MPA RETAIL CONFERENCE 2006 2006-03-13

WENDY TOTH

ORLANDO, Fla. - Supermarket magazine category managers can gain more premium floor space by communicating the category's value to the rest of the store, said speakers and retailers at the Marketing of Magazines and Books: Retail Conference 2006, cohosted by the Magazine Publishers of America and the International Periodical Distributors Association here last week.

"I challenge magazine category managers to fight for space," said Stephen Burbridge, senior vice president, sales and logistics, Time/Warner Retail Sales & Marketing, New York, and former magazine category buyer for CVS/pharmacy, Woonsocket, R.I. "We need to educate internally, letting our organizations know that the magazine titles have the information to breech different segments of the store," he said in reference to supermarkets and drug stores.

"The magazine category is usually the last category to get planned in the store," said Tim Humanik, vice president, sales and marketing, Comag Marketing Group, Princeton, N.J., and former magazine category buyer for Harris Teeter, Charlotte, N.C. Magazines have the potential to contribute to sales across an entire supermarket, he said.

Retailer floor space is a precious commodity, said Jaime Carey, vice president, newsstand, Barnes & Noble, New York. "At Barnes & Noble, magazines have the best floor space of any product we sell, bar none," he said, with placement in the front and center of stores, near the checkout.

"Magazines deserve a lot of floor space, simply based on sales per square foot," Sean Mashburn, magazine buyer for Hastings Entertainment, Amarillo, Texas, told SN.

To streamline this process for magazine category buyers, "publishers should present things that are executable rather than academic" when pitching magazines or new promotions, Humanik said. "The category buyer or manager's job is to manage a category, not an item or a brand."

"Publishers need to take greater ownership of their retail relationships," Carey said. Publishers concentrate on fulfilling the reader's needs and should take that same approach with retailers, he added.

Mashburn agreed. "There is too much emphasis on the retailer to grow the category right now. The publisher should play a bigger role."

Individual store managers and operators also have the specialized knowledge to make merchandising decisions about books and magazines such as the "potential margin gain of each item," said Robin Gelly, national account manager for the Lowe's home improvement chain for Home Design Alternatives, St. Louis, which distributes specialty magazines.

"There is a direct correlation between the sale of magazines and their location in the store," she said.