MAGAZINES PAY FOR SHELF SPACE?

The Australian Newsagency blog has an interesting idea about poor selling magazines. Written from the perspective of a newsagent/bookshop, the author suggests a charge for poor selling magazines. I'd actually be in favour of that in Thailand, and here's why.
My guess it that many magazines here have a sell-through rate of less than 25 per cent. By that I mean that only one of every four copies supplied to the shop is sold. That makes no sense for the publisher and even less sense for the shop. If the poor selling magazines were charged for shelf space it would probably mean a thinning out of some of the less popular titles, meaning more shelf space for those that remain and, in theory, better exposure, better sales, more income for the publisher and more income for the seller.
As a publisher you have to be confident in your magazine to be in favour of something like this. I know Asia Books is already looking to charge publishers for positions close to the counter so this isn't too different. I don't think widespread charging for unsold magazines will happen anytime soon here but it's one way that the whole industry could generate more income.