• Mr. Magazine blog, Tuesday, September 13, 2011 11:45 AM

The self-described "Mr. Magazine," Samir Husni, is mad as hell about "the insane American Magazine Business Model" of undervaluing print pubs by selling magazine subscriptions for almost nothing -- a trend exemplified by a promotion in which most Hearst magazines were available for $5 a year.

Though not always well-written (Typical blooper: "As an outsider watching our industry struggle to stay afloat" -- how can he be both an "outsider" and then call the magazine business "our industry"?), Husni's post makes a valid point. "The Audit Bureau of Circulation must go back to counting subscriptions that count and not just counting," he writes. "A penny paid for a subscription should not count as a paid subscription."

And could the low cost of subscriptions have anything to do with the fact that newsstand sales of magazines have almost decreased by 47.5% in the last decade, as MediaPost's Erik Sass reports today?

Read the whole story at Mr. Magazine blog »