Hi David

B******s, already have one, nice thought though.

George

David is this gift available to people renewing an existing subscription and if so are the prices the same? I know that I renewed my ME subs last week and they were less than the currently shown price of £55 which includes a gift.

J

The subscription gift is totally free.

However, due to the high cost of postage there will be a small postage charge for the gift to overseas readers.

UK readers will get the gift post free as normal

This charge will appears as subscription price + gift postage.

Many overseas readers have emailed me to say they would like a gift and would be prepared to pay the extra postage.

In fairness to UK readers the same offer will be available to you as well as to Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada and anywhere else worldwide.

will this include long time subscribers and can we all cancel our subscription and then renew for a free gift……

What's the code?

Have I already missed it?

IanT

Edited By IanT on 30/10/2013 17:52:27

Hi David.

This is a great offer. Just two questions:

1. How long does the offer run for?

2. What is the estimated postage to Oz?

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

* Danny M *

"I will post the subscription offer link and code as soon as it is available"

Ok, I finally spotted this crucial statement (for anyone else who also missed it too!)

Regards,

IanT

Can I cancel my standing order – re-subscribe and get this item….
Bob

Hi David,

So how does this work for those on automatic renewals Mine should be getting renewed any day now automatically as I pay by DD,

Should I cancel and then renew or do nothing and wait

Thanks for trying to explain to all and sundry

cheers

So David that seems to confirm that the gift is not totally free if you are paying a higher price for a new sub including the gift than if you just renew your existing subs which is what I was asking about before. Can you let us know what the cost differences are between the two so people can decide if its a worthwhile "gift" or not.

J

Not entirely fair , Jason. This is just normal practice for marketing magazines.

MEW has a cover price, and a basic annual subscription price. Discounting this (whether in gift or cash terms) costs. For new subscribers, you have to overcome a bigger barrier to get people to sign up, so a bigger incentive is normal.

On the other hand, existing customers are easier to retain than get new ones, but it's still important to keep them so some modest 'loyalty discount' is normal.

With charity membership 7 giving, which often works in a very similar way, it's not unusual for the first year membership to have a 1 or 2 year premium on it, for DD payers. On that model, the member is expected to pay full whack every year and a recruitment company may well get that premium as commission, or it may be invested in in-house recruitment or other marketing.

So, compared to charity giving MEW seems rather fairer – the new subscriber gets the benefit, not a third party, and the continuing subscriber gets a discount as well – all compared to buying the magazine an issue at a time.

In this light it seems churlish to protest that new subscribers get a 'better deal', after all, I expect most of us enjoyed a similar benefit when we took out our subscriptions.

Alternatively, the publishers could look at different advertising routes, but using free gifts to convert website visitors and occasional purchasers seems good to me – especially as it helps provide a reason to maintain the website.

Neil