I am concerned at what feels like a trend more magazines in Australia being given away as gifts and add-ons to the purchase of other items. Maybe it’s just me but it feels like I am seeing more single issues and mini free subscriptions being given with other purchases.
Publishers I speak with say they do this to get their title sampled by people bot currently purchasing the title. While this may be the case, I’d prefer to facilitate the sampling through a retail network that supports and benefits from the sale of magazines.
Publishers need to value their titles more. Give fewer copies away. Discount subscriptions less. Sell them through fewer retailers. Publishers of good content will find that shoppers seek them out. Magazines with less valued content will need to give copies away, discount subscriptions more and have them placed in more retail outlets.
I don’t want to see Australia go the way of the US where heavily discounted subscriptions and product tie-in deal account for a sizeable portion of circulation.
Some giveaways don’t make sense. This is particularly the case in the US. It cheapens the magazines. I purchased a couple of tickets to a broadway show on Saturday and immediately after my credit card was processed, a screen popped up advising that I could select three titles and for each I would receive a three month trial subscription.
Combine this post with the “Mystery Triple Pack” post and clearly thing are being done the wrong way around. Give us more opportunity to sell the current magazines and use the “Mystery Triple Pack” type stock for the cheap and give away promotion…. oh yeah that won’t work. No one will want them……..
I think of the FREE local newspaper and how low the esteem is for them. They are treated as the same letterbox drops. I think the experts say 3% if you are lucky actually use it. FREE mags are the same.
it is also very disheartening to see advertisements at the petrol browser up here in NSW (at BP I think) – advertising Womans Day, NW etc for $2 each! (you did have to spend over $10 to secure the deal – but who purchases less than $10 petrol?). I was tempted to buy them all – but the sales would reflect well on the petrol station!