What's the Right Price?

I have always subscribed to magazines. My mother was a big magazine reader, and I looked forward to reading Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, True Story, and many others after she was finished with them.

Reader's Digest has been one I've read since childhood continuously. But I eventually lost interest in other magazines, like Cosmo. I found the articles repetitious or not germane to my life, and my subscriptions dwindled.

Writer's Digest was a staple for about 25 years, but I gave that up about 10 years ago. The articles seemed stale and I was busy earning a living with my writing and did not need that advice anymore.

For a long time I took O! The Oprah Magazine, but in September  decided to stop it. I sent instructions online to halt my subscription because I wasn't renewing.

The magazine kept coming anyway. Finally, this last issue arrived, proclaiming "Final Issue."

Along with the proclamation came a "preferred renewal rate" of $19.97 for one year - plus I could give two people a year's subscription for free! (Of course, they would billed the next year.)

The same day that arrived in the mail, I received an invitation from O! for a one-year annual subscription to the magazine for . . . $8.00.

And also that same day, I received an envelope from Hearst magazines. It was a "We've missed you!" sale. It offered a variety of magazines, including some I used to subscribe to, like Redbook - and they were each only $5 for the first year.

O! was also included in this offer. For $5.00 in this advertisement, I could get a year of the magazine.

Now I confess $5 for a year's worth of a magazine is very enticing. But I recalled the clutter and the piles of magazines that I once had, and I read the fine print about the "continuous service program" wherein the subscription continues until you ask them to stop (and apparently, based on current experience, for months after you've asked them to stop). It really isn't worth the hassle.

I also wonder why I can't get the magazine for $5 in digital. I might subscribe to three or four of these for $5 each if I had the option to get them on my Kindle, PC, or smart phone instead of in paper. I might waste my money and ultimately never read them, but at least I wouldn't have to deal with the clutter.

It irked me too to have received on the same day an offer of three different prices for the same magazine. Obviously if I were going to subscribe again, I'd take the $5 deal.

From a marketing standpoint, I give this effort a Fail. First, I am not subscribing, regardless of the price, so their product is no longer something I find useful. (The clutter outweighs the advice, I guess.) Second, having three separate price quotes for the same magazine on the same day is just so . . . wrong. If they can afford to sell the magazine for $5 a year, then why offer it for $19.97? And why is it $4.50 a single issue if I pick it up at the grocery store?

(I looked up the digital edition of O! on Amazon. For my Kindle, it would cost me $19.99. Other Hearst magazines are available for $5 (Family Circle, which I used to receive, was one), but they have that stupid auto renew feature. I hate auto renew.)

I like all of these magazines. I suspect I will, at some point, pick one up from the newsstand on impulse and bring it home.

But for now, Reader's Digest will remain my lone magazine subscription. It is the one I have always read, and the one I expect I will always read, as long as it is published.



*As a writer, I feel guilty for not subscribing to more magazines. As the person who has to keep the trash picked up, I'm not sorry at all. I am sorry corporations believe auto renew is great, though, because I could have my magazine in digital if I could just by an annual subscription and be done with it.*