Newsagents leave industry forum

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) has suspended its membership of the news trade's self-regulatory group.

The NFRN said that it had become frustrated with the Joint Industry Group (JIG) due to a "lack of any real progress to deliver on the independent newsagents' agenda".

It said JIG meeting forums were "little more than talking shops that are long on promises but short on delivery" and pointed to the Focus of Distribution Initiative (FODI) as an example of the ineffectual nature of the group.

The FODI drew up a plan to increase newspaper sales by improving promptness of wholesale delivery in 1998, yet the NFRN says that late delivery is still affecting retailers.

The Federation's JIG representative, Stefan Wojciechowski, said that he rejected an industry that is "content with the status quo" and is "completely ignoring what the consumer wants".

"We want leaders with vision who are prepared to trial supply chain improvements", he said.

The Association of News Retailing (ANR) said that it understands the NFRN's decision, although it has no plans to suspend its own membership of JIG.

However, ANR managing director John Lennon said: "As the pace of change in the industry has quickened, it has become even clearer that JIG is not an effective forum for tackling these issues. This is why we have consistently supported retailer choice as the best way to regulate performance rather than the cumbersome and ineffective self-regulatory structures currently in place."

David Cooke, chairman of JIG, told More Than Business News that the group was "disappointed" by NFRN's decision, which will be discussed at the group's next meeting.