Ensuring Effective Magazine Distribution in Bookstores

The challenge is maintaining enough distribution to sell copies without wasting copies.

By Linda Ruth
11/02/2009 -01:39 PM

A publisher recently asked me: How hands on should a publisher be with their bookstore distribution? Should they take copies out of lower-selling outlets? Can they put those copies into higher-selling ones?

The process of moving copies from lower selling outlets into better selling ones is what we call order regulation. Order regulation is being done continually by publishers interested in their sales by store and by the distributors that distribute to the bookstore chains. In addition, decisions are made daily at store level to discontinue low-selling product.

In addition to removing excess copies from the distribution stream, Borders and Barnes & Noble have set up systems of automatic replenishment based on a system of inventory management they see as an improvement over the normal inventory management in magazines. They order a supply for their stores based on very tight order regulation guidelines (the goal is a 60+ percent sale). They also order an overage of about 10 percent that goes into the distributor warehouses. As the individual stores sell down their inventory of a given issue, that inventory is replaced to the individual stores from the inventory in the distributor warehouses.

The purpose of all this is to manage each publication’s allotment to the highest possible efficiency. Most special interest publications do sell through at considerably lower than the target efficiency. The reason is that many of them cannot sell more than about 2-3 copies per store, even in strong retail outlets. And because the newsstand browser doesn’t buy every issue -- and for every issue they buy they don’t buy them in the same place -- the unsold copies ensure that there’s a display available for the browser to see when making a buying decision.

Because of all the factors mentioned above, each issue of a niche publication tends to trend downward at the retail level. Allotments are reduced to increase efficiency and as a result, display is also reduced; and for a very vertical publication that can mean that sales are reduced as well—which can lead to a downward spiral of attrition.

The challenge of management of magazine display at retail is to maintain enough distribution to sell copies without wasting copies. Order regulation, as described above, is an important part of that process. Other ways of managing include regular promotions to add stores back on that fall off distribution and creating special issues with premiums or special sections to pull some additional sales through the register. Frequently, the retailer will also support these kinds of special issues with additional distribution.

Allotments can best be increased under the following conditions:

1) Title is selling over 60-70 percent in the store
2) There is a special issue that is of particular interest to people nationally or in a particular city, region, or state
3) There is ongoing editorial coverage of particular interest to people in a particular city, region or state

Any of these cases represent opportunities to ask the distributor or retailer for increases either generally or in targeted outlets. For the most part, we don’t need to convince anyone about the benefits of putting more copies into better selling stores, or taking them out of the lesser-selling ones -- it’s an ongoing and dynamic process repeated every issue. It's also a process in which the publisher can participate and have a positive influence on the outcome.

Linda Ruth is Principal of Publisher Single Copy Sales Services. Her book of case studies, "How to Market Your Magazine on the Newsstand," is available at BookDojo.com and at Amazon.