sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) (05/10/89)
A copy of a letter forwarded to beast!editor, the address for Unix Review. It is a comment on their policy of offerring Free Qualified Subscriptions to US residents only, while soliciting advertising from Canadian Unix companies with the same zeal that they pursue American companies. If anyone wants to comment on this I will be happy to summarize and forward. Although you could also directly mail your comments to beast!editor. Gentlemen: For the past few years I have maintained a subscription to your magazine. I now find that you are perpetuating a fraud on me as a Canadian subscriber. Specifically that you offer a free qualified subscription to your readers in the US but not in Canada. So that you not only charge more for the so called subscription in Canada ($52 US vs $45), but you don't charge *anything* for a large number of your US readers. I don't know whether I would qualify if I lived in the US, but I can say that I do qualify for at least four other industry newspapers and magazines. I am also now in the position of directing the advertising for a new Unix product. I must choose between yourselves, Unix World, and Unix Today. Unix World seems to have good distribution. No free subscriptions, but easily available at news stands. Unix Today also seems to have good distribution. Free qualified subscriptions to anyone in North America. I personally would like to continue to receive your magazine, but at over $5 per copy, I can't justify it. I will admit that your editorial content is slightly better than the others (even though you have dropped your interview section, one of the better parts of your magazine). I suspect that my decision to not continue a subscription will be mirrored by most of your Canadian readers. The cost cannot be justified. There is simply too much other adequate sources of information at lower cost (Unix World at $3 Cdn/copy at the news stand, Unix Today - free, Usenet - free). As an advertiser who wants to ensure that we have adequate coverage in Canada - I find that I cannot believe that your magazine will give it too me. Can you give me any reasons that might change my mind? Why should we advertise in your magazine? I am also posting this letter to can.general on Usenet. And will solicit replies on what other potential Canadian readers have to say on this topic. -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax) Unifax Business Communications Ltd. Vancouver, BC, Canada -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)
len@array.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) (05/12/89)
In article <116@unifax.UUCP> sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes: > So that you not only charge more for the so called >subscription in Canada ($52 US vs $45), but you don't charge *anything* for >a large number of your US readers. Free subscriptions aside, I find the price disparity really annoying. Unix Review is not the only guilty party on this one. Some magazines (BYTE?) are cheaper on the news stand than by subscription of you just skip one or two unintersting issues. Computer Language adds $6 US (That's 25% more) to the subscription price for Canadians and then insists on payment in US $ drawn on a US bank. They will accept credit cards, but don't publicize that fact. Also, when they sent me a renewal bill which was intended for the US and I "forgot" to add the six dollars, they modified my credit card authorization without asking me! I wish there was something we could do about it, but I fear they consider the Canadian market to be gravy and will not go out of their way to make things easy or economical for us. Len
ns@maccs.McMaster.CA (Nicholas Solntseff) (05/12/89)
The excellent COMPUTER SHOPPER is a good example of this:
Canadian News Stand price -- CAN$42 for 12 issues
Subscription price US$19.97 + US#31.00 = US50.97 = CAN$61.16 for 12 issues
I have asked my local Coles Bookstore people to layby my copy every month,
so I do not miss a single issue and do not have to haunt the boosstore
every month around magazine delivery time.
If more people do this, the publishers may wake up to the fact that their
customers are getting fed up with having no say in magazine distribution.
