Newspaper crisis: newsagents focus on second-hand sales

Newsagents are trying to shake up the newspaper sales crisis and launch the initiative Read and Sell which probably won't please the publishers so much. Thus the newsagents, in addition to selling freshly printed newspapers, will act as a second-hand newspaper market, reselling daily, weekly and monthly newspapers at lower prices.
 
How does the Read and Sell operation work?
 
After having purchased a newspaper, the reader can return it to the same newsstand from which he bought it, receiving the return of the 50% of the cover price. Delivery times will depend on the product: the newspaper can be returned within 13 pm, the weekly within two days of purchase and the monthly within a week. Once returned, the newspaper will be the property of the newsagent who can sell it at half price.
 
It is not just a marketing choice in an attempt to give new impetus to the market and encourage Italians to read but also a provocation towards publishers and distribution, accused by newsagents of not taking into account the problems of the sale.
 
The main trade unions (Sinagi CGIL, Snag and Usiagi Ugl) will join this operation.
"In the desert of ideas that spreads from publishers to distribution, the government is a concrete way to transform newsstands into concrete small entrepreneurs," says Armando Abbiati, president of Snag. According to the secretary of the Sinagi CGIL, Giuseppe Marchica, LeggieVendi "will push the public to read more and return to the newsstands".