Barnes & Noble magazine deal - Subscribe and get a year of back issues

[hwlester]

I got an email today for a deal that if you subscribe to select magazines from B&N, they will give you a year of back issues. The selection of magazines is:

• Cooking Light
• Cosmopolitan
• Crochet Today!
• Essence
• Food Network Magazine
• Glamour
• Good Housekeeping
• National Geographic
• National Geographic Kids
• O: The Oprah Magazine
• Popular Mechanics
• Reader's Digest
• Real Simple
• Runner's World
• SELF
• Southern Living Magazine
• The Family Handyman
• Yoga Journal

The link is here although you may have to have gotten the email to redeem the offer. Terms & Conditions are here.

Edited to note that the offer has been extended to 2:59 a.m. ET September 13, 2013.

[gabby98]

cool, ty

do you know if "Alf" works with Magazines as well. I have always shied form Magazines from B& N or Amazon due to my being unsure.

ty

[tubemonkey]

Just a heads up. Many public libraries offer free digital magazines (including some of the ones listed above) through Zinio. See this thread for details.

[koland]

No magazines at mine (and zinio is a proprietary format, for those that care).

I do have several subscriptions there and their customer service is pretty decent.

Back to B&N - does anyone know if your issues are retained, if you cancel the subscription (not if you buy single issues, only)? I stopped getting any magazines at Amazon just due to this one issue (which they don't much care about) -- you only retain back issues in your library if you maintain a subscription (you can save them on your device, but those only work as long as your device works). When you cancel a subscription at Amazon, every back issue is deleted from your library.

[hwlester]

I have tried several magazines with B&N and once you purchase them, they're yours and, as far as I can tell, remain in your account indefinitely.

Of the ones I have tried, they seem to be DRM-free, but many are in a proprietary EPUB format called "Digital Replica Plus" (or on MobileRead wiki). The text version of the articles and table of contents are stored in standard EPUB format and should work on any reader that can read EPUB, but the file also contains additional assets which are high resolution scans of the pages (presumably the PDF that B&N gets from the publisher). This makes the EPUB file very large. I have also read that the text mode is OCR'd from the images, so may have errors, but I can't confirm this.

Only the nook devices and apps seem capable of using this format and only if you download them (not sideload them). There is no mechanism to download these from the web. Be aware that SOME magazines that B&N sells (notably ones from Time, Inc.) are only viewable on certain high res devices (HD, HD+, and Windows 8 apps), so pay attention to the device list on the magazine's subscription page (and/or take advantage of the 14 day trial). The most recent update to the Nook for Android app lists that it is now compatible with Time, Inc. magazines, but all of my Android devices still show them as not available for that device.

Hopefully this helps.

[Lutraa]

Originally Posted by koland

No magazines at mine (and zinio is a proprietary format, for those that care).

I do have several subscriptions there and their customer service is pretty decent.

Back to B&N - does anyone know if your issues are retained, if you cancel the subscription (not if you buy single issues, only)? I stopped getting any magazines at Amazon just due to this one issue (which they don't much care about) -- you only retain back issues in your library if you maintain a subscription (you can save them on your device, but those only work as long as your device works). When you cancel a subscription at Amazon, every back issue is deleted from your library.

I've subscribed to The Atlantic via Amazon for three years. The magazine is indeed "alf"able so I store my back issues in my Calibre library.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by Lutraa

I've subscribed to The Atlantic via Amazon for three years. The magazine is indeed "alf"able so I store my back issues in my Calibre library.

Yes, and that process is well documented, but you have to have a physical Kindle to take advantage of that. The question was if B&N's magazines were Alf friendly. In my experience, Alf was unnecessary on the 4 or 5 titles I've tried from B&N.

[koland]

Thanks, guys. I may try one or two - I have the HD+ (snagged on the oops super discount sale online a while back), so should be able to view them all.

[hwlester]

Just an FYI, unlike the Nook for Android app the HD+ appears to store its downloaded titles in the protected /data area, so you'll need to be rooted in order to backup your magazines.

[AnemicOak]

Deal dead? I'm getting "We're Sorry, the offer you are looking for has expired".

[gabby98]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Deal dead? I'm getting "We're Sorry, the offer you are looking for has expired".

Says end 09/05 when I go to the page

ETA: unfortunately, one of the ones I want only works for Windows 8 and not the Nook for PC app

[cromag]

Hmmm -- I'm not especially interested, but my email says "Offer ends 9/5."



EDIT: not as fast on the "Post" button as gabby98.

[AnemicOak]

Here's what I get...

Don't know if I would have done it or not, but it looked worth checking out further.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Deal dead? I'm getting "We're Sorry, the offer you are looking for has expired".

It's good through the 6th, but the T&C makes it sound as if you had to have the offer extended to you, but then goes on to say if you don't have a nook account, create one. I just tried the link again and it came up with the page. Are you logged into your account when you try it?

[hwlester]

Full T&C is at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/help/h....asp?PID=44286

"...from 12:01 a.m. ET September 4, 2013- 2:59 a.m. ET September 6, 2013..."