Magazine subscriptions

Is there any one else out there who is 'Surviving in France' with the aid of a subscription to their fav Magazine?



The thing is I am feeling that the price we pay is a total rip off,



A) The Subscription price is cover price plus delivery,


B) There are never any supplements or the Free Gift.


C) The competitions are only open to UK residents.


D) They dont arrive until half way (if your lucky) through the month.




Now having friends and a partner in the retail trade I find that the Shop only pays half the cover price, the subscription is through the publisher why therefore do we put up with this rip off?




To start the ball rolling I sent The Following by E-mail to the editor of the state owned publisher BBC Magazines. Now I know how the Journo's out there love a story so how about a feature in a Francofile magazine exposing/justifyng these practices?


(Are they any different, do they offer cheap rates to France?........Do they Bug''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''y)






The Editor


Homes and Antiques


BBC Publications.com



Almost love the magazine, when it arrives, I am based in France and the delivery here is a bit hit or miss, this month it seems to be miss as I have yet to lay my hands on it!!! fifteen days after the publication date.Not the first time but this is a fresh year so I wont remind you that you supplied a free copy last year after failing to deliver within published targets.


Seriously we pay a premium to have the magazine delivered here, we don't receive any supplements, and your reader and subscriber offers are invariably only open to your UK readership and your delivery promise of 2 weeks from publication date is as good as an estate agents description.


As far as content is concerned I subscribed to the magazine "Homes & Antiques" as an avid fan of the Antiques Road show and even have a distant connection to one of the 'experts' but the magazine has seemed to slip into the Ideal Home/Homes and Gardens format, pages of advertorials from metro land vendeurs/euses of decorating tat and houses that look like a builders wet dream naturally owned by the aforesaid builder and decorated in similar style by his wife an aspiring designer..........yawn, any chance of the occasional article on antiques before I switch?


Oh yes and is my copy about to arrive?

Just reminded me we got our copy of Julys’ yesterday (the 10th) earliest ever, maybe someone is watching me?
PS The Cherries are already bottled here in the Dordogne!!

Just because you are paranoid doesnt mean that theyre not out to get you!!!

My BBC Good food for July arrived today - very early which is perfect as our season here in Languedoc is earlier than UK. I’m looking forward to trying out some of the summer recipes.

www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas

Eventually arrived today…Yeeeeaaaah and some news about Antiques as well!! only 21 days after publication.

Hi thanks to everybody for their replies, Its now 19 days from the publication date and not even an automated reply (or a magazine) and I was complaining about French SAV!!!

Mind you We’ve waited nearly a month before, complained and the bus syndrome struck, got 2 copies on the same day…spooky.

We subscribe to BBC Good Food. We originally bought it as a gift for our family in Cyprus and they then bought it for us for Christmas (as we kept marking the pages we wanted photocopying each time we went out there). In the UK they offer the latest James Martin or other celeb chef book but to France & Cyprus nothing. Its around £52 for the year. We won’t be subscribing again but we do really enjoy receiving the magazine each month, it’s a shame that they don’t offer a decent postage option as more people would subscribe if they did.

We do look out for discounts but we’ve not come across any international ones yet, but as soon as we do, they’ll be on our website.

www.UK4Me.co.uk
UK Stores Delivering Overseas

Oh well worth a try - My daughter is the editor of Flavour Magazine and Green Living Magazine. They have a new young designer who suggested using the site (it’s free for both magazine and reader of course).
Anyway, do have a look at both of those - strange they are not - and British they are. Enjoy. The full texts of both are on the Issu site as well

Hi Helen
Just looked at that link, some very strange magazines out there, thankfully mainly in the US of A

Hi - are you aware of this web site? Many magazines use it to post up their latest issue - it may have something of interest to you.
Here is the Link

Hello Roger,

I don’t subscribe to magazines, but keep us posted!

Sarah