If you are considering buying a newsagency please heed the words of a newsagent of nearly two decades who has toiled in a business that she would have thought was her retirement nest egg but was unable to be sold and therefore just closed down….
“There’s no security in print [media] and there’s a push for online gambling, card sales are now more online and Officeworks and Coles and Woolies have taken over the back to school merchandise, which used to big for us,”
Mark “The Donald” Fletcher has published a story on his blog about a….
“a profitable, well-established, newsagency business for sale”
MTDF adds….
“It’s a rare opportunity”
It certainly is. Profitable newsagencies are as rare as unicorns.
I wonder where this mythical store is? He claims this retail Xanadu is somewhere in Victoria.
It certainly isn’t Newsxpress Trentham in Central Victoria which recently closed permanently.
This business too was for sale prior to it’s closure.
Victorian town rallies around newsagent who had front of store destroyed by thieves.
Suspects accused of the crime have been arrested. It’s alleged that three men used a front end loader in an attempt to steal an ATM from the window of the Clunes Newsxpress store in March.
The fundraiser was undoubtedly a morale boost.
There is obviously a lot of goodwill towards the owners amongst a core of fellow traders but are others in town even prepared to cross the road to support this business?
Despite operating from the Club Hotel across the road, they are only gaining around 40 to 50 per cent of the income of the previous year.
And in what seems like a prophetic blog post back in January, the boss of Newsxpress, Mark “The Donald” Fletcher publishes the following
Today is the first day of the inaugural and concocted “National Newsagent Week”.
And the people behind it are offering consumers the following….
But you have to drill down into the terms and conditions to see this promo for what it is.
In short the winner of this competition gets the opportunity to go to an office and choose one of 100 envelopes.
99 of the envelopes have a prize of a thousand dollars and one envelope contains the elusive fifty grand.
If the major prize goes off the insurance company pays out.
Kinda sounds like Lottoland doesn’t it.
Manager of a Darwin newsagency claims offensive stubby holder is a business saviour.
Manager of Darwin Newsagency in the CBD Tracey Wedel said it’s the one product that has prevented the store from closing its doors.
“It’s prevented us from laying off staff,” she said. “Prior to receiving this stock, we were struggling in a major way.”
Wow!
To many, Guyra is the quintessential Australian town.
Wikipedia describes Guyra as a “town situated midway between Armidale and Glen Innes on the Northern Tablelands in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within Armidale Regional Council and at the 2011 census, it had a population of 1,947. The New England Highway is the main transport link to Guyra.
At the 2011 census, 7.0% of employed people in Guyra worked in Sheep, Beef Cattle and Grain Farming. Other major industries of employment included Mushroom and Vegetable Growing 6.5%, School Education 4.1%, Local Government Administration 3.8% and Cafes, Restaurants and Takeaway Food Services 3.6%.[1]
The principal industries include fine wool and prime lambs, beef cattle, potatoes and tomatoes. A 20 ha greenhouse has been built at Guyra which will employ up to 240 workers and produce 12 million kg of tomatoes making them the largest tomato producer in Australia.
There are hundreds of Australian towns like Guyra.
Guyra has all the sporting and civic clubs of a town it’s size. It has a hospital a couple of pubs, a post office. Guyra has petrol stations, mechanical repairs, a Supermarket, Banks and ATM’s. It has a Caravan Park, a Masonic Lodge, an Antique Machinery Museum and a pharmacy. Guyra as a Swimming Pool, P-12 School and a Stockfeed manufacturer.
The Guyra community annually host a trout festival as well as the Lamb and Potato Festival.
Guyra even has it’s own newspaper, The Guyra Argus.
The one thing that Guyra doesn’t have is a newsagent.
Guyra had a newsagent.
The previous owner put it on the market, originally listing it for $300K.
The business didn’t sell so they just closed. 
Guyra proves that a town can survive without a newsagency. People now pick up there papers and put there Lotto on at Kirks IGA.
Mid life crisis? Want to buy a business? Want a tree change? Sure why not? However make sure you buy a business that you can sell in five years time.
Both the Cobden Newsagency and the Cobden Licensed Post Office are currently for sale.
The Newsagency is on the market for $295K and Stock at Valuation.
The Post Office is on the market for $495K and Stock at Valuation.
Not a fair comparison eh? The Post Office is $200,000 dollars more!!!!
No it certainly isn’t… the sale of the Post Office includes the freehold of a significant civic building on a large block in the centre of the town. The newsagent pays rent.
The newsagent trades seven days a week. The post office trades five days.
The Post Office can sell toys, books, stationery, gift cards, confectionary, greeting cards etc, nearly all the core products of the Newsagency except lotto, ciggies, magazines and newspapers. (They can sell magazine subscriptions)
The Newsagency can’t sell the core products of the Post Office.
To get people into the business the Post Office can piggyback it’s local marketing on the enormous brand recognition of one of Australia’s most trusted brands or it can do nothing and land people in store who are obligated to go there based on the monopoly status of the business.
The Newsagency can attach balloons to there lotto sign aframe.
Finally, ask yourself if these businesses were at real risk of closing down, which one would make people sad and sentimental for a couple of weeks and which one would elicit a community response to rally around it including support from local politicians and the media?
as were requests for shoppers to buy a magazine or leave.”
The above quote is from an excellent article from the Australian Newsagency Blog and is a must read for those thinking of buying a newsagency. People are no longer browsing magazines.
What the article fails to mention is in the mind of the consumer a lot of old school newsagents are either grumpy old bastards or creepy lecherous types. Having some bloke in a cardigan staring at you as you consider purchasing something is off putting.
No one pervs on you or gives you death stares at Coles, Smiggle, Officeworks or Kikki K.
Once upon a time consumers had to go to newsagents, now they don’t and they don’t.
A couple of years back the publishers of Dolly magazine realised savvy young women weren’t going to buy a physical magazine let alone go into one of those places old people go and get lotto tickets at.
“It’s kinda creepy in there. There is this weird really old guy and his resting bitchface wife behind the counter. Yuk. I use to go in there when I was a kid with Nan. Who actually buys magazines nowadays anyway?”
Well no one really. Certainly not late teen or early 20’s Instagram users.
And so Bauer Media have decided to stop printing Cosmopolitan Magazine.
Printed magazines are dying and Newsagencies are the nursing homes that house the remaining ones in their final days. Eventually they will all die.
Publishers connect via Insta, SnapChat and Tumblr. They don’t need some mug to pay rent on 100sqm in High Street to promote and distribute their products.
And that’s what Newsagents currently do. Sucks ass to be a newsagent.
Newsxpress Sunbury and Newsxpress Inverloch
Interesting when you read what ethical dilettante, Mark “the Donald” Fletcher has previously written about when actual customers use shopping trolleys in newsagents.
https://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2008/05/31/the-shopping-trolley-challenge/
C’mon Mark, you are all for getting them off the streets, how about getting them out of your members businesses?
The Bad newsagent 