Need help with a couple of areas of starting a new business..

thegoodlife

Hi I'm thinking of setting up a small newspaper but I have some questions which I cannot seem to find answers to... I will put them in bullet points and maybe between the different readers I'll have them all answered...

1. Where can I get a newspaper printed? is this expensive?

2. Who does the paper runs? (the ones where the papers are delivered to the shops early in the morning) and would it be possible to distribute the papers myself for the first few months.

3. If I go down the road of distributing the papers myself what would be a fair price to pay the newsagent for each paper he sells? (Maybe some newsagent can answer this.)

4. Would a newsagent even bother stacking my paper or is it too much trouble for too little gain?

Thank you in advance for your answers...Feel free to add any comments and suggestions.

http://www.jnrs.ie/survey.htm

Check that out.

thegoodlife

Deleted User wrote: »

http://www.jnrs.ie/survey.htm

Check that out.

Thanks, there doesnt seem to be alot of info on starting a newspaper but still it's a help.

Thanks

It's a basic competitor analysis.

Google the parent companies, look at their readership figures (is there anything to get excited about?)

We're widely predicted to lose a paper or two and more magazines than we already have so throw caution to the wind is what i'd say.

Why a newspaper?

RoadKillTs

Thanks, there doesnt seem to be alot of info on starting a newspaper but still it's a help.

I'd very cautious about starting a newspaper. Unless you think there is a real market for what you purpose to do then I'd very careful.

Online media is growing more and more and less people are buying papers.
It's an area which I think will be effected a lot more over the next few years.

conolan

Newspread or Easons do the distribution.
They will tell you about the margins. Remember most (all?) papers earn a lot of revenue from the advertising. Cover price doesn't do much for profitability.
Lot of regional papers can print for you, check out who does motormarket, car buyers guide etc.

antoinolachtnai

1. Lots of places. There is more printing capacity in the country than anybody knows what to do with.

2. This is controlled by the distributors mentioned. I can't imagine many places being willing to take a newspaper from a different distributor, unless it were really really special.

3. At the outset, you wouldn't really be in a position to take any significant amount money from the seller. You would really be depending on him. The percentage you would get after VAT and distribution is paid for is going to be abysmal.

4. Unless the retailer has some good reason to think that you will be able to drive sales from Day One (i.e., you are able to demonstrate that there will be a major marketing campaign) it is unlikely he will be willing to allocate shelf-space to your product.

There are a lot of newspapers of various sorts in trouble at the moment. For example, the Independent News and Media, undoubtedly the most successful newspaper group in the marketplace, is in big trouble with its lenders, and its owners Tony O'Reilly and Denis O'Brien, can do little to save it. The recession has made things worse, but few people expect the newspaper business to ever recover to what it once was.

Online certainly seems to be the future of media.

stepbar

OP, you have failed to mention what this proposed paper is going to contain. All the other questions are irrelevant (at this point). Content make or break a newspaper.

thegoodlife

Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

I was hoping to set up a free ads paper, Where sellers can advertise their goods for sale free of charge and the paper would be sold for a price and and I would hope to make money by business placing adverts in it.

I realise that the internet is taking control of the media and even though the likes of donedeal.ie are taking control of the classifieds market in my opinion I think there is still a lot of people who don't have the access and knowledge to use sites like donedeal.ie and who would prefer to get their classifieds in paper form.

What would your thoughts on this be?

Like I said already I appreciate your insight and look forward to your replys.

stepbar

It's been done - The Buy and Sell are your biggest competitor. The market is saturated. Unfortunatly, the barriers to entry are shocking low and that's an issue because it means pretty much anyone can come along and obliterate you.

No offence, but it shows how little you understand about this market when you think a website like Done Deal is the future of classified adverts.

I think he may mean how the digital sector has been and will continue to improve - not necessarily just donedeal.ie

thegoodlife

stepbar wrote: »

It's been done - The Buy and Sell are your biggest competitor. The market is saturated. Unfortunatly, the barriers to entry are shocking low and that's an issue because it means pretty much anyone can come along and obliterate you.

No offence, but it shows how little you understand about this market when you think a website like Done Deal is the future of classified adverts.

I didn't say it was the future I'm saying it's big competitor in the online market and it is clearly, anyone will tell you that.

DubTony

stepbar wrote: »

It's been done - The Buy and Sell are your biggest competitor. The market is saturated. Unfortunatly, the barriers to entry are shocking low and that's an issue because it means pretty much anyone can come along and obliterate you.

