newsXpress Blog

Q3 sales benchmark

newsXpress has started receiving sales data from members participating in our quarterly sales performance benchmarking. The Q3 2008 results will, be compiled and analysed by the group in advance of release at our next round of member meetings.

newsXpress will use this confidential data to better serve members with product offers and strategies to grow member’s businesses.

It is our relentless pursuit outcomes which are valuable for our members which place newsXpress as the premier newsagency marketing group in Australia.

First online members meeting

We are proud to have hosted our first online newsXpress members meeting today. Ben Kay, our National Merchandise Manager, presented our Back To School and Christmas campaigns to members participating from their own businesses around the country. He also took questions about these and other merchandise initiatives from the group. Being online, people can participate in these meetings from anywhere. While online member meetings will never replace our face to face meetings, they are an excellent supplement for people who cannot attend or for businesses owners to involve employees without a high travel and time cost.

Magazine strategies pay off at newsXpress

Recent supplier briefings have shown how valuable the seven-point newsXpress magazine management plan is for our members. With newsXpress newsagencies delivering industry-leading growth we are better positioned to weather tough times.

Suppliers respond to our magazine initiatives with exclusive offers and insights which help us work smarter in the highly competitive magazine space.

newsXpress will be devoting time at the next round of member meetings (commencing in Melbourne of October 16) to discuss magazines and provide members with information on strategies which are certain to drive even greater success with magazines.

First online member meeting

newsXpress is proud to be the first newsagent marketing group to host an online members meeting. This industry-first will be held tomorrow, Thursday, at 10am. The meeting will cover:

newsXpress Back to School
newsXpress Christmas Promotion
Open forum for questions and comments from members regarding the Back to School and Christmas Promotions

We will bring together members from across the country who would otherwise have to travel some distance to participate in a members meeting. Hosting this and future online events is another way newsXpress is showing leadership by helping newsagents build better businesses.

Members meeting for Melbourne

We are following up our National Conference with member meetings in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. These will recap conference highlights, outline back to school and other forthcoming campaigns and preview several key initiatives. They will also provide an excellent opportunity for member dialogue with the newsXpress Directors and senior staff.

The first members meeting will be in Melbourne on October 16. Any newsagent considering joining newsXpress is most welcome to attend – it is a good opportunity to see the group in action and hear about our plans for an exciting 2009.

New website coming

Development of a new website for newsXpress is well under way. The new site will be a complete replacement of the current newsXpress website. It will deliver new consumer and member functionality as well as present a bright and exciting new face for newsXpress.

The new site will be released in stages with the full functionality we intend for the site not being completely released until the first quarter of next year. There are some exciting innovations coming which will help newsXpress newsagents continue to lead the newsagent channel in year on year same store growth.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit is alive and well!

We are constantly encouraging our members to embrace the idea of becoming more entrepreneurial to capitalise on innovation to drive new sales. While this example is considerably removed from the newsagency channel it is a perfect illustration of understanding your local community and backing your judgement to ultimately make a profit.

For the uninitiated Melbourne is in the grip of ‘Finals Fever’ and the Mighty Brown & Gold of Hawthorn are playing off in their first Grand Final for 17 long years. The two boys in the photo, neither born the last time the Hawks were kings of Football read the mood of their community (around the corner from Hawthorn’s training base in Waverley) and promptly set up a lemonade stand like you see in old American movies.

With well over 10,000 excited supporters walking past on a beautiful sunny day towards the final training run they made a killing!

The simplicity of the idea and execution is the lesson each of us can replicate in our daily business coupled with their obvious savvy in approaching gridlocked cars with a taste of the lemony treat and their glowing endorsement of a Hawks victory despite the fact neither of them actually supported the team.

newsXpress implementation with a local twist creates best results

Further to the post on September 15 ‘Calendar Season in Full Swing‘, newsXpress Beechworth have forged full steam ahead with their Calendar and Diary displays.

Using the advice, experience and supplier relationships negotiated through newsXpress and in particualr our resident calendar expert Michelle Caia coupled with innovative local area marketing that has seen newsXpress Beechworth take out several prestigious industry awards in recent times. Tracy and her team have developed an early strategy to capture new sales as well as satisfying regular customers, such as the local council who like to organise their calendar & diary requirements very early.

Good Things come in Three’s!

Gary Baildon and Wayne Case Co-Proprietors of three newsXpress stores on the Gold Coast are still in celebration mode after their third First Division Lotto win in the past 6 months. With each of Pacific Pines, Upper Coomera and most recently newsXpress Oxenford joining the million dollar club the pair have completed a unique hat-trick.

The loyal customers a couple in their 50’s were stunned by the news that they had become instant multi-millionaires.

Wayne Case pictured with two very enthusiastic team members.

Making money from Greeting Cards

newsXpress is proud to announce the launch of its first Workshop series: How to Make Money from Greeting Cards. Developed and run by Ron Thorpe, formerly a senior executive with Hallmark Cards, this four hour workshop (followed by lunch) will provide practical help for any newsagent wanting to grow greeting card sales. The workshop content will include:

How to see new retail sales opportunities
Planning for extra sales
How to increase the average sale
Why you need to embrace the greeting cards category

Too many newsagents treat greeting cards as a set-and-forget category. Our approach at newsXpress is to provide members with exclusive tools which help drive card sales and ensure that these are as valuable as possible. Click here for more details and a booking form for the Ron Thorpe workshop.

We know from sales data that newsXpress newsagents lead the newsagent channel in year on year card sales performance. This workshop is part of our strategy to help our stores to continue to lead the industry.

newsXpress will announce details of more workshops in the coming months.

Connecting remote members

In what we understand to be a first for a newsagency marketing group, newsXpress is proud to announce two online member meetings – making it even easier for remote newsagents to more actively participate in the newsXpress experience. The first two online newsXpress member meetings will be October 14 and 15 at 11am and 2pm respectively.

