Magazine subscriptions-set too low?

An interesting perspective on the price of magazines in the New York Times this morning

Fifty-eight cents

writes Stephanie Clifford

For that, you could get one-eighth of a Starbucks latte.
It is also what subscribers paid, on average, for each issue of Time magazine last year. This is the Time magazine that sends foreign correspondents into Zimbabwe, assigns photographers to capture the war in Afghanistan, and fact-checks and edits every word before issues are printed. And that is before its costs for ink, paper and postage.

It is an defining analogy because it shows just how little we value the instrinic cost of information.

Publishers have long set low subscription prices and have even lost money doing so, assuming that the real money came from ads. Subscription revenue was gravy.

But with advertsing revenues dropping like a stone,magazines need to consider whethedr price elasticity will allow price hikes.

Magzine strategy has been cut prices=increased sunscriptions which means more certain revenue streams.

The question is how much if at all can prices rise without losing subscribers to close the gap made by adverising revenue?