Reference News Network reported on September 6th (Text/Zhang Man, Zhang Dailei, Hu Xiaoguang, Gao Lan, Li Tao, Lu Juan, Wang Yijuan, Wang Xie) Due to the impact of new media and other reasons, newspapers and magazines are facing an increasingly serious survival crisis. However, from a global perspective, newspapers and magazines still have tenacious vitality. They are not only preserved as part of urban culture, but also transform and upgraded in large cities such as Paris and New York with the protection and support of local governments, presenting a new look and rejuvenating in the Internet era.
1. Paris: The number of newspaper booths has achieved a counter-trend growth
New-style newspaper booths on the streets of Paris
Paris news booths have a long history, elegant style, mainly dark green. The iconic retro dome complements the Ottoman-style streets and buildings. While providing convenience for citizens' daily lives, it also forms an urban cultural landscape on the streets of Paris. In the era of information digitalization, the distribution of paper newspapers has declined. How to protect newspapers and magazines full of humanities from drifting with the wind? This is a common problem faced by big cities around the world, but Paris has delivered a beautiful "report card". In the past decade, Paris has been the only international metropolis with the growth of the number of newspapers and kiosks, growing from 260 in 2005 to 345 in 2016, and now it has reached 409.
Adjust management and business model
Why can the Paris Newsstand move forward against the wind? This is closely related to the clear protection policy of newspapers and kiosks by the Paris Municipal Government. In order to "support the newspaper industry and encourage community relations", the Paris Municipal adjusted its management and business model to deal with the decline and upgraded and transformed newspapers and kiosks in accord with the times. Affected by the recession of paper media, the number of newspaper booths in Paris fell to 260 in 2005. In order to reverse the situation, since October 2005, the city of Paris has handed over the management and development of newspaper kiosks to operate. The company's revenue is the advertising revenue of newspaper kiosk, and it invests 2 million euros in newspaper kiosk development every year (1 euro is approximately RMB 7.9 - this website note), and a number of bankrupt newspaper kiosks were able to open again. In 2011, the Paris Municipal Government gradually relaxed the business scope of newspaper booths to enhance its market competitiveness. In addition to newspapers and magazines, newsstands can also sell various municipal publications, such as city guide manuals, transportation maps, postcards, as well as tourist souvenirs, candies, food, beverages, traditional lottery tickets, tourist attractions, etc.
implements the "upgrade" project
As the management and business model changes, the newspapers and kiosks are gradually regaining their lives. In 2016, the number of newspapers and kiosks in Paris increased to 345. The Paris Municipal Government has not stopped there. In 2016, it began to brew a €52.4 million "upgrade" project for newspaper kiosks, in order to provide more services to attract customers and improve the working environment and income of newspaper kiosk operators. After two years of preparation, the Paris Municipal Government officially announced in April 2018 that it would gradually complete the upgrade project of 360 newspaper kiosks in the city by June 2019, and will restore the remaining 49 traditional style newsstands to maintain their historical appearance and be used for community or cultural activities.
upgraded newspaper kiosk retains its former dark green appearance, uses glass and aluminum materials, which is more visually transparent, adopts a circular design to make full use of the space, which can better display the newspapers and publications sold, and is more convenient for people with disabilities. It also adds new services such as mobile phone charging, postal, and online ticket sales systems to some newsstands.
Modern newsstand is popular
In March 2017, the first new newsstand experimental site in Paris opened for business. The data during the one-year trial period was gratifying: 83% of customers and pedestrians believed that the upgraded version was better than the old newsstand, and the sales of the newsstand increased by 7% in the market environment where the overall sales of newspapers fell by 5%. The new newsstand also provides operators with a more comfortable working environment, equipped with heating equipment, the work area (counter and private space) has increased by a quarter, and greatly simplifies the "opening" procedure. In the past, it took half an hour to arrange old newsstands to welcome guests, and only 5 minutes after renovation.
The improvement of the working environment has also created conditions for business modernization. Some operators said that after the transformation, they can use computers to digitalize sales, and can check the remaining newspapers at any time, without having to manually inventory the inventory as before.The Paris Municipal Government also said that it will conduct training for all newsstand operators, covering newspaper sales, management and finance, information system use, as well as travel reception and foreign languages. The upgraded newsstands are also more environmentally friendly, all using recyclable materials and powered by renewable energy.
