The NFRN says: “The news wholesaler was condemned by the Federation when it wrote to its customers six weeks ago advising that carriage charges would rise by 4.86 per cent from August 7 and citing rising costs for the increase.
At the time National President Kieran McDonnell (pictured) blasted the action as epitomising “the unacceptable face of monopoly when a wholesaler uses its absolute power, gifted by virtue of its exclusive territory contracts with publishers and distributors, to force retail customers to pay for its own rising costs.”
Since Smiths News made its announcement, the News of the World has shut down, wiping 28 per cent off the Sunday market, its supplement Fabulous has been polybagged into the Saturday Sun, with no extra payment to compensate for additional home news delivery costs due to the extra weight, the Mail has slashed the percentage margin on its Monday to Friday issues to 23.2 per cent, giving retailers just 0.066p of what should have been a 1.21p share of the 5p cover price increase and, most recently, the Sunday Express has dropped its price to £1, slashing retail margins by more than a quarter to just 21.2p.
Calling for the Smiths News chief executive to think again, Mr McDonnell said: “Mark Cashmore should be negotiating with publishers for an improved margin not racking up charges on hard pressed retailers who have no choice but to pay up or be threatened with the loss of their supplies.”
And the National President renewed calls for some serious discussions to find new ways for wholesalers to be funded.
“With 55 per cent of newspaper sales coming through independent retailers and 25 per cent of all home news delivered sales – which provide a lifeline to the old, infirm and those people in rural areas without transport - carried out by our sector, we are the publishers’ most important route to market. It is therefore inconceivable that we are treated in such an appalling manner and commercially insane.
“Publishers need to have a long, hard think about the way that the news supply chain operates and this needs to take place now rather than later. With monopoly distribution arrangements and publishers imposing fixed cover prices and trade terms, many independent retailers are barely able to survive.”
