In an era when newspaper copy editors have gone the way of the full-size spare tire, readers are increasingly faced with the odd typo or malapropism. But, for the most part, newspapers remember how to spell their own names. So, Bay Area residents were likely jarred by missives mailed to their homes offering them a one-year subscription to the San Francisco "Chronical" for a mere $799.95.
If you phone the actual Chronicle, however, you could get the same deal for $611.
That's because the Chronical offer was made by Associated Publishers Network, a Nevada-based "subscription agent" claiming to peddle "over 600 magazines." Doing business under this and dozens of other names, it has amassed nearly 900 complaints with the Better Business Bureau — which awarded it an "F" grade. The BBB has issued a warning to would-be consumers, as have newspaper and magazine publishers across the nation. A Chronicle customer service rep requested those receiving bogus renewal notices contact the paper, which is gathering ammunition for "an action."
Calls to the number listed on the Chronical subscription pitch reached a third-party customer service center. The woman who answered described Associated Publishers Network as "not recognized" by the publishers of the periodicals it offers, as it "works with clearing firms who work with publishing houses." If and when subscribers receive their papers — and that's a big if — they'll be paying a middleman a bundle for it.
She claimed the use of the term Chronical was a typo — though the firm has offered subscriptions to publications with titles closely matching real ones in other states, too. In Wisconsin, for example, readers of the Wisconsin State Journal were hit up to renew their subscriptions to the imaginary Madison State Journal.
As for what advantage it would bring a subscriber to pay $189 more to a shady third-party than to the Chronicle itself, the customer service rep answered quickly and honestly: "There wouldn't be one."
View the Chronical as it appeared in print!
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