Goodbye NRMA

The NRMA (a leading motoring organisation of Australia) provide a publication called Open Road.  Now, while it's good to have membership of NRMA for emergency fixes to my vehicle, its not so good to get this publication.

I've tried before without success to cancel this, but was emailing, and I didn't get a response.  Here's the correct method: call 13 11 22, select option to amend an existing membership etc, then ask not to recieve Open Road.  They'll switch this off for you, but warn that you may receive next copy due to printing lead times.

So this magazine has 76 pages (Sep/Oct 2010) printed double-sided and is published every two months, so I have reduced consumption by 228 pages (or nearly half a ream of paper), and six plastic bags.  That count doesn't include the additional brochure inserts (2 pages). That means my time is saved, and there is less clutter in the house.  It also means the energy used to print, distribute, collect recycling and recyle is also now not needed.  What a relief!

If you're wondering about whether or not to stick with this mag, here's a few stats.  This latest copy has a lot of advertising.  In fact, only 50% of the mag is articles - not very interesting articles in my view, but hey you might like them.   Approx figures below:

Approx. figures for content of Sep/Oct 2010 Open Road magazine

Interestingly, the direct advertising from this magazine, in 2009, provided NRMA with $5.9M of revenue, but their distrbution costs were $7.8M.

One of the 'travel' articles is about a cruise through the Northwest Passage - now possible due to diminished ice due to global warming  :0(