| Woolworths has revealed it was reducing the number of magazines on display near checkouts.
Publishers will have to fight harder to snare the prime impulse-buying position in Woolworths supermarkets.
At about 400 of Woolworths' roughly 820 outlets the checkout shelving will be reconfigured to include more soft drinks and confectionery at the expense of the glossies, reports The Australian.
Woolworths was anxious to downplay the significance of the decision, with a spokeswoman telling The Australian it involved "making some slight changes at some stores". However, she conceded that overall, possibly slightly fewer magazines would be sold on checkout as a result.
As a rough rule, supermarket sales are usually held to account for about a third of a title's total circulation.
"We respond to what customers are buying," the spokeswoman said. "There is an increasing number of products that need to be in that front-of-store space, so we're trying to get a balance across all the different things customers want.
A magazine industry source told The Australian that Woolworths had told publishers it was responding to falling magazine sales.
"This will have a dramatic impact on mag sales across the board, and it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy by Woolworths that sales are reducing," he said
Source: The Australian
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