Saving Money on Magazines (Updated)
Welcome to Saving Money with Andrew!
The magazine industry continues to decline, with magazine industry revenue nearly cut in half from its 2007 peak of $46 billion to less than $24 billion in 2020.[1] And a ~50% decline masks even worse print readership trends. The industry has generally tried to make this up by raising newsstand prices (a New Yorker is $8.99) and using sketchy tactics to automatically renew subscriptions at very high prices after an enticing introductory rate.
Despite all this, we still love the New Yorker and Martha Stewart Living, and are occasional subscribers to The Economist, Real Simple, and Vogue. Here’s my playbook to spend as little as possible on magazine subscriptions:
First, check your local library’s resources - My local library is a member of Overdrive (and Libby, the companion app). Through that, we can access free online issues of most major magazines, as well as tons of free audiobooks and eBooks. I’ve also used Kanopy for free movies. Of course, most libraries have print magazines too.
Next, use miles if possible - 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, though the selection has become embarrassingly slim recently. Do not provide any billing information when you subscribe so there is no way you can be 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 three-month subscription to the New Yorker for $5. The catch? These rates require that you sign up for automatic renewal at a much higher rate at the end of your promotional term. Reverse this by deactivating automatic renewal immediately by going to Amazon’s Magazine Subscription Manager and cancelling automatic renewal for the magazine.
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. In the past, I’ve used 15% cashback plus 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 the typical rate. As previously mentioned, immediately cancel any automatic renewals on subscriptions purchased through these sites, and be careful. I’ve had good experiences with DiscountMags and Magazines.com, but some of these sites can be questionable.[2]
Purchasing magazine subscriptions can be a minefield of confusing promotional rates and sketchy practices. Good luck!
And now, Andrew’s pick(s) of the week:
Despite debuting in 2019, I’d never heard of Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive until a week ago. All of a sudden, it seems almost everyone I know is watching it, and for good reason. It’s great!
Also: Who owns Einstein? The battle for the world’s most famous face (ht: The Browser).
[Einstein’s] earnings in life were insignificant compared to his earnings in death. From 2006 to 2017, he featured every year in Forbes’ list of the 10 highest-earning historic figures – “dead celebrities” in the publication’s rather diminishing term – bringing in an average of $12.5m a year in licensing fees for the Hebrew University, which is the top-ranking university in Israel. A conservative estimate puts Einstein’s postmortem earnings for the university to date at $250m.
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.