Category: newsXpress difference

Landlords invite newsXpress into their centres

shopfront.jpgnewsXpress 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.

Structured advice for newsXpress members

dsc06392.JPGnewsXpress 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.

newsXpress Chippdendall Sugarland rewarded

gf_apr09.jpgCongratulations 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.

Melbourne members meeting full

nx_vigmtg_feb09.JPGOur 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

img_6927a.jpgOur 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.

Full-house at NSW members meeting

nsw_membmeet.jpgOur 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.

alpha_fweekly.JPG

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.

Working the Sydney Gift Fair

nx_gift_fair_drinks.JPGnewsXpress 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.

Excellent Easter range for newsXpress newsagents

newsXpress has sourced a broad range of Easter from several suppliers.  From chocolate to soft toys to gifts and religious items, we have presented a broad selection of Easter gift items. Our members are able to select the smallest range of Easter gifts through to a large display. They can buy individual items or pre selected packs – an efficient way to buy. Like other seasons, newsXpress aims to help members to achieve excellent results this Easter.

The right marketing group for your newsagency

Our How to choose a marketing group for your newsagency paper has been updated.  We have received excellent feedback from the first version off this document and this has encouraged us to develop this new version.  The opening paragraphs position the purpose of the document:

Supanews, Nextra, The Lucky Charm, Newspower and newsXpress are the five marketing and or buying groups for newsagents in Australia at the time of writing this report. Each of these groups is different, even more so that they themselves might have you believe.

The differences between newsagency marketing groups are not as evident as they could be, making the choice challenging for newsagents contemplating joining a marketing group.

Too often, newsagents find out why a marketing group is not for them once they have signed an agreement and are locked in for years without any way out.

newsXpress member meetings

newsXpress is about to host its first round of member meetings. These are in addition to online member meetings and training sessions, in-store meetings with our Business Development Managers and our cluster (regional) meetings.

At this round of member meetings we will outline more exclusive stationery deals, discuss national standards and discuss other initiatives of newsXpress.

  • 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.
  • Perth: Tuesday March 3, 10am. WA Lotteries office.

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.

Great ink and toner deals from newsXpress

nx_hotink_talker.JPGnewsXpress has demonstrated again to its 160 member newsagents the value of membership of the newsagency marketing group.  In addition to putting together an excellent new Hot Ink offer of branded ink at very competitive prices and backing thie with a national flyer campaign, we have also provided participating members with professional shelf talkers – just the one in the photo for the popular Canon BCI-3 ink.  These shelf talkers promote hero products from HP, Canon, Epson and Brother.  They show us off as having brand name products at excellent prices.

In addition to professional in-store collateral, newsXpress members have access to exclusive pricing, national marketing, ranging advice and assistance,branding and professional online marketing.  Access to all of these business building resources is provided to newsXpress members for no additional cost, it is part of the overal monthly marketing group membership fee of $495.

newsXpress is able to fund its comprehensive ink and toner marketing and support package thanks to the support of its preferred supplier.  newsXpress members make the relationship work by only buying from our preferred supplier.

newsXpress supports QNF conference

newsXpress has signed on as a Platinum sponsor of the QNF state conference to be held on March 24 this year. This is another example of newsXpress financially supporting events which help all newsagents access training and facilities for improving their businesses. Our financial commitment and active participation in the QNF conference is further evidence of our support for and with the newsagency channel.

Guiding members into gifts

Our merchandise team has developed a plan for helping newsXpress members navigate the large Sydney Gift fair next week. We will have people on the ground scouting suppliers and leading teams on the floor of the show as well as providing advice on the best way to get through such a large event. We will get together to debrief and relax with a drink.

newsXpress continues to evolve its gift offer for members and this Fair next week is another way we are able to practically help members learn how to enter this most regarding product category.

Lease advice for newsagents

newsXpress, as part of its services to newsXpress members, provides lease advice through our own lease consultant. With years of experience dealing with major landlords and independent developers and an excellent knowledge of the needs and challenges of newsagents, Chris Hicks is able to take the emotion out of navigating complex and potentially expensive lease issues.

Chris is available to newsXpress members to help them get what is often the largest cost in their business under control.
Around thirty new leases were negotiated for newsXpress members last year. Being able to do this work under a national brand and to consistent standards makes dealing with many landlords easier.

Driving traffic, sales and margin with books

fday_booksale.JPGnewsXpress has just pitched its first book offer for the year. Targeting the busiest time of the year in book sales, the offer enables newsXpress members to enter this market easily, efficiently and profitably. Thanks to our supplier relationship, participating newsXpress members will have a compelling book offer which will drive excellent sales. It will be supported by advertising which will pull new customers to newsXpress locations.

Last year, thanks to newsXpress support, some members saw book sales quadruple, making the bottom line return more valuable per square metre than magazines.