I have never understood why it takes months to get a magazine subscription rolling. I just ordered a subscription to a different auto magazine, and it came with a free t-shirt. I got the t-shirt like 2 days later, but is probably going to be months before I see the first issue. Is there some giant lead time I don't know about in the print industry? Newspaper seems to do just fine printing a circulating day-of, but glossy print takes 2-3 months? As far as I know, there are only 2 steps:
- print pages, assemble pages into magazine. Usually done in the same facility
- print labels on magazine, take to USPS to ship to various addresses. Sometimes done at a separate facility than the original color printing.
Where are all the processing steps that take so much time? And people wonder why print-media is losing money...
Quote:
Originally Posted by RNBRAD
...if you have dual climate control, that would be more likely to cause a timing issue ... Sound travels faster through warmer air so lets make sure both zones are the same temperature. lol
I have never understood why it takes months to get a magazine subscription rolling. I just ordered a subscription to a different auto magazine, and it came with a free t-shirt. I got the t-shirt like 2 days later, but is probably going to be months before I see the first issue. Is there some giant lead time I don't know about in the print industry? Newspaper seems to do just fine printing a circulating day-of, but glossy print takes 2-3 months? As far as I know, there are only 2 steps:
- print pages, assemble pages into magazine. Usually done in the same facility
- print labels on magazine, take to USPS to ship to various addresses. Sometimes done at a separate facility than the original color printing.
Where are all the processing steps that take so much time? And people wonder why print-media is losing money...
I studied printing through high school, went to college in a printing major, and worked in the industry for 6 years. The first year was at a sheetfed printer, the 2-5th year was at a division of Time Inc and the last year I worked as a consultant where I worked with many large magazine companies (Source Interlink, Hachette Filipachi, Rolling Stone, ESPN, amongst others). It's safe to say I have and visited and worked with many large magazines and have a pretty good understanding of the industry. I can't speak to why it takes so long to get a magazine subscription to start, but I can speak to the production of magazines. It's A LOT more complicated than you think. You've WAY over simplified the process.
There is a large lead time though Typically magazines (other than the news weeklys) are produced 1-2 months in advance. Due to all of the coordination and time it takes to get them produced and distributed.
When it comes to actual magazine production, first, the editorial has to be created. There's a typical schedule where reporters, writers, etc work to get the various sections of the magazine in play. They figure out what's going to go on what page, where advertisements will be. As Writers and Editors are honing the stories, the art department starts laying out pages. They only have a specific amount of space to work with, so Editorial and Art have to work together to get the pages filled and looking good. As pages start being completed, they have to go through an extenuous proofing process to ensure that the content is correct and pictures are being reproduce correctly. As pages are completed, they are sent to the printer. The pages are laid out in what is called an imposition. Magazines are not printed in an 8.5x11 format. They are printed in signatures. Signatures typically are between 8 and 32 pages. The pages are placed on the sheet so that when they go through the folder the pages end up in the correct orientation and order. The signatures are printed on a web press. This is a large roll fed press that prints on both sides of the sheet. As the signatures come off the press, they are automatically trimmed to a flat sheet size. For a given page count, they obviously have to print multiple signatures. After the signatures are printed, they have to be folded. This is a separate machine. After the signatures are folded, they have to be collated and bound. Sounds easy enough right? It's usually a surprisingly manual process as there are people who have to manually feed stacks of signatures into the either the perfect binder or saddle stitcher. Often times labeling is done right on the binding equipment. To further complicate things. Magazines often print different versions. A Time magazine in New York has different ads, and sometimes even a different cover or articles than one in LA. All of these geographic versions need to be coordinated and produced in the same fashion.
Once the magazines are completed they have to be sorted by where they are going, and distributed to postal distribution centers. Magazines are delivered at the absolute lowest priority in the USPS, and this may be one of the reasons that it takes so long for them to get to you.
It's a complicated process and it takes time. I'm actually almost offended that you think it should be easy.
