Or the art of conveying something that’s exactly the opposite of what is. It’s like the technobabble that surrounds software. “New” means “it’s still got all the bugs, and we haven’t figured out what to do with it”. “Improved” is when “hey, we’ve identified all the bugs. Still haven’t removed them, but at least we know they’re there”. It’s just the same when it comes to Magazine Subscriptions. Mags Direct, they call it. When it’s a reseller site. You’d think they’d learn – if someone wants to go direct to the magazine, they don’t want to go to a reseller.

It’d be far better to call it Mags Reseller – or even Mags Discount Reseller - that appeals to the budget conscious guy who’s looking to subscribe. No Shipping or Sales tax. That’s easy. All they send you is the link to their website. No fooling around with second class mail, stamps and all. If anyone is looking to subscribe. Why would anyone want to come here, when he could go directly to the website himself. It’s got to be the 7% of net users who haven’t ever visited Google or Yahoo. Or whatever that percentage is. Only someone who hasn’t visited them would go here to find a subscription. If he ever finds it, that is. Or this piece, to tell him where to go.