You can't get that up there

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, has been through some rough times recently, batted from pillar to post by Primedia, who then sold it to Red 7 Media LLC. Now, suddenly, this expensive trade book is being offered free to the first x thousand who respond, according to an e-mail sent to subscribers. In other words, converting from paid to request. One catch: if you're from Canada, this offer does not apply.

Try to sign up and you're either told that your zip code is wrong or that the free offer is only available in the United States and its possessions. (The vast magazine industry in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be relieved.) Not sure how the couple of hundred Canadian subscribers will feel paying C$135 or so for something that U.S. magazine managers pay US$0 for. It's either request, or it's not, we'd think. But then it's always been a paradox: the magazine about magazine management invariably managed to screw up the subscription process by never sending renewal notices or invoices.

All of which is too bad, since Folio: has always otherwise been a terrific resource, and though it uses exclusively stateside examples, it's the rare publisher who can't learn a lot from the shared experience. Maybe paying for it will continue to be a good investment.