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The Magazine Subscription problem
I subscribe to many many magazines and I love them all. I was recently very disappointed to learn that I had missed two issues of The New York Review of Books.
My problem is that magazines send me multiple renewal notices. Being a busy guy, or at least an inattentive guy, I don't know if I have already renewed. Or I fear I will renew yet again a week later when the next notice comes.
So I get a renewal notice and I am suspicious. Should I send in a check? Should I wait? I know I'll get another one.
No, I'm not willing to type the information into my iPhone. I want an optimal rule for deciding "on the fly." I'm still trying to figure out a) their optimal sending policy, b) my optimal response policy, and c) what the market equilibrium looks like.
It would work if they would credibly signal to send renewal notices no more frequently than every five weeks. Then I could always renew. I would never get a multiple notice because they would have processed my check already. But they send more frequently than that. Plus infrequent notices would mean that a multiplicity of notices would have to start truly early in the subscription cycle, and that might cause readers to dismiss the value of such notices altogether.
Another part of the problem is that many people are uncertain renewers. So every renewal notice must be breathless, even though I require only simple reminders and a scream only toward the end, when an actual subscription lapse is approaching.
I would describe my current strategy as "write a check only if their current plea really really makes it sound like this is the last minute before expiration." This cannot be a stable solution over time and indeed it is why the market has brought such an inflation of warning signs.
I believe that many acquaintances face similar problems in trying to maintain their friendly relationships.
Here is my previous post The Tennis Ball Problem.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 12, 2007 at 07:49 AM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
As a humble operator of a fry-a-lator, I am on a modest budget but also enjoy periodicals for both their insight into current events and for their utility as non-slip matts at my station.
The easy answer is to pick a month and renew all your periodicals then. If on a food-service budget, use the wholesalers on Ebay.
There, you can get the Economist for 50 bucks a year and similar savings on almost everything. (Science News is the only magazine I subscribe to where I could not find it significantly cheaper there) You gotta give them a month or two lead time, so don't wait till the last minute. They work out great, the only problem I have ever had was a bit of confusion when I ordered several from the same vendor (one was forgotten).
I think this problem is much like the Moroccan guide from your book: nothing to be done but go with it.
Posted by: burger flipper at Dec 12, 2007 8:17:33 AM
There is usually a subscription expiration date near the upper right corner on the mailing label.
Posted by: Lance at Dec 12, 2007 8:38:31 AM
a good idea, senor flipper. alternatively, you can just write down whenever you send the check in on a spreadsheet, or set a reminder in outlook/gcal/apple calendar with yearly repeat.then, reminder pops up, you (snooze if necessary for a day, then) go online, renew subscription...
the dishes are done.
Posted by: shawn at Dec 12, 2007 8:40:23 AM
As an additional complication, I've run into outfits who want to renew your subscription who aren't really representing the magazine.
Posted by: Bill Harshaw at Dec 12, 2007 8:43:06 AM
I have the same problem, and while many magazines carry an expiration date on the label, if they do not I periodically simply let the subscription expire just to see when it will actually run out. That only really works though because I am willing to miss an issue or two (or read them at Borders).
Posted by: Tucker at Dec 12, 2007 8:52:36 AM
Its an interestingly American problem.
Most of the UK subscriptions I've got are paid annually by Direct Debit - ie automatically from my bank account - which means I don't have to lift a finger. In advance of renewal, or if they change their rates, then they write to you telling you whats going on - sufficiently far in advance to cancel if you wish. Otherwise they simply take the money on the due date.
Only for the New Yorker and National Geographic do I have to do something - and its annoying.
For these two I have simple policy: I respond to the first reminder. I know that that means they have cash in the bank for slightly longer, but its an easier control over what I've responded to.
(Incidentally, most of my subscriptions are to charities who give me benefits as well as however many issues of their magasine. That means there aren't cheaper options elsewhere for the same thing).