However, there are many opponents of this newspaper kiosk upgrade project that keeps pace with the times. They believe that the transformation has destroyed the original beauty and affected the overall style of Paris. 60,000 Parisians even signed a petition to retain the old-fashioned newsstand, believing that "Ottoman-style newspaper kiosks are the symbol of Paris." For the defenders of this Ottoman-style newsstand, the city's decision to retain 49 old-fashioned newsstands as witnesses to the city's history may bring some comfort. But looking to the future, "compatibility" with the digital age through upgrades and transformations will undoubtedly bring more lasting vitality to the newsstands.
2. London: Newspaper retail transfers from newsstands to stores
UK newspapers have a long history, and British people love to read newspapers. Thanks to this, the British newspaper industry has been strong so far, with thousands of newspaper types and considerable sales.
However, the operation and survival status of the independent British newspaper booth is not optimistic. Due to the impact of new media and the entry of supermarkets and other institutions into the newspaper sales market, the number of street newsstands in British cities has been decreasing year by year. It is now difficult to find a street newsstand that only sells newspapers in London.
Since the British started running newspapers in the 17th century, the profession of street newspaper sellers has emerged. These "blade sellers" initially just wandered around the streets with bags and sold newspapers. For every copy sold, they would withdraw a small commission. After a little savings, some people began to open their own private newspaper selling sites in places with large passenger flow, forming the prototype of British newspaper booths.
htmlFor more than 0 years, independent newspaper kiosks have been privately operated in the UK, and opening a newspaper kiosk is like opening a small shop. In fact, most newspaper booths in the UK are not simple pavilions built on the street, but regular stores located on the street. These newspapers and magazines are usually small in size. They not only sell newspapers and journals, but also have a variety of groceries, including beverages, bread, flowers, candy, etc. to meet the needs of newspaper buyers and increase operators' income.Since the 1950s, the popularity of television has led to a decline in the circulation of traditional British newspapers, and the rise of the Internet has brought a greater impact on newspaper distribution. To adapt to these changes, the distribution and retail methods of British newspapers have been continuously adjusted, and the survival of street newsstands has also been greatly affected.
From Liverpool senior media person Larry Neilder believes that the biggest impact may come from supermarkets starting to sell newspapers. He recalled that decades ago, there were still many newspaper booths in the UK, distributed in places with high traffic flow such as bus stations and train stations, which facilitates commuters to buy newspapers on the way to and from get off work, and avoids the trouble of queuing up to and from the store to waste time.
Now, almost all supermarkets in the UK have special newspaper shelves, and many street grocery stores, convenience stores, flower shops, post offices, gas stations, coffee shops, stationery stores, etc. have also become newspaper retail sites. At the same time, in order to survive, some traditional newspaper booths had to agree to merge into chain convenience stores, or automatically transform into small grocery stores, and transform newspaper retail from main business to side business.
From the perspective of newspaper development, such a transformation is the general trend and is conducive to newspaper circulation and sales. First, consumers can buy newspapers in more places; second, independent newspaper booths are determined by the operators every day, relatively casually, and close early, while convenience stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. are open until 10 pm or even later, which is equivalent to extending the sales time of newspapers and increasing sales.
For independent newspapers and magazines, how to deal with distributors, how to choose and subscribe to newspapers, and even how to place newspapers and magazines are all about their own development and survival. In the UK, the birthplace of modern newspapers, independent newspaper retailers have long understood that survival cannot be achieved by fighting alone. They established their own industry association, the National Newspaper Retail Association, in 1919. The association has more than 15,000 members in the British Isles and Ireland.
According to the association's website, the association represents the interests of independent newspaper retailers, with the purpose of "to help independent newspaper retailers improve their market competitiveness by providing practical experience, business support, professional training and services." The association provides members with very detailed business assistance guidelines, and will also issue an annual report every year to pay attention to the issues concerning the British newspaper retail industry that year, and make demands from the government, newspaper groups and other institutions to fight for rights and interests for retailers.
In addition to self-employed newspaper and magazine booths, there are also chain newspaper and magazine retail store brands in the UK, and the most famous and powerful one is Smith Company. The company was founded in 1792 and was originally a newspaper booth opened by Henry Walton Smith on a London street. In the next 200 years, this newsstand grew and grew in the hands of the Smith family and became the world's earliest chain retailer brand. It currently has more than 1,300 retail outlets in the UK, mainly concentrated in stations, airports and bustling commercial streets in the city center, selling newspapers, books, greeting cards, stationery and other paper products. The company's market value exceeds 1.2 billion pounds (1 pound is approximately RMB 8.8 - this website note). In 2006, the company independently established the "Smith News" company, which was responsible for the distribution of British newspapers and magazines.
