Occasional Subscription

So I was walking down to the local shop to get my weekly paper when I thought about the whole subscription business and how it could be improved in a number of ways. In my mind, it melded together with the concept of a TravelTen.

For those not familiar with a TravelTen, it is a card that a commuter can buy for ten trips of a pre-determined length on a bus or a ferry. Buying the card gives the commuter a discount compared with buying ten trips separately and also makes it more convenient when boarding the bus as they just need to dip the TravelTen into the machine, which deducts one trip from their balance each time. Just like a debit card, actually, but with a fixed amount.

There are three main problems with the subscriptions business; threat of people stealing the paper/mag, missing out on special gifts and needing to organise a hiatus if you happen to be away or are just swamped by so much reading material that you cannot possibly find time to read the magazine this week.

But there are many benefits for a publishing house to have subscribers - the publisher knows they have a steady readership and can usually monitor the demographics of this readership to tailor suitable content and in turn 'sell' the readership to advertisers to ensure the publication's survival.

What I propose is a subscription card accepted by newsagencies and other places where magazines are sold whereby subscribers pay for a subscription to a magazine and every time they collect the publication from a store, they scan the card to deduct the number of issues left in the subscription. The card can be sold at a discount to reward prepayment and commitment, just like most subscriptions are now.

For the subscriber, this means:

• never having to risk having a paper/mag stolen (the reason I don't have a newspaper subscription);


• being able to get those 'free gifts' that often come with publications that don't get sent in the mail;


• collecting your paper/mag whenever you want (ie not in the mail but at the newsagency on your way home from work so you don't have to read mX on the train);


• not having to stop your subscription if you go on holidays; and


• fostering a good community relationship with the publication sellers

For the publisher, this means:

• retaining prepayment and commitment to the magazine for a given period;


• not paying for postage or dealing with mailhouses; and


• being able to track your subscribers' pick-up habits (e.g. where they picked up their issue, whether they missed an issue etc)

Some additional features to consider:

• having a particular expiry date e.g. for a monthly magazine, publishers might want to say the subscriber must collect 12 issues within an 18 month period to ensure they have turnover;


• loading more than one subscription onto one card so everything can be paid for in one transaction;


• sellers' commission for stocking the paper/mag and handling the card; and


• gifts that let the recipient choose the publication and/or a longer expiry date so that the publisher can see which issues appeal to the recipient

Somebody do this so I can reap the benefits of a cheaper subscription without having to wake up at the crack of dawn to get my paper (with the alternative that it gets stolen). And so when all the free CDs and stuff come around I don't have to see my newsagent, which is a suburb away and inevitably runs out of stock anyway. And so we can save petrol on paper men doing the rounds.