Posted by: ian at Dec 12, 2007 8:57:37 AM
Like Shawn, I pay by check and put the expiration date as a note in my financial program, so I don't have to dig up a copy to find the expiration date on the address block - at least one computer mag I get seems to send your copy out in a plastic bag you're likely to throw away concurrently with renewal notices months or years before your subscription expires. Another thing to try: become a new subscriber, rather than renewing your old subscription - I was able to get three years with one financial magazine for the price of their one year renewal rate by becoming a new subscriber (actually, my cat is the new subscriber, but you get the idea). This method also insulates you against the third party renewal scam Bill speaks of, though those are pretty easy to spot given the obscenely high renewal price.
Posted by: J at Dec 12, 2007 9:09:14 AM
Like Shawn, I pay by check and put the expiration date as a note in my financial program, so I don't have to dig up a copy to find the expiration date on the address block - at least one computer mag I get seems to send your copy out in a plastic bag you're likely to throw away concurrently with renewal notices months or years before your subscription expires. Another thing to try: become a new subscriber, rather than renewing your old subscription - I was able to get three years with one financial magazine for the price of their one year renewal rate by becoming a new subscriber (actually, my cat is the new subscriber, but you get the idea). This method also insulates you against the third party renewal scam Bill speaks of, though those are pretty easy to spot given the obscenely high renewal price.
Posted by: J at Dec 12, 2007 9:09:17 AM
There desperately needs to be direct debit auto-rebill for magazine subscriptions in the US, just like there is for web-site subscriptions.
Posted by: Dave at Dec 12, 2007 9:23:22 AM
Tyler, Your current strategy is fine, but at the end of this comment [under the fold?] I'll make a suggestion anyway.
Some magazines send an unpaid issue at the end of your subscription, "just in case you sent your renewal payment but we missed it." If extra issues are prevalent among magazines, then this should be a good renewal strategy for consumers. But even if they're not, you should still be fine.
It's like the old story attributed to Henry Kissinger, where an aide submitted a white paper to him, and Kissinger kept writing "Please Revise" on it until the aide said "I can't revise it any more," at which point Kissinger said, "Okay, I'll read it now."
The breathless reminder tactic is akin to panhandling, but it's also a reinforcement tactic. A renewal is not an impulse purchase. It is easy to let a renewal lapse. So the breathless reminders are a combination of aggressive marketing and panhandling. So the real question isn't why the current scheme is unstable, the real question is whether this tactic is in fact more profitable than simply using direct debit.
If you're still not happy with any of this, then here's a suggestion, similar to renewing all subscriptions at the same time, but letting you spread payments and check-writing labor over the course of the year. Use your telephone keypad as a reminder. Pay for all magazines beginning with A, B or C in February; DEF in March, and so on.
Posted by: Hovie at Dec 12, 2007 9:43:35 AM
I agree that magazines should auto update subscriptions. Every one else does so why not the print media types. Keep it coming until I tell you not to. It is probably better for them as far as readerships. And it can all be done with plastic. Who uses checks anymore?
Posted by: Steven Augustine at Dec 12, 2007 9:50:46 AM
I once performed the experiment of sending a check in response to every single solicitation that one particular magazine sent me. I renewed for six years before giving up the experiment. The solicitations kept coming.
Posted by: alkali at Dec 12, 2007 10:04:27 AM
On the other hand, you can count your time as valuable and the time value of low amounts of money as basically worthless, and take the time now to renew all your favorite magazine for say 5 years. Then just ignore them all for the few years.
That way you'll save scarce time and attention
Posted by: OneEyedMan at Dec 12, 2007 10:12:01 AM
As a professional fundraiser I've found that a plainly visible expiration date improves response rates to renewal notices.
A very definite (month/day/year) threat of expiration is a great incentive.
Posted by: Peter Forrester at Dec 12, 2007 10:17:47 AM
As some people said, you can find the expiry date somewhere. So make a rule that you renew when you get a renewal letter and the expiry date is, say, 2-4 weeks in the future. If you then get a renewal letter with an expiry date less than 2 weeks in the future, assume you forgot to renew according to the rule and renew.
Posted by: aaron at Dec 12, 2007 10:34:26 AM
I check the expiration date and write it on the outside of the envelope which is hysterically screaming "You're ABOUT TO EXPIRE! Only NINE MORE MONTHS LEFT!"
