpress members, prospective members and our team reviewed recent marketing and discussed plans for Easter, Calendars, Diaries and our next Ink promotion. Over several hours including a working lunch we also discussed several newsXpress initiated innovations which aim to leverage our success into better commercial outcomes for our members.

Discipline was at the heart of this round of member meetings. newsXpress is committed to helping its members achieve greater unity around a common goal and this starts with our businesses looking, feeling and acting great.

Member meetings like yesterday in Sydney are a key opportunity for members to share stories as well as influence the direction we take as a group.

With a strong representation of the newsXpress brand in NSW/ACT, we are poised to move from being seen as another brand of newsagency to being newsXpress and standing for all that makes up the value of the newsXpress brand.

Exclusive magazine offer at newsXpress

newsXpress members are participating in an exclusive offer of Alpha and Australian Football Weekly for a combined price of $5. Specially printed collateral, including header cards and posters, has been provided to newsXpress stores for use in supporting the promotion.

newsXpress negotiates exclusive magazine title based offers as well as exclusive strategic relationships for members. Our marketing and merchandise teams welcome opportunities to work with other publishers to develop mutually beneficial outcomes.

newsXpress member meetings this week

newsXpress is hosting three member meetings this week. The details are:

Sydney: Tuesday February 24, 10am, The Lakes Golf Club, Banksia Room, King Street, Eastlakes. Followed by lunch for those who can join us.
Brisbane: Wednesday February 25, 1:30pm, Brisbane Technology Park – West Auditorium of BTP Technology and Conference Centre, 1 Clunies Ross Court (Off Miles Platting Road), Eight Mile Plains. Preceded by lunch for those who can join us.
Melbourne: Thursday February 26, 10am, Malvern Valley Golf and Reception Centre, Silk Room, Golfers Drive, Malvern East. Followed by lunch for those who can join us.

If you are considering joining a proactive marketing group to drive your business please make contact with us to enquire about attending one of our meetings. newsXpress members can sign up using the online booking facility at our website.

Working the Sydney Gift Fair

newsXpress members and staff got together last night at the Watershed Hotel for drinks and a debrief about the first two days of the Reed Sydney Gift Fair. This was one of several events in Sydney this week scheduled to coincide with the fair. We recognise that time away from the shop is challenging to achieve so we have sought to make the most of this and help our members leverage more beneficial outcomes.

At the drinks last night members from four states got to trade stories. It is this type of networking which is a key value of newsXpress. Beyond talking about products seen at the Fair, there was good discussion about business.

newsXpress members are like family with each other – last night was like a good family catch up.