• Mediaweek, Wednesday, January 28, 2009 9:15 AM

Time Inc. is refusing to pay the new 7-cents-per-copy fee that some wholesalers are charging for trucking magazines to the nation's retailers. Time is telling its wholesaler Source Interlink Distribution that it will find alternate distribution for all 24 of its U.S. titles, including Time, People and Sports Illustrated.

Publishers and their distributors have been in nail-biting meetings for the past several days with wholesalers, which informed them they need the additional newsstand fees on top of existing incentive programs starting Feb. 1. Source Interlink joined Anderson News Co., which together represent about half of the nation's magazine retail sales, in demanding the fees.

As the No. 1 U.S. magazine publisher, Time's handling of the dispute will be watched closely by other publishers and could embolden them to follow suit. So far, the only magazines that have agreed to the new fees are the enthusiast titles that Source Interlink's parent company bought from Primedia in 2007.

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