Time Inc. has taken a hard line with two magazine distributors who are asking for an additional seven cents an issue to distribute magazines: Time said “No dice” to the price increase, and they’re going to find another way to get on retailer shelves

The No. 1 U.S. magazine chain, with 24 consumer titles, was the first publisher to stand up to Source Interlink Distribution and Anderson News Co. Those wholesalers, which represent an estimated 50 percent of the nation’s retail magazine sales, recently demanded that publishers pay 7 cents per copy on top of existing financial arrangements by Feb. 1 to deliver their product.

The wholesalers said they needed the money to stay in business. It’s estimated that the fees would add more than $100 million in costs to a magazine industry already battered by significant drops in ad revenue and single-copy sales.

At stake in the standoff are publishers’ newsstand sales in retailer juggernauts like Wal-Mart and Kroger. A Time Inc. rep said that it would use other, unnamed wholesalers to deliver next week’s copies of its weeklies, including Time magazine and People.


To be continued.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Hey Time Warner, why not try Direct Market? And if single sales drop, make it up by collecting the floppies in trades! :)

  2. My subscription was canceled by Time. I was getting for a year and a half the issues for 20.00. They sent me a letter telling me they couldn’t meet the demand of my subscription and offered me the same deal for 15.00 more. I got 3 months worth of issues and they sent back my money. Weird. I refused their new option. Now I am on a mailing list and I swear to you many publishers are offering such low rates that the cost of three issues will cover the whole year’s subscription. What is going on? They are killing themselves. Money out the window. They are giving me magazines at below cost and what about postage. I don’t get it.

  3. Time Warner is no better than the CFO’s that wanted their million dollars after the banks closed. It’s all about gread and they don’t care about what they are doing to other people. What’s seven cents it’s less than a postage stamp in the long run.

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