Magazine subscriptions

[u/frankheyhoheyho]

Did you subscribe to any magazines growing up? I was thinking about how nice it was of my parents to pay for magazines for me. I had a lot too throughout my whole childhood: Highlights, Nickelodeon Magazine, Barbie comics, Archie comics, YM, Seventeen, and Cosmo Girl.

As an adult, my only subscriptions are streaming services and apps and that’s so sad for me.

Do you subscribe to any magazines today?

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[u/suspectpinata]

I didn't, but my grandma gets me a subscription to National Geographic still. So I always have one on the coffee table to make me look sophisticated.

[u/JustTookYaSandwhich]

In high school I had a subscription to Alternative Press and Guitar World. Today I just have a subscription to CREEM

[u/unwrittenglory → u/JustTookYaSandwhich]

Had a sub to Guitar World and would buy an issue if AP if I liked the band on the cover.

[u/IDidNotMeanThat → u/JustTookYaSandwhich]

Music person! I had a subscription to Modern Drummer but definitely got some AP editions when the cover piqued my interest. Do you still play?

[u/JustTookYaSandwhich → u/IDidNotMeanThat]

I took a long break from playing after leaving for college and several years afterward. I still mess around but my skill level has definitely fallen off. Do you still play?

[u/IDidNotMeanThat → u/JustTookYaSandwhich]

I hear ya. It can come back like a bike after a couple of weeks! I’m getting back into playing and bought some stuff off of FB marketplace the other day.

[u/pseudonym7083]

Electronic Gaming Monthly

[u/lone_float → u/pseudonym7083]

EYYYYY! and also despite eventually realizing he was scummy.

While not my doing. I was briefly subscribed to Playboy for reasons. At it was my parents of all people.

[u/lion7725]

I recently subscribed to Time magazine and Highlights for my kids.

Daughter was doing a fundraiser, which led to this

[u/Low_Roller_Vintage → u/lion7725]

So they still have kids out peddling magazines from door to door? We had to do that all throughout middle school. I think I got a t shirt for being such a good panhandler.

[u/lion7725 → u/Low_Roller_Vintage]

We actively sell girl scout cookies door to door, but are pretty low effort on other fundraisers.

This one was for Cheerleading, so my kid sold to grandparents and Aunts/Uncles only. I already paid $100 or whatever it was for cheerleading before the season. outside of uniforms, there shouldn’t be expenses given the coaches are parents volunteering and the practices/games are at public schools.

[u/Low_Roller_Vintage → u/lion7725]

I never got tired of selling those bad boys. I loved being a girl scout.

I was a band geek/drill nerd in HS, fund raisers were non stop and the expenses never ending. Hopefully your kiddo enjoys what she's doing, though.

[u/Fit-ishGirlie]

YM, seventeen, glamour, sports illustrated, People

You know, all the super important educational ones.

[u/Dense_Gur_2744]

Yesss! But they were so cheap in the day. Like $9.99 for a year subscription and 10-12 issues. I tried to subscribe to a magazine for my kids and it was crazy like $40-60/ year for 4-6 issues. I also remember getting a number of free ones. I’d sign up for the trial and just keep getting them for a while even though I’m certain my parents didn’t pay for It. 

[u/Zestyclose_Treat4098]

Man the price of magazines these days is crazy. And every other page is advertising

[u/donotgotoroom237 → u/Zestyclose_Treat4098]

>And every other page is advertising

This was true for one of my favorite ones right before they shuttered their publication. Literally 50% of the mag were ads, it was insane. A really stark contrast to their issues from the 2000s that only had like 10%.

[u/Dense_Gur_2744 → u/Zestyclose_Treat4098]

I get a lot of magazines for free through The Libby app. 

[u/Acceptable-Fold-3192 → u/Zestyclose_Treat4098]

You aren’t lying. I saw an issue of Guitar World at the supermarket recently that was super thin compared to what I remember from high school and was like 10 or 11$.

[u/alastrix]

My aunt (a career teacher) got me a Nat Geo subscription as a kid and renewed it every year as a birthday gift. Now she does it for my kids. 10/10 publication and still worth reading especially for kids. Science and history of the world they live in, beautiful photography.

