Cranked’s cover price – and the price paid by subscribers – is increasing.
The new cover price will be £12.50 (from Cranked #30, on sale mid September 2022).
The new UK subscription price will be £54, or £4.50 if you pay monthly rather than annually (from mid July 2022).
You’ll have questions about all this. Hopefully, we have answers:
- Why the price increase? We’ve absorbed several print price increases over the last few years, but the latest one is bigger than the previous increases. Most of our other costs have been increasing too. We can’t absorb it any more.
- But 25% on the cover price…? Sure, it seems like a lot, but we’re catching up on six years of gradual inflation plus, er, the turmoil that we’re all going through right now. We launched in 2015 with a £10 cover price. Arguably, we probably should have increased the price a little earlier. It’s very unusual for a print magazine to go seven years with no cover price increase.
- When will the price increase come into effect? For single issues, from Cranked #30 (on sale mid September 2022). For subscription sales and renewals, from sometime in mid July 2022.
- But I only bought a subscription x months ago… The new price won’t affect you until renewal time. For our subscribers who pay monthly, you’ll see your payments go up soon. For the bulk of our subscribers who pay annually, you won’t notice any change until the date of your next renewal, which will be on the anniversary of your subscription purchase.
- £12.50 is far too much for a magazine… It’s what we need to charge now to continue to produce a unique, high quality publication with minimal advertising. We can’t do it for less. It’s that simple.
- Why don’t you just sell more ads? We’ve always sold as many ads as possible, and we continue to be grateful to all our advertisers past and present for helping to support Cranked. However, the days of print magazines being almost entirely supported by advertisers are long gone.
- Magazine X doesn’t charge this much… Cranked never set out to compete on price. We’ve always been about unique content with no compromise. That’s why we have the best paper, the best writers and the best photographers of any current mountain bike print magazine, anywhere in the world.
- I don’t want to pay the new rate… We’ll be sorry to see you go, but you can cancel your subscription renewal at any time (and remember, no current subscriber pays a penny more until their renewal is due).
We’re living in exceptional times. Pretty much everything is increasing in price, and Cranked isn’t immune from these increases. We can’t help you budget for your gas and electricity bills, but we can continue to provide you with a dose of inspirational escapism every three months. Thanks for sticking with us. See you out there…
Seb / editor
