Chris,

As with all magazines, unsold retail copies are pulped. Standard industry practice.

The publishers used to keep a stock of back issues themselves but this no longer appears to be the case, probably to cut down on print run costs. Single copies can be purchased in digital format from Pocketmags but of course you won't get the free plans.

**LINK**

Other than that it's the secondhand market I'm afraid.

The Covers and Contents features are put on the website prior to publication as a 'taster' and to encourage sales – preferably by subscription.

As you say, not all free plans are taken up for the Plans Service. It probably depends on an assessement of their commercial appeal and reflects what the contributor has been paid. I don't know what the criteria is for that but it has been the practice for many years now.

Colin

I think it comes down to the print run costs and facilities for managing back issues Chris.

In the end it's all down to costs. Back issues have to be stored and admin arrangments put in place for requests to be sent out and payment arrangments set up. If your organisation is operating with people working mainly from home this all becomes problematical. They used to do it but they have swapped hard copy for digital via Pocketmags.

Yes Traplet may have done it but Traplet went bust…

Colin

I was told that unsold retail copies were pulped but it is of course possible that the situation has changed.

But to support the magazine people really need to take out a subscription to give the best chance of keeping it solvent.. Buying ad hoc at newsagents doesn't really help all that much as most of the sale price goes to the distributor and retailer.

Colin

As a previous Editor, 2007 to 2017, I can confirm that all unsold copies in newstrade – principally WH Smith, are pulped once off-sale.

It is not financially worthwhile to pay WH Smith to return them, particularly nearing in mind the huge but now diminishing, range of magazines they normally sell.

As you have gathered, WH Smith doing do anything without being paid!

Normally on a print run, there will be those for newstrade sale (across the world such as WH Smith) plus those for all the currently valid subscriptions with a few spares for those subsequently lost in the post + a few for back issues but the days are long gone of having a room in head office, such as it is, filled with back issues.

In practice, many magazines are often passed-on within a club, so my own club now has the mower shed having a shelf of unwanted but useful, magazines on it.

Paul.