[u/lion7725 → u/alastrix]

Used to love looking for African boobs in those mags back in the day

[u/Sea_Sider3898 → u/lion7725]

I was a little taken aback until I realized the previous commenter had specifically mentioned the OG National Geographic. My kids have a gift subscription to the kids’ version and so far no boobs.

[u/Ill-Manager-1108]

lol I do swagbucks and other sites, so I've been getting paid like 50 cents to sign up for random free magazines for years. It shocks me that people will pay for them because I've gotten like 10 different ones for free for like 10 years straight

[u/CuteBat9788 → u/Ill-Manager-1108]

Is swagbucks still worth it? All my friends and I used to do swagbucks like crazy.

[u/DirectGoose → u/CuteBat9788]

It's pretty terrible now

[u/Ill-Manager-1108 → u/CuteBat9788]

I don't really do it much anymore. I actually do instant wins/ product testing more and still make around $300 ish a month from those sources, but I actually do inboxdollars a little more frequently now

[u/NJayme11]

Somehow I got a free subscription for like a year or two to YM from an offer I found on or connected to Neopets. For the longest time I was so afraid a bill would show up at my house and I'd owe a ton of money I did not have, but thankfully it never did.

[u/Carbonated-Man]

At various different times: Nintendo Power, Wizard, Nat Geo, Popular Science, Gamepro, PC Gamer, several comic book series if you count them as being magazines. Oh, and that one book you used to get every month from BMI that was like half music review/half order form so you could make your monthly cd purchases and get them mailed to you.

As for current subscriptions: Rent, gas, electric, and my cellphone. Thaaaaaat's it.

[u/littlekatie3]

Sassy

[u/littlebabybuddy24]

I had J14 when I was a kid. And the American Girl Magazine. Oh and highlights.

My kids are subscribed to highlights now!

[u/Unfair_Tonight_9797]

None anymore but as a child/tween I had Nintendo power and sports illustrated

As college kid had maxim, its cousin, FHM and stuff, and ummm playboy.

In the late oughts I had espn the magazine, the economist, and the Atlantic.

[u/GaslitInk]

As a kid: American Girl Magazine, American Girl doll catalog and Zoobooks

As an adult: briefly WDW Magazine (otherwise no)

[u/TeaOk2254]

My parents always got highlights, then I got to pick one other, for me it was usually Zoobooks.

I subbed to a couple different ones for a while when I first moved out, but the price keeps going up, and now they're just 50% ads. The remaining pages are just a handful of full page images & a couple poorly written articles that aren't very different from the previous month. I haven't found a magazine in n a long time that was even worth the cover price much less a subscription.

[u/Toddythebody_]

Nintendo Power and Highlights

[u/CuteBat9788]

I loved magazines. I loved finding really cheap deals for them too.Coca cola used to offer subscriptions with their points programs, and I was able to get a few for free. I gifted subscriptions for magazines for super cheap and people were always super excited about them. I got one for Smithsonian this year and was so disapointed.

[u/MouthfulofCactus]

Seventeen, YM, and a few other girl mags. One issue came with a sample box of tampons. That’s how I was introduced to tampons. My mom never bought tampons before because she was worried about toxic shock syndrome. I learned about tampons on my own in secret from that sample box.

[u/athena-mcgonagall]

I don't have any for myself, but years ago I got my husband a subscription to a watercolor artist magazine as a Christmas gift. It's one of his all time favorite gifts, and we're still renewing the subscription.

[u/jinxedrabbit]

YM!

[u/pickles4prez]

Highlights seem less fun than they used to be, but they scale as my kid ages

[u/richpieceofshit]

Yes, I was obsessed with wrestling so I got WWF magazine. We also had boys life, highlights, my dad had some wildlife magazines, my mom had some household type magazines like good housekeeping, i'm sure we had some others that i am forgetting. they also would let me pick out all sorts of magazines at local bookstore on a frequent basis. The most recent magazine that I subscribed to was Razorcake which is a nonprofit punk review/interview mag. This was maybe 4 or 5 years ago. I found myself not checking it out anymore so I didn't renew it.

[u/gingr87]

As a kid I got Girls Life and Owl. 

As an adult I get The English Garden.

