Here’s an idea to save money on magazine subscriptions:

I share my mag subscriptions with a good friend. All the mags (National Geographic, Forbes, Newsweek) are sent to his house. We both have no need to read any of these magazines immediately. So I go by his place occasionally to pick up a stack of magazines to read through at leisure.
This cuts my effective cost of magazine subscriptions by half since we share the cost. I live pretty far from his house but the cost of driving my car over there doesn’t overtake the savings; plus, I maintain a friendship with a friend because we talk about the magazine articles and chat everytime I come over.

And where I’m at, we get a tax deduction on book/magazine purchases so we take turns paying for the subscription each year to claim or tax benefit. We’re in our third year of subscriptions.

This works great for me because I don’t feel that I have to keep the magazines once I’m done (although I do keep the NGS maps for myself). It also helps that my friend is fairly organized and has my stack of unread mags ready each time I pop by-I call ahead.

You mention you review them on your site, I would call the advertising sales people at each of these publications and tell them you have close to 16,000 regular subscribers on your blog who are interested in their magazine and this topic. You will provide them the free advertising (banner ads, reviews etc) if they add you to their list to recieve each month, or some other type of negotiation.

I work as a media buyer and purchase the ad space in magazines, I get more free subscriptions then I know what to do with. The publications can add anyone they think may advertise with them or would benefit them. Just a thought.

Also – how does Ebay work for magazine subscriptions? Are they auctioned off by the magazines themselves?

I’ll read at the library, use a points system for free subscriptions, or browse and B&N. Most magazines don’t have all that much useful content in them anyway, and leave me feeling unsatisfied with my life (same thing that happens when I watch too much television) so I’m better off without them.

I would like a subscription to Reader’s Digest, though–I’ve never seen it on one of the points sites I use, but I used to read each issue cover to cover several times when I lived with someone who had a sub.

I’ve also gotten Oprah and Vanity Fair subscriptions from Ebay.

Is there a used-magazine store in your town? My city has two. I go there for Real Simple, Ms., and Mother Jones (hey, I LIKE those lefty mags, what can I say?).

Lots of folks subscribe to the New Yorker and never catch up–I take the old issues off their hands.

Their website has all the content from their recent issues, so you can try before subscribing..

They’ve opened up their website substantially, and now I read online once in a while. Sure, I don’t get quite as much out of it, but I’m not shelling out the cash for articles I don’t have time to read either.

I got my subscription for about $20 a year, and gift ones are even cheaper. Sure, it’s not the most frugal thing, but it makes me happy to take that time out every month and gawk at beautiful pictures.

For the past couple of years, we stopped paid subscription to all magazines except for some FREE ones. Till date we have never missed our magazines.

The internet and the blogosphere provides us with so much to read that we have a hard time keeping up. Plus the hundreds of dollars that we save each year keeps us on our track to early retirement.

Once again, thanks for the great post.

So far the free magazines I have received are: Smart Money, Self, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Oprah at Home and House Beautiful.

I bought myself a townhouse last week and appreciate all the free entertainment these will give me throughout the winter months!