Aaaaaargh… we work our butts off to get the biggest magazine ever to you, and various evil foes thwart our efforts.
Firstly folks a million thanks folks for bringing to our attention the frustrations some people are having getting hold of tgo. This shouldn't be happening - please accept our apologies and our thanks to you for persevering!
Secondly, once again I'd appeal to those folk affected to let us know when there's a problem getting hold of tgo – we need to know where the problem was and when, ie, which branch of which newsagent and which issue they couldn't/wouldn't stock.
We've a new member of staff, Stephanie, whose role is to monitor availability of the mag and make sure our distributors do their job.
So please feel free to email Stephanie at stephaine.berry@tgomagazine.co.uk and let her know as much as you can.
In the meantime there are one or two things you can do to ensure newsagents always have a copy for you.
• If you place a regular order with a particular newsgent then they'll keep one reserved especially for you (and some will even deliver it to your doorstep, just like milkmen used to do with milk, only tgo won't be in a bottle). If they didn't stock it, then before they will for a regular order as they can be sure that it's a firm sale and they won't have it left on their shelves at the month-end. This sort of thing especially delights the smaller newsagents whose business is getting harder with competition from high street chains, petrol stations and supermarkets.
• Take out a subscription – this way you'll probably make a good saving on the cover price and might even get a free gift into the bargain. It also means Cameron and I will be allowed back into the building for another month.
This post will once again appear in its own thread in the hope of helping a few moe folk out.
Not only are they reducing the number of their shops that stock independant magazines (ie not IPC Media, basically) but they are also the main supplier of newsagents etc.
All newsagents do not have a choice in their supplier. The two big Uk suppliers have carved up the nation between them and restrict themselves and eachother to the set mapping of areas.
I have a suspician that I am currently working on that IPC Media and WH SMiths are financially linked possibly mutual shareholdings or shareholders but its a web I'm still working through.
TGO is not the only mag to be suffering this. Other independantly produced mags are also being cut out.
In the same WHS I was told last year that they'd stopped stocking Athletics Weekly, because it wasn't selling. Well perhaps they weren't selling many, but they were certainly selling at least one every week, as I know I was buying it. By coincidence, I noticed on Saturday when searching for TGO that they've now got Athletics Weekly again...
Yep, raised it with the manopolies commission too.
Didn't do me any good though.
I had to re-order TGO every month because they cut it off the regular order sheet and I sold every copy. COuld get loads of Trail and Country Walking and hardly ever sold one of those.
I heard something on the radio a couple of weeks ago about major changes in magazine distribution on the way. Apparently the present system is classed as a cartel of types. At the moment a very small number of major distributors handle the majority of magazines, which gives them more bargaining power over charging with the mag producers. A small magazine producer on the program,however,said that the new system is hugely in favour of the major producers and could lead to the demise of up to 1500 smaller magazine titles.
Ok, I will take out a subscription. Again, it is WHSmith that seems to be the main culprit. I cannot purchase TGO Locally, and I live in South London. I have to travel quite a distance to purchase it and it is not always in stock. Something else I have noticed, several outdoor shops in Central London used to stock TGO and no longer do so. So far I have never recieved a straight answer as to why not.
