MPA is working closely with national distributors and other retail chain partners and here are some of the things our publishers are doing:
·Eliminating retail outlets selling less than one copy.
·Increasing,decreasing and shifting draw within wholesalers and depotsbased on retail-level sales data.
·Shifting significant amounts of draw to move copies from unproductive retail outlets to those selling cost-effective volumes.Many titles need to cut significant amounts of draw.
In the end,this initiative will help magazines run healthier and more efficient operations.It will also help create stronger business relationships with retailers by streamlining processes and eliminating inefficiencies and redundancies.
On a brighter note at AMC-and related to our newsstand efforts-we celebrated the art of the magazine cover by announcing our first-ever best cover winners for the past 12 months.Magazine covers are a true reflection of our culture and our world.And a cover is totally unique to our medium.It captures a snapshot in time and freezes it forever.They are the face of our brands and we depend on them to generate retail interest.So here they are…
Best news cover of the year:The New Yorker for“Watch Your Back Mountain”.This cover was published when the movie Brokeback Mountain was just about to be released and it shows both the U.S.President and Vice President as prisoners of their fate.
Best Celebrity Covers:there was a tie between Julianne Moore in Harper's Bazaar and Busta Rhymes in Vibe.Green covers don't normally sell well but Harper's Bazaar ignored the rules with this striking Julianne Moore cover.And when Mr.Rhymes was criticized for allegedly withholding information in the murder of his bodyguard,he accepted Vibe's invitation to address it on the cover.