Categories: OLD Media Moves

The Money magazine renewal strategy is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hal Morris, writing on his Grumpy Editor blog, notes the widely divergent strategies taken by Money magazine to get people to renew.

Morris wrote, “Money magazine, in the Time Inc. family, sends out renewal reminders to subscribers a half year prior to current expiration dates. But wait. Thatâ€™s when the ‘third renewal notice’ goes into the mail. With it, a separate form message, identified as coming from the circulation manager, is rather gruff. Its opening line reads:

‘This is the 3RD NOTICE we have sent about your MONEY subscription. We have yet to hear from you. Itâ€™s important that you take action NOWâ€¦’

“Those words sound like a warning communication from the Internal Revenue Service.

“That compares with a sweeter Money reminder three months earlier — and eight months before renewal time. It listed subscriber benefits, proclaiming, ‘A whole array of personal finance and investment services along with your subscription.’ The detailed benefits form, over the publisherâ€™s name and signature, was accompanied by a brochure also focusing on benefits.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.