Nobody enjoys putting the price up. But if your costs go up every year and your subscription rate doesn't, the gap comes out of your margin, quietly, every issue.
Postage is the obvious example right now. Royal Mail Wholesale has told publishers it is raising Magazine Subscription Mail prices from 4 January 2027 "by an average of c. 9%" (Royal Mail Wholesale price letter). Most publishers pay this through a mailing house or distributor, so ask yours how and when it will show up in your rates.
So a lot of titles will be looking at their prices this winter. Here's how to do it without making a mess of it.
Decide what you're actually changing
"Put the price up" sounds like one decision. In practice it's several:
- Which rates? Print, digital, bundles, overseas, student, member rates. They don't all have to move by the same amount, and postage only affects some of them.
- For whom? New subscribers only, or existing ones at their next renewal too?
- From when? A date for new orders, and a rule for renewals (usually "renewals due on or after X").
- What about people on old prices? Every file has readers on a rate from years ago, or an offer that never got switched off.
That last group needs a decision, not a shrug. If someone has been paying a price from 2019, jumping them straight to this year's full rate can be a shock. You might step them up over two renewals instead. Either is fine. Just decide on purpose, write it down, and make sure the system applies it.
Know your file before you write a letter
Before anyone writes copy, pull a breakdown of your live subscribers by current price, payment method and renewal month. That tells you:
- how many different "old prices" are out there;
- how many people pay by Direct Debit, continuous card payment or invoice;
- how the rise lands month by month, so you can see the cash effect and spread the workload.
It also shows you the odd cases: complimentary copies, gift subscriptions, corporate deals with their own agreed price. Those usually shouldn't get the standard letter at all.
Check what your terms say
For consumers, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 has a "grey list" of terms that may be unfair. One is a term permitting a trader to raise the price "without giving the consumer the right to cancel" if the new price is too high compared with the price agreed (Consumer Rights Act 2015, Schedule 2). Clear notice and a real chance to leave are your friends here.
For most annual subscriptions, the cleanest approach is simple: the new price applies at renewal, and the reader hears about it before they're charged. If your terms allow mid-term changes, or you're unsure what they say, it's worth getting proper advice before you rely on them. This is a practical guide, not legal advice.
B2B contracts, such as a company paying for a team, are a separate conversation. They usually come down to what the contract or quote says and a sensible conversation with the customer.
Direct Debit payers need advance notice
If the amount of a Direct Debit changes, the reader must be told before you collect. The Direct Debit Guarantee says this is "normally 10 working days" in advance, or as otherwise agreed.
That means your advance notices have to be right for every reader, at the right time, for every renewal month. A reader on an old offer price and a reader on full rate need different notices. We covered the wider Direct Debit admin in Direct Debit for subscription publishers.
From January 2027, the reminder has to spell out the increase
The new consumer subscription rules apply to auto-renewing consumer contracts entered into from 1 January 2027. The government's draft guidance lists what a reminder notice must contain. Among other things:
- the renewal payment amount and the date the reader becomes liable for it;
- the previous renewal payment, for comparison;
- if the new payment is higher, that fact and the difference in price;
- how to end the subscription, and by when, to avoid paying.
In other words, you can't bury a price rise in the third paragraph of a renewal letter that's mostly about next year's features. The required information has to be more prominent than any marketing sent with it.
Strictly, the rules cover new contracts from January 2027, not existing ones. But a price rise letter that tells people the old price, the new price and how to leave is just a decent letter. It's worth writing yours that way now. Our guide to the 2027 subscription rules has the detail, plus links to example reminder wording.
Write the letter like a person
A few things help:
- Say it early and plainly. "Your subscription will renew at £96, up from £88" in the first lines. Readers spot hedging.
- Give a short, honest reason. If printing and postage costs have gone up, say so. Readers know what a stamp costs.
- Remind them what they get. Number of issues, digital access, archive, events. One or two lines, not a sales pitch.
- Make leaving easy. It sounds backwards, but a reader who feels trapped is unlikely to think well of you, now or later.
If you have the option, offering a cheaper digital-only rate gives people somewhere to go other than the exit.
Brief customer service first
Whoever answers the phone and the inbox needs to know before the letters land: the new rates, who gets what, the reason, and what they can and can't offer. Agree in advance whether anyone can hold an old price, and for how long. Otherwise you'll end up with a dozen different deals made on the fly.
Measure what happened
After the first few renewal months, compare renewal rates against the same months last year, by rate and payment method. If one group dropped far more than the rest, you'll know where to look next year. Track the revenue too. A slightly lower renewal rate at a higher price can still be the better result.
Where we fit in
In Avio, our subscription platform for larger publishers, renewal series are set per product and every renewal batch is tracked from open to despatched to closed, so you can see which notices went out and when. In Adeptis, our all-in-one platform for smaller publishers, prices come from rate cards per title and the renewals desk shows who is coming up for renewal.
If you're planning a price rise for January and want to talk it through, 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.