Rebuilding Clarkesworld Subscriptions

I’ve been posting most of these updates in recent Clarkesworld editorials, but it’s only the 3rd and that’s a long time to wait for the next one. Here’s a recap:

Last year, we were informed by Amazon that they were ending their magazine subscription program. We had been in the program for well over a decade and it had been where the majority of our subscribers received their ebook editions. If you had a Kindle (which is the most popular ebook device), it was extremely convenient and easy-to-use. The ecosystem was designed so anyone could figure it out. As a result, it was quite popular.

There were some downsides for publishers, the biggest being that Amazon treated subscribers as their customers. That was great for things like customer support, but when it came time to help those people move their subscriptions to other services, it became a nightmare. Amazon would not share their contact information with us. We did what we could, but when the program ended, so did thousands of our subscriptions.

At the same time, Amazon opted to launch a Kindle Unlimited program for magazines. (Different terms than the book program.) We were among those invited and the non-negotiable terms included paying us less than half of what we once earned from them. I’ve described this previously as a hostage situation and what I meant by that is we were left with a choice, take the deal or close. Even taking the deal, we weren’t sure we’d make it, but the odds were better, so we held our nose and took it. Now that enough time has passed, I can say that taking the bad deal is the reason we survived that year. It gave us the time we needed to make a dent in rebuilding our subscriptions elsewhere.

A few months ago, they invited us to renew our existing contract for three months, but with an additional 50% cut in revenue. The idea was to move to new terms in July which, when we did the math, included another steep cut. Thanks to combined cuts, the anticipated revenue was not only insulting, but potentially harmful to our ability to sell subscriptions elsewhere. This time, however, they were open to negotiating, but that didn’t work out. As of July 1st, we’re no longer in the program. We won’t rule out returning, but I’d rate the chances as slim.

We were able to walk away from the table for a few reasons.

there was overlap between the old and new program, so we socked away that revenue for such an emergencyour subscription rebuilding efforts were more successful than anticipatedthe amount offered wouldn’t have closed the gap anywaya sliver of hope that the time allowed by #1 would be enough to close the subscription gap

In my July editorial, I laid it all out on the table and explained that we still had some time to recover the remaining 347 subscriptions needed to continue. The response was wonderful. Throughout the month, the number creeped downwards. It was in the 130s by the time I wrote our August editorial. That swift response extended the amount of time our reserves would last and, for the first time in a year, I felt confident that we could pull this off.

Early on August 1st, BaltSHOWPLACE shared my July editorial on Reddit (specifically the printSF reddit, but it would later spread to others) and we experienced a surge in new subscriptions.  The first few days of the month are usually a bit chaotic. It’s when a bunch of subscriptions come up for renewals, so there’s loss to churn (people not renewing) and a fresh batch of credit card processing errors. It can take a few days to figure out just where the numbers will settle, but it’s easy to work out the best and worst case scenarios. The surge left us sitting somewhere between the two.

More of the data resolved overnight and now I can confidently declare: We did it!

We are now back to the number of subscribers we had before Amazon pulled the plug! What we did not include in our goal was making up for the lost time (recovering the anticipated growth we would have experienced had the program not ended) and I can happily say that the surge has bitten into some of that as well, giving it a great start.

What we have now will allow the lights to stay on. Our bare minimum line in the sand. Everything that builds on that from here forward will be put towards our continued efforts to pay our staff a living wage. That has been and will continue to be a priority for us. Only a few genre publications have professionally-paid staff and none of those publications were born of the digital age like us. We aim to be the first and believe that it’s not only attainable, but a goal worth prioritizing. We hope you agree and that the ball can keep rolling towards that.

Thank you to everyone that has subscribed and boosted and cheered us on. You have no idea how much this means to all of us here.

Thank you.