Every week, retail customers of EM News pay a Carriage Service Charge for the delivery/collection of printed news. They also pay a similar charge to Newspread.
EM News has in excess of 3,000 retail outlets receiving daily supplies in the Republic of Ireland. They each pay a minimum of €2,000 p.a. This is a minimum “income” from retailers of €6,000,000. In reality the figure is greater than €7m given the average retailer will pay a weekly charge of €45. We must remind retailers that EM (and Newspread) also receive a fee/income from publishers based upon the RSP of the titles.
The recent announcement by EM News accompanying their annual financial report (their profit was €988,000 last year) shows the frightening extent that distributors reply upon carriage charges to keep their heads above water. This is not sustainable, retailers cannot be expected to continue to prop up a system in a fashion that reduces the profitability to us of the category.
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