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27th December 2006 19:55

Christmas in November? New Year in December? Why do magazines go on sale a month in advance?

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Lovely Things says it's odd our January issue is full of ideas for Christmas and New Year. 'Don't tell me,' it says 'that magazines are now realising that, as they bring each issue out before the start of the month (eg: January's issue is available in December), they're now including features appropriate to when it's actually being read? Wouldn't it just make more sense to bring the magazine out on the first day of the month and have month-appropriate articles?'

Well, it would certainly make our lives easier but you know what? It's what the customer wants. Not, obviously, if you ask someone 'Do you want a magazine to come out the month before its issue month?' then obviously sane people would say no.

But we all like what's new, what's the latest and years back, magazines discovered that it's a real advantage to be out on the shelves first and started to creep the publication date further and further forward. At one point, one home magazine was even publishing TWO months in advance but it quickly dropped that one. So now we're stuck with it - all vying to be out as close to the 1st of the month before the month on the cover. Mad, I know, but there it is. And yes, it causes us huge problems with issues like January. What do you think? Would you rather have a Jan issue full of New Year stuff, even though it's out on Dec 1, or have features related to Christmas, even though the issue is dated Jan 07?

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