Hi Dana,

I am not a fan of Amazon's billing for our corporate account.  We use them as a secondary for books, A/V, requests, miscellaneous items, etc.  I think their monthly statement could be streamlined.  They have also stopped including any backup documentation with shipments.   

Amazon has some very eye catching magazine prices, but these seem to be introductory offers that would generate a full bill after three months or so.  One that stood out to me was "The Economist."  It looks like a great deal at $12, but this is a 3 month initial subscription with auto-renew.  Their standard year is $152 with auto renew and that is $25 higher than our rate through our regular vendor.  Prices fluctuate from magazine to magazine.  Marie Claire seems to be almost free.  Harper's is double our jobber's price.  Midwest Living is 1/3 the price.  I would be wary of unexpected price increases through auto-renew.

It would be interesting to know how Amazon handles claims for missed issues.  The standard magazine jobbers are pretty good at getting replacements or getting the subscription extended when issues fail to show up. 

Over the years, we have switched between Faxon (defunct), Ebsco, WT Cox, Ebsco and we're now with Rivistas.  We haven't used Popular.  All offered competitive pricing, especially to lure new business. They also offer a different level of service targeted to libraries.  If these are ephemeral items in your collection and it doesn't matter if they arrive or come back, Amazon might work.  I am skeptical that Amazon would provide the same level of service as a subscription manager.  You may find you are managing all your subscriptions individually with the publishers, which would create more work for staff unless the collection is considered disposable.

I would recommend putting your package of titles together and shopping it to all the jobbers that service libraries.  None will be able to match some of Amazon's prices, but the comparison will give you the best reasonable prices, the annual opportunity to see price increases and cancel subscriptions as necessary.  Hope that helps some.

Paul

       
Paul McCann				Dexter District Library
Library Director			3255 Alpine St.
Phone: 734-426-4477			Dexter, MI 48130
Fax: 734-426-1217			www.dexter.lib.mi.us
On 2/12/2019 12:58 PM, Dana Allen via Michlib-l wrote:
Hi all,
We are evaluating our magazine collection which is rather extensive and we will probably be downsizing based on data we are currently collecting.  We have been using an out-of-state subscription service but have had some issues. We are thinking of switching to Amazon next year. If you've been ordering from them, what are your feelings?  Thank you in advance for your input.

--
Dana Allen
Administrative Clerk
Howell Carnegie District Library
Howell, Michigan

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