Louise Banham recently wrote that Smiths News has published a guide to members of their Premier Club promotional group. As I am a member I have received a copy. The first thing to say about it is that the guide is that it’s a partwork; that is to say that each month Smiths News will be adding the next advice pack to the guide.

Smiths News say the aim of the guide is:

‘To give independent retailers consolidated information and advice on how to manage Magazines and Newspapers.’

They add that each advice pack will contain:

• Category of the month
• What’s Hot
• Premier Club Promotions
• Spotlight – looking at issues from partworks to working with HND
• Events Diary – a useful calendar to help you plan and optimise sales. Included within the diary will be information on national events and key premier club promotions, with space for you to add in local events as required.

The January pack includes category advice for Health & Beauty and Home Interest. The information is simply presented for quick assimilation and includes category background, a table showing the national ranking of the titles covering the category and what the category is worth. It is particularly interesting to see the size of the independent retailers market share.

There is a spotlight on partworks in the January issue and February’s section brings a focus on HND and Shop Save service. The ‘Steps to Successful’ Partworks and HND suggest that the team creating this series is talking to retailers who operate the best practices to make the most of these opportunities.

For Smiths News Premier Club members the guide holds the prospect of growing into a valuable tool for sales development. For any active magazine retailers its availability on the Connect2U website will offer helpful advice and information about the newspaper and magazine categories.

Click here to download the guide or read our category advice page here.