Ireland's First On-Line Magazine Store

Culchie

Firstly, just to declare my interest, I'm Sales and Marketing Manager (and Shareholder) for http://www.magazines365.com, I mentioned this to moderator before posting, so I'm not 'pimping' as such.


I thought this site would be of interest to the readers on this forum, it is Ireland's first on-line Magazine Store, and our principal business model is based around providing a diverse range of popular and special interest magazines on subscription, and also we have digital newspapers and digital magazines, which we feel will become increasingly popular.
Our Slogan is "Magazines For All Sorts", and hopefully we'll live u p to it.

I think there is a 'void' in the market at the moment. The large supermarkets are only interested in the top 20 selling(or so) magazines, as shelf space is so valuable, so customers choice is very limited, and is being 'dumbed down' as well to the Womens Weeklies etc..

Newsagents are also under the squeeze, they only get paid on what they sell, so again they want to use their space for the top sellers only.

Publishers therefore are finding it hard to get their magazines noticed at retail level, due to the massive competition for space. There's also the wastage aspect of it now as well.

Customers are finding it difficult to fight through traffic to city centre newsagents that may or may not have their special interest magazine, so convenience will be a critical selling factor for us.

Presently only 5% of Magazine Sales in Ireland are on subscription, this figure is 11% in UK, and over 80% in the USA and Scandinavia, so we feel that there is untapped potential here as well.

We don't have all the publishers we want just yet, but are working to get as many on board as possible, and are close to signing the UK market leaders as well.
We're 'live' about a week, and will be beginning to market the website to the public in early October.

Take a look at the site, and let me know your feedback on the site, but would be interested in hearing your views on our business model and thinking etc...

damien

Good idea. Don't forget the buzz term: Long Tail

This would be a good example of it. How do you make money on such low subscriptions though? Is there a minimum amount of orders before you'll import in a magazine?

Culchie

damien.m wrote:

Good idea. Don't forget the buzz term: Long Tail

This would be a good example of it. How do you make money on such low subscriptions though? Is there a minimum amount of orders before you'll import in a magazine?

Long Tail ? You have me lost there.


We charge a sales commission through each sale to the publisher, publisher's fulfil each order and deliver to your address at the moment, so no minimum quantities are required.

Maxwell

A really great idea as I have been looking to subscribe to certain magazines over the years but have always had the problem in that it was only available to UK or US residents.

I wish you the very best with your venture and speaking for myself I was hoping you would have some "sound and vision" "audio visual" related magazines in your list.

Also other items I am interested in is the DVD/Movie/Film genre.


Will these type of magazines follow when your agreements are signed?
What the the potential savings for consumers by using this service rather than using their local shop?

Culchie

Hi Maxwell, should be a couple of hundred titles coming on board over the next few weeks.

I'd like to keep the thread clean of blurb, so if can you PM me with your specific requests and I'll do my best for you.

Thanks for the feedback.

Culchie

Maxwell wrote:

What the the potential savings for consumers by using this service rather than using their local shop?

Some Magazines there are massive savings, others they may be the same price as the shops, we don't set the subscription prices, the publisher does.

Overall in general the prices are cheaper. I think the convenience factor will come into play, although cost is always another factor.

If a customer has an interest in a very niche interest, say Vintage Guns or something, it will be virtually impossible for him to find a shop that stocks a magazine for that subject. If we become famous for our diverse range of content, and live up to our "Magazines For All Sorts" ambition, then I believe that will be more important to the consumer than any possible savings we can offer.

jrey1981

If you can offer me a better price than their airmail sub rates on trade magazines such as Mobile Today and Environment/Political/International Affairs mags such as The Ecologist and Diplo, then you have another customer here.

I can give you their contact details if you wish so maybe you can do a deal with them.

Culchie

Sent you a PM, we have Diplo and many others.

flogen

Please don't turn this thread into an advertisment or customer-drive.
The reason I'm allowing it is to show a new Irish product which centres around media and uses new media (the internet) to deliver to customers. Please discuss the pros/cons of the website and the effects it may have on traditional sellers (and the subscription setups of the magazines themselves).

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Culchie

flogen wrote:

Please don't turn this thread into an advertisment or customer-drive.
The reason I'm allowing it is to show a new Irish product which centres around media and uses new media (the internet) to deliver to customers. Please discuss the pros/cons of the website and the effects it may have on traditional sellers (and the subscription setups of the magazines themselves).

I'll try not to, it's difficult not to come accross as 'selling' the concept by talking about it though, however I understand your moderator role, so if anyone has specific questions about Magazines please PM me, and give this thread tidy.

