The NFRN says: According to figures recently released by the Press Distribution Review Panel (PDRP), for the 12 month period 1st November 2012 – 31st October 2013 the Complaints Mechanism, created to resolve retailer complaints about breaches in standards contained in the Press Distribution Charter, dealt with 117 retailer complaints.
To put that into perspective, the number of service related complaints resolved by the NFRN’s own Helpline Service (that deals with NFRN members only, i.e. approximately 50% of the independent retail sector) resolved more than double that number of complaints every week!
Whilst the Chairman of the PDRP, Neil Robinson, put a brave face on it by claiming: “Clearly the retail sector is becoming increasingly dependent on the PDC for a quick and effective means of resolving problems,” the reality suggests that the retail sector continues to give the Press Distribution Charter a massive “thumbs down”.
When considering the millions of transactions taking place every year between the supply chain and retailers, 177 complaints does not represent even the top of the tip of the iceberg. Either that, or publisher and wholesaler service has been remarkably error free – but not even publishers and wholesalers would have the brass neck to claim that.
In truth, as the NFRN has been saying since the PDC was created, it is out of touch with the real needs and concerns of retailers. Retailers don’t especially care about a super-efficient complaints process, all they want is a service from publishers and wholesalers that supplies the products that retailers need to meet consumer demand, with the right products in the volumes and at the time retailers need them, and with terms that provides retailers with a decent living for their efforts.
But instead, what do we have? We have a supply chain that still struggles to get the right copies to the right places at the right time. We have wholesalers who think that retailers are just a piggy-bank that they can raid at any time by increasing carriage charges to the point where more and more retailers are making a loss, and we have publishers who think cost increases are unique to them and that cutting retailer percentage margins is somehow acceptable.
When publishers and wholesalers face up to reality and stop living in a fantasy world, perhaps the PDRP might become a mechanism that deals with the real issues facing the news industry. Until then it will remain just a boys club where publishers and wholesalers meet to pat each other on the back.
