arrival of the New Yorker

December 15, 2004 4:06 PM

New Yorker subscribers: When do you get your issue? (+)

Since we moved to California, they come about a week slower than when we were out East. For instance, I haven't received the new double fiction issue yet, but I know it's out because other people are talking about it.

I don't know whether to blame Conde Naste, the post office, or my neighbor, whom I sometimes suspect "borrows" it from our communal mailbox.

posted by _sirmissalot_ to grab bag (27 comments total)

I'm in San Francisco, and I get mine before the cover date if I'm checking mail every day. I don't keep track of how much before, though.
posted by caitlinb at 4:13 PM on December 15, 2004

When I worked for a magazine in Texas, I had constant complaints from CA subscribers who received their issues two and three weeks late, and three at a time.

They were convinced it was prejudice on our part. I tried to straighten it out with the PO, but never could.

Now I live in CA and am a subscriber to the same magazine. I receive my issues two and three weeks late, and three at a time.

It's got something to do with the way mail sent through second-class (subscription) permits is sorted. They're sent in bundles. For bundles that are traveling long distances, a bundle may be made up of everything that's going to the west coast (as opposed to everything that's going two blocks away).

When I asked from the publisher's point of view, the PO denied that 2nd class mail took any longer when it had to travel a great distance.

This is obviously not true.

And this obviously did not answer your question -- except to tell you that the post office is to blame, not the Condes.
posted by mudpuppie at 4:27 PM on December 15, 2004

I live in Oklahoma and I just received my 12/14 issue yesterday.
posted by Dr. Zira at 4:30 PM on December 15, 2004

I get it usually on Wed or Thur, and every once in a while on Fri.
posted by chaz at 4:35 PM on December 15, 2004

In Nebraska I usually get mine on Friday or Saturday and rarely on Thursday. The delay is really annoying..

In Boston it was usually Thursday, sometimes Wednesday. The New Republic (which also hits stands Monday) usually comes a day or two earlier. I don't know why - maybe because there are fewer subscribers.
posted by sophie at 4:49 PM on December 15, 2004

In Boston - I receive my New Yorker on Tuesday or Wednesday. Received the December 20 & 27 double issue this morning.
posted by ericb at 4:52 PM on December 15, 2004

Toronto here - I got the double-issue this morning, too.
posted by stonerose at 4:54 PM on December 15, 2004

Also Nebraska. Friday if I'm lucky, but often Saturday and on truly depressing weeks not until Monday.

PS... if you can stand to wait 2 months for your first issue to start, check eBay for magazine subscriptions. I got TWO YEARS of New Yorker for $17.99. Quality of Life Index up 80 points since subscription began arriving.
posted by spock at 5:17 PM on December 15, 2004

In Seattle, the Thursday after the new content is available online, usually four days before the cover date.

I think. (being at work and not able to check).
posted by mwhybark at 5:20 PM on December 15, 2004

I usually get mine the Thursday before the issue date, sometimes on Friday or Saturday. But never before Thursday. I'm in Southern California.
posted by LionIndex at 5:31 PM on December 15, 2004

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area; I usually get mine on Monday or Tuesday. No sign of the double fiction issue yet this week.
posted by JDC8 at 5:45 PM on December 15, 2004

oregon, on thursdays, without fail.
posted by docpops at 5:48 PM on December 15, 2004

In southern New Hampshire: Usually Wednesday or Thursday. Expecting the double issue tomorrow.
posted by anathema at 6:02 PM on December 15, 2004

In Queens: Anywhere from Tuesday to Thursday. Very occasionally on Mondays or Fridays. Most often Wednesday, though I got the double issue on Monday. (!)
posted by Vidiot at 6:05 PM on December 15, 2004

In Virginia, I get mine a day or two prior to the cover date. Bizarrely, the events listed in the front section (which I think of as "the part to skim for cartoons") are all over by the time that I get the issue. This I don't understand. Does the thing go on sale over a week before the cover date on newsstands in NYC?

