New York State law requires expiry on magazine subscribers' labels and renewals

This may be of particular interest to Canadian magazines that have subscribers in New York state. According to a story in Audience Development, the New York State Assembly has passed a bill which requires every publisher of a magazine sold by subscription to include an "understandable" and "readable" indication of the month and year a subscription expires on the mailing label and on any renewal notice. 

Most publishers already do something like this, but some complain that the bill's language is open to interpretation. New York state is a major market, yet most publishers won't want to create special mailing labels and files to satisfy the law, so it will probably become the norm.

Violators face a penalty of not more than $100 for a single violation and not more than $500 for multiple violations from a single incident. Knowing violations carry a penalty of not more than $500 for one instance and not more than $1,000 for multiple incidents.

Some publishers say they already meet the guidelines. “Meredith has been putting expire information on their labels for some time,” says vice president of consumer marketing David Ball. “We don’t anticipate any problems complying with the NY law.”