NEWS CORP UPDATE
Dear Members,
The VANA Board met with News Corp Chairman, Michael Miller yesterday morning.
To follow is an update for all our members:
Summary
The new print facility at News Corp will be inspected by our Board of Directors next Wednesday 15 June.
I can assure you every effort has been made by the Chairman down at News Corp to eradicate the issues that have been ongoing at the facility for the past six months.
Importantly Michael Miller gave an undertaking that the printing of newspapers will continue for years into the future. This is refreshing news.
The appointment of a single supply solution through National Delivery Service (NDS) was raised. We believe from the conversation this will stay in place. Most of the issues do lay with the new print Centre – if the trucks are being loaded 1-2 hours late what hope does any logistics provider have to deliver in any reasonable amount of time.
However, issues such as driver induction, training, development, and retention are all issues News Corp are working with NDS on that can be improved.
It is our opinion News Corp will keep the current model in place with the single supply solution with NDS.
Call Centre (especially on a Saturday) when papers are late was also a key issue during this meeting.
Our members cannot get hold of anyone on the phone from News Corp to obtain an estimated time of arrival. This area has been bolstered by over twenty new staff to assist newsagents with ETA updates for our members.
Remuneration
The cost of fuel and the general cost of living has increased to prohibitive levels in the past 2 months and now we see an interest rise as well from the Reserve Bank to 0.85%, with more interest rate rises to come in 2022. This issue was raised with the News Corp Chairman. I am now in a fortnightly meeting on this issue and News Corp’s delivery performance (Print Centre & NDS).
I can assure you no other Association in our industry gets Michael Miller to the table and it’s with our voice that we are seeing steady and slow improvement and I expect to see some significant improvement on delivery of papers in the coming weeks with a return to normal hopefully by August.
I will keep members updated post my site tour of the new print facility next week.
Yours sincerely,
Brendan Tohill | Chief Executive Officer
VANA – Victorian Authorised Newsagents Association
NLNA – National Lotteries Newsagents Association
