Subscribing

I’m not one of those people who subscribe to popular magazines like US Weekly and Vanity Fair, although I admit to flipping through them when I’m in the checkout line at the supermarket. I do subscribe to special interest magazines and zines like RubberStampMadness, ATC Quarterly and Art & Life though. It’s my way of keeping in touch with the rest of the world when it comes to art that inspires me.
But why subscribe? Well, I remember something I read in Poets and Writers about ten years ago. The editor of a prestigious poetry quarterly was being interviewed about the thousands of submissions his publication received every year. He remarked that most of the people sending him poems weren’t subscribers, and added that a subscription would cost them about the same as a case of beer. Even though I had no idea what a case of beer cost, this comparison has always stuck in my mind.
As a writer, I know that magazines and zines depend on subscribers to keep them going—whether the publication is a labor of love, a business or both. And much as I love trolling the Internet for news and information, there’s nothing quite like curling up in bed after a hard day with one of my favorite mags. It’s a form of tangible, low-tech grazing that I don’t think will ever go out of style.