Wholesaler disruption blamed as US newsstand sales drop 12%

The recent disruption of delivery to newsstands, including the closure of Anderson News, resulted in U.S. single copy sales falling roughly 12% in the first quarter, according to figures from Magazine Information Network (MagNet), as reported in Mediaweek.

The results are based on point-of-purchase estimates and could end up higher once all returned magazines are counted.

The delivery disruption was expected to be short-lived; one of four leading wholesalers, Anderson News, went out of business Feb. 7 after failing to get concessions from publishers, and many of the stores it supplied were parceled out to the remaining three.

But two months later, an estimated 6,000 retail locations, including many Winn-Dixie and Walgreens outlets, still weren’t receiving copies as of last week, said Gil Brechtel, president of wholesaler-owned MagNet, who expects service to be restored soon. “It will take a while to sort this out,” he said.

“Not only are there many stores not being serviced two months after Anderson ceased doing business, but there are returns that have been sitting in those stores that need to be picked up and processed.”