3. Moscow: Newsstands are disappearing rapidly
Russians are famous all over the world. People have become a habit of buying newspapers at newspapers near stations, near homes or on their way to work. However, the report by Russian media on August 22 attracted widespread attention: the government of the Yekaterinburg, the capital of Russian culture, announced on its official website that the state-owned retailer "Russian Publishing" has 39 newspaper booths in the city's Orchonikize district, and 21 of them will be closed from January 1, 2019.
"This situation is worrying," Vladimir Solovyov, president of the Russian Journalists Association, told the "Reference News" reporter. "This is a national phenomenon. Russia disappears on average 10 newspaper booths every day."
Asel is about 30 years old. The newspaper booth she works for is a state-owned company called "Russian Publishing", which has many chain newspaper booths across the country. Asel's salary is 1000 rubles per day (1 ruble is approximately RMB 0.1 - this website note) plus a 10% sales commission. 70% of the goods sold in newspapers and magazines are journals and newspapers, while toys, mobile phone pendants, etc. account for 30%. The customers are mainly grandpas and grandmas. They come to buy newspapers early in the morning, and some girls also request to reserve fashion magazines for them. About 60% of the customers received are old customers.
According to reports, there are three ways to run a newspaper booth in Russia: buy ready-made newspaper booths; build from scratch; and rent. As of December 2017, the actual rental price per square meter of newspaper sales facilities per month was 1,634 rubles in cities with a population of one million, 1,083 rubles in state centers, and 439 rubles in other cities.
The simplest form of ownership in operating a newspaper kiosk is "individual business", which can save manpower, time and funds. In 2016, the average daily sales of a newspaper booth was 1,000 to 3,000 rubles, and the monthly revenue was about 70,000 to 80,000 rubles. In order to stabilize sales, it is best to choose a location in a place where there are a lot of people in the city.
Expanding the sales list of goods besides newspapers and magazines is one of the ways for newspapers and magazines to reverse losses. Departmental associations have been calling for the rational expansion of the types of goods sold by newspapers and newsstands, and some federal power agencies have responded positively to this. In 2017, 15 Russian federal entities added one to five products to the product list, and 22 federal entities added cold drinks, ice cream, etc.
The Russian Federation Publishing and Mass Media Agency released a status report on regular publications in Russia in 2018. The report believes that Russia has long lagged behind developed countries in terms of ensuring newspapers and magazines, and the gap is still widening. In most European countries, each newspaper sales facility is for an average of 700 to 2,000 people, while in Russia there are more than 4,000 people, and there is a special facility for 8,750 people.
To change the status quo, in May 2016, the Russian government determined the national minimum security standard for residents' newspaper booths for the first time: 1.7 sales facilities per 1,000 people. Based on this calculation, experts calculate that there should be at least 138 newsstands/newsstands per 725 residents in Moscow, and the number of newsstands/newsstands in Moscow should be close to 17,000.According to supervision data by October 2015, there were only 0.165 newspaper booths per thousand Moscow residents, and the level of newspaper and magazine facilities was far from reaching the basic indicators.
According to industry experts' evaluation, the total market volume of Russian newspapers (advertising + sales) was 112.5 billion rubles in 2013, 106 billion rubles in 2014, 102.8 billion rubles in 2015, 100 billion rubles in 2016, and less than 100 billion rubles in 2017.
Overall, the revenue of Russian regular publications publishers fell sharply from 2015 to 2017, while productive spending rose sharply. The main reasons are the increase in paper prices and the increase in issuance fees. In addition, it includes: Russia faces economic difficulties, monetary and fiscal suffering (including sanctions), competition from the Internet and mobile terminals, and a decline in demand for print media. Not paying for owing money is still a "chronic disease" in the Russian newspaper market: regular publications do not pay publishers, publishers do not pay printing factories, and printing factories do not pay paper producers.
According to the 2018 report of the Russian Federal Publishing and Mass Media Agency, the influence of newspapers has declined, the circulation and advertising volume have declined, the traditional business model no longer works, and the development funds have been reduced to an extremely dangerous brink. All this has made the publishing industry unpredictable, especially in the retail and subscription of regular publications. Subscriptions to regular print publications in 2017 fell 11% year-on-year, and advertising revenue of 20.5 billion rubles decreased 8% year-on-year. Retail sales fell 4% to 5% year-on-year, and retail sales decreased by 10%.
