Nine weeks from now, posting a magazine gets more expensive. Royal Mail Wholesale's new Magazine Subscription Mail prices start on 4 January 2027, and the figure everyone quotes is an average rise of about 9%.
That average isn't much use for your budget. Depending on what your title weighs and how it's sent, the rise in Royal Mail's own table runs from under 2% to about 12%. So it's worth ten minutes with a calculator before you set next year's numbers.
What's actually changing
Royal Mail gave a year's notice in its price letter of 12 November 2025, saying prices will rise "by an average of c. 9%". The letter's table shows items sent in bags on a national price plan. Here are the Standard (D+3) Mailmark prices per item, February 2026 against January 2027:
- Up to 100g: 46.5p to 51.15p, about 10% more.
- 101g to 250g: 60.02p to 66.03p, about 10% more.
- 350g: 72.70p to 77.53p, about 7% more.
- 600g: 104.30p to 106.13p, under 2% more.
Priority (D+2) Mailmark moves differently:
- Up to 100g: 66.5p to 73.65p, about 11% more.
- 101g to 250g: 73.02p to 81.03p, about 11% more.
- 350g: 85.70p to 96.03p, about 12% more.
- 600g: 117.30p to 124.63p, about 6% more.
The pattern is simple enough. Lighter titles take close to 10% on Standard, and heavier ones get off much more lightly. Priority rises faster than Standard at every weight, so the gap between them widens. At 350g it goes from 13p a copy to 18.5p.
These may not be the prices you pay
Before you put any of this in a spreadsheet, a few caveats.
Many publishers don't buy from Royal Mail directly. They pay through a mailing house or distributor, so the rise reaches you through their rates, and possibly on their timing. Ask them now what your January rate will be and when it starts.
The table is also only the national price plan. Royal Mail said zonal and regional prices would be published by October 2026, because they need to reflect the latest zonal costs. There's a spreadsheet of prices from 4 January on the Royal Mail Wholesale pricing page. If you're on a zonal plan, work from the current price list, not the letter.
Letters are on a different clock. Royal Mail has announced Access Letters price rises from 7 December 2026, replacing rises planned for October. If you post renewal letters or direct mail through an access route, that change arrives first, so check it separately.
Work out your own number
The sum only needs four things: copies per issue, issues a year, your weight band and your service.
Say you post 10,000 copies of a 180g title, six times a year, on Standard Mailmark. The rise is 6.002p a copy. That's about £600 an issue, or roughly £3,600 a year, which is 36p per reader per year.
That's a made-up title, so swap in your own figures. For a paid title, 36p a year is small enough to sit inside a normal annual price review. For a controlled title, there's no subscription income to absorb it, so it comes straight out of your advertising margin. That makes the question different: is every copy on the file earning its postage?
Check your weight
Because the bands matter so much, know what each issue really weighs, including wrap, inserts and supplements.
The biggest step in the table is at the bottom. On Standard Mailmark, the January price goes from 51.15p up to 100g to 66.03p for 101g to 250g. If a title sits just over the line, that's nearly 15p a copy, every issue. An extra insert or a heavier paper stock can tip you over without anyone in circulation being told. It's worth having a conversation with production before the paper order goes in.
Check you're still eligible
Magazine Subscription Mail is a cheaper service with conditions. In March, Royal Mail reminded customers what they are: the item must meet the Large Letter size rules, have at least 30% editorial content and show the title plus the issue date or number on the cover. Titles also have to be registered in advance, with a copy provided at least 10 days before posting.
Since 30 March 2026, Royal Mail has been moving unregistered titles to the Business Mail Large Letter Access price. So if you've launched, renamed or redesigned a title lately, or a heavy advertising issue is pushing editorial down, check with whoever handles your mailing.
Stop posting copies to nobody
This is the part you control completely. Every dead address costs a bit more from January.
Take that same 10,000-copy title and suppose 2% of the file is out of date. That's 200 copies at 66p, six times a year, or about £790 in postage alone before you've paid to print them. Our gone-away cost calculator does the sum for your own title, including print and packing.
Act on returned copies every issue, not in a batch twice a year. Check for duplicates before the mailing file goes out. For controlled titles, look hard at old requests, because a reader who hasn't confirmed in years is the most likely to have moved on. ABC's limit is five years, AAM's is 36 months, but neither tells you who's still at their desk.
Look at the print and digital mix
A postage rise is a sensible moment to ask whether some readers would rather go digital. Overseas readers and people who only ever read on a screen are obvious places to start.
If you're ABC audited, the change is less risky than it used to be. Since 2025, ABC's business magazine standards treat print and digital copies equally, and both can count towards your headline figure. Check how your own categories work before you move anyone, though, and remember your advertisers may still value print.
If you pass it on
If postage pushes you to raise a subscription price, plan the timing around your renewal cycle, and be plain with readers about what's changing. For auto-renewing consumer subscriptions, the new rules start on 1 January 2027, and our guide to the subscription rules explains what a reminder has to say about an increase.
Where we fit in
In Avio, our subscription platform for larger publishers, the mailing file for each issue is picked from the same data you count for circulation, and gone-aways are flagged next to the subscriber. In Adeptis, our all-in-one platform for smaller publishers, a subscription run lets you preview who's due a copy before you export the list for your mailing house.
If you'd like a hand working out what January means for your titles, get in touch.
Rob Sherwood is Managing Director of Adept Data Services. He has spent his career in subscriptions and circulation, at WDIS, Optima and CDS Global before founding Adept.