1 February 2001

Dear Newsagent,

Since deregulation, all newsagents have felt the pressure of increased competition.

When negotiating the ACP Magazines Newsagency Agreement, The Australian Newsagents Federation sought to ease this pressure by seeking a recognition of the existing business relationships between newsagents and subagents. This has been a successful factor in reducing the number of applications for direct delivery, however it is only a small step in ensuring the maintenance of our territory system.

Our principal focus has to be to develop strong and lasting commercial interaction between newsagents and subagents. The simple standards that we apply to our customers everyday in-store must also be applied to our subagents. By taking a progressive and customer service oriented approach to our subagents, we can build lasting business relationships and ensure a long future for our distribution network.

To this end, ACP Magazines has launched the "ACP Magazines Guidelines for Subagency Management" which, we believe, will help clarify both the roles and expectations of all newsagents and subagents.

I therefore ask you to have a look at the material outlined in the enclosed brochure and pass on copies to each of your subagents. I hope you'll find that it will give you a solid foundation from which to strengthen your business relationships and maintain the long term strength and viability of the subagency management system.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Murdoch
ANF Chairman