Watching a Train Wreck

Watching the newsstand fiasco unfold over the last couple months has been one of the most morbidly curious events I’ve followed so far in our market.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, March 2, 2009

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I have to say, watching the newsstand fiasco unfold over the last couple months has been one of the most morbidly curious events I’ve followed so far in our market. “Curious,” however, is not the word most of you would use, or the employees at Anderson News, for that matter, which shut down its magazine operation in February.

Pulling the emergency break on the newsstand distribution system, with all its messy fallout, has been predicted for how long now? I remember speaking to an attendee at last year’s MPA Retail Show who told me the newsstand was “ready to pop.” And the pressure was surely building long before that.

And it hasn’t been for a lack of trying, though many would argue otherwise. Yet, last year’s moves by retailers and wholesalers to trim titles from the shelves and forcing a reduction in the number of copies shipped may have been the equivalent of putting the aftershock before the earthquake. As drastic and hardline as those tactics might have seemed like, this year’s “unilateral” decision to raise distribution prices, were, at least in Anderson’s case, a do or die strategy.

And, despite years of public lip service to unity and cooperation among the channel partners, the new pricing demands from Anderson and Source reignited deep-seated tensions, creating a backlash that was swift and powerful—one that sunk Anderson and Source needed an anti-trust lawsuit to subdue.

With Anderson out of the picture, the remaining groups will divvy up and redraw the distribution picture. Let’s hope they’ll take the opportunity to address—and fix—what’s been keeping the newsstand channel from regaining its vitality.

I also want to call your attention to the brochure included with this issue. The 2009 Audience Development Conference and Expo is coming up in June. We worked hard on the program and believe it has just the right curriculum mix for those of you looking to bolster your existing skills and explore some of the new audience development responsibilities and tactics being pursued around our industry. Be sure to check out the program and register early.