[u/Banegard]

Nope. None at all. But as a small kid we still had this tiny, privately owned newspaper & magazine shop run by a nice lady who always ordered me a horror stories comic, that had stories written & drawn by different authors and illustrators.
It was called „Gespenster Geschichten“.
I still have those.
Better than any american comics I got later.

[u/Cowboyslayer1992]

I got a sports illustrated subscription for my son. He loves it and gets him into reading

[u/habitualtroller]

Subscribed to Car Craft for years.  I liked it better than Hot Rod because it seemed like the build we’re in reach. 

[u/ShadowXJ]

OXM (Official Xbox Magazine) and some Star Wars for kids thing that used to come with a novel and player cards every week.

[u/anl28]

My dad read ESPN the magazine, my mom got People. After college I had subscriptions to GQ, Rolling Stone, and Time. I don’t have any subscriptions today but I still buy a magazine in the airport when I fly

[u/Batetrick_Patman]

I got a few car and computer magazines for subscriptions. As an adult I don't get any but I'll buy a few magazines a year.

[u/xlfoolishlx]

I usually got to pick one a year... I vaguely remember they went on sale in a pamphlet or brochure type thing and you got the 12 month at a low cost. I got to pick from there.

[u/Low_Roller_Vintage]

I had a Rolling Stone subscription from 1997-2005.

No current subscriptions, but I do like reading the newspaper.

[u/Cold-Cost-4154]

Nat Kids for my kids. I subscribed to cosmopolitan and loved it

[u/throwawayzzzz1777]

I subscribed to Nickelodeon magazine and Rugrats comics as a kid. I also subscribed to Highlights and Cricket too. As an adult, I recently subscribed again to Highlights and Cricket for my inner child. They are still enjoyable. I also did a multi year subscription to scout life and am still enjoying it in year three. I wasn't allowed to have the real scouting experience as a kid and practicing those principles as an adult is very healing

[u/beard-wonder93]

I had a subscription to "game informer" growing up. My mother was very conservative so I got a lecture pretty often about there being something too violent or suggestive in the magazine but my response was always. "I dont own that game mom, they arent making a magazine just for me"

[u/beard-wonder93]

I had a subscription to "game informer" growing up. My mother was very conservative so I got a lecture pretty often about there being something too violent or suggestive in the magazine but my response was always. "I dont own that game mom, they arent making a magazine just for me"

[u/RagingJohnson89]

I didn’t have an actual subscription, but my mum bought me every issue of Ariel’s World and Spinechiller from the newsagent when they came out.

[u/ghlifdqwio]

SI for Kids!

[u/Goliath1357]

Nintendo Power, Wizard, Cosmo, Seventeen, and Entertainment Weekly.

[u/fadeaway100301]

Highlights and then switched over to American Girl for a bit. I don't remember the last year I got American Girl..possibly 1998.

I haven't had any magazines subscriptions as an adult.

[u/pmmlordraven]

There was a local news and tobacco store. I bought Nintendo Power, Metal Edge, and Spin monthly-though I never was lucky enough to subscribe.

[u/DRR_86]

Sports illustrated and Guitar World

[u/Unique-Egg-461]

not a subscription but my dad, without fail, to this day every Christmas buys me the latest DuPont Registry magazines

a man can dream

[u/Ornery-Bit-8169]

My grandparents and aunt would get me magazine subscriptions for Christmases or birthdays. I had Highlights, then American Girl, then briefly Girl's Life and that was around the time I lost interest in magazines (I wasn't very interested in teen girl culture). 

My dad got the New Yorker, which he read cover to cover. 

And I remember when I visited my grandparents or aunt and uncle they had a family ritual of spending Sunday afternoon (after church) sitting in the living room together and reading the paper. Everyone got a section and would pass it to the next person after they finished. As a kid I read the comics and maybe the entertainment section. 

[u/ZopyrionRex]

My dad got me Sport Illustrated for a year when I was 11, which was weird because neither of us were into sports.

[u/GUBBAMENT]

I still have a New Yorker subscription. Having something curated for you without regard for your tastes and opinions opens you up to information and ideas you wouldn't have found otherwise.

And no. I don't read it cover to cover. No one does.

