Saving Money On Magazines

Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!

Traditional media have been declining for years, and magazines are no exception. In the US, magazine industry revenue has declined from a peak of $46 billion in 2007 to $26 billion in 2019.[1] Many major magazines (including The Atlantic, The New Republic, Newsweek, and the entire Time Inc family) have changed hands one or more times, generally with significant declines in quality or elimination of print editions altogether.

Unfortunately, many magazines and newspapers have responded by trying to squeeze more revenue out of their declining readership through increasing ad pages, raising newsstand prices (the New Yorker now costs $8.99!), and employing sketchy tactics to automatically renew subscriptions at very high prices (one of the many reasons I recommend an Annual Subscription Check-in).

And yet, many of us still enjoy print magazine subscriptions. We are partial to the New Yorker and Martha Stewart Living, and are occasional subscribers to The Economist and Real Simple. My wife still mourns the end of O Magazine. Here’s my playbook to spend as little as possible on these magazine subscriptions:

• First, use miles - Over time, I’ve accumulated small amounts of otherwise worthless miles on various airlines. When I subscribe to a magazine, I first check MagsForMiles to see if a subscription is available for miles. For example, a two-year subscription Martha Stewart Living is currently available through most of the programs for 600-1200 miles, worth less than $10-15 on most carriers (and worthless if, like me, you’ve accumulated about 1,500 United miles, nowhere near enough for a flight). Make sure not to provide any billing information when you subscribe so there is no way you are automatically billed for renewal.

• Next, look for promotional offers - Amazon commonly runs very attractive promotional offers on new subscriptions. For example, they currently offer a four-month subscription to the New Yorker for $0.99 (versus $50 at the New Yorker’s highest rate). The catch? These rates require that you sign up for automatic renewal at a much higher rate at the end of your promotional term. However, you can deactivate the automatic renewal right after signing up by simply going to Amazon’s Magazine Subscription Manager and cancelling the automatic renewal option.

• When all else fails, combine cashback with a deep-discount magazine site - There are tons of third-party magazine retailers online, some sketchier than others. I’ve used a few with success—in particular, DiscountMags and Magazines.com—to get great discounts. What’s great about these sites are that you can generally get cashback (see my Cashback Guide for more details) and use coupon codes in addition to the deep discount. For example, I recently combined 15% cashback and a 40% off coupon code on Magazines.com to purchase a one-year renewal of my existing New Yorker subscription for $51, about two-thirds off their typical rate. As previously mentioned, make sure to cancel any automatic renewals on subscriptions purchased through these sites, and be careful. I’ve had good experiences with DiscountMags and Magazines.com, but many of these sites are pretty sketchy.[2]

Purchasing magazine subscriptions can be a minefield of confusing promotional rates and sketchy autorenewals. Good luck!

And now…Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:

I immensely enjoyed this detailed piece on the history of the banana. Among my favorite facts:

• The first bananas imported into the United States in 1843 cost about $5 in today’s dollars. Today, the banana is the cheapest fruit or vegetable sold in the US (a great deal!)

• Despite the product being so cheap, actually growing bananas is not easy, requiring “14 consecutive months of frost-free, sunny weather”

• The United Fruit Company and the Standard Fruit Company controlled the banana trade in the Americas during the early 20th century, driving much of US policy toward Central America and resulting in the creation of many “banana republics”. Today, those two companies are best known as Chiquita and Dole.

I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.

[1] Source: Statista

[2] Note, this is not an endorsement of either of these sites - I am *not* compensated for anything I mention in this newsletter. I do this newsletter purely for fun and don’t make any money from it.