Time Inc. plans to launch Maghound this September, and from Folio’s description of how it will work, I’m interested:
Maghound.com allows consumers to choose titles from a variety of publishers for a mix-and-match “subscriptions” where they pay one monthly fee and have the ability to switch titles at any time. Unlike traditional subscriptions, members aren’t locked in their memberships and can cancel whenever they wish…
The pricing for a membership is tiered–three titles for $3.95 per month, five titles for $7.95, seven titles for $9.95, and $1 per title for eight titles or more. Titles that have a non-discounted traditional sub rate of around $19 or more per year are considered “premium” titles and will have an extra $2 fee per month (10-15 percent of titles fall in this category). First-time users will also be eligible for a free one month trial.
Some folks have questioned the concept by asking how many people want to change their magazine subscriptions mid-year.
I have no statistically significant answer, but speaking personally, I’d love to be able to switch my subscriptions around and judging by the crawl on its Web site, Maghound has a pretty good selection.
Why do I often find myself wanting to switch from one magazine to another? Two reasons.
Some magazines focus so narrowly on a topic that the eventually run out of new things to say about it. Long-time readers may keep getting new issues, but they’re not learning much they haven’t read before.
Men’s Health falls into this category for me.
Other magazines have the opposite problem, changing so much that they drift outside my sphere of interest or stop suiting my tastes.
GQ would be a good example here. It’s gone from being a general-interest men’s magazine to an odd combination of dubious fashion advice for would-be hipsters (near skin-tight suites) and angry political pieces.
I’d love to switch both subscriptions, but I can’t do it easily, so I’m stuck with two magazines I no longer enjoy. Maghound sounds like a good option for fickle folks like me.
Stephen Dubner, writing in the always interesting Freakonomics blog, notes another advantage that Maghound will hold over traditional magazine subscriptions:
To me, one of the biggest advantages of something like Maghound is far more prosaic: having one channel through which to handle all your magazine subscriptions, rather than having to hassle with that constant flood of mail from every magazine, reminding you 4 or 6 times that your subscription will be expiring in a mere 12 months.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Entries (RSS)