OK, I know that there is a huge lead time when publishing magazines, but why should a subscription take such a long time to start? I just signed up for a bunch of new subscriptions using a discount service (not Publisher’s Clearinghouse), and they say it takes anywhere from 8-12 weeks for the first issue. Having used similar services in the past, I know this is the case. But what’s the reason for this? How long can it take to add an address to their list? Other industries manage it in days…
Nobody?
My guess is that magazine publishers run their businesses as cheaply as possible - which means with as little staff as possible who are paid as little as possible.
So you mail in a subscription, it goes to the mail room, eventually gets sorted and then sent to a data input person, upon who’s desk it sits until he/she gets around to entering in their mailing database. Which takes 8-12 weeks.
I used to manage a magazine subscription system; the lead time that you mention is the problem; you have to place your order with the publisher something like 8 plus weeks before the on sale date (which, in turn, is about three weeks or so before the month of issue printed on the cover (largely irrelevant though)) - if you want to keep wastage to an absolute minimum, then you only order sufficient copies to cover existing subscriptions.
New customers go straight into the database, but until the next order, you may not have stock to supply them…
“No problem”, cries somebody, “Magazines are generally supplied on a sale-or-return basis” - well that’s true, bus the subscriptions business is not terribly proifitable as it is a lot of small, low-value packages going out, so you cadge an extra chunk of discount from the publisher, but in order to do that, you have to take them on firm sale, which makes it very important not to order abundant surplus copies.
We used to order no more than ten extra copies per issue, but that was on a fairly small subscriber database of maybe 3000 customers - in general, the extra copies would provide just enough breathing space for the slow trickle of new customers, but occasionally we would get a few dozen joining up all at once - there was no option but to tell them to wait.
Yes, but I can’t imagine that the copies are just sitting around in a warehouse for 8 weeks or so…can’t they change the number of copies right before it goes to press?
It also doesn’t explain why there’s almost as long a delay (they mentioned 6 weeks, I believe) for weeklies. A magazine like US News & World Report, for example, has to be extremely timely, and so doesn’t have the luxury of a huge lead like the monthly mags.
I don’t know about the weeklies thing, but certainly it was never possible to increase an order right before production; whether this was because the whole system was, at that point, geared to producing a certain number of copies or whether it was just the publishers not wanting to make a rod for their own backs, I coulnd’t say for sure (although I suspect the latter; if people get to know that they can leave it until the last moment to place/confirm/amend their order, they will do exactly that and then the whole planning cycle falls apart).
I’ve worked in direct mail and the timeline can be similar. Since it was mailed 3rd class, bulk rate, everything would have to be prepared six weeks ahead of time – that would include all names being entered into the database.
If you were a little late, then you’d miss the mailing so you’d have to wait for the next one.
Printing is just a part of the process. There’s also all the stuff that goes on at the mail-house (not the post office, the “mail-house”). They are the guys who package everything together, label it with the proper address, make sure your list contains no duplicates, and then pre-sort everything before handing it off to the post-office. That takes time too.
Adding a handful of new names and addresses would interrupt the work flow much worse than you’d think. So it’s better to wait for the next batch.
Oh, and yeah, actually for mothlies at least the mags are often printed that far in advance.
When I am preparing a print ad for a monthly. All the digital artwork and copy must be submitted to the magazine 2-3 months ahead. Ten weeks is standard.
Weeklies are probably much, much more chaotic – it hurts my head to even think of how they manage.
Try dailies sometime. I’ve worked daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, and quarterly pubs.
You’re also forgetting that a great many of those subscription offers you see aren’t made by the publisher itself. Rather they’re made by a third party working for a cut of the take.
So your order…
Go to the marketing firm.
Who takes some time to submit it to the publisher
Who takes some time to get it into circulation
Which is already way ahead in terms of what issue is being prepared.
Which then goes to the USPS
Give em a break.
I think the truly amazing part is how long it takes a subscription to STOP coming to your house. I’ve received the warning letters, “We’re going to stop sending this in 3 months if you don’t re-subscribe” for a good nine months or so, before they send me the “final” issue like 6 times.
Well, um.
Let me clue you in on a secret.
That price you pay for the sub? It doesn’t generally pay for the paper, ink and postage. It just helps offset it.
What pays the freight is advertising. And to get those ad dollars you don’t want valuable subscribers dropping off. So you give them every opportunity to renew. You notify them early. The you offer them a ‘gift’. Then you offer them ‘grace’ issues so they won’t have an interruption in service.