Why are magazine subscriptions so cheap?

Posted on September 28th, 2009 by admin in cheap magazine subscriptions | 31 Comments »

Why are magazine subscriptions so cheap? 1 or 2 year subscriptions come at 60-80% off the cover price? I know there must be some catch involved. These companies don’t sell at such a big discount for no reason!

Basically a magazine is a big advertisement. The ads pay for the magazine and what you end up paying is the profit. In stores you have a couple middle men so the price is set, but if you order directly its cheaper because they don’t have to let anyone else have their cut.

31 Responses

  1. ellen degenitals Says:

    haha try Visionaire magazine

    http://www.visionaireworld.com/index.php

    i’d like the sound issue, please, if its cheap enough for u.
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  2. NDiacvoilse Says:

    I don’t think a lot of people read magazines any more. Everything is on the internet.
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  3. Kashaf N Says:

    idk
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  4. thebigshowernie Says:

    The internet has killed magazine and newspaper sales. They have to make everything cheaper in order for somebody to buy it. Why buy it when you can read it for free online?
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  5. Tara5272 Says:

    You said it…it’s a catch…It gets people to sign up for a year rather than picking up a catalog here or there when they’re at a store…It’s their way of making money…they’re still selling the magazines for more than it costs to make them…
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  6. MR. KRATOS Says:

    So they can start making you read them
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  7. bob Says:

    Because of the advertisements. the companies pay the magazine BIG BUCKS to put advertisements in them. lots of times it costs as much if not more to make the magazine than they sell it for. case in point- Playboy magazines cost $1 each with a year subscription but cost $6 each to make. the cheaper the magazine the more people will read it. the more people read it the more people see the ads. the more people se the ads the more money the companies will pay to put their ad in the magazine

    kind of like with video games. it costs $494 to make a Playstation 3 but they sell it for $399. they make all of their money selling games
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  8. zanthus500 Says:

    The catch is that they have you on the hook for TWO years….

    it takes like 10 cents to print a magazine!!!!!!!
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  9. Abigail F Says:

    No there is a catch because you have to keep paying for more issues.
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  10. Jenny Smith Says:

    no one reads magazines or newspaper but old people these days, everything is on the internet nowadayys
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  11. Donna S Says:

    Advertisers pay for the mags.
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  12. z12z Says:

    if they don’t no one will buy then and so there fore they do that to get money
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  13. Speedy Gon Bun Buns Says:

    I was just wondering that last night. I saw one ad for a subscription that was 80-something cents per issue
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  14. RICHARD Says:

    They do it, so that they get all yoru money up front.
    This helps them reduce costs as well.
    They have a better idea of how many to print, and have much less waste.

    Plus they can sell your information to other companies.And market you for addtiional products or other magaizine subscriptions.

    GOOD LUCK

    ………………………………….
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  15. Bored_at_work Says:

    Because the more subscribers a magazine has, the more they can charge for advertising. They make their money on ads, not subscriptions.
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  16. ohhhh emily Says:

    because of alllll the advertisements inside, they pay big money for the advertising space hoping youll buy their product.
    no catch other than that
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  17. SEAN J Says:

    the internet has reduced all hardcopy prices.
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  18. Kit Kat Bar Says:

    erm hello…there are millions of peeps buying so you do the math lmao 7$X1million=…………………..
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  19. prowlinglynx Says:

    i’m poor..too poor to subscribe to a mag.

    i’m glad i have no interest….

    seems like something to be glad about, yes? cheapness is necessary right now for most people.
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  20. youhave25characterstoworkwith Says:

    because if you just go to the store to buy your magazine chances are you’ll only buy it a few times a year. If you order 1-2 years in the end their just squeezing that extra cent out of you, and making you think you got the better deal.
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  21. Cajun Says:

    Subscriptions are cheaper because they know definitely that they can print X numbers of magazines a month…..also they get a ton of money from all the Ads in those things.
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  22. Americanpigdog Says:

    Basically a magazine is a big advertisement. The ads pay for the magazine and what you end up paying is the profit. In stores you have a couple middle men so the price is set, but if you order directly its cheaper because they don’t have to let anyone else have their cut.
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  23. shiggity777 Says:

    because mags are going out of style. rarely anyone gets them anymore, all the info is available online.
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  24. bobby d Says:

    Most of the cost is paid by the advertisers. But, for the magazine to be able to charge alot for ad space, it must have alot of readers. To get alot of readers, they make them cheaper to attract more people.
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  25. mikozaa Says:

    cause they’re financed through sponsors, or it has something written in small letters, where u’re obligated to go buy something else with it
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  26. scottythecomic Says:

    Good question. The publishers sell the subscription inexpensively to boost their revenue by exploiting the advertisers for more money to place their ads, since they’re reaching X amount of readers. Advertising is where the money is in magazine publishing, not circulation. The total circulation is the impetus for ad sales.
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  27. ♥ღ♥Shawty is a Killa♥ღ♥ Says:

    If you order from the magazine company itself, it IS cheaper because the whole profit you pay goes to them.

    However, if you buy a magazine from, lets say…Wal-Mart it tends to be more money because they have to make profit too. Instead of the money going to them alone, they have a percentage that they must give to the magazine company…so everyone makes money.

    They also sell them cheap, because most people go online to view info in magazines anyways…so its almost like take what you get these days. So as you said..it’s not a catch, its just that news stands have always over priced anyways to make THEIR profit.
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  28. Arthur A Says:

    Magazines are not popular anymore so therefore the subscriptions are cheap.
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  29. quixoticalthoughts Says:

    There is no catch, the other commenters are correct, everything is online. However, the only catch is free advertising. Think about that… you are reading a flashy covered magazine and people look and think "Hey that looks interesting" and are probably not smart enough to know that it is probably on the magazine’s website and look for the one you were reading. Also, have you opened a magazine in the past decade? The advertisements outnumber the articles and relevant information. Still cool to look at though. Awesome for commuting.
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  30. The Jesus Says:

    Magazines make most of their money from the advertisments anyway. It’s much more beneficial to them to be able to say (to potential advertisers) "Look! We have xxx,xxx,xxx subscribers that are guaranteed to see YOUR ad!" They would much rather make extra money from the advertiser, than to make an extra $20 or whatever off of you.
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  31. Pisa is BACK !!! Says:

    Because for many years now, magazines are a dying
    breed struggling to survive in a high tech info society.
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