The organisations will work together to make extra copies of the top-selling magazines available to NFRN members.
The campaign will involve 500 selected NFRN stores and over sixty top-selling titles, such as Cosmopolitan, Top Gear and Look. It has been spearheaded by a sub-group of the PPA’s Retail Marketing Group (RMG), which has been set up to focus on the needs of independent retailers.
Kate McElroy (pictured), senior circulation executive at the PPA, said: “This cross-industry initiative has seen PPA and the NFRN working together to address the issue of availability of top-selling magazines. We will review the results following the campaign’s launch in September with a view to conducting regular campaigns across a larger cross-section of independent retailers. We hope this collaborative approach will ultimately drive sales to benefit all members of the supply chain.”
Brian Murphy, National News Development Manager at the NFRN, added: "We are pleased that magazine publishers and distributors are working with independent retailers on availability and that 500 of our members will be benefitting from getting the supplies they need of best-selling titles. By working with the PPA in this way we hope to grow our members' confidence in this product sector."
In addition to the Autumn Availability campaign, the group is investigating what can be done collectively to improve service to independent retailers and drive magazine sales, through both improved availability and training on how to manage the magazine category.
About PPA
The PPA says: “The Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) protects and promotes the interests of print and online publishers of consumer and business media in the UK. The PPA has around 200 publishing companies in its membership, which collectively produce more than 2,500 consumer and business magazines and journals as well as digital media, data products and events.”
