Sport Aviation available through Sporty's

[Kyle Boatright]

http://eaa.org/news/2012/2012-01-24_sportys.asp


I'm trying to figure out if this is a good or bad thing.

Good: "This could increase membership."

Bad: "This could really increase membership if we put spiffy factory built jets on the cover..."

[Frank Giger]

Third option:

It could put a few more bucks into the EAA coffers.

I was going to write that it's a quaint and nostalgic idea to sell a paper magazine subscription with the goal of making money on the circulation itself, but the aviation community is weird.

Where else can a plastic cup holder with a suction cup and a swivel actually sell for over forty bucks and a simple step stool ("for reaching the wing for fueling") that looks like every other one made go for fifty?

I won't even address the mental image of the Little John, which is "A convenient, spill-proof portable urinal that can also be used for motion sickness." I think I'd rather reverse the order of use, to be honest.

[PaulDow]

Rod gave a talk before the AOPA Summit last Sept., and he said that it was being sold in a few pilot shops for a couple months at that time. He said that the feedback was that they were being picked up and bought more than the other aviation magazines on the rack. Generally by flight students.
That was my reasoning about steering the content away from the "That Airplane Almost Ended My Life!" articles. While we need to be careful, I think the magazine's focus should be the positive aspects of aviation to attract young people.

[tonycondon]

soooo, a 12 month subscription through sporty's for $45, or a 12 month membership for $40. what am I missing here?

[Chad Jensen]

Nothing...it's a better deal to join.

[PaulDow]

I would think if it was sold for less than a membership, there would be a ton of complaints and defections, since there's probably a significant number of members who don't use member services besides the magazine. I didn't see the details, and thought it was just single copies. The subscription though doesn't seem to make much sense. I guess they just offer it for the aspect of not saying "no" to a customer.

[tonycondon]

so instead of offering subscriptions why don't they just sell memberships?