The Cost of Print Magazines

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that SmartMoney Magazine had ceased publication. At the time, I also mentioned that I still subscribe to the print versions of Money Magazine and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. In their October 2012 issue, Knight Kiplinger also mentions that SmartMoney is ceasing publication, but he is not gloating about losing a competitor.

He has some interesting commentary about the cost of finance magazines. It seems that consumers are willing to "pay $4 for a latte at Starbucks", but "balk at paying even $1 for an issue of a useful magazine." I think that Kiplinger really has a point here because in this age, there is plenty of free information on the internet. And these are some of the same issues that he faces as the editor of Kiplinger's. However, I often prefer to hold a physical magazine in my hands.

So let me ask, how much is a print magazine worth? Would you pay $12 for 1 year of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine? Or if you prefer Money magazine, would you pay $15 for 1 year of Money Magazine? There is even an offer to get 5 issues of Money for only $5. I think that it will be interesting to see what readers responses will be.

PFS

How Much Do You Make - Survey Results

The final results are in for the PFStock annual income poll in the sidebar. I've asked readers to respond to the question: "How much do you make?" There were 76 responses in all. Here are the final poll results for PFStock's current income survey:

How Much Do You Make (September 2012 Results)

Annual Income	2011 Survey	2012 Survey
less than $50k	8%	13%
$50k-$99k	25%	27%
$100k-$149k	27%	28%
$150k-$199k	11%	17%
$200k-$249k	8%	7%
$250k and higher	18%	5%

Note that the percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding. From these statistics, I found that there has been a big decrease in the number of respondents who claim to make more than $200k per year. This makes wonder if people are feeling less rich this year. Does anybody have a comment on this statement?

The last time that I published annual income survey results was in my April 2011 post on the topic. In comparing these statistics, I see that there is a bit of a shift away from the higher income ranges. Does this mean that the economy is once again stagnating in 2012?

Here are some other interesting related posts:

Annual Income Survey (2/10)
How much do you make? (4/09)
Net Worth Update (8/09)
Net Worth Comparison (6/08)
Are You Wealthy? (3/08)
Calculating Net Worth (9/06)

PFS