In most of the magazine business, subscribers equal advertising dollars. It’s not the subscription fees that are important, but being able to guarantee a certain number of eyeballs on your pages for the foreseeable future. This leads to some ridiculous situations, like the New Yorker subscriber who received an urgent renewal notice because his subscription is expiring four years from now.

He blogged about the situation, because that’s what people do when they receive mail.

I am a long-time subscriber to the Newhouse media empire’s celebrated flagship weekly magazine, The New Yorker. Yesterday at the New To Seattle world headquarters, I received a mailing marked–in urgent all-capital letters–’EXPIRATION NOTICE.’

Ooh, sounds scary. Better make sure he re-subscribes so he doesn’t miss any issues. Except…

So what they’re saying is that he doesn’t have to sprint to the mailbox to get this renewal notice out.

In Seattle, how billionaire Newhouse family stays that way [New to Seattle] (via Romenesko)

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