The subscription market from the publishers point of view gives them sales in advance, money up front for future sales, and guarantees 'loyalty' for the period of the subscription at least. Digital Magazines enable obvious cost savings for them such as postage, printing and distribution, but also increased potential to get sales from past publications.

flogen

Culchie wrote:

I'll try not to, it's difficult not to come accross as 'selling' the concept by talking about it though, however I understand your moderator role, so if anyone has specific questions about Magazines please PM me, and give this thread tidy.

I was actually responding more to jrey1981 as he had initiated talk of becoming a customer etc., but it is a general point I want to make.
PM'ing is no problem, I don't see it as being spam and I think there's a lot to talk about on the issue, once customer queries are kept seperate.

Brendan552004

I am a publisher and I think it is a great idea, I have published magazines and I now publish books. Because the market is basically controlled by 2 wholesalers, opportunities are limited. As previous posters have said unless your magazine is in the top 20 you are regulated to the B league.

A league means Dunnes, Spars, Centra and main garages, airports, train stations, + main bookstores. B league means a lot less + a lot of returns.

The subscription market is there for the taking, the best of luck to them.

Brendan552004

Just a footnote to my previous post.

The wholesalers do not promote new titles that are in competition with existing titles. The reason being that there is only a limited market. It is better to have 1 publisher publishing at a profit than 2 publishers sharing that profit. The wholesalers do not make any more money and you have 2 publishers with more returns and less profit. Maybe they are right.

billy the squid

This idea would be perfect for someone who collects partworks, although most partwork companies send them out in the post themselves, so you might have a little difficulty selling them through your website.

On the other hand, if a person were to subscribe to multiple partwork from different companies, then it would be handy to have them come in one package every week/2weeks than have them coming every day of the week.

do you intend stocking partworks or just your regular magazines.

Culchie

The partwork publishers have been reluctant so far to become involved.

As you have noted, their 'business' is based around the collectable aspect of the publications and the package and is priced accordingly, rather than the print publication, and hence keep the business in-house.

I don't know if I explained that properly

I guess what I'm saying is their business model is based more on Collectors than subscribers or readers, it's aimed at 'fans' of certain programs etc...

DublinWriter

Just a small point, and I don't know how true this is, but don't you have to have a licence to distribute magazines and periodicals in this country?

As far as I know, Easons are the only holders of such a licence and they have the virtual monopoly on importing magazines. I think WH Smiths tried to come into the Irish market a few years back but the restrictive licencing arrangements in this country made them reconsider.

Plus, most UK publications will have an exclusive distribution arrangement/contract with Easons and probably won't entertain any discussion with you.

Culchie

DublinWriter wrote:

Just a small point, and I don't know how true this is, but don't you have to have a licence to distribute magazines and periodicals in this country?

As far as I know, Easons are the only holders of such a licence and they have the virtual monopoly on importing magazines. I think WH Smiths tried to come into the Irish market a few years back but the restrictive licencing arrangements in this country made them reconsider.

Plus, most UK publications will have an exclusive distribution arrangement/contract with Easons and probably won't entertain any discussion with you.

Nope, this is not true.

We have some of the major UK publishers already involved.
There certainly is no licence required, we are a retailer.

Easons and Newspread are dominant distributors of magazines in this country, that's for sure, so there is presently a Publisher>Distributor>Retailer>Customer chain.

At the moment what the Publisher presently receives for their publication does not resemble anything like what the customer pays the retailer.

Obviously for us to succeed, we need to provide a financially attractive alternative to the publisher, as well as convenience and choice to the customer.

We do

flogen

DublinWriter wrote:

Just a small point, and I don't know how true this is, but don't you have to have a licence to distribute magazines and periodicals in this country?

As far as I know, Easons are the only holders of such a licence and they have the virtual monopoly on importing magazines. I think WH Smiths tried to come into the Irish market a few years back but the restrictive licencing arrangements in this country made them reconsider.

Plus, most UK publications will have an exclusive distribution arrangement/contract with Easons and probably won't entertain any discussion with you.

Perhaps the WH Smith thing was more to do with Easons being the bigger of only two distributers in Ireland, and naturally they wouldn't want to deal with a rival on the scale of WH Smith.

Culchie

Without stepping over the lines of the forum guidelines, as I'm trying to be objective, and not 'pimp', Easons and Newspread present dominance of this market is not a competitive rivalry, if you know what I mean.

They are the middle people in all this for every single magazine that is sold in Ireland.

