Subscribing vs buying off of the shelf

[steve simmons]

As a rule, and each publication is a little different, the publisher gets more money and the reader pays less if they take out a subscription. In the case of View Camera, a US subscription costs 25.00 and if you buy 4 issues a year off the shelf you will pay 28.00 plus your time and gas. Other publications will have a different balance but buying off the shelf is always more expensive.

The reason for this is that retail copies will cost the full cover price which is more to the buyer but the bookstore and distributor take their cuts. Because a subscriber gets his/her directly from the publisher they will pay less than the cover price.

Out of the country subscribers do get hit with additional costs because of postage and there is always the uncertainty of out of the country mailing. View Camera has set up distributors for subscribers in Canada, the UK, Europe, and the Far East in Australia and China. We ship to these distributors directly and they distribute to their subscribers in their respective countries. This has worked much better for all parties. We also have a system for out of the US people to subscribe to an electronic version which they download from the View Camera web site. We post the articles individually to keep the file size manageable. This saves the subscriber the cost of postage but does require them to download the magazine.

steve simmons
www.viewcamera.com

 

[doughowk]

The only magazine I plan on renewing is View Camera. The others, including Lenswork, have become less important to me. I recently went thru the previous issues in my collection (about 6 yrs worth), and found articles that continue to be important for my photography. Keep up the good work.

 

[jovo]

As a rule, and each publication is a little different, the publisher gets more money and the reader pays less if they take out a subscription.

Yes, but many people don't choose to buy every issue of any magazine off the shelf. Rather they buy just the few issues that seem worthwhile. There are very, very few magazines that are consistently interesting enough to me to merit a subscription. When one comes along like that, I do indeed subscribe. The current View Camera that I just bought off the shelf (the one with Jim Galli's portfolio....November, I think) is a good one. Were they all of that quality I'd subscribe in a heartbeat.

 

[steve simmons]

In the case of View Camera, a US subscription of 6 issues costs 25.00 and if you buy 4 issues a year off the shelf you will pay 28.00 plus your time and gas.

Just so you know.

steve

ps

Jim Galli's article was in the Sept/Oct issue

 

[roteague]

I generally buy magazines off the shelf at the bookstore, simply because I can normally get the magazine a week or two earlier than if I subscribed.

 

[Vaughn]

Thanks! I needed the reminder to renew -- even tho I got a reminder-postcard in the mail also!

Vaughn

 

[Photo Engineer]

I buy at the store.

Here is my reasoning.....

When I buy at the store, they think there is interest in the subject and they are encouraged to have analog photo mags on the shelf. This may get the young and curious interested or the old and digitally jaded reinterested.

Being on store shelves with exposure is important to analog.

PE

 

[jgjbowen]

I buy at the store.

Here is my reasoning.....

When I buy at the store, they think there is interest in the subject and they are encouraged to have analog photo mags on the shelf. This may get the young and curious interested or the old and digitally jaded reinterested.

Being on store shelves with exposure is important to analog.

PE

Amen!