Print media is not losing money because of the time it takes to produce magazines. Print media is losing money for many more complicated reasons than that. Rising costs to produce and distribute, complacency and inability to adjust to changing consumer needs, lack of focus, and advertisers shifting to digital means to target their audiences are all reasons that print media is hurting. The simple fact that it costs A LOT more to simply transport the finished magazines from the plant to the Postal center now than it did even 3 years ago has a huge effect on print media.
I was hoping my trite post would illicit a response. Thank you for that. I'm in manufacturing, so I really enjoy learning processes. That sounds a lot more complex than I originally thought, and I can definitely see how some of those lead times (the sorting, the delivery to the PO, and the PO low-priority delivery to houses) could take a really long time. If I could watch a "How It's Made" on this I would. Thank you for your response. It was really thorough.
So do publishers keep inventory of magazines at all? For instance, to they make more copies of each (monthly) issue than they have sold, so that individual issues can be sent out after (separate from) the initial bulk mailing? Or do you have to simply wait for the next issue in line if your query falls past the deadline?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RNBRAD
...if you have dual climate control, that would be more likely to cause a timing issue ... Sound travels faster through warmer air so lets make sure both zones are the same temperature. lol
I was hoping my trite post would illicit a response. Thank you for that. I'm in manufacturing, so I really enjoy learning processes. That sounds a lot more complex than I originally thought, and I can definitely see how some of those lead times (the sorting, the delivery to the PO, and the PO low-priority delivery to houses) could take a really long time. If I could watch a "How It's Made" on this I would. Thank you for your response. It was really thorough.
So do publishers keep inventory of magazines at all? For instance, to they make more copies of each (monthly) issue than they have sold, so that individual issues can be sent out after (separate from) the initial bulk mailing? Or do you have to simply wait for the next issue in line if your query falls past the deadline?
I searched youtube, and there's really nothing there, there's a how stuff works video, but it's worthless. I know I've seen videos, but those were in classes at RIT and in industry training sessions when I was with Time.
Publishers may keep an inventory for archiving purposes, but more and more they are converting to digital archives if for nothing else to save on the space of saving printed material. There are overages, but they're typically not used for sending out individual copies. They're for sending to advertisers to prove that their ad is in the publication, and for saving for legal purposes (CYA) Most magazines print a specific number of copies for news-stands. The leftovers are sent back to distribution houses where they are either recycled, or sold as back issues, or both.
My inclination is to say that typically what happens is you get added to the subscriber list and you are getting the next available magazine that they can automatically put your name on. Like I said, most addressing occurs on the bindery line. It's really just an inkjet nozzle that prints variable data from the subscriber database onto the covers of the magazines.
As I said before, not all magazine's function on the same type of schedule, so your results may vary. For example, the news weeklys (newsweek, time, us news and world report) all work on a similar cycle to newspapers. But look at those magazines. They're clearly produced as cheaply and quickly as possible to get the news out.
Today I received 2 different issues in plastic, I'm in PA. Never thought they would come, but this is great.
The $14.99 offer with calendar and lanyard is pretty good! Will they happen to offer anything different if I do not subscribe before the end of the 3 months?
Got 2 issues today, I haven't even opened them so I don't know yet if I got a early issue or not... LOL...
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The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources where focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections. - Narrator: Idiocracy
I disagree with liberals/progressives/marxists (LPM's), therefore I am trolling. I disagree politically with pretty much everything that comes out of Obama's mouth, therefore I am a racist. Hmm ... easy to see who sees the world in black and white terms.
third ^. Same issues. Trucks finally made it to MI
Quote:
Originally Posted by RNBRAD
...if you have dual climate control, that would be more likely to cause a timing issue ... Sound travels faster through warmer air so lets make sure both zones are the same temperature. lol
"Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy." - Sir Isaac Newton
“The wise understand by themselves; fools follow the reports of others”
Tibetan Proverb quotes
Got 2 issues yesterday. The wifey said, "I didn't say you could subscribe to THIS one". (something about the half-nekkid ladies she doesn't care for). It was all good when I told here they were "FREE".
Re: Performance Auto & Sound Magazine
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