I am not the Customer

In the past, I have subscribed to assorted fashion magazines. Usually I wait until there is a sale. They are a bit tricky. Magazines automatically enroll you into continuous subscription. That means they renew your subscription by default. Often times that comes with a hefty price increase.

That's okay though. They end up having to bill me. And I always cancel. Usually they will try to get me to resubscribe. Nope. Not unless I get the good deal again. Today the good deals came in the mail. I got a letter from Heart Magazines. They publish a ton of magazines. Some I have not even heard of.

The offer was $5 yearly subscription to any of the many magazines they listed. I immediately signed up for Cosmopolitan. I have subscribed to that magazine a couple times in the past. I was happy when they did a big article on one of my favorite YouTubers - Emma Chamberlain.

Here is the thing though. At $5 a year, and 12 issues, that is just 60 cents per issue. The postage along probably costs way more than that. I think Cosmo is one of the thicker magazines too. So how does the publisher make any money at all? The answer is that I am not the customer. They work for the big companies that run ads in their magazines.

They just need me to be a "paying customer" so they can flaunt their subscription numbers to their advertisers. I think this is a fair trade. I get a monthly magazine for a bargain. It is chock full of pages, half of which are ads. I do actually look at the ads. Not that I can afford to buy any high end luxury brands. It is still fun though.