"cookinglight" news and stories

I opened my newest issue of Cooking Light (March 2006) and, in amongst some delicious sounding recipes for barbecue meatloaf and sour cream scones, I found a coupon section. Though it is affixed to the spine of the magazine, the perforated coupon sheets are nearly identical to the type that I find in my Sunday paper. I admit that coupons are useful - because I'm not going to turn down an extra $1 off my next OceanSpray purchase - but I still don't like the idea of such overt advertising in my magazine. The size of each issue seems to increase by several pages - aren't they selling enough full page ads? I can't decide whether this speaks to the magazine's need to increase its revenue, a loss of newspaper readers or simply the fact that advertisers now believe that a coupon sheet in Cooking Light is the best way to reach potential consumers. Only time will tell if this will work for the magazine or the advertiser, I suppose, but I'd rather keep my reading material free of punch-out coupons.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]