News you could have used
Columnist Paul Wells went on a teeny rant today in his Inkless Wells blog for Maclean's about late distribution of magazines on newsstands. (We seem to be on a circulation jag this morning.)
Let’s see, what’s in the magazines that went on newsstands yesterday across the United States — but won’t appear on Canadian newsstands until a week Thursday, because The News Group, the monopolistic Canadian magazine distributor whose websites seem to be down this morning, can’t be bothered to deliver a product anywhere close to on-time?Reader comments, however, soon turned to the slow distribution of Maclean's.
posted by D. B. Scott at
11:03 am
6 Comments:
Pesky comment boards.
First, The News Group is not the only wholesaler in Canada. Secondly, it's the American publishers that can't get their product into Canada on time to make the Thursday delivery.
And I believe Maclean's is available Thursday on Newsstands in most major markets.
Anonymous is right!
Actually, this topic is more appropriate to this blog than to mine, so if I can be serious, just briefly:
I don't know the wholesaler situation in Canada, but I do know that while I was out of the country, essentially from May 07-March 08, in every Ottawa store I frequent, the American weeklies that are distributed on Monday (Newsweek, New York, New Yorker, probably others) stopped appearing on the Monday of their publication, and started appearing on the Thursday 10 days following. Not occasionally. Systematically.
After a few weeks of bafflement I complained, and my regular magazine store blamed The News Group. What I still fail to understand is why the delay isn't three days -- Monday to Thursday -- but 10. But it is. What floors me is that this is even true in Toronto.
The commenters on my blog have a point: Canada Post sucks. Maclean's is at Canada Post's mercy when it comes to home delivery, and while the magazine often arrives in a timely fashion, it often doesn't. At least we do manage to get the magazine to most stores in large cities in Central Canada on the day it's published, Thursday.
What's new, and surprising to me, and I think worthy of some discussion, is that a company whose reason for existing is to get magazines into stores is now getting them there 10 days later than was the case for the same magazines a year ago.
As I wrote the first time I complained about this on my blog, a couple of weeks ago, it's seriously no skin off my nose, as a loyal Rogers employee (hi boss!), if The News Group (and perhaps other wholesalers) want to kneecap my American weekly competition as a matter of policy. It's really excellent news for Maclean's if you can get Maclean's at the local magazine store on the day it's published, but you can't get The New Yorker for a week and a half. But since not everyone works for Maclean's, I have to assume some people find this state of affairs annoying.
Paul Wells wrote:
"The commenters on my blog have a point: Canada Post sucks. Maclean's is at Canada Post's mercy when it comes to home delivery, and while the magazine often arrives in a timely fashion, it often doesn't."
Which is exactly what p***es me off the most about Canada Post continuing to increase the cost of mailing publications.
But I can rant about other mailings too. Sometimes it takes 2-3 weeks for a cheque to arrive from Calgary to Saskatoon. I just don't get how such inefficiency remains unchallenged by the Federal government. Canada Post does have the monopoly afterall. Grrr.
It sure makes me feel bad for the weeklies and thankful that I run a tri-annual (not that mine arrive on time in people's mailboxes either).
You have every right to be confused and annoyed. It is an antiquated system that needs to be improved. Let's use New Yorker as an example:
The News Group delivers to most downtown Ottawa stores on Thursdays and they visit stores once a week.
New Yorker likely arrives at the The News Group on a Monday, but this is already too late. Unless the magazine makes arrangements with The News Group to "pre invoice" the magazine, it will not be delivered on Thursday. Instead, they will deliver it the following Thursday or 10 days after the actual on sale date.
Simply, the magazine has to be important enough for the The News Group to "pre-invoice". This explains why Maclean's is delivered on Thursdays, the day after it's printed and why New Yorker isn't.
Get it? I still get confused.
As Paul Wells indicates, though, this is a recent development.
It used to be that in downtown Toronto I could walk into a store on the Monday that The New Yorker was released and buy that issue.
It was only a few months ago that the scheduling broke down, and now it's at the point where I've basically stopped looking at newsstands altogether.
What the hell happened?
- DW.
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