Sep 10, 2010

Perhaps you are a magazine subscriber.  I am and I have noticed something about magazines of late.  It is almost impossible to get them to stop sending them to you, even if you stop paying.

Until recently I was a paying subscriber to OPE, Wired, Sports Illustrated, Discover, Skeptical Inquirer and Girls With Really Big Hooters magazines.  Okay, not the last one, but all the others.

With the exception of OPE, which we all know Kurt runs with an iron hand, the others will threaten to stop your subscription if you stop paying them.  They send 1st, 2nd, 3rd and final notices warning of impending cancellation, but in fact are pretty slow to do it.

I don't say this as a way to score free mags.  I just want the things to stop coming to my house.  Heck, I canceled my subscription to the New York Times over 12 years ago and they are still sending me notices that it is not too late to restart my delivery.

I guess things are so bad in the magazine industry that it is better to send out magazines to deadbeats, than to have a single drop in circulation.  Weird.

This just in, exclusive video of Paris Hilto trying to get her, I mean a friends bag back from the Las Vegas police.



Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

6 comments:

Barbara said...

What annoys me to no end about magazines is how they start reminding you to renew (for 1, 2, or 3 years) about 3 months after you last paid them. I just ignore the notices until the last issue comes and you are right, there is never a break in delivery.

I must confess I have a hard time getting through my one subscription (The New Yorker) between issues.

Kurt said...

Nice product placement. Your check is in the mail.

Don't subscribe to any Hearst magazines, as they try to trick you into renewing by telling you you've renewed and sending you an invoice.

Bella Rum said...

I used to subscribe to several mags. Now I have it down to one.

Reya Mellicker said...

Hi Merle! The New Yorker will cut you off in two seconds if your renewal is late.

a. said...

I haven't subscribed to a magazine since my cousin got me a one year subscription to AMC The Magazine, back when AMC was really a movie classics channel and awesome people like Bob Dorian worked there.

Steve Reed said...

I think in many cases it IS more profitable for them to retain the numbers, even if they're giving away issues, since ads are sold based on the circulations. (I'm basing that on newspapers, but I'm sure mags are the same.) The Post and the Daily News often have days when they hand out free papers in New York, just to boost circulation figures.