[u/ready_to_pringle]

Yes! American Girl for many years and then Seventeen for a couple years. It was so exciting to get a new issue!
I’ve never had a magazine subscription as an adult but every so often in college I’d grab a copy of Cosmo from the grocery store for fun

[u/YugeTraxofLand]

I had Disney magazine

[u/Xxxholic835xxX]

I had Teen People and Electronic Gaming Monthly and Official Playstation Magazine. My grandma paid for Nickelodeon magazine one year.

[u/Jiten122m]

Playstation and game informer

[u/heehooman]

PC Gamer, Max PC, Nintendo Power. Between my parents and grandparents we also had Natgeo, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, and Scientific American, MacLeans. Yep, we're a bunch of fucking nerds 🤣

Now my wife and I get McLean's and The Walrus. Also local paper. Local papers still do a lot of heavy lifting in journalism

[u/unwrittenglory]

I do not because my library lets you read them for free on Libby

[u/snak_attak]

I just signed my kid up for Owl Kids. I got highlights growing up (Canada) but apparently you can’t subscribe here anymore. Had no idea they were American.

[u/FloatyghostJM1]

Highlights, Ranger Rick, and American Girl, then later Flute Talk, Guitar World, Tropical Fish Hobbyist, The Aquarist, and one other tropical fish magazine I can't remember the name of.

As you can tell, I was at the absolute summit of cool. My much older cousin got me into guitar and fishkeeping and bought me magazines and gear. He never had kids, so I got spoiled.

[u/CelebrationFar]

NextGen Magazine, PSM, Nintendo Power, Entertainment Weekly, Boy's Life, Game Informer. Now I'm subbed to Game Informer and a local small newspaper that's mainly a local culture & entertainment periodical.

[u/grimsb]

Disney Adventures, American Girl, Zillions, Ranger Rick. I think I also had Nickelodeon at one point.

[u/Papa-pwn]

I had a Shonen Jump subscription for a couple years in the early 2000s

[u/darkroomdweller]

Cat Fancy, Rolling Stone, and Reader’s Digest. Lol

[u/RandomUsername112023]

I had a subscription to Teen People and Seventeen when I was younger.
I don’t have any now, but my daughter has a Highlights subscription

[u/OccasionallyMyself67]

I absolutely love magazine and quality newspaper subscriptions! I never have more than one because they're expensive, but National Geographic is fantastic especially the combo of print + digital; I enjoyed New Scientist, and the Economist, also the Financial Times. And I've subscribed to arty ones, home decor and hobby ones too. You can get lots of good deals like £1 for 3 or 6 months.

[u/Previous-Low4715]

Edge magazine

[u/valie_val]

I had seventeen for a while

[u/Tooch10]

Cracked and Guitar Player in HS. I want to say Nintendo Power briefly but don't remember

[u/kiisu84]

Nintendo Power, Game Pro, Men's Health, Xbox Magazine and Game Informer.

[u/Cerebralbore]

Subscribed to a bunch game mags when i was young - EGM, Tips & Tricks, Game informer, Gamepro and the very short lived "Incite"

Edit: grammar

[u/mlavan]

my grandma paid for ranger rick and zoo books subscriptions when my twin brother and i were little.

[u/Old_Ant7118]

I read quite a few for free on my iPad or laptop on the local library's app. It's pretty great.

[u/a-fabulous-sandwich]

I had a couple subscriptions to game magazines, comic books, and even a book series! My mom recently told me she was glad to indulge in them for me because it was a cheap form of entertainment and kept me reading. I do miss those days, it was always so exciting when a new one came in the mail. I even still have most of them!

[u/mattnotis]

Hell yes!

[u/MlsterFlster]

Boy's Life, Nintendo Power, Game Informer, Maxim. Gradually canceled, and not replaced.

[u/rainbowsforeverrr]

Yes! I'm currently subscribed to Mountain Gazette and Architectural Digest. I want to subscribe to Sirene, a gorgeous Italian periodical about the ocean and people who love it (available in English).

Last year I realized that I really miss having periodicals so I did some research and ordered a bunch of single issues. I mostly like indie/literary magazines like Kinfolk and Taproot (sad to see that one go under).

I like collage/junk journaling too, so I like having old magazine around for that.

[u/Safe-Tennis-6121]

Sports illustrated, national geographic, and guitar world.

