> To say nothing of the fact that it's still cheaper to just find a decent discount on the print edition and access the web version via that account
I thought I had found a clever trick when I called them and asked them to stop physical delivery ( as will they do if you're going on an extended trip, for example ). The next week they also suspended my digital access...
I tried to explain to them that I didn't actually want the paper copy but it didn't register with them. When it came to renew, I let the subscription lapse because it felt so wasteful to be throwing the magazine straight from the letterbox into the recycling bin. And I wasn't prepared to pay more to go without the paper!
That'd be funny if it wasn't such an infuriating brand of stupidity on their part.
With only one or two exceptions where I like to keep print copies around for reference (or for travel use where I want something disposable–don't want to leave an iPad on the beach or by the pool, for example), I'm the same as you: it arrives, it goes straight to recycling, and I read it on my iPad/Kindle/whatever. Last year I went on a tear, trying to stop all paper delivery while retaining digital access.
Turns out very, very few publications were helpful. Everyone understood why I wanted to do it, but they make their ad money off of paper copies shipped. So, as with the Economist, you have a lot of rags who're talking the talk about conservation, provided it doesn't cost them a penny.
Sure, they'll charge the customer more for less.
A couple were great about it: a quick email and it was moved over to Newsstand, or their app, etc. But the rest, the bigger publications, almost uniformly baulked, and could never make it happen.
I even considered trying to shame them by creating a site so everyone see who's forward-thinking, and who's myopic. I may yet.
It kind of reaffirmed my view that the whole print industry is a broken model. The end result is that I canceled a bunch of subscriptions, since the ones that are supposed to have credibility about world affairs just lost it in my eyes, I couldn't take them seriously (not that I ever should have).
It's also made me extra sensitive to the whored-out nature of publications that take ad dollars.
As a result, I canceled a bunch of subscriptions, and focused my energy on the ones that operate from subscription models (which are more expensive individually, but I saved more than that getting there).
Turns out I'm getting better information, paying more attention to it, and don't have a stack of magazines to worry about recycling every month.
I thought I had found a clever trick when I called them and asked them to stop physical delivery ( as will they do if you're going on an extended trip, for example ). The next week they also suspended my digital access...
I tried to explain to them that I didn't actually want the paper copy but it didn't register with them. When it came to renew, I let the subscription lapse because it felt so wasteful to be throwing the magazine straight from the letterbox into the recycling bin. And I wasn't prepared to pay more to go without the paper!