We just landed in St. Paul on our 6 day Midwest odyssey and I’ll have an update (with map) later. In the meanwhile, I’ve been grappling with the tough math of getting a year’s worth of a guitar magazine.
I bought a copy of Acoustic Guitar magazine in Duluth because 1) it’s quite good and 2) I hung out in the guitar store long enough that I felt I needed to buy something. The magazine sells for $4.95 and that is quite reasonable as a newstand price for a music periodical.
The problem comes in when you want to get a subscription. Subscriptions are normally cheaper than just buying a copy every month for 12 months. At the newstand price, it would cost you 12 x $4.95 = $59.40 a year.
When you go to the website, the deal they offer you is $21.95 for 8 issues, or a bit less than $2.75 an issue. For 12 issues, that would be a yearly price of $32.93, rounding up a bit. This is a better deal than buying 12 at the newstand.
If you have an issue in hand, the little subscription cards that fall on the floor tell a different story. To paraphrase the one I have but using the same numbers: “Get 12 issues for just $15! That’s only a buck a copy!”
When did “a buck” become $1.25?
I crossed out $15 and wrote in $12, and then circled “a buck a copy.” I’ll let you know how much they charge. I’m willing to pay the $15, but they need a copy editor pronto.