Genghis

This is a fantastic idea - I had notions of setting something similar up myself not so long ago. There are one / two magazines I would love to subscriber for, but when I looked at the cost to Ireland vs the cost to a UK subscriber, very often it was cheaper to just buy from the shop.

If your venture can offer a wide range of magazines on subscription and at an attractive discount to retail, then I am sure you will succeed.

By the way, the title I'd like to see you stock is 220 Triathlon.

Cheers and good luck!

flogen

Culchie wrote:

Without stepping over the lines of the forum guidelines, as I'm trying to be objective, and not 'pimp', Easons and Newspread present dominance of this market is not a competitive rivalry, if you know what I mean.

They are the middle people in all this for every single magazine that is sold in Ireland.

Do you mean "not a competitive rivalry" between themselves, as in it's a type of 'duopoly", or not a rival to yourselves at magazines365?
Just incase you didn't understand my point, I was suggesting that traditional companies like WH Smiths could be avoiding the market because Easons has exclusive rights to distribute certain magazines in Ireland. Naturally, Easons Distributors would be tied closely to Easons Stores, and so any chain-store rival would go against their interests, therefore they would be unwilling to distribute to them.

Culchie

flogen wrote:

Do you mean "not a competitive rivalry" between themselves, as in it's a type of 'duopoly", or not a rival to yourselves at magazines365?
Just incase you didn't understand my point, I was suggesting that traditional companies like WH Smiths could be avoiding the market because Easons has exclusive rights to distribute certain magazines in Ireland. Naturally, Easons Distributors would be tied closely to Easons Stores, and so any chain-store rival would go against their interests, therefore they would be unwilling to distribute to them.

Duopoly is the right word, and of course they will see us as rivals if we become serious players, which we intend to do. I just didn't want to be the first to say it.

Only 5% of Magazine Sales in Ireland is done through Subscription, therefore they have 95% of the magazine market to themselves.

Your point about WH Smith is correct, they wouldn;t be able to compete with Easons due to their distribution capabilities, not their exclusive rights though, as far as I am aware, there is not any 'exclusive distribution rights' enforced on publishers, they just don't have any other choice other than delivering themselves/courier etc..., and then there is returns etc... to manage.

billy the squid

Just another question. Did you patent the concept/idea before starting this business?

or is this not an issue given that there are websites like this in other countries.

Culchie

billy the squid wrote:

Just another question. Did you patent the concept/idea before starting this business?

or is this not an issue given that there are websites like this in other countries.

This is already a successful business model in USA especially, although we have a fairly unique angle with our digital magazines, and digital newspapers (free 7 day trial )..... so no it's not really a patentable business.

Having said that, it is bloody hard work establishing all the contacts for all the hundreds of publishers, so it was very difficult to get off the ground as well.

I also think (well I would wouldn't I ) that the design of the site is very user friendly, that was an important element we wanted to achieve.

This is phase one for us, we do intend to bringing some very interesting new concepts to this area very soon, and have already made significant progress and agreements with certain North American media organisations for future progress.

finfacts

One of the drawbacks about subs for topical magazines is the delivery service whether via An Post or a private service.

One week it's Monday, another week, it's Wednesday.

I find for example that buying this week's issue of the Economist is better done today in Reads of Nassau St with a 10% discount on the €4.90 cover price, than receiving it sometime next week.

I accept that other mags have a longer shelf life.

fintan

finfacts wrote:

One of the drawbacks about subs for topical magazines is the delivery service whether via An Post or a private service.

One week it's Monday, another week, it's Wednesday.

I find for example that buying this week's issue of the Economist is better done today in Reads of Nassau St with a 10% discount on the €4.90 cover price, than receiving it sometime next week.

I accept that other mags have a longer shelf life.

Just a quick point about the economist. I have a subscription for the last few years and wasn't very happy with the delivery from An Post, its always about a week behind whats on the shelf in my local newsagent.

So I rang to complain, they told me they offer a hand delivery service at no extra cost, so my copy is delivered to the door every friday by lunchtime, and has been working well for the last 9 months.

Brendan552004

Just a short note of explanation, wholesalers in Ireland charge a discount of between 42.5 % & 52.5% on all magazine & book sales. Sale or return. From my experience Newspread have the best distribution network. I do not think that ABC is accurate, I have received circulation statements by accident for some of our proporting leading magazines which state returns of 16,000 on 17,800 copies supplied. I do not know where they are making the money, must be on advertising.

A best selling book in Ireland could have a circulation of 10,000 +

parasite

heh, noticed your www.magazines365.com domain has expired, that was careless

maximus02

Does anyone know if this site is still in operation?

It appears to be but it won't let me add a magazine to shopping basket!!!