Online subscription agents: Naïveté or phraud?
Is your magazine being sold to the public without your authorization?
It appears that some folks think they can hang out a shingle (URL) and start selling magazine subscriptions online.
The snag? They may not realize that (in Canada, at least) they require authorization from the publishers in order to do so.
Apparently some Canadian publishers recently discovered that their subscriptions were being sold online by a company they had never heard of, and were told that the orders were being cleared through an authorized agency. (Or perhaps not being cleared at all.)
The authorized agency was reminded that it had not been authorized to clear subscriptions from third parties without prior approval from the publisher. And, when requested, the third party took the magazines in question off the website's magazine listing.
But how much of this is going on out there? This was a reminder to all circulators that we should periodically check for online merchants we've never heard of.
Go to google.ca, type in "magazine subscriptions", and search "pages from Canada" (or search for your own magazine by name). [Also check out the "sponsored links" on the top and right-hand side of the google page, where Google AdWords ads appear.]
If you're worried by what you find, contact the website directly and request that they remove your title(s). If you want to know which agency is clearing those subscriptions, enter an order for yourself, with a variation on your own name, and see which agency sends the order to you.
Remember to ensure that your subscription agency authorizations outline the approved prices and remittance percentages, sales methods and terms, whether or not third-party clearings are allowed, whether renewals can be promoted, and (yup) list usage terms (I was surprised to find one online subscription agency that actually rents out names of Canadians who have subscribed to magazines through their site!).
The Magazine Publishers of America has published some handy tips (go here) for what you may want to include in new or existing subscription agency authorizations.
It appears that some folks think they can hang out a shingle (URL) and start selling magazine subscriptions online.
The snag? They may not realize that (in Canada, at least) they require authorization from the publishers in order to do so.
Apparently some Canadian publishers recently discovered that their subscriptions were being sold online by a company they had never heard of, and were told that the orders were being cleared through an authorized agency. (Or perhaps not being cleared at all.)
The authorized agency was reminded that it had not been authorized to clear subscriptions from third parties without prior approval from the publisher. And, when requested, the third party took the magazines in question off the website's magazine listing.
But how much of this is going on out there? This was a reminder to all circulators that we should periodically check for online merchants we've never heard of.
Go to google.ca, type in "magazine subscriptions", and search "pages from Canada" (or search for your own magazine by name). [Also check out the "sponsored links" on the top and right-hand side of the google page, where Google AdWords ads appear.]
If you're worried by what you find, contact the website directly and request that they remove your title(s). If you want to know which agency is clearing those subscriptions, enter an order for yourself, with a variation on your own name, and see which agency sends the order to you.
Remember to ensure that your subscription agency authorizations outline the approved prices and remittance percentages, sales methods and terms, whether or not third-party clearings are allowed, whether renewals can be promoted, and (yup) list usage terms (I was surprised to find one online subscription agency that actually rents out names of Canadians who have subscribed to magazines through their site!).
The Magazine Publishers of America has published some handy tips (go here) for what you may want to include in new or existing subscription agency authorizations.
posted by Jon Spencer at
10:01 am
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