Newsagents and their communities celebrate National Newsagent Week on 19-26 September.

The Australian Lottery and Newsagents Association (ALNA) is celebrating newsagents across the country during National Newsagent Week (NNW) 2020, in recognition of the tenacity and strength displayed throughout the pandemic.

With over 4,000 independent, family-owned news and lottery agents in Australia, the sector employs more than 20,000 people with a turnover of $6 billion.

From the 19-26 September, the campaign themed ‘community’ will drive greater awareness and recognition of the essential contributions of local newsagents to their community in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and celebrate their evolution.

ALNA CEO Ben Kearney said: “Newsagents across the country have found renewed impetus to serve communities in need, during our year in crisis. They have kept customers and the community informed and entertained in isolation, locally and nationally. We want to use National Newsagent Week to celebrate the phenomenal service our newsagents have delivered and continue to deliver, responding to the needs of many individuals and families impacted by Covid-19.

During the pandemic, newsagents have played a vital role in keeping Australian’s informed, as well as providing necessary supplies for communities who have found themselves working and learning from home. Newsagents have become crucial providers of everyday supplies for activities, including jigsaw puzzles, magazines and cards to send to loved ones.

“As shoppers are driven to stay confined in their local areas, newsagents have become the beating heart of the community, helping their local community to survive and thrive during the crisis. We invite all Australians to join us and our key partners to celebrate the significance of our local newsagents within our local community during the second annual National Newsagent Week,” says Mr Kearney.

Council of Small Business of Australia CEO Peter Strong said: “Newsagents are a shining example of how small businesses around Australia are tackling challenging economic conditions head on. They’ve successfully managed to adapt to a constantly shifting landscape, and have shown resilience, strength, and tenacity in order to continue to support their local communities.

“Small businesses do more than sell a product or service – they help to build local communities. Small businesses contribute to a third of our economic activity, keep millions of Australians in jobs and are responsible for paying wages to more than half of our workforce. They are vital to our everyday lives – especially now, as our country faces the long road to economic recovery. We can all support small businesses by choosing to go local first.”

As part of the week-long celebrations, and in recognition of more than 38 million magazine sales generated from newsagents annually, leading magazine publishers and Ovato Retail Distribution are uniting to support National Newsagent week. Spearheaded by Bauer Media, magazine publishers DCThompson, Genera, Just Media, Lovatt’s Media, Marketforce, NewsLifeMedia, Next Media, Puzzler Media Australia, Seymour, Universal and Yaffa Media have joined forces to launch an initiative offering customers the chance to enter a draw and win $50,000 from now until the conclusion of National Newsagent Week.

Australia’s “leading” lottery and entertainment group, Tabcorp and global news distributor, Newscorp will also partner for the week-long celebration to offer a joint scratch-it and newspaper offer. This will give consumers the chance to win one of eight $5,000 cash prizes and one grand prize of $20,000, when a newspaper and $5 scratch-it card are purchased together, across selected regional newspaper titles.

Additionally, ALNA is partnering with hunger relief charity, Foodbank, and Australia’s leading media, marketing and printing company, Ovato, for an in-store community fundraising campaign which will see customers able to purchase exclusive Foodbank tickets, which will allow customers to make a cash donation to the value of meal equivalent. The partnership with Foodbank will continue beyond National Newsagent Week, to provide much-needed food relief to Australian communities.

“We’re grateful to have the support of our partners and the community, as we recognise the enduring and essential role of the thousands of small businesses that we represent. While our newsagents’ offerings will continue to evolve, they will continue to offer members of their local communities two things that cannot always be offered online: community and convenience,” Mr Kearney concluded.