Why do magazine subscriptions take so long to start?

[iamme]

Does anyone know why?

I just subscribed to Time, and I read it'll take like months to start up.

 

[Imported]

No clue.. I've always wondered the same thing.. or how I'll buy a magazine in the store, like it and suscribe.. only to find out that I'll get next months magazine as my "first" issue and have the magazine issue I bought come in a few days later.

 

[Sluggo]

They are doing your background check, wondering it you rate surveillance by the black helicopters or not........its a right wing thang.

 

[geoff2k]

I've wondered about this myself. I always thought it was related to the publisher wanting to hold out as long as possible for as many subscribers as possible so that they could increase their print runs in even numbers (e.g. the printers may have to print the magazines in batches of 10,000, so if you have 10,001 subscribers, it would suck to have to throw away the extra 9,999).