Lots of the magazines we find on racks or receive in the mail are free of charge, but someone has to pay for those glossy issues, and without a subscription or sales price, these magazines are underwritten by sponsors. Sometimes the sponsor is simply a publisher who uses the magazines as a way to sell advertisements to retail companies or others. In other words, a magazine might be published at a cost to the magazine’s owner, but recoup those expenses by selling paid space in the magazine. In fact, most magazines operate on this kind of ad revenue basis, although many also depend upon consumer purchase of the magazines to offset costs or provide a profit margin.

Some magazines exist thanks to being underwritten or sponsored by a club or organization, in which case the members themselves – who are the primary readers of the publication – foot the bill by paying their annual dues and membership fees. The magazines that they get in the mail to keep them informed of the organization’s goings on arrive free of charge, but only to those members who dues and club fees are up to date. So, in essence, the readers themselves are paying for the cost of their “free” magazines, without really knowing it or making a direct financial contribution or payment for the magazines themselves. There are also rather significant magazines that are given away for free. For instance, the airline magazines – those that are stuffed into the seat pockets of airplanes and given away free to all passengers – are paid for by the airlines, who will contract with a magazine publishing company to produce the magazines and supply them for giveaways. Of course these magazines also thrive on ads and that promote the airlines, travel agencies, hotels, car rentals, and other businesses that are frequently used by the traveling public.

And because the magazines reach so many rather affluent readers, advertisers are willing to pay a hefty premium to have their products and services featured on the pages of these magazines. And because readers of airline magazines often have nothing else to read or to do except thumb through the issue they find in their seat, they represent a captive audience, unlike the readers of most magazines. Because they are left with few options, passengers are more likely to read the magazines and the ads, which makes them a better target for marketing and advertising.