# Why are magazines dated one month in advance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488 "2005-12-28T21:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/1 "2005-12-28T21:06:08Z")
A lot of magazines I read are dated one month in advance: i.e., the issue that is mailed to subscribers and made available on newsstands at the beginning of December 2005 is dated “January 2006”. What gives? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/2 "2005-12-28T21:08:10Z")
For many magazines, that date is “display until,” not “printed on.” ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/3 "2005-12-28T21:08:41Z")
Probably so that the average buyer sees it as being up to date, as opposed to “about to be replaced,” well after the beginning of the month. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/4 "2005-12-28T21:20:02Z")
Sez Unca Cecil:[ > [@Unca Cecil](#): > > It’s all a ploy. These days, what ain’t? What you see on newsmagazine covers, at least, is not the publication date but what is sometimes called the “off-sales” date–that is, the date on which dealers are supposed to pull the magazine from the stands. It’s the equivalent of the “fresh-until” date on milk. The feeling is that if people see a cover date a few days in the future, they figure they’re getting the latest poop, even though the magazine may actually have been sitting on the rack for quite a while. ]([http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_159.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_159.html)) ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/5 "2005-12-28T21:28:55Z")
Wow, that’s pretty stupid. Maybe they should date them three months in advance, so that people will think they’re getting news _ **from the future** _. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/6 "2005-12-28T21:34:29Z")
For the same reason that 2006 cars have been sold for several months already. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/7 "2005-12-28T22:00:30Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Wow, that’s pretty stupid. > > Maybe they should date them three months in advance, so that people will think they’re getting news _ **from the future** _. On Monday I was in the airport on my way back home after Christmas with my daughter and her family. I had some time to kill, so I went to the newsstand in the airport and bought a book of crossword puzzles. The date on the cover was **March 2006**. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/8 "2005-12-28T22:32:13Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Wow, that’s pretty stupid. The general public is pretty stupid. It’s a good fit. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/9 "2005-12-29T00:39:54Z")
> [@Absolute](#): > > Wow, that’s pretty stupid. > > Maybe they should date them three months in advance, so that people will think they’re getting news _ **from the future** _. Already done: check out the date on your comic books. Nothing stupid about it: it’s designed for the rack jobber (i.e., the person selling the magazines), not the public. They aren’t interested in when the magazine goes on sale. From their point of view, it’s much more important to know when something comes off sale, since that lets them pull any unsold copies. If it were the date of publication, they’d need to remember if the magazine was a quarterly, weekly, monthly, etc. Too much hassle for them. And since they are the most important person the publisher needs to satisfy (selling magazines is good, but if they’re not on the racks, the publisher is in big trouble). In addition, publishers don’t know how well their magazine sells on the newsstands until they get the return figures. If it were up to the retailer, the publisher would not get that information on a timely basis, since retailers would pull magazines at different times. So by putting the pull date on the cover, the publisher pleases the people who count the most. The readers are just not important in this context. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/10 "2005-12-29T01:23:06Z")
Think of it as the “good until” date on your canned goods. ---
**Author:** ![Arjuna34](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Arjuna34](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arjuna34)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/11 "2005-12-29T02:13:12Z")
Cecil agrees: [Why are magazines dated ahead of the time they actually appear?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_159.html) ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-magazines-dated-one-month-in-advance/337488/12 "2005-12-29T02:46:00Z")
As an actual magazine publisher (on a local level) I tell tell you why we publish our own magazine about fifteen days before the cover date. We publish a calendar of upcoming events. The January issue contains a listing of events taking place in January. (Make sense so far?) If the issue is on the stands a couple of weeks before the month actually begins, it gives readers a chance to pick it up, read what’s going to be happening and maybe participate if they feel like it. Think of TV Guide. The dates on the cover were the date of the listings inside, but they sure as heck have to deliver it to you before that week actually begins. . . Also, most people like to see Christmas stuff in the December issue and advertisers like to run ads for gift shopping in the issue. But (some) readers are likely to be starting their shopping in November. Our experience is that the reader actually holds onto the magazine longer and more folks might be exposed to the advertising inside, because they’ll pick up the magazine a couple of weeks before the month starts, but they’ll hold onto it as long as it’s “still good.”