The situation where Russian newsstands can be seen everywhere has disappeared, and the number of newsstands nationwide has decreased year after year. In 2004, Russia had 61,000 regular publications specialized sales outlets across the country, but by the end of 2017, there were only about 36,000. According to the report, the number of Russian newsstands has dropped by 58% in the past 10 years.
Many Russian citizens still prefer paper media rather than electronic publications and are willing to read carefully considered newspaper language rather than online messages. The report believes that for these citizens, buying newspapers will be as difficult as chasing shortages during the Soviet era.
4. New York: New technology has made the newsstand a gorgeous transformation
New York's new "newsstand" has become a brand new lifestyle store (data picture)
New York's newspapers and magazines in the streets and alleys of New York were once a scenic spot in this international metropolis; and now, under the tide of digital reading in the mobile Internet era, more people have focused their attention on the small part of their hands. Can the newsstand survive and continue to operate? New York City Government supports the transformation of newspaper kiosks and protects the "owners" through laws. New York newspaper kiosks have transformed several times, and a new type of newspaper kiosk under the impact of electronic waves came into being.
The side business of traditional newsstands has become the main business
Since 1972, Bernard Ulfeld has operated the newsstands at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 86th Street. Once upon a time, newspapers for sale were piled up, but now, there are few newspapers and magazines in his newspaper booths, and small snacks and small commodities seem to have become the main business of the newspaper booths.
Urfeld said his income was 20% less than in the 1980s. He used to sell 600 daily newspapers a day, but now he only has 40.
Mike Patel, who runs the newsstand at the intersection of Chambers Avenue and Broadway Avenue, also said that in the 1980s, he could sell 1,700 copies a day, and now only 20 copies are available.
New York City's newspaper booths peaked in the 1950s, with 1,500 newspaper booths of all sizes on the streets. Now, this data has dropped to early 300. The newsstand business is hard to sustain due to the impact of the electronic wave.
Robert Bookman, chairman of the New York City Newsstand Operators Association, told the media that in the past, newspaper kiosks used to sell thousands of newspapers and magazines every day, but now there are only a few hundred. Newsstand operators earn only 15 to 20 cents for every dollar sold by newspapers (about RMB 6.8 - this website note). Most newsstands make a living by selling candy, soda and lottery tickets, with an average annual income of only $30,000.
Even so, many new immigrants still regard newspaper kiosks as their path to the middle class, and New Yorkers have long been accustomed to the life of dealing with newspaper kiosks. Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University, said that the social function of a newsstand is not just sales, but the advantage of having a newsstand is that in the event of an emergency or crisis situation, there is at least one contact there.
A columnist for the New York Times wrote: "Street kiosks are part of our city's positive energy and have always been popular with New Yorkers and tourists. They provide people with convenience beyond the imagination of ordinary officials. Moreover, in the crime-ridden New York area, street kiosks have also served as a safety beacon. For more than 100 years, our need for street kiosks far exceeds their money income."
Government moves to save the city's business card
New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) chief development officer Yano Lieber said that they also realized that the attraction of newspaper kiosks is declining, but they still firmly believe that newspaper kiosks are an indispensable part of the subway and the streets. Therefore, the New York City government continues to make moves to try to save the city's cultural business card.
Opening a newsstand in a public place in New York requires you to apply for a business license from the Consumer Affairs Bureau under the municipal government and pay the management annual fee on time. The New York City Government clearly stipulates that operators must abide by relevant federal laws and New York City laws and regulations; at the same time, operators who have been approved and have been issued business certificates also enjoy the protection and respect of government departments. Without illegal or harmful to the environment, neither the city government nor the police can interfere with their normal business activities.
In 2005, the government began to promote plans to improve the city appearance, including the launch of newspapers and magazines with a unified image. The well-known Spanish design company that won the bid launched a new newspaper booth in New York. Dan Byderman, chairman of Manhattan's Brian Park Management Company, said that the newsstands that were originally decorated and simple are now being changed to new newsstands built of aluminum alloy and frosted glass. The facade of the newsstand introduces dazzling screens to generate revenue by rolling advertising and attempts to introduce digital interactive initiatives.
In July 2013, then-Mayor of New York, Bloomberg , signed a new decree that allowed newsstands across the city to sell items with prices of no more than $10, a significant increase from the maximum $5 rule in 2002. Therefore, newsstands can now sell items such as umbrellas, headphones, mobile phone cases and chargers, adding a lot of convenience to the hasty New Yorkers and tourists. This move expanded the business scope of the newsstand and increased revenue.
