Magazine publishers and distributors show their care about the environment by sending magazines which failed to sell the first time out to newsagents again and again. These old issues are used as fodder to fill double and triple packs, to add value to a title. The trouble is that punters committed to the title probably bought the old and very old issues when they first came out. Punters know the packs are a con – this why they are often ripped open in store to uncover issues not already purchased.
I don’t mind a an occasional double pack to reignite interest in a title. However, too often the double and triple pack strategy is used cynically by publishers to keep dead stock circulating. It’s cheap marketing.
While some will say why should I worry since if they don’t sell I can return them. True. But the freight costs for returns are high – I’m paying two and three times to freight a dead issue of a magazine back to the distributor.
Double and triple packs ought to, in my view, have a premium attached to them which respects the additional real-estate they need in a newsagency. If newsagents operate on a fee for service basis we would see far fewer double and triple packs.