social responsibility | newsXpress Blog

newsXpress concerns about Australia Post magazine trial with Are Media

Are Media is trialling the sale of selected top-selling magazines in a group of corporate stores owned and run by Australia Post, a government protected and owned monopoly.

This trial by Are Media could adversely impact small business newsagents. It could encourage people to stop shopping their local family owned newsagency and, instead, shop at their government owned post office.

Mercury Capital, the Are Media owners, have been announced as underwriting a rights issue for Ovato (OVT). Ovato controls magazine distribution in Australia.

We are concerned that the Australia Post relationship is a step toward reducing magazine revenue for small business newsagents.

That a government owned and run enterprise is being gifted this opportunity to the detriment of small business newsagents is most concerning.

We can see the possibility of Mercury grabbing the magazine distribution business from Ovato, further strengthening the Australia Post relationship and small business newsagents being a further risk.

Australia Post continues to encroach on what small business newsagents sell. Recently, Australia Post got Lego product – we suspect because they are government owned and protected. Newsagents struggle to get access to Lego even if they have an awesome toy department.

This is a local small business story. It is an important story. One you will most likely not see covered in mainstream media.

The local family run newsagency depends on local shoppers for magazines as a core traffic generator. The Are Media move puts that at risk.

While innovative newsagents are evolving their retail businesses to be less reliant on magazines and related legacy newsagency products such as newspapers and stationery, magazines remain core to the average newsagency business. They are important.

Leveraging government monopoly protection to take magazine revenue from a newsagency to a Post Office would, in our view, be detrimental to small business owners and to the community more broadly.

We call upon politicians to look into this and into the general retail operations of Australia Post more broadly. They need to focus attention on what this protected monopoly is doing to the harm of local family businesses – all for the profit of the government.

Ideally, questions will be asked as to why Australia Post needs to sell magazines. It’s a postal service. The Act under which Australia Post operates is clear.

Our local community / small business focussed stimulus package suggestion for the federal government

Small business retailers are nimble and able to lift local economies faster than big businesses and certainly better than online businesses.

Here are six tips for politicians on steps they can take, decisions they can make to help lift retail, especially small business retail, as well as those local businesses with which small business retailers can quickly connect.

Local shops refresh grant. Give every local retail business a grant of at least $25,000 with the stipulation that it is spent locally (at least within the state or territory) on capital works for the shop, to improve the shop. It could be for painting, carpentry, electrical, new aircon, new carpeting, staff training or similar. Proof of local spending in the form of an invoice from a local tradesperson or small business company with and ABN and more than a year of trading as recognised by the ATO – to avoid fraud. The management of this should be online with quick approval and payment. Note: the $25,000 is suggested to provide sufficient local economic stimulus.
Local visual merchandising support. Keeping in-store displays can be a challenge for small business retailers. Fund a network of merchandisers to make a 2 hour call weekly on qualified independent small retail businesses, sub $1M retail product turnover (i.e. not including agency), ABN registered, trading for six months or more. With each visit to be about visual refresh of the shop. Cap the campaign at six months and then assess the economic value. Only local merchandisers to be used – i.e. not an overseas agency who hires local contractors.
Local artists grants. Offer cash grants to fund buskers for local high streets, to make shopping locally more entertaining. Make the application easy. Focus on local artists entertaining in their local community. This serves the dual purpose of injecting cash locally as well as fostering the local arts. The application process should be online, approval fast and payment immediate.
Direct all politician electorate spending to be with local small businesses. For printing, subscriptions, gifts, parties, cards, everything for a year purchased through a politician’s electorate to be through a a business in their electorate. Have the results assessed independently. Ensure that spending is fair, too, to benefit a variety of local businesses, and not dolled out as political favours. Shop local, shop small.
Run a national shop small shop local ad campaign. Make it educational, smart, encouraging … guiding Aussies on the value to them from shopping local, shopping small. Help to understand the true value of shopping local, shopping small compared to the alternatives. The ad campaign should run regionally across multiple media platforms, giving preference to locally owned platforms with a track record for not managing their business to minimise tax. Yes, Amex does this. We need a campaign that is not credit card supported.
Establish local currency systems. These work overseas on regional towns where local currency has more value than the national currency. It supports shopping local through a smart value structure. the government role could be on the tech back end to manage the currency – taking away capital cost from local councils. To find out more ab9out this, read up on the Bristol Pound.

This list could be much longer. It is offered here as a start, to get people thinking of practical ways to support shopping small, shopping local.

Corona is challenging the economy. While I am no economist, I suspect that giving money to people likely to spend it quickly and spend it locally would be good for the economy and at a pace that is helpful to overall economic performance.

This is all about boosting local.

How the newsXpress newsagency marketing group helps newsagents through Covid

Here we are in the last week of October 2020 newsXpress continues to provide practical help for small business retailers, for happy and successful trading through the Covid pandemic which is still with us.

Our advice in support of safe retailing has helped our local Aussie retail community of stores trade well since Covid first hit early this year.

From cleaning practices, to shopper engagement protocols, to store layout, to online sales and to safe business management principles, our suggested approaches have been working.

While news and media outlets seem to focus on negative stories, there is plenty of good news for retailers that have proactively engaged in smart and safe retail management in a Covid normal world.

We wish there was more coverage of the good Covid related news stories from small business retailers, like newsXpress stores. Stories of success as a result of sound business decisions and following best practice.

From helping our retailers get even better pricing, to early engagement with out of store marketing, to spotting trends ahead of the crowd … these are key points of assistance from newsXpress in its help for small business local newsagents and their own Covid pandemic journey. They are part of the story that has helped newsXpress stores to be well placed in trading conditions.

First with jigsaws. In February we pitched jigsaws as a growth category in a Covid world. Our members grabbed inventory, and achieved excellent sales.

Online with jigsaws. In March we turned on a national jigsaw website connected to newsXpress stores to win delivery and click and collect sales. It’s been a hit.

First with nesting. In March we identified nesting as a popular growth category. Members following our advice have added thousands of dollars in revenue.

New suppliers. We have brought on 27 new suppliers in recent months, almost all of whom have not previously dealt with newsagents.

newsXpress is grateful for the opportunities of 2020 and grateful to its community of businesses that have embraced newsXpress suggestions and supports. Together we are making a difference this year. Together we are showing that small business retailers working together can create good stories and good news in a world challenges by the Covid pandemic.

We do understand that 2020 is not a good year for many individuals and many businesses. Like any local business, we feel for them. Our core focus, however is on those we serve and those we help feed and shelter. We are grateful to have helped them this year.