Offering opportunities for like-minded newsagents to get together and share ideas is a key reason newsagents join newsXpress. We run regular capital city bases members meetings as well as regular regional cluster meetings. The new online member meetings will enable members across various states engage with others they see less frequently.

Using world-class online meeting management technology, the online meetings will operate almost as if everyone is in the one room. Our head Office team will present our Back to School and other upcoming campaigns as well as facilitate open dialogue among members.

If the first two online members meetings receive positive feedback newsXpress will schedule more for 2009.

The newsXpress team

We took a moment during the newsXpress conference last week top get a photo of our team. It is appropriate that we are standing in front of the slide showing the suppliers who contributed to make the conference the success it was.

Missing is Michelle Caia – our calendars and gifts expert – and Chris Hicks – our leasing consultant.

Hearing from members

An important aspect of the National newsXpress Conference last week on the Gold Coast was the Show and Tell presentations from members. Five members spoke about specific experiences relating back to their newsXpress involvement. These presentations included:

Jim Carlile from newsXpress Buderim speaking about the importance of alignment of all in the group behind the brand and the brands it supports. Jim spoke about his experience with Terry White Chemists and how alignment was successfully used to strengthen that group and its members into a successful retail group.

Nici Hilder spoke about how they grew card and related sales at newsXpress Castle Towers, taking us through through several major transitions of their business to the showpiece newsagency her family has today at the Castle Towers centre in NSW. Nici shared some important learnings applicable to everyone.

Jarryd Moore spoke – connecting with the about how to communicate with Gen. Y. he connected with the keynote address from Peter Sheehan. Jarryd spoke from personal experience is methods which help improve communication between employers and Gey Y employees including mobile phones, email, websites and even My Space.

Proud support from Pacific Magazines

A highlight of the last day of the newsXpress National Conference was the presentation by Zoe Petrou (pictured left) and Jane Peterson-McIllhatton from Pacific Magazines to newsXpress with the completed Better Homes and Gardens painting. This painting was completed over the course of the conference by attendees and the Pacific magazine team. This painting will be proudly displayed on the wall at our Head Office and remind us of our first conference.

Painting together

To celebrate Inaugural newsXpress Conference on the Gold Coast this week and the 30th anniversary of Better Homes and Gardens, the folks at Pacific Magazines invited conference attendees to share in painting something for the wall of the newsXpress Head Office. The photo captures Shelley Petersen of newsXpress Sarina with brush in hand adding her touch to the painting. Some of us less skilled at painting than Shelley were thankful that there were lines to guide our painting.

This was a fun activity from Pacific Magazines for the trade show part of the two day conference.

Annette Sym inspires newsagents

Annette Sym set the newsXpress conference alight yesterday with her presentation on why she sells her Symply Too Good To Be True cookbooks exclusively through newsagents. Her weight loss, personal development, business success story is inspirational and commitment to newsagents and the newsXpress group in particular deeply appreciated.

Annette Sym is one of many speakers at the conference helping us connect with the theme of embracing change and propelling our businesses to a higher level.

Building a stronger newsagency business

The newsXpress conference sessions over two days were very well attended and the speakers highly rated. Key suppliers such as Tracey Wright, Managing Director of Hallmark Cards, Eugene Varricchio, Group General Manager – retail Sales & Distribution ACP Magazines and Vicki Rossi, Retail Sales & Circulation Director Pacific Magazines shared invaluable insights into their businesses and the performance of newsXpress newsagencies compared to other retailers. Business development speakers such as Gary Bertwistle, Peter Irvine, Peter Sheehan and Damian Knoblanche provided us with business ideas and insights we can use to strengthen our individual businesses and the newsXpress network more completely. It has been two days of business and personal recharge.

Peter Sheehan kicks off newsXpress conference

Peter Sheehan was the keynote speaker opening the first ever newsXpress national conference yesterday on the Gold Coast. A packed conference room listened as Peter talked about the challenges newsagents face and shared some strategies we can use to address these in pursuit of evolutionary business models. Peter also presented two well attended workshops in the afternoon on Generation Y – providing excellent insights into working with and serving this sometimes challenging generation.

newsXpress is committed to provide its members with excellent learning and motivational opportunities.

Sea World opener for newsXpress conference

Attendees at the inaugural newsXpress National Conference were treated to a night at Sea World on the Gold Coast last night as the opening event. Following a wonderful show by Sea World’s dolphins and their handlers during which two members got to play with the dolphins, we headed off for a wonderful meal looking over part of the Sea World park. The night was a relaxing and inspirational start to the conference.

The night was all the more special because the location of the evening had been kept secret.

At newsXpress we understand that surprise is important, especially in retail where customers expect the same old same old. Bringing surprise into retail helps a business navitage to greater success.

Expansion for QLD newsXpress team

newsXpress, the premier marketing group for Australian newsagents, today announced further expansion with the appointment Belinda Adshead to a newly created role as Business Development Manager.

Belinda brings more than five years of practical newsagency experience to this new role, most recently with newsXpress Robina on the Gold Coast where she managed the stationery department for two thriving retail outlets.

The Business Development Manager role is unique to newsXpress and a key reason newsXpress members perform so well so well in key product categories.

“Belinda brings the kind of hand-on experience we need to serve our growing Queensland member base.” said Graham Randall, founding Director of newsXpress. “her passion for newsagencies and the newsXpress mission is an exciting and welcome addition to our team”.

newsXpress Business Development Managers work very closely with newsXpress members in their businesses on newsXpress exclusive strategies. It is through this in-the-field connection with its members that newsXpress is able to outperform other marketing groups.

Belinda will work with newsXpress full time out of the company’s Brisbane office.