Lacking high subsciber numbers, Rider can't attract paying advertises to cover fast-rising, print-production costs, so raising subscription and retail prices is the only way to survive, but it's wishful thinking.
Effectively, the content of a magazine was the bait. To do that, they relied heavily on the content department, whose job was to provide trust-worthy, must-read, well-targeted editorial that piqued readers' interests enough to keep people subscribing, to keep subscriber numbers high, to entice advertises to pay for ads. The sole job of subscription departments was to keep, by any means necessary, sibscriber numbers high. The goal of subscription deoartments was to generate enough eyeballs so that advertisers were provided with a way to reach enough prospective buyers to make the cost of ads worth paying. Under that model, advertisers pay both the nut and the vast bulk of the profit. Start with the simple fact that virtually all magazines (and newspapers and TV channels) are for-profit businesses that heretofore have operated on an advertiser-subsidized model. Having edited magazines, I think it would be useful to outline what's happening to print-based periodicals: The old model is in a classic capitalist death spiral. Lacking high subsciber numbers, Rider can't attract paying advertisers to cover fast-rising, print-production costs, so raising subscription and retail prices is the only way to survive, but it's wishful thinking. (How many local periodical stands have closed over the past five years?)
(Much of the internet still does.) But we readers of paper-based periodicals are dinosaurs, and as our numbers dwindle-while production costs soar-advertisers no longer see a business case for paying for falling numbers of eyeballs. The whole point was to be able to go to advertisers and say, "Pay us dollars and we guarantee you that people will see your ad." Virtually every now-defunct and/or failing for-profit periodical operated this way. This is how newspapers for so many decades could sell papers for 25 cents, a price ludicrously below production costs.
Any money made from subscriptions and retail sales was simply bonus cash. Nominal subscription and retail-sales prices were set only because human nature discounts the value of free stuff. Effectively a magazine's content was bait. To do that, they relied heavily on the content department, whose job was to provide trust-worthy, must-read, well-targeted editorial that piqued readers' interests enough to keep people subscribing to keep subscriber numbers high to entice advertises to pay for ads.
The sole job of subscription departments was to keep, by any means necessary, subscriber numbers high. The goal of subscription departments was to generate enough eyeballs so that advertisers were provided with a way to reach enough prospective buyers to make the cost of ads worth paying. Having edited magazines, I think it would be useful to outline what's happening to printed periodicals: