Publisher Pulls the Plug on “All You” Magazine

A magazine that was once a favorite of couponers, but lost some of its luster lately, is about to fade into history. Publisher Time Inc. has announced it is discontinuing the publication of “All You”, effective with the December edition, and is shutting down the corresponding website at the end of the year.

“We are constantly evaluating our portfolio of brands and products, examining existing assets and assessing their ability to deliver meaningful growth into the future,” the company said in a memo to staff, a copy of which was provided to Coupons in the News. “All You has faced a particularly difficult landscape in the shopper marketing space as well as endemic newsstand challenges… To that end, we have made the decision to cease publication.”

Curiously, there’s been no official mention of the shutdown on All You’s website or social media pages. In fact, they’re still actively soliciting subscriptions. Better act fast!

Meanwhile, if you’re already a subscriber, the company will offer a replacement Time-owned magazine, to fill out the balance of existing subscriptions.

With a focus on recipes, health, beauty, budgeting and coupons, “All You” launched back in 2004, and was initially sold exclusively at Walmart. Women said they “loved celebrity magazines,” the editor said at the time, but what they really wanted was something about “real life and everyday solutions.”

And coupons. A whole lot of coupons.

When the economy soured several years after All You launched, the plentiful coupons printed in its pages became a big draw for newly-minted “extreme couponers”. The coupons were frequently much higher in value than those found elsewhere. And there were so many, that the magazine published a “coupon index” right alongside the article index, detailing exactly where each of the dozens of coupons inside could be found. As a bonus, the All You website featured a selection of exclusive, high-value printable coupons as well. “This magazine pays for itself!” a banner on the magazine’s cover declared.

But All You stopped using that tagline recently, as the number of coupons inside the magazine dwindled, and the exclusive printables on the website slowly disappeared as well. Readers began complaining the magazine wasn’t as good as it used to be.

And an incident earlier this year, that alienated some supporters and angered the coupon industry, certainly didn’t help matters.

The April 2015 edition featured an article that included a controversial piece of coupon advice – if you need more coupons, just buy them online. eBay is “an overlooked gold mine for paper grocery coupons,” the article read. “Sellers often offer multiple coupons for one price.”

Selling coupons online is a big business, one that many buyers and sellers insist is perfectly legitimate. But the coupon industry feels otherwise. And the magazine essentially bit the hand that fed it, by effectively taking sides on the controversial issue – the wrong side, according to many of the very advertisers offering the coupons in its pages.

“As is widely recognized in the industry, the sale of manufacturers’ cents-off coupons violates the terms and conditions printed on virtually every coupon issued in the United States,” the Association of Coupon Professionals and the Coupon Information Corporation said, a few weeks after the article was published, in a joint statement issued at an industry conference at which All You representatives were in attendance. “We believe this article was a disservice to readers and the coupon issuing advertisers in the publication who prohibit the sale of their coupons.”

All You issued a “clarification” on its website that fell somewhat short of an apology or a retraction, but the ACP and CIC pressed for more meaningful action from a magazine “known as having been active in the industry and knowledgeable about coupon issues.” They called for the article to be removed from All You’s online archives, for a published retraction in the next printed edition, and urged the magazine to “educate its editors and staff about coupons to prevent a repetition of this unfortunate situation.”

All You never responded to Coupons in the News‘ request for reaction to that public scolding. But for a magazine already suffering from declining advertising revenues, strained relations with coupon providers was the last thing it needed.

“Unfortunately, we have no say in whether companies want to offer coupons for their products,” a spokesperson said back in April, in response to growing customer complaints about the lack of coupons inside. “But we’re working really hard to make sure that the magazine still provides you with deals and opportunities to save.”

Apparently their hard work wasn’t enough. Now the only money that All You will help you save, is the money you won’t have to spend on a subscription anymore.