Hi Nadeem - as an affiliate I've worked with back in the old emagshop days and now through to consultancy for UKsubscribe I know of your frustrations between the UK and US subscriptions model
The US subscriptions market is far more mature and far greater than that of the UK, comparatively speaking. To grasp the size of the market in the US for subscriptions take a look at
http://www.magazine.org/Circulation/...dbook/1318.cfm which shows 86% of magazine sales in the US are by subscriptions.
The UK magazine purchaser is far more tuned to buying with convenience from the local newsagent. Whilst UK publishers are investing heavily in the subscription side of their businesses there's no way that they can compete in a similar manner to the US (where subscriptions to mags such as FHM, Maxim cost less than $15 for a year).
With the size of the subs industry in the US the government is under far greater pressure to maintain cheaper and cheaper postage costs for magazine publishers, whilst in the UK there is hardly any difference between the cost of shipping a magazine by a publisher and Joe Public popping one in the post.
Enormously frustrating? Yes, but it's a catch-22 I'm afraid. However! Most subscriptions are now discounted by 20-25% dependent on the particular publisher, with even great savings on Direct Debit subs. The market is in transition, but it will take time.
UKsubscribe.com aim to keep all magazine covers as up-to-date as possible and we DO have a datafeed available at
http://www.uksubscribe.com/catalog.csv.
Just give me a shout if you have any questions.
Thanks
Ian