That's right. This morning when checking my email, the first email in my inbox read "60% Off Subscription to 'The Economist'". I thought I was dreaming... Seeing the Economist on Groupon was strange at first, given that previous purchases of mine include Redbox rentals, restaurant discounts, a winery tour, and an afternoon of paintball. I guess that is the beauty of it though. Anything can be sold on groupon if discounted enough so that people will buy it.
Anyway, here is the proof from today, $51 for 51 issues, just one dollar per issue. This includes full-online access as well. Currently, their best regular rate is $2.19 per issue, and their student rate is about $1.50 per issue, so this is a significant savings if you were planning on subscribing soon. If you are interested, there is only one day left to buy. This groupon is for new subscribers only, so unfortunately that excludes me.
Some thoughts: I'm curious how profitable this is going to be for the Economist. I would imagine that their marginal cost of a magazine is close to a dollar, but they are likely planning that their new customers will like the magazine and a portion of them will renew next year and in future years. For more talk about the business of Groupon, check out Planet Money's podcast here.
To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed that I can't take advantage of this deal. If anyone knows of any other good ways for getting the print edition of the economist at or close to $1 per issue, please share in the comments below. I looked on ebay, and there are subscriptions to be had, but I am not sure how reliable subscribing via ebay would actually be.
It won't be profitable for The Economist from a margin standpoint. Well....maybe slightly. However, each additional paid subscriber is probably worth quite a bit in terms of advertising value.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, advertising is much more valuable to companies in content that is subscribed to by paying customers rather than freely distributed.
What do you think?
Good point. I agree, advertising dollars are huge for media companies. The Economist has really ramped up the online portion of their business over the last 4 or 5 years, and I'm sure that is one of the major reasons.
ReplyDeleteThis has got me thinking about advertising now. Most people think of groupon as a glorified coupon, and they are right. But I have also thought of Groupon as an advertising company. Think about it. Even if Groupon users do not buy the deal that day, they may go and visit the Economist.com sometime that day because they glanced at the email. Is Groupon charging for this advertising or just getting a portion of each sale? From what I know, it seems they are getting a big cut of each sale so maybe the "advertising" value is embedded?