Magazine Subscriptions?

[agnosticpipe]

hobie1dog: I used to subscribe to The Absolute Sound and Stereophile for years. The Absolute Sound was a riot to read in the late 70s and early 80s. No advertisers so the chief editor, Harry Pearson used to insult readers on a fairly regular basis. And let's not forget Enid Lumley, one of the first female enthusiasts and a frequent contributor. Too much fun!

 

[snowyowl]

Go to a Barnes& Noble and see an incredible amount of magazines on just about every subject.

Nice that your B&N is still open, as they are closing more stores than opening (other bookstore chains gave up years ago; newsstands too).

There are also fewer magazine titles nowadays (another trending trend).

And this is likely why this timely thread with started. Thanks Nevada!
In magazines, both subscriptions and newsstand sales have been steadily declining.

A couple of exceptions: AARP The Magazine and Reader's Digest Large Print Edition... have sales "booming".

The biggest advertising dollar across the print world now comes from drug companies (not cars, etc).

 

[cosmicbobo]

Hobie1, Archive.org has like an almost complete collection of 73 Magazine in pdf format as well as about a hundred years of Popular Mechanics.
Pipes and Tobacco mag does take PayPal
Grit - Used to see ads for selling Grit when I was a kid. Always wanted to sell it. Glad to see it is still around. Stuck in a couple room house in urban madness, it's something that would be interesting to me, but to no end.
I read:

Mystery Weekly (actually a monthly, but they send you some stories weekly). It's sort of an Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, but I have found the stories better.
All About Space magazine, 3,00/month in Barnes&Noble Nook. Love Space stuff and old SciFi movies, fifties and sixties. No Star Wars Bar Scenes.
Had to trim monthly costs, so I had to nix Western Magazines.
Oh, and for a dollar a month I get a Hot Rod mag from B&N.

 

[snowyowl]

Around the half-century mark I did a reset and dumped my memberships and subscriptions. Thoreau: "Simplify, simplify"... and I was living a couple of miles from Walden Pond, it made sense.
Recently, I have subscribed to actual paper copies of:

Orion

Parabola

Wine Spectator

The Journal of Raptor Research

(with my paid subscription, I also have online access to get/share articles as PDFs for these)
Now, many things are online. Either behind a paywall or free.

Interestingly, libraries of all kinds are streaming... or otherwise online. My county system streams stuff. As a part of this 21st century stuff, they have a magazine newsstand service that not only allows streaming of over a hundred titles, but uses Zinio. I can download magazine issues to my desktop. And I can save them. Just like impulse buying an issue off the newsstand, it's mine to keep.

 

[nevadablue]

This is interesting. Quite a varied audience. BTW, I have a ham license still, but never use it.
OH, I went through the entire 'subscribe' BS, three times before I got it to work, but there was nothing but places for a credit card. No paypal. So I closed the screen and gave up. Then went looking for free PDF files and found a ton of good stuff on pipes and smoking. :clap:

 

[hobie1dog]

I'm still trying to find a local pipe guy that will give me a big-ass stack of pipe magazines.

 

[nevadablue]

I did get a note back from the Pipes and Tobacco magazine folks. Subscriptions don't use Paypal. The 'reason' is 'subscription issues', probably code for 'we want your credit card number to make renewals automatic'. At that point I gave up. No biggie. I have plenty to read after the search last night.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I get a few bicycle magazines that I don't read, a few jeweler's magazines, and a few home and garden magazines. I let a few of them just run out. I find that I subscribe thinking that I will love what they have to say, and end up with no time, nor patience for all of the advertisements and poorly written swill. I may thumb through the pictures while on the toilet, but other than that, they are mainly just for starting fires in my grill and fireplace.

 

[mayfair70]

Magazines eh? Very briefly subscribed to the following...
Ranger Rick - 70s

Discover - 80s

Omni - 80s

Smithsonian - 90's
Just recently cancelled my "Nun's Life" subscription. :mrgreen:

 

[elbert]

I may thumb through the pictures while on the toilet, but other than that, they are mainly just for starting fires in my grill and fireplace.

You buy expensive kindling, Cosmic. You could just cut out the middle man and use bank notes!

 

[jerry]

I have always liked magazines, and still do. Premier Guitar, Guitar Player, Acoustic Guitar, Vintage Guitar, Inc., Fast Company, Wired, Popular Science - I think that's it for now.

 

[unkleyoda]

Thrasher Magazine is the only one I get.

 

[ssjones]

I typically don't pay for Car & Driver or Road & Track. I get emails from "Mercury" magazines that offer free subscriptions, if you fill out a survey. Most of the time, they are for digital issues, which I do not like. But occasionally, it is for a hard-copy. My current R&T is free. My paid C&D subscription ran out in July, but yesterday, Mercury sent me a survey to get a hard-copy, so that should start in September. I skeptical at first, but it works and I've been doing this with them for around 10 years now.
I tried digital subscriptions to read on my Kindle Fire, but to me, it was awful. I also can't read a paper in digital format. A buddy from high school just left the CFO position at Zinio, I guess that is the wave of future. At some point,I may have to adapt.

 

[ssjones]

Interestingly - I have not yet heard of anyone sub'ing National Geographic. As a kid, my father never let his subscription run out and he bought nearly all of the Nat Geo books as well. Nat Geo is located in nearby Rockville MD and a few of my HS classmates have worked there for many years (now starting to retire).

 

[snowyowl]

I tried digital subscriptions to read on my Kindle Fire, but to me, it was awful. I also can't read a paper in digital format. A buddy from high school just left the CFO position at Zinio, I guess that is the wave of future. At some point,I may have to adapt.

The key to learning how to enjoy magazines electronically, with Zinio or other reader-software, is getting the size up to actual. Or as close to that as possible. I have Zinio on my iPhone, but not even a big tablet is big enough... so in both of those viewing sizes = useless IMO.

In fact I think a 24" monitor is the minimum. Otherwise you are spending too much time and effort making it readable and navigable.

The big monitor view let's you do what we mostly do with a magazine at first: flip through all the pages once, to see what's what.

National Geographic

A couple of their magazines are available through my library system's online newsstand, so when I see an interesting issue I just download it.

Ah, the exotic locations and exotic breasts of National Geographic back in the day, before the Internet co-opted the latter.

 

[mcitinner1]

I get National Geographic, Smithsonian, Readers Digest, Reminisce, Rem Extra, Good Old Days, and the Saturday Evening Post.