Magazine Subscription Price Madness

Leebobs

Fellow MoneySavers,

I was looking to subscribe to Mens Health magazine instead of buying it each and every month and noticed this bizarre pricing policy:

Subscribe via the Mens Health Website
11 Issues of Mens Health = £26
11 Issues of Mens Health + 12 Issues of Esquire (Which I also read every now and then) = £26 + 15 = £41

Subscribe via the Esquire Website
However, on the Esquire website (remember this is the same publisher):
12 Issues of Esquire = £18
12 Issues of Esquire + 11 Issues of Mens Health = £18 + 15 = £33!

Same products, same subscription length, same publisher, two different prices with a total 20% price difference to boot.

Digital Subscription via Zinio
Now, I really wanted them digitally on my iPad. 11 Issues of Mens Health (with no printing and delivery costs) = £29.99?!?? Is Esquire free with that you ask? No that would be an additional £34.99 for 12 issues.

Are they mad? It costs the publisher less to provide digital copies and they charge £64.98 for something which is available for £33 in physical format.

Anyhow, I will be subscribing through the Esquire Offer... now can I Quidco that?

Leebobs

DCFC79

I can understand the price diff between esquire site and mens health as even though they are same pub they get different offers, ive never thought of seeing if 2 subscriptions are cheaper on the other magazines website

juno

I used to subscribe to a magazine, but when I got my renewal it would have cost more than the cover price so I cancelled.

paddyrg

Just about the whole cost of a magazine is in the writing and publishing, with a few extra pennies for a longer print run. The shops then take a slice, so the trick is to get as many direct sales as possible however much you have to discount. Deeper discounts for upselling the second mag to the cheaper crowd makes sense - it's all free money (relatively).

I suspect the electronic version is only marginally cheaper to 'print' with a smaller distro, attracts VAT, and has a rude 30% commission for iTunes/whoever. This is why the FT of all people decided to bypass iTunes as all the (minor) savings of the soft copy were more than eaten up by the horribly high distributor costs.