Let's fix newspaper home delivery

By Benjamin Haslem

A couple of years back I did a lot of work for the Australian Newsagents Federation (ANF).

They had a big gripe with Australia Post over a range of issues, including the stocking of stationery and an over-the-counter bill payment service, which newsagents and others were in the process of setting up in direct competition with the postal monopoly.

We came up against a lot of push back from government because of an entrenched attitude that newsagents were a protected species with monopolies over a range of products. A monopoly which is now being broken down. You can buy newspapers and magazines over-the-counter in petrol stations, supermarkets, 7-11s etc.

One area the monopoly is entrenched is home newspaper deliveries. It's not limited to the newsagency industry, it's limited to an individual newsagency in your area. I have my papers delivered by News Plus Newsagency at 267 King Street, Newtown. I have no choice. If I want my papers delivered I order them through News Ltd and Fairfax and News Plus Newsagency is the only supplier for my address.

If I'm unhappy with their service all I can do is dump home delivery (and the significant discount) and walk to my corner store and buy them over the counter. I understand that I can't demand News and Fairfax use the Erskineville Newsagency (which is actually closer!) to deliver my papers.

This morning by 8.30am my Fin Review, Sydney Morning Herald and Weekend Australian were not on my doorstep. So I rang the newsagents (as I did last Saturday when they same thing happened) and asked for an explanation.

"The paper boy probably hasn't finished," was their response. I countered that the paper should be delivered by 6am. They apologised and said they would get the papers (which I named for them) to me ASAP. About 20 minutes later only the Herald turned up. So back on the phone, more apologies and eventually the other two papers turned up.

This is a regular occurrence with old News Plus at Newtown. As is their failure to follow my instructions to cancel deliveries while we are away, resulting in papers piling up on the doorstep as a beacon to burglars!

I have sympathy for small newsagencies trying to compete against the buying power of Australia Post, Coles and Woolworths in the sale of stationery, magazines and papers.

Mark Fletcher is a good friend of JWM and a client and he tells us horror stories on a regular basis. By a bizarre co-incidence he has just posted about the frustrations newsagents face with home delivery.

Clearly there must be a better way for suppliers and customers.

Comments

[Jarryd Moore]

Benjamin,

I think you will find that if you request your newspapers to be delivered by another newsagent there are avenues through which this can occur.

However, the other newsagent is under no contractual obligation to deliver outside their territory. They can be approached by the publisher, but they arent likely to deliver papers to just one address outside their territory, it simply would not be profitable.

[Dennis Robertson]

To set the scene, we have been in the industry 4 years and are a Distribution Newsagency operating in Adelaide. We take pleasure in operating an efficient HD system. The Advertiser Ltd has used us as part of their orientation for new Area Managers by having them ride around in the delivery vehicle with us.

I concur with Ben Haslem's comments, like him, by virtue of personal experience. From time to time I have been 'chased' by different residents, at 5am thereabouts, who live just outside of my zoned area to have them plead with me to deliver their newspapers because they won't see their Delivery Agent until much later in the morning. Phone calls to the Advertiser have not assisted alleviate their frustrations which continue to this day.

The Advertiser, to date, has informed me that I am only able to deliver in my zone.

Whilst I understand protections in place for the capital investment in purchasing a zone/round, I believe that once continued poor performance as outlined by Ben is not corrected, then action to correct the situation needs to be taken by the major publisher.

In my opinion, when contracts come up for renewal next, they should be performance based so that those who wish to disrespect the industry by performing abysmally are weeded out. Of course, well supported publishers ought to pay proper remuneration for that.

Newspapers will struggle even more in the near future without being hamstrung by Delivery people who either don't understand the importance of good service or simply don't care.

Having said that, it's not an easy job to do well and the frustrations from the Newsagents point of view are most definitely real.

Dennis Robertson
Rosewater Newsagency
Adelaide SA