All out war at magazine newsstands will stop delivery of BHM to some bookstores
Perhaps you’ve heard of the chaos about to visit magazine newsstands. If not, you will soon as you look for your favorite magazine at the local store. As many as half the magazine titles that should be headed for newsstands right now will not make it due to a distribution war among distributors, wholesalers, and publishers.
Backwoods Home Magazine is not a party to this turf war, but we are somewhat caught in the middle, and about 4800 copies of our upcoming March/April issue will not make it to bookstores such as Barnes&Noble. This is because the issues were to be delivered by Source Interlink, a major wholesaler that is also a major participant in this war. If you’d like some details, click here.
This battle for distribution control could cause major, possibly fatal, damage to some magazines, but, as usual, Backwoods Home is prepared for anything. It won’t hurt us much at all. Long ago I limited BHM’s exposure to the newsstands, having been burned for $35,000 when American Distribution Services (ADS) folded six or seven years ago owing us a bunch of money. I have a deep distrust of the magazine distribution system and the handful of large companies that control it, and I have avoided doing business with them as much as possible. This has meant BHM is barred from being displayed at many retail outlets — even my hometown grocer, McKay’s Market in Gold Beach — but it protects us from the major financial damage that tends to follow in the wake of distribution upheavals such as is going on now.
Source Interlink was forced on us when Barnes&Noble awarded them the rights to distribute magazines to their stores a year or so ago. I almost did not sign the contract with them, but I thought it important for BHM to continue to be in the big bookstores. Up to that point, Ingram, a good company we have done business with for many years, was delivering us to Barnes&Noble, and they still deliver us to the other big bookstores like Waldens and Crowne.
The possibility of these massive distribution upheavals is the main reason why BHM is probably not displayed at your local newsstand. It’s simply too financially dangerous for small magazines like BHM to be heavily invested in putting tens of thousands of magazines on the newsstands, with the payout to us lagging six months behind the display date. I place a total of only 12,000 magazines on the national newsstands. I feel pretty smart, right now.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I remember when you had that problem with the distributor, good job insulating yourself from future problems. I think it is important to have some exposure on the newsstands — that’s how I discovered BHM back in the beginning, in a small grocery store in Ashford, WA. After a few months of buying off the stand I subscribed.
Keep up the good work, you’ve done superb job with your business and its been interesting to read about your experiences. You’ve had much better luck with it than Bill Gates did with Midnight Engineering.
February 6th, 2009 at 9:24 am
What a mess! Glad you have this wonderful thing called “Common Sense.” Why would anyone get into anything that would disrupt their income at this miserable time in America? Stay smart, Dave!
February 9th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Well, one of them folded up here today – see http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=77474&provider=rss
From the article:
The company has been in a price dispute with publishers since January over a 7 cent surcharge per magazine.
A memo from CEO Charlie Anderson, now posted on the building’s front doors, tells workers that “Publishers have stopped shipping magazines to Anderson News.”
February 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Dear Dave,
I always wondered why BWH was not in any store I looked in except Barnes and Noble.
It used to be at Shop’N Kart where I buy my groceries, then it stopped being displayed.
Now I know. Thanks for the blog. You are very wise indeed!
Dorothy
February 13th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Dave,
It’s nice to be back in touch. We were subscribers for years then got away but with the new B.O. re-upped but also went looking for you again for the current issue; did find you at Barnes and Noble; granted not the current for they had already pulled it but the next one; however, not until we actually asked the nice little customer service lady who said it was on display but when couldn’t find it found it still on the cart in the back not put out yet; so instead of 2 issues being out there were none
February 17th, 2009 at 2:03 am
I’ve been buying your fine magazine since 2004 at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, because my Grandma gets an associates discount. Will I be able to continue to get your mag. there? Or will I have to Subscribe?
February 17th, 2009 at 10:58 am
Hard to say. From my perspective, it’s always best for us if you subscribe. We make no money from the newsstand, and occasionally we lose a bunch, as will be the case with this new distribution war. If you subscribe, we give up no control to a middleman like a distributor and make some money.