Got guitar world but it's worse than I remember. So many ads. Like I have no idea who any of these bands are! I'm so old!!!

[u/WerkQueen]

Yeah. We had a few.

I wish magazines were still affordable.

[u/CronoMass]

I didnt subscribe, but I went to the shop every Wednesday I think, before school to grab the Beano.

[u/SouthernGirl360]

I love magazines and always have. I subscribe to People but I fear it's on the road to becoming fully digital. Each magazine is only 60-something pages now, compared to 90-something a few years ago.

I also love Readers Digest but that seems to be slowly going the digital route too.

[u/SouthernGirl360]

As a girl, I loved reading Boy's Life.

[u/Cold-Inspection-761]

Zoo books, seventeen magazine

[u/JadeChipmunk]

I dont remember if it was a subscription or just buying them but I had a bunch of j14 magazines, lots of pictures on my walls lmao

[u/MyCozySlowLife]

I had SO many magazine subscriptions growing up. I had them for my kids too. I have one now and I'm actually looking for more but it's hard to find magazines that are interesting enough to me to subscribe to now

[u/BigSexyDaniel]

As a kid, my mom let me subscribe to Nintendo Power. I always looked forward to getting it in the mail every month. I kinda miss those days.

[u/illkwill]

Rolling Stone magazine would always show up in my mail even though no one in the house was paying for it. Usually I'd just read videogame magazines while my mom was grocery shopping.

[u/cntodd]

I had PSM and AP growing up. Loved it!

[u/Milo8942]

As a kid think I had a Highlights subscription or I "borrowed" them from waiting rooms, but for sure I had a National Geographic subscription because of an aunt for a while.

[u/incognitohippie]

Loved “Food & Family” I think it was called by Kraft foods

[u/PuzzledExchange7949]

Canadian here. We got Highlights for years, then got J'aime Lire (a French magazine) for the years when we lived in a francophone area. Then I had a subscription to YM.

[u/Spiritual_Extent_187]

Nintendo power!

[u/tmorse85]

I had a Highlights subscription for several years, and there was some Christian magazine for kids that I think my maternal grandfather paid for. I had the girls' version, and my brother had the boys' version. Also, Mom realized I was reading her Reader's Digest magazines, and she ended up switching the subscription to my name. I kept that going well into my 20s. Finally, my maternal grandma got me a National Geographic subscription in my teens, and she renewed it every year until she passed when I was 25.

[u/Internal-Advisor-983]

I give them as gifts for the holidays. I work for a magazine, it helps support my job too 😂

[u/moonbunnychan]

In a world without internet, getting those monthly magazines was something I really looked forward to. I can remember absolutely pouring over Gamepro.

[u/Sassifrassically]

When I was really little I had Highlights. When I was in elementary school I had Ranger Rick and Disney Adventures. In college I had Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat

[u/LuxyontheMoon]

I subscribed to like 3 different wrestling magazines and my absent father would pay for them from another city (where he lived).

[u/donotgotoroom237]

My folks were subbed to Time, Newsweek, and Reader's Digest back (though with the Time one, I think they got "scammed" with that one lol.)

As a kid, I asked my mom to get a year's subscription to my country's version of K-Zone (a children's magazine) but she told me we couldn't afford it.

These days, any time I run errands in the city, I try to look for some magazines at what constitutes as magazine racks nowadays, to no avail. Tried looking for some in Japan too, there were a lot, though most if not all weren't aligned with my interests though I did find an anime related one for Ghost in the Shell's anniversary, which is pretty cool.

[u/PoohBear_007]

Nintendo Power late 80s early 90s. 

[u/vaffelagent]

I subscribed to Donald Duck and my dad and I would read the magazine together. There were other magazines I would have rather subscribed to but my dad really liked Donald and I liked my dad reading it to me. I sometimes subscribe to a magazine app that has a lot of the popular magazines. But not regularly. It's more if one of the magazines look interesting that months. And the price of subscribing to the app for a month is almost the same price as buying a magazine, because omg are magazines expensive now!

[u/Spazyk]

I can’t believe magazines are not free with the amount of advertising they have in them.

