PBO online

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Euphonyx

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Why is PBO so expensive online? In my local newsagent it costs me about €6 but am away at the moment and had a look to buy the current edition on my iPad and it's priced at €9. I would have thought it would be cheaper if anything!
 
If that's true it's deeply depressing! Mine is a first generation bog standard iPad. It's really only any good for magazines and music....
 
To be fair, Richard generally does point out the fact that Apple takes a cut of everything sold on the iPad. One might think this would be offset by the absence of printing costs, but I don't really know.

Pete
 
prv said:
To be fair, Richard generally does point out the fact that Apple takes a cut of everything sold on the iPad. One might think this would be offset by the absence of printing costs, but I don't really know.

Pete
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I think VAT is also payable, but not on the printed version.
 
Well in Ireland we pay VAT if we scratch an itch! We pay VAT especially where the government hasn't added any value. And at a higher rte than you lot. If you aren't paying VAT on magazines yet watch out for the next budget!!
 
The TELEGRAPH though is EU2 in Ireland but £2 here. Usually the other way around for newspapers overseas. My guess is that prices in different countries are largely determined by the age-old principle of 'what the market will bare'.
 
Sailing Today you just download a 40MB pdf. And it looks good on both PC and Tablet. In fact they have been giving away a 3 month trail for RYA members.
 
I think the general excuse is that the paper printing is a very minor part of the overall cost but I think it is more just price fixing. Try Zinio or Google Play Magazines for comparison pricing.

Last week, Apple was found out in court to be price fixing books so it wouldn't surprise me I'd they are also speaking to other publishers behind closed doors.
 
prv said:
To be fair, Richard generally does point out the fact that Apple takes a cut of everything sold on the iPad. One might think this would be offset by the absence of printing costs, but I don't really know.

Pete
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Isn't that a case of "don't make your problem my problem"? Luckily I haven't got an iPad and it's 4.99 on Android. :P
 
With the subscription price it can work out at £2.92 an issue which is good value. £37.99 for the year with the first month free. I think I might consider this if I get a new Nexus 7 with the super duper high res 7" screen. At the minute, a paper magazine sub is just handy enough for me and I can share it around too.
 
Euphonyx said:
Why is PBO so expensive online? In my local newsagent it costs me about €6 but am away at the moment and had a look to buy the current edition on my iPad and it's priced at €9. I would have thought it would be cheaper if anything!
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The magazine's are produced electronically anyway so there is no additional production costs to cover, maybe some formatting and file conversion but that can be done in software plus any electronic distribution costs via Apple and Google. There is no other distribution costs because we pay to download the magazines!

My guess is that it is because they can get away with it :) but for any traditional business that has to adjust to the online world there are other factors in play. One is about perceived value. If the magazine is worth paying £X then is that it's worth irrespective of the delivery method? Also, as a business they won't want to see revenue attrition from paper to online if they offered it at a lower cost to the online users - this would create channel conflict between online and paper :)
 
In the case of magasines, I suggest advertising revenue comes into the equation. If I were placing an ad I would look carefully at the print versus digital circulation.

I suggest that:

a) Print readers are much more likely notice/read an advert.
b) Print copies are more likely to be read by several people.
 
I've just had a look at Zinio on my iPad and PBO is £4.99 there. I never buy books or magazines through Apple's app store as they tend to be a lot cheaper via the Zinio or Amazon Kindle apps.
 
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I get my PBO through Zinio.

Zinio charges me tax.

I received boilerplate reply about forwarding taxes.


I am in Canada and am not used to international sellers charging me tax.
 
Euphonyx said:
Why is PBO so expensive online? In my local newsagent it costs me about €6 but am away at the moment and had a look to buy the current edition on my iPad and it's priced at €9. I would have thought it would be cheaper if anything!
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Despite all the moans, the magazines are great. Getting a mag full, month after month, to an absolute deadline, is flipping hard work and they do it well.

But the distribution, they've got it all wrong. I simply won't pay more for an electronic copy than a paper one. It has to be cheaper or I'm not interested.

It has more features they say. I don't want them. We have to pay apple they say. So email me the pdf or something. It's a revolution for publishers and they don't know how to deal with it. They are going to have to learn fast.

Edit just realised that what sailing today is doing. That learning curve just got steeper.
 
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VicMallows said:
They are giving away 3 free issues in a format you can freely redistribute. That is precisely what they want you to do. It's called MARKETING. Do you really expect it to continue in that format?
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When you buy back issues of PBO they are PDFs.

But in answer to your question, dont know, dont care. Point is they need to find a method of distribution that allows them to undercut paper mags if the want my money.
 
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