As you know, Royal Mail’ Magazine Subscription is a service option designed to meet the needs of publishers of consumer and business magazines in addition to membership and brand magazines. The service offers a lower price point on standard access, provided customers meet the registration and content requirements set out in the Access Letters Contract (ALC).

With customers’ assistance we recently undertook a compliance audit of the Magazine Subscription service. We thank all customers who were involved in that process and the progress that has been made to resolve compliance issues.

It is essential to maintaining fair and consistent standards across the letters postal market that the ALC requirements are met, so that customers can continue to benefit from the Magazine Subscription lower price point. As a reminder, customers must ensure each:

1. item has dimensions which meet the specifications for a Large Letter;
2. item comprises at least thirty per cent of editorial content;
3. item show the Title, and at least the date of issue, or the issue number on the front cover; and
4. title is pre-registered in line with the process set out in Appendix K of the Access User Guide, including a copy at least 10 days before it is handed over for posting.

For full details of the contractual requirements please refer to Schedule 4, Part 3 of the Access Letters Contract and Appendices K of the Access User Guide.

Your Account Director will be arranging to meet you over the coming weeks to ensure Magazine Subscription mailings are compliant and will share with you how we will be managing compliance to the service going forward. From 30 March 2026 we will commence adjusting unregistered Magazine Subscription titles to the Business Mail Large Letter Access price. 

We remain committed to supporting a fair and transparent postal market and will continue working closely with you and industry bodies such as the Strategic Mailing Partnership to help improve compliance across the sector.