Are subscription magazines a con?

[Haze]

People still buy magazines?

 

[ACTM]

I pay £7.99 a month for Readly, i'm not entirely sure why anyone would buy a subscription to more than one magazine if there's services like that available.

 

[RobDogDog]

I took out a yearly subscription to Four Four Two. It work out at about £3 per issue and I pretty much read them cover to cover and then hand on to my girlfiriends brother in law so definitely get my moneys worth.

I used to get Gamesmaster (RIP) as well but felt that the quality started to dip towards the final years.

 

[Zatoichi.uK]

i see this a lot in this thread. I think while it seems a lot for a magazine(5.99+ etc) i dont think its actually more expensive in real terms than its ever been? Im sure pc zone was 3.99/4.99 in the 90’s (20+ years ago folks! ) i used to buy Atari st magazines and the were defo 4.99 and i thought that was expensive at the time, evan as a schoolboy.

It probably is equivalent in price, though even back in the mid 90s pre internet being readily available you'd get demo CDs on the front at least so it felt worth it. I just cannot spend £10 on a magazine I'll likely get 30 mins entertainment from. Retro Gamer with a sub is around £3 a copy so happy to pay that.

 

[Nevakonaza]

Never actually subscribed to any,However my old school friend use to be subbed to basketball mags which we were both into,he would read them,then give me it as hes read them so basically i got sub mags for free Wouldn't ever accept a penny lol from me the crazy guy.

 

[MonkeyBasher]

I think it depends on the target/content and you yourself.

I used to subscribe to SFX, Edge and PCGamer (print versions). All three are very reasonably priced if you subscribe for 12 months and you get a gift.
I then switched to digital SFX.
However, I work in tech so by the time they turned up I knew 99% of the news, had all ready checked out the new releases.
They all suffer horribly from being 33% adverts for other stuff as well, which I dont like in stuff I have paid for.

I expect the retro style mags, angling times, cross stitch posse massive etc would all be worthwhile if thats what floats your boat but for stuff thats easily accessible online and consumed quickly there is just no point.

 

[Lopéz]

I never subscribed, but I used to buy (without fail)

World Soccer
FHM
Loaded
Practical Classics
Fast Ford
Classic Ford
Max Power
Revs
Performance Bikes

Crazy, looking back. Must have cost a fortune over the years. This is all before the Internet was any good, obviously.

 

[Rexton]

I was subbed to What Hi Fi for a number of years, stopped when it became quite obvious the magazine is mostly paid reviews and promotions

 

[Rilot]

I'm amazed that magazine subscriptions are still a thing TBH.

Back in the day I have subscribed to:

Zzap64
Amiga Format
Future Music
Autocar
Auto Express
Bike
Performance Bikes
Classic American

 

[Liquidfox]

I used to sub to PC Gamer for many, many years until they cut off the demos as they stopped being a thing, the US arm of the company took over (relegating the UK reviewers mostly) then finally began publishing basically the entire mag online for free. Didn't see the point after that. I'd stopped playing games quite a while before but it was always a nice read.

 

[Skidder]

This prompted me to check and I have an active PC Gamer sub and haven't downloaded it since April. having said that it was £16 for the year so not bad

 

[ttaskmaster]

i used to sub to about half a dozen+ mags. back in the day Your Sinclair... In the past people would have written actual letters and awaited their publication in the coming months!

I actually did this and got my letter published in Your Sinclair - I even got to re-read it a couple of years back, when another member on here shared their collection of back issues.

People still buy magazines?

Mellow greetings, Lenina Huxley... and indeed they do.
They also still type with their fingers, walk to destinations, eat actual food, have conversations in person, and... even... *fluid transfer*. Would you believe that, eh!

Sometimes the old ways are just nicer.

 

[Karl]

I subscribed the "ride magazine" - motorcycle mag, in case that needs clearing up...

Always a good read, lots of long-term reviews of bikes, advice on maintenance jobs with lots of photos, and most importantly, loads of gear reviews where they put things like helmets, gloves, boots, jackets, trousers etc through their paces in terms of resistence, water-proof qualities and so forth, and recommend the one that's best value for money.

It's very expensive at about £4 for what I consider to be quite a small magazine, but if you're prepared to subscribe for a year and go through TopCashback, you can get it down to about £2.75 per issue. It's cheaper again if you go digital.

 

[Richard - London]

Switch to digital when i get the ipad, now i only get bbc focus.

 

[whitecrook]

I actually did this and got my letter published in Your Sinclair - I even got to re-read it a couple of years back, when another member on here shared their collection of back issues.

your sinclair was a bit crap though, in a funky skillo sort of way

Great article worth a read. https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/...e-injected-attitude-into-games-journalism-338

 

[ttaskmaster]

your sinclair was a bit crap though, in a funky skillo sort of way

It's what you get from a generation raised on The Young Ones!!

 

[vanpeebles]

I loved Your Sinclair, I still have most of mine, including the big final issue. I was absolutely gutted when they closed. I loved everything about it.

 

[wolfie138]

the ones I can never fathom are the "build a Terminator" [latest example] type - first issue is £1-99 and then £8-99 after, or such like - then you see the small print and it says there are 120 issues or such, you end up paying over a grand for a model kit you could probably get for half that in a dedicated shop/site.

 

[robgmun]

Zzap64

Best Mag ever. I used to buy it zealously and read it back to back several times every month. The cover art was the best of any magazine. At one point i had piles of issues and would still regularly read back issues. I was gutted when it finally ended, there's an online database of issues somewhere.

 

[G0G]

The Mrs got me the premier subscription for the Ultimate Collection series of 200AD for a birthday.Think it might go up to 90+ copies, up to 50+ at present. Great quality hardback comic book & graphic spine design.
2 copies a month for £20 & a quarterly limited edition figure + other extras I can’t list.
As a fan it’s value for money & once complete will be a collectors item.