Nick Solntseff
(416) 525-9140 xtn 3443.mart@csri.toronto.edu (Mart Molle) (05/12/89)
Canada Post charges [much] higher rates for book rate / bulk delivery of magazines. Ever notice how you need more postage to mail a letter to the U.S.? Well, it works the same in the other direction too. The difference is quite substantial in the case of magazines and so forth, because Canada Post does not have a comparable rate to the one all the publishers use in the U.S. In particular, mailings *within* the U.S. are just thrown [unwrapped] into the mail, with a gummy address label on the cover and a bulk postage permit number printed onto the cover somewhere. The same magazine mailed to a Canadian address is stuffed into an envelope (or at least a paper sleeve) that has real postage on it. This obviously costs them more, and they'll happily pass on the [negative] savings to us! :-) Mart L. Molle Computer Systems Research Institute University of Toronto Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4 (416)978-4928
sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) (05/13/89)
In article <33@array.UUCP> len@array.UUCP (Leonard Vanek) writes: >In article <116@unifax.UUCP> sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes: }Free subscriptions aside, I find the price disparity really annoying. }Unix Review is not the only guilty party on this one. Some magazines }(BYTE?) are cheaper on the news stand than by subscription of you just }skip one or two unintersting issues. Computer Language adds $6 US Who needs to skip issues? I buy Unix World from my local discount supermarket. They discount *all* magazines by 15%. Works out to be cheaper than subscribing. -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)
woods@eci386.uucp (Greg Woods) (05/13/89)
In article <116@unifax.UUCP> sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes: > A copy of a letter forwarded to beast!editor, the address for Unix Review. > It is a comment on their policy of offerring Free Qualified Subscriptions to > US residents only, while soliciting advertising from Canadian Unix companies > with the same zeal that they pursue American companies. > > If anyone wants to comment on this I will be happy to summarize and forward. > Although you could also directly mail your comments to beast!editor. I STRONGLY suggest that anyone who, like I, agrees with Stuart's letter, submit either a simple one line "ME TOO" to beast!editor, Of course your own full length disertation on the subject would do fine as well. 1/2 :-) -- Greg A. Woods woods@{{utgpu,eci386,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP,gpu.utcs.UToronto.CA,utorgpu.BITNET} +1-416-443-1734 [h] +1-416-595-5425 [w] Toronto, Ontario CANADA
brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (05/13/89)
You can mail the editor all you like, but it has nothing to do with him. That's the province of the publisher, or perhaps the circulation manager. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) (05/14/89)
In article <8905121452.AA10982@genie.csri.toronto.edu> mart@csri.toronto.edu (Mart Molle) writes: }printed onto the cover somewhere. The same magazine mailed to a Canadian }address is stuffed into an envelope (or at least a paper sleeve) that I get Unix Today, Computer Systems News, and Unix Review. None come in a wrapper. My CACM Journals do come in a plastic wrap. -- Stuart.Lynne@wimsey.bc.ca uunet!van-bc!sl 604-937-7532(voice) 604-939-4768(fax)
evan@telly.on.ca (Evan Leibovitch) (05/14/89)
In article <122@unifax.UUCP> sl@unifax.UUCP (Stuart Lynne) writes: >In article <8905121452.AA10982@genie.csri.toronto.edu> mart@csri.toronto.edu (Mart Molle) writes: >}printed onto the cover somewhere. The same magazine mailed to a Canadian >}address is stuffed into an envelope (or at least a paper sleeve) that >I get Unix Today, Computer Systems News, and Unix Review. None come in a >wrapper. >My CACM Journals do come in a plastic wrap. Both Byte and PC Week also frequently come in plastic wrap. However, I don't think it has anything to do with postage. It allows them to be shipped out with 'inserts', ad flyers or 'special editions' which have more ads than content. If Unix Review is free in the US and it costs them extra to send the thing to Canada, why don't they allow Canadians who 'qualify' get subscriptions for the cost of the extra postage. Even at $0.50 per issue, that's only $6.00 per year, and I'd subscribe in a second at that rate. Instead, everytime I go to the US trade shows, I stop by the Unix Review booth and fill out a new card to 'qualify for a free subscription'. About four weeks after each show, I get a polite letter turning me down and an offer to subscribe at some outrageous rate. At very least, I make them pay to turn me down :-). It wouldn't bother me so much if just one local library or newssstand got it. -- Evan Leibovitch, SA, Telly Online, located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario evan@telly.on.ca / {uunet!attcan,utzoo}!telly!evan / (416) 452-0504 Scientists have proven conclusively: Research causes cancer in lab animals