Subscriptions
Can I subscribe to The Magazine on the Web?
Yes! It’s the same price as a subscription in the iOS Newsstand and gives you access in iOS on all your devices, too. (See below for how to activate both kinds of access.)
Do you send email whenever an issue is published?
Why, yes! We do. You can subscribe to our news mailing list. When we publish an issue, we will send a mailing with the cover, photos, summaries, excerpts, and more. We’ll occasionally email with other information about The Magazine. But we don’t sell or rent our mailing list or any of your personal information; see our privacy policy for more details.
How about on Amazon Kindle?
We offered Kindle subscriptions for several months, but found little interest among subscribers. Instead, we offer two ways to get articles to your Kindle. On any issue page, you can download a Kindle-compatible MOBI file, which can be transferred to your Kindle via email (free when via Wi-Fi) or using a USB connection. Coming soon, subscribers will be able to click on a link to send any article on the site to a Kindle account.
Does my Web subscription work with the iOS app? And vice-versa?
Yes! We use a password-free account system.
If you have subscribed via the iOS app (a Newsstand subscription), you can read The Magazine in any browser. Launch the app and tap the settings (gear) icon. Tap Register Email Address, and an email (within the app) pops up. You can use any return address that you have set in iOS, not just the one that you use with the App Store. When you receive the email on your iOS device or another device, copy the link and paste it the browser you want to authorize. After you’ve done that once, you can send email from the Web to authorize other browsers.
If you subscribed via our Web site, you can activate your subscription in iOS. First, log into the Safari browser on your iOS device using the email with which you subscribed on the Web. Next, launch the app and tap the setting (gear) icon. Tap the the-magazine.org button, and the app launches Safari. Our Web site generates a link that, when tapped, returns to the app with its subscription enabled.
How do I unsubscribe?
If you subscribed in the app for iPhone or iPad, pull out the article list and tap the settings gear icon, then tap Manage Subscriptions. If you can’t find it or no longer have the app installed, follow Apple’s instructions here to cancel your subscription in iTunes or the App Store. This is the only way to cancel subscriptions purchased in the app. Apple does not provide a way for our staff to cancel your subscription.
If you subscribed on our site with a credit card, click Cancel via your account page. For other billing issues with web subscriptions, please contact billing support. (Billing support cannot cancel subscriptions purchased in the iPhone/iPad app — see above.)
Can I read articles for free without a subscription?
Anyone can read a limited number of full articles for free on the site, so our authors and fans can link to great articles in The Magazine without worrying whether their audiences will be able to read them. The limit is currently one free article per month. To read more, we ask that you subscribe.
Articles
I’d like to submit an idea for an article. Where do I go?
Will you release content for free a few weeks after an issue is published?
We occasionally make some articles or issues free to attract new subscribers, but generally, no.
Without the incentive of the content only being available to subscribers, subscriptions decline and we can no longer afford to pay writers as much as we do, which means we cannot run the kind of articles that readers want.
That said, we only contract for 30 days of exclusive rights following the publication date from authors, illustrators, and photographers, all of whom are then allowed to republish on their own or other sites, so you may sometimes see older articles and imagery from The Magazine elsewhere.
Can I keep permanent off-line copies of articles?
Yes. You can send an entire article to our sister service Instapaper, where it remains regardless of your future subscription status. You will soon be able to send any issue to Kindle, too.
We also let subscribers download entire issues from the Web site when viewing the table of contents for an any issue in the standard EPUB and MOBI forms. EPUB is supported by nearly all ereaders and ereading apps (like iBooks and BlueFire), while MOBI files can be transferred to a Kindle.
(See below for details about what happens after you cancel your subscription.)
The app for iPhone and iPad
Why does the app open to the Foreword when I select another article? Or: Why do I see only part of an issue or have images cut off in some articles?
The download of the issue may have been interrupted or another problem may affect the cached copy in your app. It’s easy to restore the full issue. In the table of contents view, swipe the red issue number and date bar, and then tap the trash-can icon to delete the issue from your device. The bar turns gray. Tap the bar and the issue downloads again.
If this remains a problem, force quit the app. See instructions below for force quitting.
The Magazine won’t launch on my first-generation iPad?
Given Apple’s update schedule, we felt that supporting iOS 5 and the original iPad would lead to disappointment in a future release when Apple discontinued supporting apps that had backward compatibility to iOS 5, and the app would stop working for those iPad users. You can use the Safari browser to read on the iPad, and have access to the full range of features.
Will you be making an Android, Windows 8, Windows Phone, or BlackBerry app?
At this time, we have no plans for an app on any other platforms, but we continue to look at whether there is enough interest to fund the software development necessary. Our Web site is designed to work well on mobile devices.
I enabled Apple’s new two-step authentication for my Apple ID. Now I can’t get the iOS app to recognize my subscription.
Some readers have reported this problem. If you haven’t already logged out and back in (Settings > iTunes & App Store > tap Apple ID), first do that.
Next, if the subscription still isn’t recognized, force quit our app: press the Home button to return to the home screen, then double-press Home to bring up the app drawer. Hold down on the icon for The Magazine, and tap its X to force quit it when it starts jiggling. Launch the app again, and all should be well.
If that still fails, you can uninstall the app (hold down on its icon on the home screen until it jiggles, then tap X, and confirm removal), and then reinstall. You can then restore your subscription by tapping the gear icon. (Warning: This deletes all stored issues. If you are not a current subscriber, you will be unable to download those issues again.)
I am trying to subscribe to The Magazine in the app, and I see a pop-up message that says that in-app purchases are not allowed. What gives?
This means in-app purchases have been disabled system-wide in the “Restrictions” settings. Launch the Settings app, tap General, and then tap Restrictions and ensure In-App Purchases are On.
If you still cannot subscribe via in-app purchase, you can subscribe on the web and import that subscription into the app.
I ended my subscription. Why can’t I re-download the issues that came out while I was a subscriber?
Subscriptions to The Magazine work more like Netflix or cable TV than print magazines.
Unlike most magazines, when you’re a subscriber, you can access all issues that we’ve ever published. We don’t limit you to just the issues that come out during your subscription, and we don’t ask you to purchase individual issues.
In return, we ask that you have an active subscription whenever you want to download any issues. (This is how most Newsstand magazines work.)
