Extra, extra! Read all about it!

"Here I am baby. Oh, you've got the future in your hands
(signed, sealed delivered, I'm yours)" - Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm yours), Stevie Wonder.

Week three was all about distribution! The April issue went to print the weekend before, so the focus was to distribute it throughout North Queensland. The distribution area of the magazine covers from Sarina in the south, to Mossman in the north and reaches a number of regional towns in between. The Cairns issue circulates 10 000 copies, Townsville receives 10 000 copies and Mackay distributes 8 000 copies. Each edition within a specific distribution area has approximately 250 collection zones. The zones that readers can obtain a copy of The Place magazine are at venues like art galleries, nightclubs, cafes, retail stores, TAFE and University institutions. The location of a collection zones is based on the common activities of the target market and the venues they attend. Circulation and readership per magazine is estimated to be three people to one copy. This ratio determines that Cairns and Townsville have 30 000 readers and Mackay has 24 000. The end result is a total of 84 000 readers throughout North Queensland each month! Figures like these show how far spread this street press is! It’s also the only street press north of the Sunshine Coast, so it has wide and constantly expanding market to cover.

So off I went, cruising around Townsville in my 1975 Leyland Mini, the back seats stacked with bundles of The Place, the windows down and the tunes playing. I distributed these bundles in the City, Centro shopping centre and at the University. The delivery task was easy enough. I had to introduce the magazine to some places, particularly Centro as it was not usually distributed there. This involved me talking the magazine up, informing them of its contents and what it was all about. Majority of businesses were happy to support the magazine. This of course is crucial to the existence of The Place. The more support the magazine receives from North Queensland, the more likely local and big name artists will visit and perform in the region.

Distributing the magazine was a nice change in comparison to the duties that I would normally perform. It was cool to be able to distribute the magazine that I was now a part of. It was signed, sealed and I delivered it, ready for the circulation and readership process to begin!

;-)