Many in the newsXpress family connect with their community is truly wonderful and valuable ways. Take Brendan and Rita Mason from newsXpress Sunbury Square who are this week hosting some young indigenous footballers in their home.

Here is a video of some of the players talking about their football experiences and what they mean…

Here are some thoughts Brendan had to share:

Some of these guys have grown up in really rough circumstances but Ian McAdam, my niece Cassandra and others are trying show them that life can be better. Football, aussie rules and in the future other codes, is the glue that is bringing them together and is used to encourage them to put effort into their education. As a nation we do so much for worthy causes overseas but little exposure is given to those in our own country who need help and guidance. Here is an opportunity to influence a generation of indigenous Australians and show them that life can be positive.

Yes, we have some wonderfully community engaged members in newsXpress.

A week before the end of March newsXpress provided members with the April In Store Offers newsletter.  This is packed with news designed to help newsXpress members drive sales. A feature is that the newsletter can be personalised by members to present a newsletter from their specific business.  This means local newsXpress members show their local communities a newsletter with only their local store listed.

newsXpress provides the newsletter to members at no cost. Many use it in mail and email campaigns while others make sure that every shopper to the business receives a copy.

The newsletter is just one part of a comprehensive marketing strategy developed y newsXpress for newsXpress members … it’s another reason newsXpress stores are performing so well in this marketplace and why our members are targeted by others.

Click here to see some of the more than 500 photos taken of the newsXpress national conference in Melbourne earlier this month. We have the photos up on Flickr. You can also engage with them through social media site Pinterest.

newsXpress Rutherglen slightly trimmed display space allocated to magazines and introduced an expansion to the gift offer in-store – as shown in the photo.

The change at newsXpress Ruthergen was completed as part of magazine range review and the result, thanks to a small shop fitting change is this selection of homewares gifts next to magazines.

While we understand and respect magazines and their very important place in the product mix in a vibrant and growing newsXpress store, occasionally, thanks to a data based range review, we are able to unlock space for more product, This is what has been done at newsXpress Rutherglen – creating a win win … magazine sales growth and gift sales growth.

The move at newsXpress Rutherglen was achieved with a very small capital investment for a good commercial outcome.  This is excellent for the business and for the newsXpress preferred suppliers who now have better representation in the business.

retail today is all about serving the customer. This requires data based business decisions tweaking and finessing your business to serve your customers. This is exactly what is being done at newsXpress Rutherglen.

Congratulations to newsXpress Grovedale and newsXpress Beers Port Lincoln for winning 50,000 ACP Connections points in the Australian Women’s Weekly display competition which just closed.  newsXpress had two of the five newsagencies in the pool which won 50,000 points ear.  Well done to both stores!

Congratulations to the team at newsXpress Wetherill Park for winning General Retailers of the Year for the second year running for their Stockland shopping centre.

This latest award is well deserved kudos for the newsXpress Wetherill Park team headed by Ginella and Antonella.  They run an excellent business which is a delight to shop and enjoy.  The results of their hard and creating work are shown not only in awards but also in the results of the business.

Engaging in most newsXpress promotions, this business is also a testament to the opportunities presented by newsXpress and its partner suppliers.

Congratulations on the win newsXpress Wetherill Park!

Congratulations to newsXpress Riverlink for winning BEST SPECIALTY RETAILER in Quest Ipswich Business Achiever Awards last night.

This is the fourth year in a row!

Well done to the newsXpress Riverlink team!  They work hard at creating an excising, enjoyable and valuable retail opportunity for shopper sin the Ipswich region.

This award is well deserved.

newsXpress Riverlink takes on just about every newsXpress promotion and opportunity. They embrace change and offer a retail experience which fun, exciting and commercial.

As a mark of respect for and in honour of the life of Garry Angus, newsXpress will not be posting any blog posts or sending business emails to newsXpress members today.

Garry’s funeral is being held today at t 1:30PM at St. Kilian’s Catholic Church, McCrae Street, Bendigo.

Garry was an active newsXpress member, operating newsXpress Pall Mall in Bendigo.

Garry was a good friend to many in the newsXpress family.

Many newsXpress members are in Bendigo for today’s funeral, to support Garry’s family and to farewell a good mate.

Congratulations to newsXpress Southport Park for making it as a finalist in the local business awards as reported last week on the Gold Coast.

Recognition as a finalist in the franchisee section of the awards is wonderful for the newsXpress Southport Park team and they work they put into their business and into supporting the newsXpress brand in their area.

Bishop’s newsXpress Goondiwindi is set to celebrate 100 years in business shortly and already they story is getting media coverage in the newspaper.  Check out the story from The Chronicle newspaper last week.

newsXpress is thrilled to have Jack Bishop and the family as members, contributing to the national newsXpress story.

