This week in magazines: Sign up or miss out

Two publishers have this week announced bespoke promotions aimed at top-performing independents – and they deserve full support of the trade.

One of the common complains by indies is that they don’t get the opportunity to participate in the same sort of activity as supermarkets.

It’s worth remembering that publishers invest in the independent channel with no guarantee of compliance and proportionately at a higher cost with greater levels of wastage.

That leap of faith deserves to be repaid with commitment and support.

Even putting the prizes of these promotions to one side, they offer the chance to create an attractive display and a bit of a buzz around the newsstand. And that is on top of them being almost guaranteed to drive additional revenue.

Future’s campaign on the Tour de France special is aimed solely at Smiths News’ Premier Club promotional arm and highlights the benefits of being joining up.

Publishers are seeking ways to work with independents committed to the category. One of the ways of doing this is through promotions clubs and the ongoing revamp to Meznies’ Superleague will give them a greater geographic spread.

Premier Club members continue to outperform the channel as a whole, not to mention WHSmith’s high street division and Tesco. Members will also soon get the chance to reap the rewards of the wholesaler’s stock utilisation initiative, which diverts copies likely to remain unsold into top indies within days of going on sale.

For publishers, it offers growing levels of compliance – now running at 91%.

Any retailer who hasn’t signed up is missing out.