The gift of magazines

Good day to you, reader. Herewith some vagueness regarding our fine institution and the development of a more interesting gift system with which to impress your friends and families...

We've been accumulating a tremendous number of high quality fashion magazines here at Newsstand Hovels recently. Actually, not just fashion, but art, culture, literature and all the creative gaps in between have been covered superbly in 2012. Many of these magazines are things of beauty - how they can be compared to some sort of phone app is beyond us - clearly created with huge amounts of passion, innovation and dedication and we want our visitors to know about them.

All this has made us think about our customers (even) more and why they actually come to Newsstand.

One major reason is to browse and crucially, choose; since we have been placing current covers on the site we've become a source of information for many and this is an honourable position to be in. We know the browsing isn't as good as it might have been in RD Franks of London - but it is a start and there is plenty more to come.

Browsing is an essential cog in the magazine industry. Consumers need to keep these publishers on their toes. Editors should be making you buy each copy on merit - working on the cover and contents each and every time. If everyone subscribes at tuppence a time, we think its inevitable that these standards will slip.

Furthermore, people want specifics, such as all the magazines with Robert Pattinson or Kate Moss on the cover. They want articles on, say, cheese and they don't care if its in Culture magazine or The Economist!

So, as one extension of this we thought we would develop an alternative to the traditional (and rather tired) "magazine gift subscription". Why buy someone the same magazine for a year when you can give them a budget and let them pick and choose?

Step forward our Newsstand Credit System, where you can present anyone with automated account credits at Newsstand, allowing them to browse and buy single copies, subscriptions or whatever takes their fancy from us as and when they like. They can use up their online credit with no paper voucher or messing about, in little bits or all at once as they please. Simple, easy and unique in the magazine industry.

Yes, you can get vouchers and subscriptions all over the place, but nothing beats the flexibility and freedom of getting what you want and when you want it - without that excruciating waste of the copies you have no need for.

Compare this flexibility to the same magazine coming in every month and there is little contest in our view. For the magazine aficionado, is there a better offering?

Our mission across the site is to allow customers to be able to buy what they wish to buy, rather than end up with a whole load of magazines they may never have really wanted in the first place.