I'd think that they'd just skip the events listings entirely for subscribers outside of New York. Why list events that have already happened?
posted by waldo at 6:10 PM on December 15, 2004

In New Orleans I get it usually on Friday, once in awhile on Saturday.
posted by govtdrone at 6:12 PM on December 15, 2004

NYC - I miss issues, get two at a time.

I'm currently 'tween subscriptions.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 6:43 PM on December 15, 2004

santa cruz, CA - my girlfriend usually gets hers a week late.
posted by advil at 6:53 PM on December 15, 2004

In nyc, & I got the double issue yesterday, although I have actually never noticed exactly which day it arrives... I have never finished last week's by the time this week's arrives, so it's kind of always too soon.
posted by mdn at 8:24 PM on December 15, 2004

Does the thing go on sale over a week before the cover date on newsstands in NYC?
They hit the stands on the Monday before the date on the cover, along with Newsweek, Time, People and other weeklies.
posted by sophie at 8:28 PM on December 15, 2004

In Washington DC, mine arrive on Mondays, or Tuesdays at the latest. This last Monday was the Dec 20 & 27 double issue, with the snowshoeing (sp?) bookworms on the front.
posted by coelecanth at 9:03 PM on December 15, 2004

I'm in Manhattan and got the new issue yesterday morning (Tuesday).
posted by yellowcandy at 10:00 PM on December 15, 2004

Good luck getting problems with magazines sorted out with the post office; i've tried before without success.
posted by reverendX at 10:03 PM on December 15, 2004

waldo: the NYC event listings are there for us outside the city as much as they are for City dwellers, if not more. It's a little dreamspace about NYC for me and thee, if you choose.
posted by mwhybark at 11:20 PM on December 15, 2004

Living in the UK, I'm constantly frustrated by the difficulty of getting hold of the New Yorker, which I've only seen on sale at a few station newsagents, and in a handful of large bookshops in major cities. International subscriptions are prohibitively expensive ($112, as compared to $46 for US subscribers, so one is paying more for postage than for the magazine itself .. and this is surface mail, not airmail, so would presumably take at least 2-3 weeks to arrive).

I can't understand why Conde Nast hasn't made a deal with a UK magazine distributor or subscription service. Maybe it's the very American-centred nature of their advertising, which may mean it doesn't pay them to get the magazine distributed widely outside the US; or maybe it's something about the magazine distribution system here in the UK, which (so I'm told) is tightly controlled by one or two firms who concentrate on the biggest-selling titles. But I get the feeling that the people at the New Yorker haven't quite adjusted to the fact that there are people outside New York who actually want to read their magazine.

(Sorry, sirmissalot, this doesn't answer your question, but I wanted to share my frustration .. and who knows, maybe someone at Conde Nast will read this and decide to do something about it.)
posted by verstegan at 3:55 AM on December 16, 2004

I don't get it either. I mean, they have a list of their subscribers, right? That's a fixed variable -- oxymoronic, but they can at any point tell their printer, "We need X magazines for our subscribers." What in the hell is the problem?

Ok, so the mail from the New Yorker's printers somehow takes longer than the mail from the New Republic's. Fine, I'll accept that. But why does it fluctuate? If it's printed every month on the same day, and mailed out on the same day every month, why should it arrive on Wednesday, Thursday, sometimes Friday, sometimes Monday? Do they drink more heavily on certain months?

Is there anyone we can tar and feather for this?
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:04 AM on December 16, 2004

Here in western NC, I usually get mine on a Thursday or Friday - I haven't gotten the fiction issue yet - but get this: my mother, who lives across town in a (much) more affluent zip code, gets hers on Monday or Tuesday. She already has it. So the post office, or the mailing center, or whoever, is evil not just across state lines but across neighborhoods as well.

Unless Conde Nast analyzed zip codes, realized I couldn't afford one single thing that's advertised in that magazine, and so sends it out late to me and my equally poor neighbors? Or maybe. . it's just ME! They hate me! My paranoid self would love that, but okay, I grant you that it's just a little unlikely.

Most magazine subscriptions are actually handled in Boulder, CO; but I don't know if there's a clearinghouse somewhere where they are all mailed from? Or possibly magazines bound for different places are actually printed in different places?
posted by mygothlaundry at 10:52 AM on December 16, 2004