Why do we sell special reports to subscribers?

A while ago I received an email from an unhappy customer. It said ...
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Subject: Not pleased with the promotions in your Harvard Heart Letter.
Dear Sirs,

I receive both the Harvard Heart Letter and the Harvard Men's Health Watch and am considering not renewing their subscriptions when they run out because of your aggressive promotion of special reports.

I subscribe to both newsletters expecting to receive medical information that is important to me, and the newsletters provide that. But they also promote special reports (for a fee) that indicate their content is very important but only provides the information I need about that subject if I purchase the special report. I would have expected that important information to be included in the newsletter for which I have already subscribed, not left waiting for that information until I pay an additional fee.

Since my expectations when subscribing to the newsletters was to receive important information, and much of that important information is provided only if I pay for additional special reports, I will be searching in the future for similar newsletters from other sources that do not include these heavy promotions.
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I understood the concern and appreciated him sharing it with us. At the same time, I have a different perspective I’d like to share with you.

We began creating special health reports almost 20 years ago, at the request of subscribers who wanted more information on a particular topic than we could provide in an 8 page monthly newsletter. Initially, we sent these special health reports to all subscribers for free. That was wonderful for the people who wanted such additional information.

We received letters (no emails at that time) from subscribers who said they weren’t interested in that topic. They objected to receiving these reports that they would just throw away and felt we were making them pay for something through their annual subscription fee which they didn’t want. So, we began selling these report separately, making them beefier now that people were paying additional money for them.

You do not need to purchase any of our special health reports. We publish them as a service for people that want additional detail that you can provide in 48 pages on a topic that we could never get into a newsletter article. Our newsletter editors and our report editors work independently so I can absolutely assure you there is NO coordination to withhold the really good information from our newsletter subscribers. By their nature, the newsletters provide main points and summaries while the reports provide more detailed information. They are complementary but truly are distinct.

As for our promotions, I don’t agree with the characterization of them as “aggressive” since there are no extreme promises or hype. I do concede we’re persistent. With over 50 titles that we keep up to date on a regular basis, we have a lot of reports to tell our subscribers about and we take most opportunities available to do so.

You will find our practices are typical of and consistent with other publishers. And of course you are under no obligation to purchase a report from us ever.

I was pleased to learn the customer reconsidered his decision to let his subscription lapse.