Publisher’s Single Copy Sales Services Blog

 

 Sell Sheet Tips [2:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here are some tips on how to make a good sell sheet.

Good luck all!

Eye tracking technology is a wonderful thing. Employed as part of web usability studies, the findings point to best practices remarkably similar to those we have long used on our newsstand covers.

Newsstand people have long told publishers that the most important features and benefits on the cover needed to be put on the top left. The reason given? That is the small section of the cover that can reliably be seen regardless of how the magazines are fanned or stacked.

Now eye tracking tells us that this is the area on a page–on a website, at any rate–that the eye goes first, the area that the rapidly moving eye is most likely to see information. The place to put your page identification, your chief benefit, your action point–whatever it is that the user should see first.

Who knew that the newsstand would lead the way in the world of the web? I’m going to christen the new world “Newsstand 2.0″ (I’m convinced no one got to THAT one before me, however many 2.0s there are in this cyber world of ours…remember this, posterity!). And I’ll continue to weigh in on it in coming posts.

I heard today that Host, one of the most important airport retailers for magazine publishers, is changing its magazine supplier from Anderson News Company to the News Group.

What does that mean to the rest of us? It seems like a further weakening of Anderson’s hold on its distribution territory, already compromised by the loss of a number of agencies and retailers. It changes the route density for the ANCO trucks–fewer retailers to deliver to in the Host servicing areas.

For publishers for whom Host is an important part of their distribution, it will change the profitability formula at the Anderson agencies. A different efficiency requirement or revenue contribution per copy might be called for.

There are some publishers for whom the major portion of distribution is airports and other high end accounts. Will these publishers be able to keep their distribution in ANCO’s agencies?

This development can be added to the list of things we need to be watching as the newsstand landscape continues to change.

In the world of magazine publishing, where the rate of change accelerates every year, the rules for launching a magazine or special issue just changed. Again.
 Is it the Wal-Mart bipad cleansing I’m talking about? No—that’s old news.
 The ANCO or News Group cuts? We’ve weathered them already.
 The pending Borders bankruptcy, cash infusion, or re-organization?
 There’s something more current, more relevant, and more immediately urgent than even that.
The Source Interlink Integration Program is something brand new, and it will affect your publishing plans this year.
Source Interlink’s Integration Program is the approach this growing distribution company is taking to blending their mass market (Levy) and specialty distribution (IPD) systems.

It will require you to think carefully through your bipad strategy. You might want to add a special issue or try a launch on a parent bipad in the mass market channel. That will enable you to test a new product on an existing distribution.
In the bookstores, as you no doubt already know, you will have to present a new bipad. The bookstores will not allow a special issue to share an on sale period on the same bipad with a parent title.
And now, you’ll have to add a third bipad to the mix: a Source-only, “unstacked” bipad for the parent title, no specials used on it anywhere.
You shouldn’t be impossible, or even unreasonably difficult. It just requires a plate change and a little more care in planning your bipad strategy and keeping your bipads straight. But it’s something to remember as you plan your product line for the coming year.

We’re starting up the single copy sales blog. Expect lots of new posts soon.