Why should I have to pay for something that is swimming in ads and has such a slow cycle? I can go into the local bookstore chain and read the ones I want for free on a lazy Sunday. This industry needs some serious change!

3% is an average for an industry that has relied on gimmicks to sell a sub-par (on average) print product.

@1 I agree, digital magazines have way too many ads. I really hate those flashing ones.

Only the magazine industry thought tablets were going to save the magazine industry. And maybe Steve Jobs believed it.

#3

It's not just ads, it's the whole design. Most magazines design websites...that look like magazines! They put a gigantic image or Flash thingy on the front, and then big pictures in a side bar, all the while you're trying to figure out what the articles are about.

I point out: the most successful (as in well used) websites in the world...Google, Yahoo, Craigslist, Reddit, Amazon, Facebook .. are essentially text-based, not image-based, and cram lots and lots of little tiny clickable text all over the page. Why? Because people aren't stupid...they can read. They can scan. They know what they want to see.

@1 - What local bookstore?

@1: I'm sure the bookstore will be there for a long time with patrons like you.

When anyone can turn their opinions into content, it makes it harder to justify spending $25 a year to get the latest effluvia from the New York literati echo-chamber.

I am not going to pay for content geared toward a wide audience when I can get more narrowly tailored content for free.

I really don't understand how anyone things delivering week-old news and advertisements for hideous watches constitutes a legitimate business these days.

why would i buy an online magazine when there are literally millions of websites and blogs (available for free) that update multiple times per day instead of once per month?