New newsstands double-improvement of appearance and function
A serious problem faced by traditional newsstands is that people's needs for it are greatly reduced. "Once upon a time, passengers were holding a newspaper in their hands, but now they were holding electronic products in their hands. We have seen changes in passenger behavior, which means that newsstands must also make changes."
New York United Plaza Metro Station Newsstand has become a brand new lifestyle store "New Stand" under the design of several entrepreneurs with advertising and design experience. Its appearance and functions have been greatly improved, and it became a darling on social media as soon as it opened.
In New Stand, you can buy newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, essential oils, chewing gum and other groceries for sobering wine, and also buy design-like items, such as Danish design brand mirrors, the latest headphones and 3D printed photo frames. The founder of
incorporated the concept of e-commerce into it and launched an APP where customers can place orders in advance and then extract products from the subway station. In addition, the APP also has media functions, with many free media content, performances, etc. from partners, and supports offline reading. It can also be run unaffected on the New York subway without Internet signals.
, a new "newsletter booth", has been very popular. It has opened more than 20 branches, attracting the attention of many passengers and tourists, and also winning the opportunity to cooperate with well-known curators.
New Stand CEO Andrew Dechman said it was their reimagining of modern newsstands, where he and his partners incorporate the daily life of modern New Yorkers into technology. "Perhaps, traditional newspapers and magazines are not too long, but we may be able to find ways to make them survive."
5. Hong Kong: More newspapers and magazines enter convenience stores
At 6 a.m., the doors of banks and shops on both sides of the street were closed, and there were few pedestrians.At this time, 62-year-old Zhang Derong had already arrived at the newsstand at the junction of Guangdong Road and Hai Pang Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, and handed over the shift with his sister who had watched the stall for 8 hours, and started his 16-hour work. His first task was to distribute the newspapers of the day at a nearby office building. After more than 100 newspapers were distributed, he returned to the newsstand, constantly sorted out the newspapers of the day, and managed his 9-square-foot (about 0.8 square meters) newsstand.
"It's really hard. My wife and sister come to help. I have been working for 24 hours a day, but I still have no money to make money." Zhang Derong told reporters.
He told reporters that only a few dozen newspapers are retailed every day, and those who buy newspapers are over 40 years old. "Young people are looking at their mobile phones, but they don't buy newspapers." Zhang Derong, who is also the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Newspaper Association, said that due to the popularity of the Internet and mobile phones, the number of people buying newspapers has dropped sharply. "Fortunately, newspaper publishers that cannot be sold can be recycled now, at least they will not lose money." The income from selling newspapers accounts for only 10% of Zhang Derong's daily income, which is "too big of a gap" compared with the golden age of newsstands.
Newsstand is known as the "newspaper file" in Hong Kong. In 1904, the first mobile newspaper archive in Hong Kong opened on the Garden Road in Central. During the golden age of Hong Kong's newspaper industry in the 1990s, there were nearly 2,500 newspaper archives on the streets of Hong Kong. Lin Jieqing, public relations director of the Hong Kong Newspaper Association, said: "There is a stall every few meters. Unlike now, there is a newspaper stall for several intersections." According to data provided by , the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, as of July 31, 2018, there were only 393 licensed fixed newspaper stalls in Hong Kong.
In the era when traditional media was popular, newspapers could sell thousands of newspapers a day, sometimes even 2,000. Whenever major social events occur, the business is even more amazing, and newspaper vendors are overwhelmed. "The newspapers were selling well at that time, and they had no time to care about anything else, so they didn't have to consider whether they wanted to sell other things to supplement them." Lin Jieqing, 58 years old this year, laughed and said that she was working as a "child laborer" at her parents' newsstand at the age of 4, recalled.
The newspaper sales industry is now on a significant decline. Lin Jieqing said that the shrinking newspaper industry, competition in other media such as electronic newspapers, the increase in free newspapers, and convenience stores and some other commercial licensed stores have also begun to sell newspapers and magazines, which combined have led to a decrease in the number of newsstands.
7-11 and Circle K convenience stores all over Hong Kong have newspapers and magazine retail shelves at the entrance of the store. More than a dozen types of newspapers such as Hong Kong's mainstream newspapers "Ming Pao", " Takan ", " Wenhui Po ", "Oriental Daily", " Economic Daily ", "Xinbao", etc. are displayed on the shelves. Some convenience stores have installed Octopus devices directly next to the shelves. Customers can pick up the newspapers themselves and swipe the Octopus card to pay, which is convenient and fast. Zhang Derong introduced that the number of newspapers sold through newsstands in Hong Kong is currently equivalent to that of convenience stores, each accounting for half of them.
