EW Checks in Again

I got another e-mail from Entertainment Weekly. They are now offering a subscription to me for less than 38 cents (U.S.) an issue, plus gifts. Check out my last post on the situation here. Anyway, here is the e-mail itself:

Dear KEN,

We want you back as a subscriber so much, we're offering you ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY up to 89% off the newsstand price! You'll get
40 issues for only $20. Or use your credit/debit card and save $5 more!

Subscribe now and you will also get:

FREE Movie Screening Passes as they become available on a first-come,
first-served basis.

Respond by June 29th to ensure you receive the Fall Movie Preview and
the 2007 Photo issue, one of our most popular special issues!

So grab your chance to receive FREE Movie Passes, save up to 89% off
the newsstand price, and keep up with what's happening in the world of
entertainment. Click here to come back to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

Sincerely,
Holley Cavanna
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Now, in theory, I could opt out of these e-mails. But I find them...entertaining. I'm still holding out for an offer where they actually pay me to subscribe.

I Heard From EW Again

Like a clingy ex-girlfriend who can't move on, Entertainment Weekly has mailed me yet again, because I'm a former subscriber.

I remember the numerous, increasingly desperate reminders to renew my subscription, and now there have have been several attempts, via phone, e-mail, and mail to get me to resubscribe.

While it is nice to be missed, it is getting ridiculous. Now they are offering 40 issues for a total $10. That's if I have them bill me later. If I pay now, I can get 57 issues for $10, a whopping 94% off the cover price.

I'm holding out for them to offer to pay me to resubscribe. That can't be far off. Guess those ciruclations numbers are really, really important for ad revenue.

I do like keeping up on entertainment news. There are, however, several reasons I let my subsciption lapse.

1. I got married, which meant less time to actually read the magazine and a tighter budget. I found that I wasn't getting very far through one week's issue when the next issue would arrive.
2. I am notorious for not being able to discard "information" such as magazines, and we need less clutter in our home, not more. I still have a bunch of old EWs that I need to throw out. There are some I will save, depending on the issue.
3. When I got married, I moved in to my wife's condo. She was a cable subscriber. There is cable programming that provides me with content akin to what I used to read in EW.
4. Likewise, there are many websites and online tools that provide me with the content I want, for free.
5. I thought that EW could have covered more kinds of entertainment - especially radio and theme parks.
6. EW often had a political tone that I found unnecessary. I didn't read it to get a writer's thoughts on a politician, political issue, or social - whether I agreed or not. I was reading to get information about what is going on in entertainment - period. (See, I put the period at the end of the sentance.)

Now that Keelie is on the way, I'm going to have even less time and money.

So, like I said... if they were willing to pay me to subscribe... I just might. Otherwise, it ain't going to happen. Sorry, EW.

-Ken