Oct 09 2007
Magazine Fallout
I stopped subscribing to magazines.
I was never big on magazine subscriptions in the first place. I have enough to read as it is and magazines usually end up as clutter.
Or bathroom decor. Yeah.
Admit it. Unless you have a fiber-rich lifestyle, you catch up on your reading in the bathroom.
The few magazines I have subscribed to have been Consumer Reports (at a dollar an issue, it was tough to beat) and Gourmet (back when I wanted to be a chef).
However, I was recently given a gift subscription to a magazine from one of the hotel loyalty programs. Last year I was really loyal!
I just received my first issue. I am flipping through it and at annoying intervals stuff starts falling out.
I’ve flipped through magazines at airport bookstores to kill time. I’d forgotten about all the times I’ve had to stoop down to pick up the exhortations to subscribe. They never fall out all at once, either. They seem to be timed to fall just when you begin to straighten up.
I want to relax while reading. I don’t want a workout.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
hehehe, I know what you mean. They used to put them on a perforated page so you could tear them out at your choosing. I miss those days.
I’ve never understood those cards that fall out. Especially when I already have a subscription. Do I need more cards asking me to subscribe to something I already receive? I say save it for someone who is buying it off of a shelf. It’s a waste of paper.
The trick is to pick up the magazine by the binding and shake it over a trash bin. All of the annoying cards and inserts will fall away!
Susan Q: Yes! I also recall those days as well. I haven’t read a new magazine in so long that I had forgotten about the fallout.
UT: I feel the same way as you - why are asking me to subscribe and WHY SO MANY freakin’ times? Plus they ask me to “tell a friend” … yeah, like a friend will remain so after that
They also recommend other magazines they publish.
Of course, some people don’t subscribe and buy them in the bookstores or newsstands. But still - if you are interested in the magazine, you’d LOOK for the subscription material, you don’t need to have all these cards come out. What I don’t get is what type of machine they are using to jam these cards in. I mean, they only fall out when you’re flipping, not during the delivery process!
HMTKSteve: Yeah, I’ll do that next time! Except, over the recycle bin. I only have 9 more issues to go.
I don’t think of my diet as especially fiber rich, but I never read in the bathroom! My son on the other hand would probably spend half his born days in there. He even dropped his game boy in the toilet once.
I used to like magazines, but apparently I’ve switched to blogs…I only get one anymore & it happens that I’m signed up for a lifetime subscription, so hopefully I’ll be taking it for awhile.
Jill: I wonder if “reading on the pot” is a male thing or well, more of a male thing. I mean, sitcoms will show the husband/father holding a magazine or newspaper and telling the family that “he’s going to go to his office.” or something like that.
Most people’s bathrooms have a basket of magazines on the floor or a stack of ‘em on the toilet. Or sometimes people will have a few small books. But I would guess if you had to read a book, you should “light a candle” (most bathrooms have a candle even if there isn’t a shower or tub!). Yes, my bathroom has a candle. No magazines though.
You son dropped his Game Boy in the toilet? Huh.
Friends have given me really cool magazine subscriptions. One was to a writer’s magazine - something like 4 issues total with stories and writers resources. Another was something like “Modern Home” which discussed modern art as well as furnishings and artwork from the Modern Art period. I like many of the classic Modern pieces. That had maybe 6 issues for the year. My friends pick well!
Hmmmm. The primary magazine I subscribe to doesn’t have any of that junk in it. Of course, it’s only 10 months old, so I suppose I should give them time to start putting that crap in there. (For the curious, it’s Beer Advocate.)
Oh, yeah. There’s all the work crap I subscribe to as well. None of them have that stuff either, but it’s so easy to get subscriptions to computerworld, network world, etc. They give that stuff away to pump up the circulation so they can charge more for advertising.
I do remember all that insert crap they toss in the mags, and I do find it annoying as well. I don’t even look at it, but they’ve got to figure that’s the case with most folks.
I want to know how the magazine companies found out how to keep the cards inside the magazine during mailing, only to have them fall out after they arrive in our homes.
ack: I noticed the smaller (e.g. not many readers/subscribers) or specialty magazines don’t have the fallout. I am not sure how many people actually look at the fallout although sometimes the deals are pretty good (like a dollar an issue seems good when compared with the “bookstore” rate).
Jake: That is exactly what I have been wondering. I figure there’s some special machine that inserts the ads in the binding to a certain depth as the magazine is being printed and “bound”.
I think subscribing to magazines are a waste of time. They seem to just clutter up a space and then the dust comes right after. I’d rather select a magazine that I would like to read. Thanks for your commentary!!!
D-S Mankind: Yeah, I would rather just select the particular issue I want instead of cramming up my mailbox. And you’re right - they usually add to the clutter.
Thanks for stopping by (you’re even more of a mystery than UT!)
Note: D-S Mankind is a contributor to Urban Observation.
Did you also notice how smelly some magazines can be with the perfume and cologne ads where they provide a “sample.” Ah the aromas.
Ricardo: Eee! I’d forgotten about those perfume samples. Ick. I think those only come in fashion magazines and the gender-based ones (Maxim has cologne, Cosmo has perfume?) I only read those type of mags in waiting rooms.
I don’t mind a little bit of scent on a man or woman but most people just overdo it. It’s a fine line and too many people cross it!
I used to subscribe to far too many computer magazines and decided one had to go. I kept track of how many of those blow-in cards fell out one month and the magazine that dropped the most out I cut from the line-up.
delmer: is that how those cards are inserted? Via some blow-in machine? Huh! You are living up to your IT/geek (had to read through a few post to double-check!) self and being very methodical about figuring out what magazines to stop subscribing to.
I wouldn’t think “blow in cards” would be the defining “content” of a magazine!
I double checked and found this:
http://www.nextmark.net/glossary/definition.jsp?glossaryTermId=a0800000000DhydAAC
I had to drop the high-blow-in magazine for safety concerns as much as anything else (and the content of computer mags is often very similar from mag to mag).
Due to the nature of where I do most of my reading (and you allude to it in your post) I had to minimize the number of cards that might fall out of a magazine and onto me … paper cuts are never comfortable.
delmer: wow!! Thanks for passing that on! I love learning “how things work” or “why is that”??
Aaah, yes, there is a lot to be said about LOCATION (all sorts of levels going on here)
Maxim is NOTORIOUS for those smelly cards. I would pick an issue up now and then if I had a trip down to NYC on the train. the smell would embed itself in my nostrils for the whole day which may have been a blessing in disguse considering some of the…..”aromas”…….NYC can dish out.
Ricardo: Maxim is so funny. I wonder if it lowers the male self-image in the same way Cosmo does for women. I mean, doesn’t every issue have some way to harden your abs? Do people even wear cologne or perfume these days? I rarely smell any and when I do, it’s usually some fruity scent on a young woman.