Magazines online retailers?

[weirdbeard]

OK, so we've all gone to WHSmith or wherever to buy a magazine only to find out it's sold out or they don't stock it.  Is there an online retailer who deals in this are?   Every other media seems to have one (Amazon being the most general, dealing in music, video, books and more).

[Marcus Or Relius]

I'd imagine the best bet is to go to the website of the magazine in question - most have one  - and check to see if they have a back-issue section.

[weirdbeard]

I'd imagine the best bet is to go to the website of the magazine in question - most have one  - and check to see if they have a back-issue section.

But that's wank.  Surely there's a market for this kind of thing, you've only got to look at the populatirty of places like WHSmith and John Menzies to see that.  Seems like a great business idea to me.  I wonder if magazine publishers hold exclusive online marketing rights for their respective publications.

[smoker]

jeez it's insane what you can find just by googling "online magazine retailers"

[weirdbeard]

jeez it's insane what you can find just by googling "online magazine retailers"

A load of rubbish about magazine subscriptions and irrelevent American links?

[smoker]

yes

[Sherringford Hovis]

The consumer magazine backissues market in the UK is nowhere near as big as you think it could be... probably partly as a result of the magazine publishers not bothering to exploit. The information presented in magazines is seen generally by its publishers as being 'disposable' and having a short shelf-life; and if it isn't, the information will be 'repurposed' in other publications and 'bookazines,' which have lower overheads and clearer profit cross-section to the bean-counters than messing about with something as arcane as actually providing a service that the readers want. Since storage space costs are disproportionate to backissues revenues, you'll find very few magazines will be able to get you a copy of anything that's more than 12 months old.

Indeed, profits in backissues are so low that many magazine publishers outsource both their subscriptions and backissues management to the same third-party company - CustomerInterface. http://www.customerinterface.co.uk/ The site isn't that handy unless you're a publisher, but there's lots of jobs going, if you're in the Westcountry and like hanging out in callcentres :winky smiley:

Try phoning

0870 4448645
or +44 1458 271178 if you're outside the UK

and ask them if they stock what you're after. Three out of the four magazine publishers that I've worked for in the last five years have used this company, so you might get lucky.

If you're after a specific article from a particular issue, your best bet is usually to contact the editorial team of a magazine directly, and ask them to send you a PDF. Some titles will always charge you for this, but if you're putting the article to non-profit use, or quoting it in another published piece, many won't, so long as you properly cite your sources in whatever you are writing, and provide their marketing people with a copy of your finished work. One thing that you should remember when dealing with editorial staff on magazines is that they don't generally get paid to deal with reader enquiries outside of the Letters page in their magazine or on the mag's website, if it has one. So, be short, polite and to-the-point, so they can get back to earning their paltry pennies ASAP!

If you're using research figures or other information from a publication for any other business purpose, you'll probably have to know something about Intellectual Property Rights Management to even be able to discuss it with their legal weasels. PM me if you want a few pointers on this, but do bear in mind I'd normally charge £200-£300 a day for this sort of thing.