RN Retailer Choice Awards 2017 – Star newsstand Performer of the Year

1. The Beatles Vinyl Collection

This DeAgostini partwork has proved a newsstand hit with its revival of the Fab Four’s biggest tracks in their original format – and a premium £16.98 cover price. The 23-part collection features magazines which all come with a copy of a Beatles album, including studio albums, the Anthology sequence, the ‘red’ and ‘blue’ compilations, Live at the BBC and Past Masters albums. Retailers have reported roaring sales of the collection.

Did you know? The delicate nature of the product led to the need for special packaging techniques form the wholesalers.

2. Sun Savers

News UK put a simple concept to effective use this year with a promotion that literally pays readers back for buying the paper – £5 cash every time they buy 28 copies, and enter a daily code online. The publisher took to Twitter to raise consumer and retailer awareness of the promotion and supplied generous quantities of PoS to stores up and down the country to make sure shoppers did not miss the activity. News UK also launched its News Retail Plus site last year.

Did you know? The five retailers judged by News UK to have created the best PoS displays and got the most customers involved received free digital advertising screens.

3. Mail Newspapers

Mail Newspapers powered up its existing incentive scheme MyMail with a partnership with the biggest loyalty programme in the UK, Nectar, in the summer. Other recent activity by the publisher was also recognised when the Mail won the NFRN’s National Newspaper of the Year award last week, for launching its Newsagent of the Month scheme, and being a driving force behind the industry-wide Deliver My Newspaper HND initiative. 

Did you know? Newport roundsman Jon Powell recently became a Nectar millionaire thanks to an incentive for promoting the partnership.

4. Iliffe Media

In a very challenging year for local newspapers, and one when some significant cuts were made to retailers’ margins, Iliffe opened a brand new title in Bishop’s Stortford and bought 26 others from Johnston Press and the KM Group. The publisher’s newspapers remain some of the biggest-selling titles across the UK. The company said this year’s moves were just the latest stage in the expansion plans for Iliffe Media and demonstrated its commitment to local news.

Did you know? Staff for the new title moved into a town centre office which formerly housed Herts & Essex Observer journalists.

5. Tes

Specialist primary and secondary school resources publisher Tes, formerly the Times Education Supplement, remains loyal to the newsstand and has focused on growing its sales through independent retailers this year. It launched an incentive scheme run through the NFRN for which 50 retailers were given two free copies per week for a month to share with a local school. It also joined forces with the federation on its Be Seen Be Safe campaign.

Did you know? 50% of Tes’s sales already go through independents.