Magazine subscriptions

Stack is a fascinating business, one we newsagents should take note of. Stack costs £7 per month. For that they will send you a different independent special interest magazine each month. It is a fascinating model, one that I think could work here in Australia.

Their website is excellent, pricing good and pitch compelling. They have done an excellent job creating an offer for people who love the magazine medium and those who buy gifts for those people.

The challenge for us is that if they get this right and if it travels further afield, the specialisation of our businesses in the rich magazine space will be challenged. While they do ship internationally today, it is not obvious and not easily found through a Google search in Australia, yet.

The CEO explains the motivation behind developing the service:

I started Stack because I think people want something better to read. There are piles of fantastic magazines out there just waiting to be discovered, and Stack makes it cheaper and easier than ever for people to find and enjoy them.

Their pitch on their about page is excellent:

It’s a surprise!
Every month that big brown envelope will thump onto your doormat, containing one of the world’s best independent magazines. You never know what you’re going to get next, but you do know it will be a beautiful, intelligent magazine you probably wouldn’t otherwise have come across.

It’s top quality
The magazines we send out mix quality writing with cutting-edge design and the most exacting production values to guarantee that you’ll want to keep them on your shelf long after you’ve finished reading.

It’s great value for money
We want the best magazines to be available to all so we keep our prices low – a subscription to Stack costs £7 per month, or even less if you sign up for an annual plan. Most Stack titles cost £10 or more in the shops, so you could have them delivered to your door while saving more than 30% off the cover price.

It’s totally up to date
We only send out the current issue of any magazine, so you can be sure you’re right up to date with the latest independent publishing. Every delivery comes with a letter from me, explaining why I picked the magazine and telling you more about it, giving you an extra glimpse into the world of independent publishing.

And it makes a great gift
Buying Stack as a gift subscription is a great way to tell somebody you think they’re an interesting person who looks beyond the mainstream. Sign up for somebody else and we’ll start you off with a gift card you can give to them before the magazines arrive.

Of course, this risk of writing about this here is that it pitches Stack to indie magazine publishers who are looking for other routes to market. I’m okay with that as Stack is a sampler offer. The more people buying special interest magazines the better for us.

Here in the US you notice the poor availability of magazines at retail. Sure they have the top selling weeklies and a selection of monthlies if you want to search for them but they do not have the depth of range we carry. Instead, there majority of magazine sales are vis subscription and it is no wonder considering the prices.

Look at US title Money. They promote a $5.00 subscription offer for a year but you have to actually sign up for two years for a total cost of $29.90 delivered – but that is still only $1.25 an issue. Postal rates enable them to do this. Australian subscriptions tend to not be as deep as this.

In Australia, a hope for over the counter sales is Australia Post pricing for magazines. If that increases we should benefit.

Paul Plant, the editor of Sub Tropical Gardening Magazine has advised readers in the latest issue that his special interest title will no longer be available in newsagencies. Plant blames higher production costs and lower advertising revenue as the reason for the move.

In his note, Plant says that wastage per issue is between 40% and 60%. It’s good to see a magazine editor writing about this wastage. However, since they set their print run size the wastage is up to them.

Plant also says We will save you not only time but also money and fuel in avoiding having to source our title from newsagents.  Seriously? – as if the only reason people who purchase the magazine from a newsagency only purchase this one item. Of course, that’s not true.

I expect there would be people who discovered this title when browsing in a newsagency. Some of those would have become subscribers as a result of the introduction from our channel. Others would have purchased the title regularly from a newsagency.

Thinking people only come to us to purchase Sub Tropical Gardening Magazine and nothing else is ignorant.

By all means Paul Plant make business decisions which are right for your business. But own your decisions. Don’t put down your retail partners who have served you well. Don’t say things that don’t pass a fact check.

All the best for the future of Sub Tropical Gardening Magazine. Australians interested in browsing interesting garden magazines will still come to newsagencies – as we the the magazine specialists of Australia.

Check out this retailer of magazines in Manila and their subscription offer in-store.  It’s a Christmas promotion.  The discount message for subs and even for over the counter purchases in-store – see inside the shop – makes me uncomfortable.

On the back of an excellent audit result, showing 24.62% increase in sales – ranking it third in sales growth behind Gameinformer and Men’s Fitness, the publisher of Caravan & Motorhome is out chasing subscription business with this post on a forum.

Dear Forum Members,

We’ve got some fantastic news and a great offer for all!

I posted a little while ago that Caravan & Motorhome magazine experienced the third largest growth in copy sales of any magazine in Australia for January to June 2011 – growing by 24.6% from the previous year. ABC audit Jan-June 2011

To celebrate this momentous result, we would like to offer you three upcoming issues of Caravan & Motorhome magazine and DVD for FREE, like a FREE 3 issue subscription.

For our current subscribers, as a way to say thank you for your loyalty to the magazine, this offer will extend your current subscription by 3 issues.

To those who are not subscribers, we would love you to sample the convenience of subscribing by sending you the next 3 issues for free!

There is no obligation to buy anything else!

So hurry, Offer expires September 30, 2011.

To get your 3 free copies of the magazine simply call and ask us to send you your FREE magazines and DVDs.

FREECALL 1800 801 647 QUOTE THIS CODE: FM450

While I understand that publishers need to grow subscriptions in their circulation mix, I wish some would more deeply engage with the newsagency channel to drive over the counter sales.  Our retail channel is the most important outlet for attracting new readers.

ACP is running a terrific Mother’s Day promotion at their magshop.com.au subscription site.  Up for grabs is a trip to Italy valued at $25,000.  The headline is right, this is a ‘perfect Mother’s Day gift’.

I’d love to have been able to offer this type of prize in-store.  Entry could have been open to shoppers buying, say, three Mother’s Day related titles.  In other words, using the in-store campaign to encourage shoppers to purchase more than would usually be the case in a single visit.  I am certain that the campaign would have been commercially viable, delivering necessary incremental business.

ACP has a track record for running excellent promotions around major seasons through magshop.  From what I understand, they work very well, helping to deliver excellent incremental business.

Now before people think I am having a swipe at ACP, I do understand the role subscriptions play in the overall circulation mix.  ACP is doing what I would do if I were them.  That said, I think that they could look at more newsagency specific proportions – we are the more engaged and less expensive retail channel after all.

Google is reportedly in talks with magazine publishers to deploy a digital newsstand.  The Wall Street Journal has more on this story including details on the battle over customer data.  Publishers, as newsagents well know, want to own the customer regardless of the work done by the seller to win the customer.

The Google move joins work by Apple, News corp. and others in offering consumers ways to access digital subscriptions to magazines and newspapers.