You know what makes a nice stocking stuffer for a keto family such as us? Keto Magazines. I went through the rack of a local bookstore the other day to find some nice magazines to put in Wendy’s stocking but after checking out the price that wasn’t going to happen. I don’t know what you guys spend on stocking presents, but $15 to $25 a shot is a little out of our normal range.
Pricing of Keto Magazines
As soon as I picked up the first “Good Housekeeping: Keto Edition” and saw the price of $24.99 I knew a rant was coming on. From there I started looking at all the magazines in the surprisingly high selection. The most expensive was a “Recipe Special” valued at a whopping $34.99. The lowest was a small booklet that contained shopping lists and a few common recipes for $12.99.
I don’t have the exact math, but I would say the average price fell between fifteen and sixteen dollars. I don’t want to do the middle age back in my day thing here, but $15 bucks for a magazine is shocking. There might be 50 pages, half of which are pictures with very limited information about keto. If you’re looking for value, you might want to avoid the racks.
Overall, Magazine Pricing
To try and be even remotely fair I did look at the magazine industry and will agree there has been a major shift away from the print industry making magazines more expensive to produce. People are getting their information primarily online (thank you). With less copies the economics of supply and demand dictate pricing will go up.
I will however counteract that by taking out the time sensitive nature. It used to be magazines had to get to press each month to get the current information out there. These keto magazines are more like books in the fact that they don’t have time sensitive information therefore the companies don’t have to turn them around as quickly. They can print a bunch in June and those magazines can sit there for months for sale.
Keto Magazines vs Keto Books
As I said before the magazines are rudimentary in their approach, which magazines should be. If you want details and science, you will normally turn to books. Unfortunately, these magazines are often more expensive than the books authors work tirelessly to produce.
The number one keto book on Amazon right now is Keto Cookbook for Beginners by Sarah White. It has a background on keto and over 1000 recipes to get people on the right track. 1000 recipes. The time commitment to pull that off is astronomical. As cookbook authors no one truly understands what goes into it until you do it. So how much does this bestseller cost? $16.72.
$16.72 to pay for the countless hours, research, and food costs to produce this book. This author would need to sell thousands of copies just to recoup the cost to do it. If this book only costs $16.72 how can a 50-page magazine charge basically the same amount?
An Author’s Take on Keto Magazines
Wendy and I have two books on Amazon. One is our Ketogenic Workbook, and the other is a Keto Sweets recipe book. You could pick up electronic copies of both books for $15. Two books for less than the price of one magazine. There is obviously something wrong with this picture.
I understand the need for magazines. The glossy pictures, the short articles, and physical feel of the product in our hands, but what’s that worth? Pricing these magazines above complete books by established authors is price gouging for a niche market. I say that with strong conviction leading into my conclusion.
Final Thoughts
Looking at both sides of this story has been difficult for me because looking over the selection of magazines I quickly realized not all was what it seemed. The publications were by well known brands backed by major publishers. There were no independents or small market magazines on that stand.
There were magazines by Good Housekeeping, Lifestyle, Men’s Health, and Weight Watchers. All these well-known brands had produced these “keto magazines.” That shows me these magazines are jumping on the keto train and gouge those of us that live this lifestyle. That’s damn shameful.
Bill
