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So you're offended that you can get 24 issues for $20 or 12 issues for $13?

I don't want to sound condescending, Steve, but do you subscribe to any other magazines? Almost every magazine can be had for a wide range of subscription prices. Of course the publisher would like to get as much as possible for a subscription, but since advertising rates are based on number of readers it's more important to get and retain eyeballs. Primedia isn't doing anything out of the ordinary.

You'll usually do better by waiting until just before your subscription lapses. Desperate to retain a reader, the publisher will sometimes drop the price dramatically. Not long ago I kept waiting to renew Entertainment Weekly; Time - Warner finally emailed an offer for a 1 year subscription for $1.98. I'm getting the magazine for 4 cents an issue, less than it costs TW to mail it to me. I just checked ew.com and saw that the online subscription price is $20 for 40 issues. If I buy EW from Amazon I can get 57 issues for the same $20. I ignored at least a dozen renewal offers for Wired so that magazine just extended my subscription for another year for free. They didn't even tell me they were doing it, the next issue showed up with a December '07 expiration date on the address label.

There's nothing unethical about this, it just means that a consumer who is willing to shop around can frequently get a better deal. The situation is similar to new cars. There's an official list price, and then there are the prices that people really pay. Depending on your gullibility, negotiating skills, level of information, etc. you could pay under the "dealer invoice" or way over list price for a car with thousands of dollars of worthless undercoating, paint sealant, and other nonsense added on. It's all part of capitalism. Personally I hate haggling and wish everything has the real lowest price on it, but that's not the way the world works.



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