At what Cover Price do you Drop?

[Alzrius]

I'll always subscribe. I dislike picking them up off the newsstands, since that seems too "hit or miss" for my tastes.

 

[Sammael]

Before I subscribed, I was getting it at a magazine store for a price of around 900 dinars - roughly 11 euros, or $14. The subscription has halved that cost.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Dungeon is easily worth the subscription price and I do plan on subscribing again before the year is up. So even if it went up to $10 an issue it would be worth it for me.

Dragon....not so much.

 

[Stormborn]

After picking up only a few issues at cover price a couple of years ago I started subscribing. I do occassionally buy magazines that cost more than Dragon's cover price, but they are not things I buy every issue of.

My first thought reading this thread title was "Why? What have you heard?"

 

[sjmiller]

With extremely rare exception, if I have to pay more than $5 for an issue, either subscription or newstand, I am not buying it. I do not think there's any periodical I would buy above that price.

 

[mhensley]

Same here. I don't pay more than $5 for any magazine.

Amen, brother.

 

[James Jacobs]

This is an interesting thread. One question... several people have mentioned that 5 bucks is their cap for a magazine: why is this? What would a magazine have to do to get you to spend more than 5 bucks on it? Or is it just a matter of principle about the fact that magazines tend to be on flimsy paper stock and filled with ads?

 

[sckeener]

I'm a subscriber.

..... but if I was picking up month to month, for Dungeon I'd go as high as $15 and for Dragon I'd go as high as it is, $8.

admittedly though that would mean I wasn't picking up every issue so their annual profit and my annual expense from Dragon/Dungeon would be less than $8/$15 per month.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I used to work for a niche publishing company, so let me share something about that industry:

* You can have a cheap publication filled with ads. (See: Computer Shopper, any bridal magazine; or similarly, company-sponsored research pieces.)

OR

* You can have an expensive publication with few or no ads.

(And if you want to see really expensive, how about $1,000 + for a year's subscription to some of the top, industry-specific research oriented publications that accept no advertising.)

$8 an issue is an incredible bargain for Dragon and Dungeon, considering that they are in full color and have relatively few ads.

 

[DaveMage]

With regard to magazines, I don't buy them in the store. The only exception is Consumer Reports, which I will pick up occasionally (about 1 per year).

I subscribe to Dragon (and Dungeon). If I didn't subscribe, I wouldn't buy them at all. At $8 a pop, that's $96/year (plus tax).