Zac Echola is muffin but trouble

Think it: Maghound.com already screwing up and it’s not even live yet

Published on 09/07/08
by Zac Echola

Maghound, already hilariously misnamed the “Netflix for magazines” from Time, Inc., wants to give you an easy way to subscribe to magazines, in one central location, with the ability to swap out subscriptions from one magazine to another on a whim. The service will enable subscribers to explore magazines at the subscription price, rather than paying news stand prices.

But, from early reports of what the service will offer, I think they’re already heading into murky territory.

The price point stinks. According to USA Today, “users will pay about $5 a month for three magazines, $8 for five, $10 for seven and $1 for each additional. About 10% of titles, including some weeklies, will cost more.” That’s 3 magazines for $60 per year. What? Quick grab some subscription cards from your favorite magazines. Most cost less than $20 per year, right?

Let’s look at some numbers:

The best selling fashion and style magazines on Amazon are as follows:

  1. GQ - $12/year
  2. Vanity Fair - $15/year
  3. Glamour - $12/year
  4. Marie Claire - $8/year
  5. Lucky - $12/year

The price for these subscriptions totals $59. That’s two extra magazines for a dollar less than what Maghound will offer. In other words, with Maghound, you’d pay a 35% premium for the top three magazines, with the option of picking up one of the other two magazines in place of one of three you’ve already subscribed to.

At the $8 price point, or $96 per year, you’re in worse shape with those five magazines, paying a 38% premium on the subscription price. If I just went ahead and subscribed to the top five, that’s $37 I could spend on impulse magazine buys on the news stand.

To be fair, if you move further down the tail into more boutique subscriptions like Metro.Pop ($23 from their Web site), Gay Parent ($32 from Amazon) and Foreign Affairs ($44 from Amazon), you can save some serious cash. But you can save some serious cash by reading magazines that post their content online already (Atlantic, Wired and more magazines already do this. And many magazines have some of the most interesting bloggers on the net, so why bother with with the print product at all?)

Is the tail of any value without the head to drive large subscriber numbers? Time will tell.

There are more points I’d elaborate on, but Stephen J. Dubner has them all covered at the Freakonomics blog.

The end. Or is it?

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