Fairfax fights back in row with newsagents over new TV guide
Fairfax has responded to frustrations voiced by newsagents last week over its new two-in-one television guide, telling Mumbrella that newsagents stand to gain an extra $1.5m a year from selling and distributing The Guide, a merged publication from the The Sun-Herald and the Monday edition of The Sydney Morning Herald.
The main concerns for the Newsagents Association of NSW and ACT is that The Guide will prove to be a costly and labourious excercise for which it feels newsagents will not be fairly compensated.
Peter Fray, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sydney Morning Herald, said: “We will be paying newsagents an extra $1.5 million per year for selling and delivering The Guide. At a time when publishers elsewhere are reporting falls in home deliveries, we are introducing a new revenue stream which will be paid on total copies supplied to newsagents, not just home delivered copies. Fairfax also has the highest cover prices as well as highest commission and fee rate card of any publisher.”
In response to NANA’s complaints that newsagents were not consulted before announcing the launch, Fray said that Fairfax informed its delivery and retail contractors “in accordance with the terms of our contract ahead of the introduction of The Guide as a new publication from May 8.”
This is a nonsense response from Fairfax. It will cost newsagents more than $1.5 million to administer and fulfill the Fairfax change. Much of the cost will be borne by newsagents and their family members, people already working 70 and 80 hours a week for what is effectively minimum wage.
As for Fairfax’s response on engaging with the industry association, they are hanging on to a dispute from some years ago under old leadership at NANA which was thrown out by newsagents.
The Fairfax approach to the TV Guide pushes onto overworked small business newsagents processes which will lead to additional workload, distribution mistakes and a poorer outcome for advertisers.
This is a dumb solution to an issue that has been worked out by people who have never participated in newspaper distribution beyond the send button on their computer or the gates of the printing works.
The arrogance of Fairfax in not even consulting Newsagents about the proposal, or before telling consumers, is appalling. A communication company that can’t even communicate effectively!!
Answer this Mr. Fray – how much is Fairfax saving on rationalising the TV Guide and effectively pushing the completion of the newspaper production process down to the distributor level. I bet it is a lot more than the revenue you are then giving out!
Just buy TV Week!!
not to mention the absurdity of a subscriber having to inform them of which paper (Sunday’s or Monday’s) they would like the insert delivered. They’ve effectively pushed the process even further down the line.Customer Service??????????????I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the fine print in the launch blurb.
Fine if fairfax wanted to save money. The more logical way to go about it would have been to leave the Sunday paper alone with the tv guide inserted of which all newsagents know 99.9% of customers buy it for the guide,and give the people who buy the Monday herald the option to opt in for a tv guide.
This way would not have as great an impact on newsagents
Mr Fray must think Newsagents have no business sense at all. I would like to ask him if he would continue printing the SMH if his costs were $3 million a year yet his revenue was $1.5 million?
I will not be delivering any TV Guides in my territory and neither will any of my neighbouring agents. If Fairfax threaten to cancel my contract they are more than welcome. Fairfax can try and find a contractor willing to deliver their newspapers for a loss.
Mr Fray needs to understand that the days of Newsagents just saying yes are over. Newspapers are only a very minor part of our business now.
I look forward to 12 months ahead to see what sales figures are like for the TV Guideless Sun Herald compared to the Sunday Telegraph. Maybe Mr Fray will be unemployed as Fairfax have subcontracted his job!