With effect from 1st March 2026, the cost of an annual subscription to our OUTdoors magazine will increase from £20 to £30. Let me explain why such a significant increase is necessary.

The current price was set in 2019. Since then, prices in the UK have increased by an average of around 30 per cent. However, the cost of postage, a major element in the cost of producing and distributing the magazine, has increased by 46 per cent. In addition, the magazine’s circulation has fallen. This has had the effect of increasing the cost per copy as there are now fewer subscribers to share the set-up costs for each issue.

The result is that the club is currently paying more than one-third of the magazine’s costs from membership subscriptions. Given that fewer than three hundred members subscribe to the magazine out of a total membership of more than two thousand, the board has taken the view that a subsidy of this magnitude is both unfair and unsustainable. Although increasing the price by 50 per cent will not wholly eliminate this subsidy, we believe that it will reduce it to a more proportionate level.

Peter Blackburn, Magazine Editor