Then when the next one comes in, I rubber-band it with the first one. And so on. Then when it's time to renew, I jam as many of these suckers into their Business Reply Mail envelope as I can because I used to work BRM for the University of New Mexico and I know what it's going to cost them. Alas, my snarky notes only get as far as some poor mailroom clerk who has nothing to do with the Marketing Department's policy.
Posted by: Pat Mathews at Dec 12, 2007 10:49:40 AM
A friend of mine recently discovered a nice way of managing his magazine subscriptions: let Amazon do it. If you subscribe to a magazine through Amazon, they send you an email when your sub is nearly up, you 1-click to re-up, and you're done.
Posted by: jkottke at Dec 12, 2007 11:21:07 AM
use a tickler file as suggested by David Allen in GTD
Posted by: henry at Dec 12, 2007 11:26:35 AM
Like so much else in the world, this is partly a tax thing. Publishers (unlike most taxpayers) don't have to include subscription payments in income until the publications are sent. So when you prepay, they get to use the tax portion of the payment for a while. It's like an interest-free loan from the government to them. This gives them an incentive to get you to subscribe early.
Posted by: Alan Gunn at Dec 12, 2007 11:27:18 AM
Switch to newspapers, the ad supported model means they hate to lose subscribers, so even when you don't renew they keep sending them to you. I renew when they call me to offer a nice discount, 3 months after the subscription ends.
Posted by: nelsonal at Dec 12, 2007 11:27:38 AM
Tyler
You clearly have too much time on your hands if you have time to think about magazine subscription renewals, let alone write about same. Come to think of it, have time to even read the stuff you receive.
Which brings me to: Given the massive volume of reading you profess to, I am repeatedly amazed by what this says for the amount of "free" time professors have, by extension how little time is spent actually teaching (yes yes I know all about the imperatives of research), and what this implies for the cost escalation to the end user.
An interesting topic for you would be an examination of how the University system might be remade, for the benefit of students. I am assuming here that greatest portion of benefits today are delivered to the institution in the first place (branding and power being standard institutional goals) and secondly the tenured professorship.
My first thought, why not organize it more like High School, where teachers ostensibly are paid to teach students. These new college teachers can stay current by having ample paid time to continue study with researchers - most of today's University professors.
Perhaps this is just the dreaded TA system that no one likes.
It does raise the question though as to why a University education at all. There must be more to it than the signaling factor. At least I would envision something that aspires to more than that.
Posted by: martin at Dec 12, 2007 12:35:53 PM
Hire a part-time personal assistant to handle all the minutiae.
You only need about 6 tennis balls if you have a ballperson to pick up after you.
That way you can focus your efforts on more productive work and/or play.
Posted by: Pitt at Dec 12, 2007 12:39:16 PM
The NRA does this too. Getting plea after plea to renew my membership, even just 5 months into the year, made me ignore them entirely and my membership lapsed. USPSA on the other hand send me just a simple postcard once a year a month before my membership is set to expire, upon receipt of which I send in my renewal.
At some point in the past I bought 3 years of Reason magazine and have since disregarded all renewal notices. I don't even know when it's set to expire. I have an inkling it might even have passed already and they just keep sending it...
Posted by: Noah Yetter at Dec 12, 2007 12:47:35 PM
I read magazines for free online or at the library. That takes care of that.
Posted by: Jason Malloy at Dec 12, 2007 1:01:08 PM
My policy: wait until the subscription has expired and they call me on the phone to negotiate a renewal rate. it works wonderfully. and no, no one has yet noticed that I do this every year.
Surprised no one has commented on the price discrimination involved here. Every renewal offer I get drops in price as the final deadline approaches. After the deadline, you can generally renew at the teaser rates used to lure new customers. I've always assumed the multiple notices aren't desperation but a way to separate out the highly-committed/price-insensitive people who are afraid to miss an issue. The early renewers do even worse if you consider the value of the option they are sacrificing.
I wonder how many of the people with low teaser rate mortgages were playing the same game: always refi at the last possible moment, as long as housing prices were stable enough to allow the refi.
Posted by: DK at Dec 12, 2007 1:39:46 PM
