Good magazine. Bad typeface.

March 25, 2006 5:19 PM

Why are magazine subscription renewal letters always written in the Courier typeface?

This is just something I've wondered about for a while. Whenever I get a "this may be your last chance to renew your subscription to this great magazine" letter, it's always written in Courier. The only thing I can think of is that it seems "typewriter-y," but that doesn't seem like a good enough reason. Is it just convention? Anyone have any insight on that?

posted by Alt F4 to media & arts (5 comments total)

The only thing I can think of is that it seems "typewriter-y," but that doesn't seem like a good enough reason.

Actually, that is exactly the reason. It depends on the audience, but for your Joe Schmo mainstream audience, the impression you want to leave with them is that this is an "official" correspondence, akin to an urgent telegram, that requires immediate attention.

There's still a huge swath of the populace that, when they see Courier, think it's somehow "official," as it conjures up inferences to typewriters, telegrams and old-school mainframes with dot-matrix printers.
posted by frogan at 5:30 PM on March 25, 2006

This is similar to the association people have between "high tech" and the old-sk00l MICR fonts, even though in reality MICR is actually rather low tech and old fashioned. The "futuristic" association sticks to MICR, even though it's now the past, not the future.
posted by dmd at 5:36 PM on March 25, 2006

I used to be in the direct-mail biz. (yes, shame on me.)

Trust me -- this is something that has been tested over and over again. They (DM folk) test everything -- the copy on the outer envelope (known as "the teaser"), the P.S. at the bottom of the letter, what the offer is, how long the letter is, blah blah blah.

Letters are supposed to look like "real mail" (heh!) but the DM world seems stuck in the typewriter era, as has been pointed out. At least in terms of the font. If it didn't work, you wouldn't see so much of it, though.

Could be worse. Could be Comic Sans!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 7:29 PM on March 25, 2006

Why are magazine subscription renewal letters always written in the Courier typeface?

Just to point out that this isn't always the case: my subscription letters from Granta are in Times New Roman. Maybe it's just not a British thing.
posted by macdara at 2:09 AM on March 26, 2006

In England, the magazine industry is driven by newsstand, so they probably don't invest in lots of testing for their DM. Or it could be that they tested and found that for Granta's audience, TNR works.
posted by girlpublisher at 8:14 AM on March 26, 2006