GRRRR!!

I just realized that my subscription to WIRED expired last month, which annoys me since I really look forward to that magazine each month, even if its apparent editorial policy of "Anything Digital equals GOOD!" gets a bit cloying at times. So I thumbed through a bit of old mail that I let pile up, and sure enough, there was a "Final Notice" mailing from WIRED that my subscription was about to end and I had to renew by early May to get the great savings. So it's my fault that I missed it. I realize that.

But you know, it would be nice if magazines didn't emblazon all of their subscription flyers they send out with messages like "ACT NOW!" and "ONE TIME OFFER!" and "DON'T ALLOW AN INTERRUPTION IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION!", with that last one often being on mailings sent when the subscription is in absolutely no danger of running out anytime in the next six months. I know, to get the sale you have to create a sense of urgency, but after a while, doesn't it all start to look the same? Don't all those attempts to create "urgency" just end up being the sales equivalents of small boys shouting "wolf"? I might have paid that last notice more mind had it not been virtually indistinguishable from every other mailing WIRED has ever sent me.

Anyway, I'll buy a copy at The Store and send off one of those handy cards, and then everything will be happy again.

(Except for this: can't magazines stop enclosing five or six copies of their business-reply subscription card in the copies they're sending to subscribers?!)