I have been doing some digging into the use of deals websites like Groupon and livingsocial by publishers here in Australia and elsewhere. It seems that more publishers are using these sites to drive sales spikes. The deals are usually better than those advertised in the magazines themselves and dramatically different to the over the counter single copy price. The pricing model is so different that I worry for the damage they are causing to their brand from such steep discounts.
Take the deal in Pittsburgh for Table magazine. $10 for a one year subscription. Click on the image to see the details. This 66% discount is extraordinary. It would anger me as a retailer who is asked by the publisher to raise the awareness of their product. Often it is the work of retailers in promoting a masthead that enables the masthead to undercut retail prices to chase a direct to consumer sales relationship.
Publishers ought to be careful in stepping up to using Groupon and similar sites. Their actions with extraordinary discounts could be the straw which gets newsagents so offside that we penalise participating titles as a result.
Our channel is valuable. More magazine publishers ought to respect that.