Because I need a break from work, and to have a nice reference point, here is a listing of my active magazine subscriptions and where I read them:

1. Analog Science Fiction (Kindle App)
2. Apex Magazine (Kindle App)
3. Asimov’s Science Fiction (Kindle App)
4. Clarkesworld (Kindle App)
5. Daily Science Fiction (Email)
6. Fantasy & Science Fiction (Kindle App)
7. InterGalactic Medicine Show (Kindle App)
8. Lightspeed  Magazine (Kindle App)
9. LOCUS Magazine (Kindle App via PDF)
10. New Scientist (Zinio App)
11. Rolling Stone (Zinio App)
12. Scientific American (Kindle App via PDF)
13. SFWA Bulletin (Print¹)
14. Time Magazine (via Apple Newsstand)
15. Writer’s Digest (Kindle App via PDF)

I recently gave up my subscription to Discover Magazine (via Zinio) because I never read it. I just couldn’t get into it. I replaced it with the subscription to Writer’s Digest, which I initially subscribed to so I could read a good article by fellow writer’s group member Joanna Castle Miller. I decided the magazine was pretty good so I’m keeping that subscription.

I try to keep up with all of them as best as I can, although I do get behind and don’t read every word of every issue. The only magazine that I really don’t read at all is Time, but Kelly reads it (we also receive the print edition).

If you exclude Daily Science Fiction, which publishes on short story every weekday, that amounts to 19 issues each and every month.

I have occasionally complained that Scientific American was not available on the iPad. At present, it is the only magazine I receive that I don’t get in electronic format. That includes all 6 of my science fiction magazine subscriptions and 2 science magazine subscriptions. I have received New Scientist on the iPad (via Zinio) since last May. And earlier this month I subscribed to Discover magazine via Zinio as well.

I have read Scientific American longer than any of the other science magazines. I believe I’ve had an active subscription to the magazine since 1996. It seemed odd that it was the only magazine that I couldn’t read on my iPad. Every now and then I’d check but I didn’t see anything for the iPad, other than an “app” that had a kind of special issue of the magazine.

But I’d noticed that they had a digital subscription a while back. The problem was the digital subscription was for a PDF of the magazine, and for some reason, my addled brain didn’t think that would work very well. But yesterday I asked myself, “Why not?” So I decided to try it out. I plunked down $5.99 for a single issue of the digital version and decided to compare it to the print edition. And you know what? Just like New Scientist, there was not difference. And it was just as easy to read on the iPad.

When I got the PDF for the issue, I sent it to the Kindle email address for my iPad and the screenshot above shows what the cover looks like inside the Kindle App, compared to the actual paper issue. Obviously, the screen is a little smaller than the paper issue, but an occasional zoom gesture inside the kindle app makes things perfectly readable.

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I try to have most of my magazine subscriptions renew around the end of the year. Many of them do, but not all of them. But this year I have a bit of a dilemma. I have 4 subscriptions which still arrive in paper form, but 3 of those 4 subscriptions I also receive electronically. Two of these are up for renewal in their print form: New Scientist and Analog.

My dilemma: I receive both of these electronically, New Scientist through Zinio and Analog on the Kindle. This means I’ve been paying for 2 subscriptions for each. It seems silly to pay for both paper and electronic subscriptions, especially since I am continually trying to decrease the amount of paper I handle. But at the same time, it’s difficult to cancel the paper subscriptions for these two magazines. I’ve been a long-time subscriber to both New Scientist and Analog. I feel guilty canceling the subscriptions even though I still receive them in other forms. In the case of Analog, I don’t want my cancellation to negatively affect Analog’s subscription numbers, but I don’t know how they count Kindle subscriptions. The one should offset the other. New Scientist has been sending me renewal notices, but seems to have no idea that I subscribe through Zinio. I wish these systems were better coordinated.

One might say that I could continue my Analog subscription. It’s only $35/year or so. But since I already get Analog on the Kindle, wouldn’t that $35 be better spend on subscribing to another magazine? Indeed, I’ve added subscriptions to Lightspeed and Clarkesworld over the last few months and I like getting all of those magazines. Isn’t that worth sacrificing the paper version of Analog? Perhaps, but I still feel guilty about it.

I suppose I’d feel better if I knew that the Kindle and Zinio subscriptions were accurately counted in the circulation and were tied back to my original subscription, so that it didn’t seem like I canceled my subscription to the magazine without them realizing it was merely just a change to a different format.

I know this must sound silly, but I do find myself facing this subscription guilt at this time of the year. But if I go completely paperless with Analog and New Scientist, it means that the only subscriptions I still get on paper are Time Magazine and Scientific American, and I also get Time electronically as part of my paper subscription. (There, the model is stilly: you can’t get an electronic subscription without a paper subscription. Kind of goes against the whole “going paperless” thing. Scientific American doesn’t yet have a non-PDF electronic subscription mechanism that I am aware of.

Going into 2012, therefore, I’ll be getting Analog, Asimov’s Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, F&SF, New Scientist and Time magazine all electronically. Time will also still come on paper, as will Scientific American.

Not that I need even more to read, but I had a very good offer for a subscription to Time magazine and yesterday, I signed up. I was really on the fence about it, given how much I already have to read, but one-and-a-half things pushed me over.

First, free with my subscription is access to the iPad edition of the magazine. And second (the “half” thing), is that I don’t watch the news or read the papers and can barely keep up with what’s going on in the world. Maybe this would help fill that gap.

Once I was subscribed I had instant access to the iPad version of the August 1 issue, which I downloaded and read on the iPad. I was hoping it would be an exact replica of the actual issue, the way that New Scientist is on Zinio, but it isn’t. I looks like all of the articles and sections are there, but it is more interactive than New Scientist. I suppose this is the direction for magazines like these and it will take some getting used to. That said, it wasn’t bad and I was able to get through the magazine before bed last night.

The print issues will begin arriving in 3-4 weeks, but I don’t really see the point. The fact is they will get thrown away or recycled. I wish there was an option to get the iPad edition by subscription but there isn’t. In fact, their pricing of individual issues is way out of whack for the print+digital subscription. I paid less than $30 for 56 issues. That includes print and iPad versions. But without a print subscription, individual iPad issues of Time magazine cost $4.99 each!

In any case, I am happy I can get the issues on the iPad, even though they are not in the same format as New Scientist. And I am hopeful that I will be a little more up on current events than I have been.