July Newsletter
Welcome to our July edition of the newsletter, our full articles are below, so have a good read.
Title Twitter
Each month we will overview some magazines from our portfolio which is ever growing.
This month we'll show you:
Harlequin Mills & Boon Horoscopes 2010
12 books, 1 for each horoscope sign are produced annually for sale at end of year. Written by Dadhichi each book contains details on The Year Ahead, Month by Month Predictions, Your Identity, Star Sign Compatibility, Numerology & Yearly Planner. 134,000 units were sold in 2008 and we are looking forward to another year of success... how could we have predicted it??
Recipes +
Retailing at $3.30 this budget oriented title is focused on providing family recipes that won't cost a bomb - popular reading in these times of wallet watching. The magazine also includes recipes from Ready Steady Cook, a popular TV cooking program. A great title that will appeal to mums and dads alike.
Australian Geographic Outdoor
Outdoor Australia has now joined the Australian Geographic family and been renamed Australian Geographic Outdoor - providing adventure lifestyle and travel, skills, information and gear to get people into the great outdoors. The first issue is launching with the Sept/Oct 2009 edition.
Marketing News
We are excited about a promotion in the 45 Borders stores in the UK of Australian Women's Weekly that is currently in the planning - hope to get some photos for our next newsletter.
Drum roll... and the winner is Adrian of Multi-Arts for completing the Global Retail Survey. An Amazon voucher is winging its way to you. The results show what a diverse retail landscape is out there for magazine retailing - but we can valuably use the information for planning future campaigns. We only can presume to know the "tip of the iceberg" from this study so look forward to working with our distribution partners in future to glean a more detailed understanding. Thanks to those who have completed - and to those who haven't it's not too late... go on, redeem yourselves!
We are now busily working on a matrix of title/county by country plans for marketing activities into 2010 - our office is overflowing with potential "free gift" samples and conversation brimming with ideas. Please let us know your thoughts - however "out there" they may seem.
Walking the streets of Melbourne
I visited Melbourne last week and thought I would extend on Dawn's recent editorial about walking the streets. This month we bring you Melbourne, Victoria (for all our international friends).
I started at Flinders Street station, which is home to a Relay store, part of Hachette Retail here in Australia. Busy, crowded, with people purchasing all types of products - newspapers, travel tickets and magazines.
Crossing the road I walked up Elizabeth Street. My first stop was Magnation and I enjoyed a cup of coffee with the principal Sahil Merchant. Sahil presents two floors of magazine displays and just on midday on Tuesday July 21st the store was packed. Every chair was taken and there was a queue of four people at the cash register with at least one purchase in hand.
Continuing up Elizabeth Street you pass three newsagents, two 7-11s and at the top I turned left onto Londsdale Street. Remembering Melbourne is serviced by a wholesaler I found another two 7-11s and up to five huts (one man retail outlets) selling lots of different titles from around the world, obviously the main Australian titles taking preference.
I walked down King Street and turned left onto Collins Street. Collins Street is a fantastic retail street and I took it six blocks to Exhibition Street. I saw magazines in many outlets and always a highlight was visiting Borders in Melbourne Central. There were a few supermarkets scattered through Melbourne CBD, and again the cream of the Australian crop was well presented.
Newsagents such as Clarendon St (which I have been to before but not on this adventure), Flinders St and Mitty's all present magazines in a wonderfully lit and easy to browse environment. Products from all around the world are on display. All in all - If you need to buy a magazine in Melbourne, in any category, from a multiple of sources; then Melbourne well and truly caters for you.........even though it is bitterly cold!
Publisher Australia drinks
It was our pleasure to host the Publishers Australia drinks evening on Tuesday 7 July in Sydney. There was a great turnout of about 130 publishing movers and shakers and we would like to thank our friends for braving the bitterly cold Sydney evening to come along. Bruna Rodwell and Alan Sarkissian made short speeches and the night and the atmosphere at the Loft Bar was humming. We hope those that attended had a great night and made some new business contacts or friends. Cheers!
A pictorial of "Buy Australian Magazines" in Taiwan
Thanks to Adrian and his team at Multi-Arts in Taiwan for the photos of the BAM promotion in Taiwan. Adrian decided to taking a targeted approach to utilising the campaign in the two largest book stores that sell international magazines, the ESLITE shops in XinYi and Dun Nan. The point of sale materials have been utilised and premium shelf space provided for maximum exposure. Adrian additionally has included tip-ons for a selection of titles. Thanks Adrian - we wish you the best of success with the campaign.
Hop into Dymocks in Hong Kong
Our friends at Far East Media have also jumped on board to support the BAM campaign along with Dymocks in Hong Kong. 800 flyers were included with KangaNews, the newsletter of The Australian Association of Hong Kong. Additionally the posters and wobblers have been utilized in the Dymocks stores. Thanks to Shonee and her team for their support and all the best with the campaign.
Golden Magazine Awards
In June, Speedimpex USA hosted the Golden Magazine Awards at a dinner to recognise the commitment of magazine retailers in New York city. The third awards ceremony was sponsored by Hudson Group Distributors and The New York Times. The overall winner was Lafayette Smoke Shop for their excellence in selling and promoting magazines. There were 8 category awards up for grabs in all, but we want to make special mention of BJ Magazines III who won the "Best Selection of magazines" category that was sponsored by 8pt Distribution. Congratulations to them!
Update on Domestic distribution
The strength of our non-traditional distribution infrastructure continues to grow through the tireless efforts of both Sheree and Bruna. We have recently completed a project for Marketfore to identify opportunities to grow sales for targeted titles into Model Collection outlets.
Our friends at Indesign (publishers of DQ and Habitus also) have chosen to support 8Pt with the takeover of their direct distribution. In the next newsletter (August) we will also be welcoming a new Publisher to our supply portfolio - a hint - they are listed in our supplier list!
Sheree continues to service each outlet (now over 80) with regular email and phone contact. Sales are holding up strongly and collections are flowing through the system.
Our Publisher supporters
Looking around the office it is important to take our hats off to our suppliers who continue to support us in the development of their titles both overseas and through our specialised distribution infrastructure here in Australia. Again we would like to thank each and every one of you for your support. Listed below, in alphabetical order are our Publisher friends -
Abbington Auctions; ACCLAIM, Street Lifestyle Magazine; ACP Magazines; Architecture Media; B5 Media; Cape Yorker; Contact, AIR LAND & SEA; Cruise Passenger; DMAG; Harlequin Enterprises (Australia); Indesign; Insight; Lovatt's Publications; NRMA Publishing; Nuclear Media; Oxygen; Peter Haddock Publishing; Popular Science; Puzzler Media; Recipes +; The Art of Healing; UltraFit; UnderDog Publications; Wealth Creator; Wild Deer & Hunting Adventures; Winestate; Your Hunter Valley Wedding Planner and Your Investment Property.
We look forward, always, to driving sales forward and through continued development of our Buy Australian Magazines campaign our exposure and outlet penetration for all titles will be the focus of business leading up to Christmas.
Hot off the press!
BAM in Singapore
Thanks to our friends from Allscript in Singapore for sending through photos of the Buy Australian Magazines point of sale materials in some independent news sellers in Holland Village in Singapore. Holland Village is a local hangout for expats and has a selection of restaurants frequented by locals and tourists alike - thanks to the team for organizing these displays.
