Self-service mag subscriptions

This post has sparked some good debate. Subscribers for magazines seem to fall into two camps: the first care more about the convenience of having the publication delivered to their home and would never care for a coupon. The second, like me, subscribe to the publications they do because they want the news first (like a fan belongs to a band's fan club to get advance tickets). For folks like me, waiting several days to get an issue through snail mail is too long (especially for a weekly publication like Businessweek). Case in point, I have still not received the Bonfire of the Builders issue in the mail. Of course, I can get the content online - but if I only wanted to do that, I wouldn't subscribe to the printed magazine. For me, the most important thing is that I can get the magazine first (or close to first). It's a similar reason to why people lined up to buy Harry Potter. Of course, not everyone is that passionate about their magazines ... but this post is for those like me who are.

For die-hard magazine readers like myself, Rohit's suggestion makes sense. Like Rohit, I think the current subscription model is outdated. If done well the coupon idea can bring in those subscription numbers the magazines so desperately need.

Could this be a geographic issue which only exists for a small percentage of readers (and an even smaller percentage who are actually concerned?)

In the under 10 years I've lived in a major metropolitan area (NY) this is the only time I've received some of my subscriptions after seeing them on newsstands. Truth be told most people nationwide probably don't pass close enough to a newsstand or bookstore to even notice the 'street' arrival of a publication v. its issue date and v. its mailbox arrival.

Your mileage may vary, and I'm not sure where Rohit is based, but I'm not certain that smaller cities, more than one branch away from the center of a hub and spoke delivery system suffer this same fate.

I agree with Rohit as well - a new system needs to be developed for those who subscribe to a magazine and have to wait for it to arrive via snail mail. While I enjoy the convenience of my magazines delivered to my door every month, I would be content picking it up at my local drugstore while running my weekly errands. I think a card, similar to a credit card or an insurance card (to ward off an accidental toss into the garbage can) would be a great way to "modernize" the magazine subscription for those of us that still like to thumb through articles and ads every month.