Selling subscriptions at newsstands - Brief Article

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 1994

Wholesalers blame soft-offer subscriptions, in part, for newsstand sales declines. "At some point, the reader has to figure he's a fool to keep buying at the newsstand," comments E. Daniel Capell, managing director at New York City-based Vos, Gruppo & Capell. So it's understandable that wholesalers look upon subscriptions as the enemy.

That has to change if circulation economics are going to change, Capell contends. It makes sense for retailers to sell subscriptions. "lt's very possible a retailer can make more money selling subscriptions than single copies," he says. "The money that a publisher would be willing to pay a wholesaler for selling a subscription would be a helluva lot more than what wholesalers get per unit sold on the newsstand. There's great potential in 180,000 retailers visited once or twice a week." Right now, only a few bookstores sell subscriptions. It has been tried a number of times, says John Harrington, president of the Council for Periodical Distributors Association. About six years ago, a consultant talked to wholesalers about backing the idea as venture capitalists, but that project never got off the ground. Four years ago it was tried again. "We used a CPDA newsletter to inform wholesalers about it," says Harrington. "The subscriptions were sold in fairly attractive packages to be displayed on hooks. Fifteen to 20 magazines gave it a try. The company didn't prosper." Harrington is still open to the idea. "If the wholesaler got a reasonable share of the money, I think they would consider it. Better to get something than nothing," he says. But wait a minute! Single-copy consultant Ron Scott thinks that publishers would be giving away money they don't need to. "After all, newsstands are already selling subscriptions through blow-in and bind-in cards," he says. "Some magazines are selling a tremendous number of subscriptions from the newsstand copies. Publishers just don't have the information. How many magazines code their cards separating newsstand inserts from subscriber inserts? And how many have management reports telling them what the response is?"