Time Inc. unveils Maghound, a mix-and-match "consumer-centric" subscription service

At the 2008 Circulation Management Conference in Chicago this week, Time Inc. unveiled the demo of its Maghound service which allows people to buy magazine "subscriptions" in mix-and-match fashion, switching titles whenever they wish. According to a story in Folio:, the service is set to launch this September and 280 titles (many of them owned by Time Inc.) are already aboard.

The service is similar to Netflix, only for magazines and Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Entrprises, Inc. said that, unlike traditional subscriptions, members aren't locked in and may cancel whenever they wish. He said beta testing had shown that the service attracted a younger, highly educated, affluent demographic. There was also apparently little cannibalization from traditional subscribers.Essentially, a subscriber to the service gets all their magazines for one price from one source and can customize the mix of titles at any time.

“There has been this major paradigm shift in the way consumers shop, pay for and manage the services they choose [Ventresca said]. And this shift has occurred everywhere except for magazines. We still sell on a fixed-term subscription or by single copy with no innovation. And [Maghound] is hoping to change that....Circulation has always been publisher-centric. With Maghound, it becomes consumer-centric.”

The pricing is three titles for $3.95 per month, five titles for $7.95, seven titles for $9.95, and $1 per title for eight titles or more.

Titles that have a non-discounted traditional sub rate of around $19 or more per year are considered “premium” titles and will have an extra $2 fee per month (10-15 percent of titles fall in this category). First-time users will also be eligible for a free one month trial.

Titles bought through Maghound would be classified as single copies for circulation auditing purposes.