Blocks magazine to go monthly from October

Great news. And great for the quality of the magazine as well, if you guys are involved :)
Rob

Definitely great news! I eventually managed to get a copy last week. It's packed full of articles and just about free of advertising, so I think it was superb value for money.
Subscription purchased - thanks for the heads up :)

£11 to Europe. No way, José.

Seriously, to pick up the first issue costs £11, but if you subscribe you get all future ones at £7 each. You'd think they'd give away the first issue at a massive discount in the hope of securing a subscription, at least now it's been out a few weeks.

I'm not sure I understand the subscription prices either. Subscribe in the UK and you pay £4.57 per issue, including postage, which is £1.42 off the cover price. Subscribe in the EU and you pay £6.99 per issue, which is £2.42 more than the UK and £1 more than the cover price. Does it really cost £2.42 more to send a magazine to the EU than it does within the UK?

As a comparison, the two magazines I currently have delivered from the UK by subscription: Private Eye charge 31p extra for postage to the EU, and PC Format charge 50p extra.

Yes, I agree the prices to Europe are really insane. That would keep me from subscribing...

That's terrific news, I'll be subscribing. I must admit I wondered if the 'pilot' issue would find enough of an audience to make a regular magazine viable...I'm so pleased it obviously did.

It is good news indeed. I might hold off on getting a subscription until I can see the monthly format. It works in its current form very well as a one off but it'll need some modifications to work as a monthly. However I am sure the team at Blocks are up to it!

@aleydita - I would imagine that that is the difference between an established publication from a large publishing house with a strong readership and a new publication from a smaller publishing house.

$169 for 12 issues to USA... I hope they do a digital version.

Could shipping to US be a little bit cheaper? $169 (calculated from previous comment) is a lot for a year subscription.

@BrickSnorter--all snarkiness aside, I'm hoping for a digital edition too. Magazine postage from Europe is very high, and paying it doesn't benefit the publishers of the magazine. I'm sure plenty of transatlantic FOLs would only be interested in a digital subscription!

@sklamb - Add my name to the digital subscription list. I recently switched my Brick Journal subscription to digital and I find I read them much more often now (not to mention the reduction in "stuff" at home)! Hope they see the light soon!

A few comments based on what has been said above:

1. The 12 issue subscription is £54.88 meaning '1 issue free.' This means the cover price is £4.99.

2. The person above suggesting that they give away loads of cheap copies, doesn't seem to get that this mag is being put together by a really small company. They're really sweet to deal with, like one person does all the e-mails, and you could originally order copies by dialling a guy on his mobile. As I said in one of my forum posts, this is a long way from Conde Nast!

3. Royal Mail to the USA is £5.10 for up to 500g. So £4 per issue is basically how much extra it costs to post to the USA. Larger magazines reduce these costs by shipping in bulk and using a local distributor, or even printing locally for really big mags like The Economist. But like I say, we're talking about a very small start up here, so what you're looking at is the cost of putting them in envelopes and sending them to the post office.

4. Niche lego magazine, I hope it works out. I'll spend £50 on a bunch of minifigs or a lego set, so I'm happy to take a punt on this being something worth reading and have taken out a 1 year subscription.

I am not sure whether there will be enough Lego stuff which would justify a printed magazine on a monthly basis. I would guess the magazine will have less content with some pages of advertising. For EUR ~100 per 12 months subscription I can afford some nice Lego sets for my kids or me.
I have to think about it

I would be willing to pay a bit more for this magazine as it is so unique (and awesome) but the price is really very steep in the US. Like other commenters, I hope a digital version is offered at a much more affordable price.

I've ordered a two-year subscription - to Norway - as I think this is a kind of magazine that has been missing from the newsstands' shelves. So I'm going to 'sponsor' them by taking up a subscription. Hopefully, the magazine doesn't fold after a couple of issues, in which case my money might be lost...

I've been a subscriber to a couple of premium British car magazines for years, and this is considerably more expensive, but as you guys say, it's probably due to it being a niche magazine published by a small company. And the first issue was so nice that I want to give them a chance.

Well I wish them the best of luck. If they're prepared to accept 24 month subscriptions, then I'm assuming they've got some ideas as to how they're going to fill the magazine every month.
So I've taken a punt and signed up.

I am surprised at how they could justify a monthly installment. It seems most LEGO websites struggle to get enough information daily (and most are just repeats of each other), so I'm not sure how a magazine will add anything new, unless they have A LOT of exclusive things that no one else has. Which I find hard to believe.

The cost may be worth it, but if I can continue to look at other websites for considerably less money, I will continue to do so.

@CHERUBboy... the bottom line is that their overseas pricing will cost them subscribers. As for giving away the first issue, it's not really what I suggested. Okay, I said "massive discount" by which I meant they could swallow part of the postage cost when sending the magazine out, as a trade-off for helping to spread the word and the chance of earning a few subscriptions. I'd have thought it better that stock be put to good use rather than sat waiting around for future 'back orders' sales. Perhaps they could improvise some logistics by striking a deal with selected LUGs, shipping them in bulk to them for onward distribution. Getting LUGs involved might even increase their sales.

I note that Adam over on Brick Fanatics is being rather ridiculous again. He seems to have taken some of the comments above quite personally which is odd. He seems to delight in misrepresenting the little criticism about pricing as some sort of widespread negativity campaign about the magazine. It's okay when he comments on pricing when he's doing a set review, but not okay for other people to comment on pricing? Could it perhaps be because 'Team Brick Fanatics' is involved in the magazine in some way. Surely not.

For what it's worth, I never suggested anything that would mean they make a loss. They'd rather profit a little than not at all, right? Also, just because it's a small team/company, doesn't mean consumers are going to be happy to pay over the odds. Sure, a few might but plenty more will vote with their wallets. If enough do that then the magazine might prove not to be viable, which impacts on all those who do cough up.

I can't see the problem with the price here.....

$169 for 12 issues is = $14.08 per issue
Current exchange rate is roughly £1 to $1.7
Per issue in £'s to the US is £8.28

If it's £4.99 in the UK it's only a difference of £3.29

That's not bad. Postage in the UK is expensive, a second class small packet is around £2.83 domestic postage!!!!

Your getting an ok deal if you ask me for a small run publication unless I'm missing something here

£5.99 per month? They can keep it.

£4.99 or £5.99, either way it's about average for a magazine these days. Some people seem to expect a great deal for very little money.