文章基本信息

标题：Feds probe magazine distribution - Justice Department investigates newsstand access and pricing - Brief Article
作者：Tony Silber
期刊名称：Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management
印刷版ISSN：0046-4333
出版年度：1994
卷号：Dec 15, 1994
出版社：Red 7 Media, LLC

Feds probe magazine distribution - Justice Department investigates newsstand access and pricing - Brief Article

Tony Silber

Amid a climate of growing tension among publishers, wholesalers and direct distributors, the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into magazine distribution. The focus is newsstand access and pricing practices.

The investigation was initiated by the Justice Department's antitrust unit in its Cleveland field office. John Weedon, chief of the antitrust unit there, won't comment on the investigation. However, several companies and industry groups (including Magazine Publishers of America and the Council of Periodical Distributors Association) have received civil investigative demand (CID) questionnaires that Weedon acknowledges were sent by his office.

"I wish I knew what the department is up to," says John Harrington, president of the New York City-based CPDA, which represents more than 300 wholesalers. "They don't tell you what they're looking for, and they don't tell you why they're looking."

Michael Pashby, an MPA executive vice president, says he believes the department is "looking at restraint on the sale and distribution of magazines."

Speculation among industry sources is that a direct distributor or a publishing customer of a direct distributor filed the initial complaint. According to some sources, the complaint is directed at wholesalers who allegedly blacklisted publishers who tried to use both wholesalers and direct distribution for the same titles. Accused of showing favoritism to competing titles, wholesalers argue that some publishers unfairly favor direct distributors by giving them price breaks.

The backdrop to the dispute is wholesaler concern about the growing importance of direct distribution--a method that circumvents wholesalers by delivering magazines straight to retail through national distributors. Although 95 percent of magazines still go to the newsstand through wholesalers, that number has declined slowly over the past 10 years. And although supermarkets remain the biggest market for magazines--representing about 50 percent of total sales--the fastest growing segment is discount stores, where the retailers favor direct distributors.