Congratulations on the 100th anniversary!

The Sticker Family has launched new stickers for family members in wheelchairs.  The new range has been selling well in newsXpress stores across Australia, they are a welcome extension to the popular range of My Family stickers from The Sticker Family.

newsXpress stores have embraced The Sticker Family opportunity to wonderful success for newsXpress members.  The marketing collateral generates new traffic for our stores when positioned out the front of our businesses.  The back end processes established in newsXpress businesses makes this range very efficient for us to sell.

newsXpress Upper Edward Street is promoting the excellent Optus handset deal at the entrance to the newsagency, making the most of excellent foot traffic already heading to the store as well as attracting new traffic to the store.  In addition to driving handset sales, the newsXpress Upper Edward Street team have locked in 100% bonus commission on Optus recharge as well for the business.  This is an excellent deal for the business, a deal negotiated by newsXpress for all newsXpress members.  Placement of the offer in a high traffic location is key to driving sales success.

newsXpress is thrilled to be at the GNS Market Fair in Melbourne.  On our stand yesterday we met with some excellent Victorian newsagents who are keen to take their business to the next level.  We can help them achieve this. We also met with some of our Victorian members.

A feature of our stand was a wall showing off some of our major season collateral…

We appreciate the opportunity from GNS to participate in this important trade show for Victorian newsagents.

The trade show is on again today and we will be there showing off the newsXpress difference.

Adrian and Fiona Matthews of newsXpress Salamander Bay got into the swing of the Havana night theme of the ACP Connections Conference last week.

No wonder shoppers at newsXpress Salamander Bay enjoy shopping …. if these costumes set the fun tone of the business!

Kudos to all of the newsXpress members who dressed up – you did us proud in the engagement and fun stakes!

newsXpress Directors Graham Randall and Mark Fletcher and General Manager Ben Kay took a break from the ACP Cpnnections Conference Dinner on Thursday for this photo.  It was a terrific night, an occasion of which newsXpress and its members can bee most proud for our positive approach to the future not only of our businesses but the newsagency channel.  We did well at the awards and during conference sessions which reinforced much of what newsXpress offers members and done to drive traffic and sales.

More newsXpress members get together at the dinner which was part of the ACP Connections Conference in Sydney last week.  Networking is a key benefit of newsXpress membership and the ACP Connections conference provided an excellent opportunity for this.  It was terrific seeing newsXpress members socialising with each other between courses and the awards.  In the photo is Geoff Hilder from newsXpress Top Ryde City, Graham Randall newsXpress Director and Annie Lieu from newsXpress castle Towers.

More newsXpressers got together just outside the ballroom at the ACP Connections Conference Dinner last Thursday for a photo and some fun.  With so many of our members at the conference it was hard to get all of us together at the one time for a real group photo.  newsXpress was the largest single group represented at the conference … and a proud and happy group we were too!

Congratulations to newsXpress Gympie for taking out the Promotion of the Year Award and to newsXpress Harbour Town for taking our runner up position for the Newsagency of the Year Award.  Congratulations to newsXpress Ballarat for being announced a finalist in the Newsagency of the Year award.  This is wonderful and well deserved recognition for three quality newsagency businesses run by skilled, proactive and happy retailers and their teams.  They do the newsXpress brand proud.  Congratulations to everyone involved in these businesses!

newsXpress had a large stand at the GNS Market Fair in Perth yesterday.  The stand was run by our Ben Kay and Rob Henderson.  They met with plenty of prospective newsXpress members, existing members and industry suppliers.

The Market Fair was an excellent trade show with a steady stream of newsagent visitors across the day.

Our stand featured banners promoting our strategic partners as well as our 125 preferred suppliers.  We also had our marketing collateral for coming seasons – Father’s Day, Halloween and Back to School -  on display.

The stand played a slide show with some of our newsXpress success stories.  It also featured a sit down area for people to relax and discuss newsXpress.

Shoppers at newsXpress Rosebud can get their Angry Birds game fix at the counter thanks to the impulse unit facing all shoppers.  Indeed, shoppers at many newsXpress stores can purchase Angry Birds plush.  It is proving to be a very smart move bringing this line into the newsXpress product mix as these plush items are more than  just plush items.  They connect newsXpress stores with the Angry Birds game – the top selling iTunes game around the world. 

Since we sell iTunes cards, the plush items give us a connection to the game.  The plush makes us more relevant, better connected, hip in the eyes of Angry Birds fans. You can see it on their faces when they see the plush, for many it is the first time they discovered that they could ur Angry Birds plush. That they made the discovery in newsXpress is wonderful for us and for our brand.

This is newsXpress innovation on show.  Product leadership which separates us from other newsagency marketing groups.