Three Magazines for a Year for Only $7. What's Happening Here?

A quick backofthesubscriptionofferenvelope calculation keeping in mind how frequently the three magazines are published yielded a 756 cost of mailing the publications second class if this is accurate 27 cents is the average cost of sending out a periodicalThe conventional wisdom is that these lossleader offers pay off in the long run in the form of impressive circulation numbers and higher ad rates but is that just wishful thinking in today39s market Some experts think soThe concept is quotjuicing circulation numbers with lowercost subscriptions often sold through third parties in order to increase advertising rate basesquot says Greg Dool senior editor at Folio quotThis is generally viewed as an outdated tactic now as print advertising has become much less of a profit center Meredith Corporation a major Hearst competitor has emphasized on recent earnings calls that it39s focused on moving away from 39lowervalue39 circulation in favor of directsold higherpriced subscribers and newsstand sales which have bigger marginsquotDool39s colleague Caysey Welton the content director of Folio agrees quotPadding circulation numbers is outdated but still not completely frowned upon because smart marketers do see value in passalong rates and raw scalequotAnd there39s another benefit data profiles The information gathered from subscribers quotis worth more than the revenue a lot of publishers collect from subscriptions unless we39re talking about a highdollar product like Harvard Business Reviewquot Welton says quotThe more complete audience data Hearst can collect and leverage the more valuable they are to marketers looking for massive crossbrand and crossplatform buysquotThe circulation numbers for magazines overall are pretty shocking reports Baird Davis the former head of circulation at ZiffDavis which owned CD until 1984 quotThe circulation of audited consumer magazines peaked in 2000 at 311 million from 600 titlesquot he says quotToday there are 195 audited consumer magazine titles with 152 million audited circulation Total audited magazine circulation has been halved in the last 20 years and the number of audited titles has declined even more precipitously This astonishing shift in demand has introduced as you might expect new means of acquiring circulationquotCirculation is not generally the biggest problem at the bestknown car magazines CD reports a total print circulation of 12 million with 971 percent of that from subscriptions RampampT is behind with a print circulation of 581986 Not terrible but as I reported in quotThe Last Days of the Print Car Magazinequot and quotWeatherTech Proves That Advertising amp8212 a lot amp8212 Worksquot the magazines have a big problem attracting ads from automakers distracted by digital opportunities and the only consistently big adspace buyers are Tire Rack tires and WeatherTech floor matsDavis says car magazines generally quothave circulation that is too high relative to the quality of the reader they can deliverquot High circulation was a big plus when it attracted highpaying advertisers but those days appear to be gone for the auto books That said Davis says that Hearst has generally been quotthe most responsible of the major publishers in providing good qualified circulation for print productsquotCar magazines are certainly not alone with advertising challenges Revenue of 259 billion in 2019 represented a 42 percent annual growth decline in US magazine and periodical publishing since 2014 reports a November 2019 IBISWorld analysisquotPersistent declines in print advertising expenditure have driven a steep drop in revenue for the magazine and periodical publishing industryquot IBISWorld said quotAs consumers have gravitated toward digitalonly publications magazines have struggled to maintain readership and attract advertising revenuequotCD and RampampT both now based in New York have the same sales team Felix DiFilippo sales vice president president and chief revenue officer and Cameron Albergo associate publisher Neither responded to queries I also didn39t hear back from the team at Esquire circulation 709575 which is actually up from the 698937 it was in 1995Publishers report fairly bad results from farming out subscription offers to third parties quotWe would get something like 1 for each subscription sold doortodoorquot says Doug Moss who was publisher of E The Environmental Magazine a print publication from 1990 to 2013 I served as editor in some of those years quotWe39d take a complete bath and those people never renewed Direct mail always brings in less than you spend on it amp8212 that39s just how publishing works amp8212 but working with these firms was really not worth itquotMoss also notes that direct mail worked better the more publishers put into it although a 1 or 2 percent response rate was typical quotIf we sent out just a basic postcard the costs were lower upfront but they brought in casual subscribers who didn39t renewquot Moss says quotThe more sophisticated the offer with information about the magazine the higherquality subscribers we brought inquotWith that in mind the threeforone magazine offer I received is sophisticated with blurbs on each of the publications and descriptions of their content quotMan at His Bestquot in Esquire the blurb read is quotthe ultimate lifestyle guide for the sophisticated manquotI took the plunge and subscribed to the three magazines for 7 I39ll have to monitor them carefully as I do all subscriptions CreditCardscom reports quotIf you aren39t vigilant when you sign up for a great magazine subscription deal or a free trial offer on healthcare products it could haunt you for months or years ringing up endless charges on your credit card through automatic renewals 39Companies sometimes make it very easy to autorenew and very hard to stop a renewal39 says Lauren Sanders associate director of the National Consumer Law CenterquotA 2019 classaction suit brought by plaintiffs Saul Granillo and Jennifer Fite alleged that some publishers illegally autorenew magazine subscriptions at higher rates without consumer consentThe lawsuit doesn39t target CD or RampampT and the Hearst mailing doesn39t say anything about automatic renewals in the fine print But an RampampT print offer on Amazon for 5 a year says quotYour subscription will renew at the end of the current term Before it renews we will send you a reminder notice stating the term and rate then in effect Cancel anytimequotIn any case I39m sure I39ll read the publications Car and Driver39s editorial style is sometimes overheated for me and Road ampamp Track has too much track and too little road but they39re still good magazines Esquire I haven39t checked in on for a while That39s part of the problem right thereDon39t stop now Stay in the know on auto marketing strategies trends with more from Jim MotavalliClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Three Magazines for a Year for Only $7. What's Happening Here?

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Jim Motavalli

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Three Magazines for a Year for Only $7. What's Happening Here?

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