To the OP. Wow, it's a good job you came to this forum before you launched your paper.

Read the quote above.
Read it again.
When you've finished reading it, read it one more time.
Make sure it's imprinted on your brain.

Pick up a copy of Buy & Sell. Then visit newsagents all over the country and ask them for the local free ads paper. If, after you've bought one of each, and you've recited Stepbars quote above 10 times, you still want to pile a ton of cash into a free ads paper; best of luck.


Please don't think that anyone here is putting you down, there's lots of "tough love" here and you've just been the recipient of some.

Bandara

Buy and sells sales are down by OVER 70% since January this year.

Source = my own my retails sales figures.

thegoodlife

Hammertime wrote: »

Buy and sells sales are down by OVER 70% since January this year.

Source = my own my retails sales figures.

70% :eek:

I wonder how that happens

In your opinion HT what would you say is behind such a large drop in sales?

bendunne.com is definitely the reason - with a brand and site name like that, how could it not be ?

w123

thegoodlife wrote: »

70% :eek:

I wonder how that happens

In your opinion HT what would you say is behind such a large drop in sales?

The went into examinership, stopped trading for a while ( I believe) and were bought out by the management.
They will only suceed if their online offering works, as is, it is worse than bad.

The idea of a free ads paper is/was brilliant - everybody who places an ad buys a copy and everybody who wants the item buys a copy.

However the internet has done away with this...Done Deal is a sucess.

Regarding distribution - Easons/Newspread will take 40% so for every €1 that you are charging, you will receive 49.3c after VAT. They will pay you this approx 60 days after you have invoiced them which will be at the end of the month of issue of the paper - which will be 90-120 days after you got it printed by the printer who won't give you credit because you have no track record.

Small ads are small, so you need a lt of them to fill a decent sized mag/paper, this requires a large admin staff, they will need to be paid.

Publishing in Ireland is not worth the effort.

thegoodlife

Deleted User wrote: »

bendunne.com is definitely the reason - with a brand and site name like that, how could it not be ?

First time I ever seen this site..

thegoodlife

w123 wrote: »

The went into examinership, stopped trading for a while ( I believe) and were bought out by the management.
They will only suceed if their online offering works, as is, it is worse than bad.

The idea of a free ads paper is/was brilliant - everybody who places an ad buys a copy and everybody who wants the item buys a copy.

However the internet has done away with this...Done Deal is a sucess.

Regarding distribution - Easons/Newspread will take 40% so for every €1 that you are charging, you will receive 49.3c after VAT. They will pay you this approx 60 days after you have invoiced them which will be at the end of the month of issue of the paper - which will be 90-120 days after you got it printed by the printer who won't give you credit because you have no track record.

Small ads are small, so you need a lt of them to fill a decent sized mag/paper, this requires a large admin staff, they will need to be paid.

Publishing in Ireland is not worth the effort.

Thank you very informative post. It definitely requires alot of start up capital. Also it would be very difficult to get classifieds ads for the first issue and not to mention the marketing required to promote the first issue. Any idea how many issues it would take to get your first advertiser?

dcee

w123 wrote: »

Regarding distribution - Easons/Newspread will take 40% so for every €1 that you are charging, you will receive 49.3c after VAT. They will pay you this approx 60 days after you have invoiced them which will be at the end of the month of issue of the paper - which will be 90-120 days after you got it printed by the printer who won't give you credit because you have no track record.

Publishing in Ireland is not worth the effort.

Please try and get your facts right. EM/Newspread dont charge 40%. this is broken down between them and the Retailer. Yes the Retailer, and in the last 2 years its EM and Newspread who have taken the hit on magrin. ASk yourselves who is making the money? The guy trying to make his paper work? the guys delivering it ? or the Retailer who gets 25% for putting it on a shelf. as for being paid 60 days after the invoice this is rubbish, i know from experence that say a weekly paper. it takes 3 weeks to get all the returns back from the market and allow EM/Newspread to close it and pay the publisher. Its the Retailers who have the power and the greed in Ireland.

Cianos

stepbar wrote: »

No offence, but it shows how little you understand about this market when you think a website like Done Deal is the future of classified adverts.

Can you explain why you think this please?

edit: Just realised the previous poster resurrected this thread. Suppose it makes my question more relevant though since Done Deal is still going strong!