This email just came across the TTAC transom.
Truth About Cars, The arrival of Spring means three things: Cars come out of the garages they’ve been hibernating in all winter, new cruising music arrives and women can finally start to show off a little skin again! To celebrate, Zinio has put together a sale that every man should take advantage of: For a limited time, during their ‘Motors, Music and Models’ sale, anyone who picks up a subscription to Maxim or Blender will also receive a free subscription to one of sixteen different automotive magazines, including Car and Driver, Hot Rod, Import Tuner and Lowrider. In addition, subscriptions to Maxim and Blender are lower than they’ve ever been before, so it’s a great time to pick up two magazines for less than the price of one. We’re only publicizing this offer through blogs and other social sites, and if you’d like to let your readers know about this special offer, I’d be happy to set you up with a few subscriptions of your own. Just point your readers to http://maxim.ziniooffers.com/special/ and send over a list of the magazines you’d like to receive and I’ll take care of the rest. I look forward to hearing from you, so please don’t hesitate to send over any questions that you might have. Thanks! – XXXXX
Either they are taking a note from 2/3 of the D3, or it is a scam … flip a coin, both seem equivalent, as both are intended to separate you from your money …
Yeah, I briefly considered a C&D sub today.
/sarcasm
So between work, TTAC, and the half dozen car rags I already read, why should I subscribe to what amounts to a poorly written Playboy without the nudity? Uh, no thanks.
Car mags giving themselves away does not bode well for TTAC.
So if you respond to this offer, within a few days you will either receive a free C&D by mail or a million Viagra emails.
Pass, thanks.
I bet this is one of those scams where they charge you a postage and handling fee for every delivery which amounts to more than the price of a normal subscription. I’ve gotten telemarketing calls where they offer free subs, and then pull this on you.
Interestingly, a couple of years ago I got a 1 year subscription to Car and Driver on eBay for $4. It included as a “bonus” free 1-year subscriptions to Maxim, Blender, and for some reason I can’t understand, Western Interior & Design (not sure how those demographics line up).
Anyway, I figured it would be hard to go wrong with $0.33/issue cost for the magazine and the rest was just gravy. The C and D subscription came without a hitch. It expired after 12 issues but two years later I’m still getting the other three magazines every month.
This news isn’t that surprising, actually, it’s been a long time since magazine subscription prices have even come close to covering the cost of printing and mailing the paper to your house. Given their marketing cost to acquire subscribers, giving magazines away to build the advertising circulation is probably a wise business decision. Whether being in the print magazine business in the first place is a wise business move may be another issue, however.
I still like print magazines. I travel a lot so having them to carry with me on the plane is always appreciated and the bathroom just wouldn’t look the same without the magazine rack.
When I bought a ticket online for the Motor Trend Auto Show a couple weeks ago, I got a free 1 year subscription to Motor Trend.
At least with MT, I bought a ticket to something I actually want to see (cars without salesmen), instead of a second rate Playboy with no nekkid wimmen!
what amounts to a poorly written Playboy without the nudity?
I always thought of Maxim as a Playboy that you could read on the subway without being (too) self-conscious.
I gave up my R&T subscription years ago. I got the information I needed on the interweb, and I didn’t have mounds of paper products laying around the house. The only thing I miss is Peter Egan.
I just renewed my C&D subscription last week. 3 years for $19. I can maybe buy 2 issues of Evo for that. I will stick to perusing that mag on the news stands, unless they have some exceptional comparison or article.
I can’t find anything out about the “free” subscriptions, but the Maxim and Blender subscriptions aren’t for the actual magazine. They are only for an online content version. It may be an online version of the actual magazine (I have a hard time believing this “Zinio” nonsense is legit), but why would I pay someone $10 to read information on the internet? You can access 90% of the information on the actual website of any of the magazines if you’d like, and if you pay for a print version, at least it’s portable.
I don’t think it’s worth it.
For the last couple of years I’ve been getting free subscriptions to Automobile, Autoweek, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Road & Track. The solicitations just show up in my email. The mailings start a month or two later.
I just looked at the mailing labels, and now some of the subscriptions are for three years.