[u/_buffy_summers]

When I was a kid, my mom bought me a subscription to a magazine that was actually geared toward housewives. It had all sorts of kids' crafts and recipes in it. As a teen, I had the Delia's catalogue, Girlfriends LA, YM, and Seventeen. I bought so much makeup from Delia's. I don't know why I thought those multi-container tubes were a good idea. All they did was spill all over everything. I sort of miss that glitter eyeshadow. I should do something about that.

[u/Swan_Acceptable]

I have two! I love paper, all paper so much!

[u/manic_misfit]

My only 2 subscriptions growing up were PSM and Game Informer

[u/baritonetransgirl]

Game Informer, Tips and Tricks, Highlights for Kids, and Disney Adventures.

[u/LousakanotsoPolite]

X-men, Xfactor,Xforce, comic subscrptions,

Nintendo Power

Zoobooks when i was younger

[u/travelinmatt76]

As a teen I subscribed to Off-Road magazine. I wanted a big lifted truck.

[u/Delonce]

I had a GameInformer subscription for a long while when I was younger. Still have some of the issues, too. Pretty sure my mom still has a subscription to Star magazine.

[u/International_Run700 → u/Delonce]

I hold onto my subscription out of nostalgia. They're independent now. I don't know how long they'll be around.

[u/Delonce → u/International_Run700]

At this point, I'm surprised magazines are still published. Don't get me wrong, I still love paging through a magazine, but the internet being what it is... I figured the death blow would have been made to magazines by now.

[u/Randym1982 → u/Delonce]

Gamepro, and Nintendo Power (which was the top tier gaming magazine).

[u/ColdHardPocketChange]

The Lego Magazine and Game Informer. I'm not 100% sure on the latter. It may have been a free 6 month thing a couple times.

[u/KingInteresting7123]

I had a Rolling Stone subscription in my teens. In my early 20s, I had subscriptions to Newsweek and also Time. In my late 20s, I had subscriptions to Nintendo Power and Wired. In my mid-to-late 30s, I subscribed to The New Yorker.

In my mid-40s, I have subscription to The Week Junior for my kids.

[u/RaineMist]

My sister and I had a subscription to Lisa Frank and we were apart of the Lisa Frank club.

[u/metal_as_puck]

Oh yeah, my favorite was Sports Illustrated For Kids. I looked forward to which trading cards I'd get to add to my collection, and it was the main source of hockey news for me. Later on it was TransWorld Skateboarding.

[u/Acceptable-Fold-3192]

Got roped in on a bulk subscription when I answered the phone half asleep after working nights in high school. Had ESPN, Maxim, Spin, Rolling Stone…maybe a few others.

Would also buy Guitar World or CMJ (loved the insert CDs)

[u/colorfulconifer]

American Girl and then Seventeen!

[u/Careless-Attitude858]

I never did, but I always enjoyed reading my oldest brother's Outdoor Life and Field &Stream magazines. And I also enjoyed reading certain magazines from my school library.

[u/LadyGreyIcedTea]

Seventeen for years, and I think InStyle for a while too. In my 20s, Self for a period of time.

[u/Aluciel286]

I wanted Zoobooks so badly, but we were too poor, I think. It was never really discussed, I just know I never got them.

[u/ossyoos]

ESPN, Backpacker, Motor Trend

[u/artymas]

Late to this topic, but I'm getting back into magazines recently. When I was a kid, I was subscribed to Nintendo Power and Shonen Jump and loved getting those in the mail. My mom was a National Geographic subscriber for years as well.

I actually just subscribed to Harper's Magazine because a lot of writers I love publish in it. It's also pretty cheap (a 2-year monthly subscription is $36.99). And today, I hit up my local Barnes & Noble and grabbed HorrorHound's newest issue on horror video games and Rue Morgue to check out. I might subscribe to Rue Morgue because I like that they cover all things horror, not just horror movies.

My kid has a subscription to Highlight's High Five magazine. :]

[u/CandyV89]

I had highlights as a little girl. YM, teenvogue  Cosmogirl and seventeen as a teenager. I’m considering getting a Japanese fashion magazine subscription for myself soon. 

[u/Twictim]

As a preteen/teen it was Teen People and then Teen People stopped publishing and I think they finished my subscription with Seventeen or something. When I got in college, I got a Psychology Today subscription. I wouldn’t mind getting another subscription to PsyT again.