Lin Jieqing's newsstand is located in the factory area of Sham Shui Po, with an area of only half that of Zhang Derong's newsstand, sandwiched between a teahouse and two convenience stores. "In order to make more money, we will make a dojo in the snail shell, and try to put all the items that can be sold as stipulated by the government."
The Hong Kong government is strict in the management of newsstands. Licensed fixed stall vendors pay more than 4,000 Hong Kong dollars (approximately RMB 3,479 - this website note) a year. They must comply with the Hawker Regulations and meet the license conditions for the relevant license. In addition to newspapers and magazines, licensed stalls can sell additional 12 items such as tissues, cigarettes, lighters, chewing gum, candy, cold fruits, batteries, atomic pens, small accessories and mobile phone storage value cards.
newspaper archives are one of the components of Hong Kong’s street culture and are also the source of living for many newspaper vendors like Zhang Derong. Faced with the current dilemma, the Hong Kong Newspaper Association actively communicated with the government to express the demands of the newspaper vendors, hoping that the government would relax the types of goods sold by newspapers, so that the newspaper vendors could increase their income and solve some practical difficulties for them.
6. Berlin: The railway station is an important retail channel
Based on the circulation of newspapers, Germany is the fifth largest newspaper country in the world after China, India, Japan and the United States, and it is also the largest newspaper market in Europe. According to the "2018 German Press Data Yearbook" published by the Federal Association of German Press Publishers, the average daily circulation of German daily newspapers is about 16.7 million copies, and the single-period circulation of weekly newspapers is about 4 million copies.
In Berlin, newspapers and magazines are mainly sold in train stations (including urban railway stations), airports, supermarkets, comprehensive shopping malls, convenience stores, gas stations, bakeries, bookstores and newspapers.
It is worth mentioning that for historical and cultural reasons, the railway station has a special status in the German newspaper sales industry and is an important direct newspaper sales channel. According to statistics from the German Railway Station Bookstore Business Association, newspapers and magazines sold in railway station bookstores account for about 10% of German newspaper sales. And unlike other German newspaper retailers that close on Sunday, the railway station bookstores are not only open all year round, but also can directly get goods from publishers, so they enjoy high discounts that are usually only available to newspapers and wholesalers.
. Correspondingly, German newspaper retailers must be supplied by local newspaper wholesalers. According to data from the German newspaper wholesalers Federation, German newspaper wholesalers hold 54% of the German newspaper market. The remaining shares are divided by self-operated subscription channels, railway station bookstores and other direct sales channels.
According to the "2017 German newspaper retail industry analysis report" released by the German newspaper wholesalers Federation in January 2018, there were 104,000 newspaper retailers in Germany in 2017, and the density of newspaper sellers was the world leader.
In 2017, Germany added more than 3,000 new newspaper and magazine retailers, but at the same time, more than 6,000 newspaper and magazine retailers gave up their newspaper sales business. Therefore, the number of German newspaper and magazine retailers in 2017 decreased by 3.3% compared with 2016, continuing the downward trend over the years. Judging from the categories of newspaper retailers, the number of large supermarkets has increased against the trend, the number of comprehensive shopping malls and gas stations has remained stable, while the number of newspaper booths, bookstores and convenience stores has been decreasing.
is measured by newspaper sales. Bookstores, comprehensive shopping malls and large supermarkets are the most important newspaper retail channels in Germany. The above three types of retailers account for only 11.2% of the total number of German newspaper retailers, but sales account for 22.7% of German newspaper retail sales. In sharp contrast, bakeries account for 25.3% of the total number of German newspaper retailers, while newspaper sales account for only 9% of German newspaper retail sales. In addition, although newspapers and magazines are an important newspaper retail channel in China, they are less than 9% of the total newspaper retailers in Germany.
Under the impact of the Internet tide, the number of German newspaper retailers continues to decrease. The German newspaper wholesalers Federation has established an "efficient consumer response mechanism" to this end. It uses the real-time data collection system for newspaper retail outlets established since 1996 to obtain the newspaper sales data of the day from newspaper retail outlets every day, quickly analyze it, and then provides retailers with guidance on newspaper ordering and matching ratios to assist retailers to optimize newspaper sales and reduce or even eliminate unsalable sales problems.
