Unvalued Non-Subscribers
I received a renewal notice for my subscription to Premiere magazine a while back. It said that because I was a valued subscriber I could renew my subscription for the special low price of $24.95. Out of curiosity, I visited the Premiere Web site to see how much people who are not “valued subscribers” have to pay nowadays. Here’s what I found:
| Valued Subscribers: | $24.95 |
|---|---|
| Unvalued Non-Subscribers: | $11.97 |
This happens all the time. Nearly every magazine that I subscribe to offers to renew my subscription at a “special low price” that is 25%-125% higher than the rate they’ll give to any schmoe who walks in off the street (or mails in one of those little subscription postcards, as the case may be…).
Is there any other industry that punishes its current customers as much as magazine publishers do? Can you imagine a salesman at a Honda dealership saying, “I saw that you drove up in a Honda Accord. We offer special pricing incentives to all of our valued Accord owners, so just add 40% to the price of any car you see on the lot.”
Yesterday, I went to cancel our subscription to Consumer Reports Online It’s a fine service, but we just didn’t end up using it enough to justify the cost. Near the end of the cancellation process it asked me if I’d be willing to keep my subscription if they dropped the price from $24.00/year to $18.00/year and I just sighed.
They didn’t give a damn about me when I was a “valued subscriber,” but as soon as I go to rejoin the unwashed masses I suddenly became someone worth showering with incentives.
I said, “No, thank you.” I can probably get them down to $11.97 if I play hard to get…
Comments
Jenny
Yeah. Story #1: I let a subscription lapse, and the company sent me a letter a month later offering me a renewal for half of what they’d quoted me before. Story #2: I called up Reader’s Digest to get a gift subscription for my father-in-law last Christmas, and they offered it to me for the FANTASTICALLY low price of $9.99 for 12 issues. But when I asked her how much it would cost to renew our own subscription, her answer—$24.95, but she’d give it to me for $16.95 because she could tell that I was a “valued reader.” Valued Reader Phhhtht!!