OTAKU USA Drops DVDs, Drops Price

In one of the smartest moves a magazine has made in years, OTAKU USA announced today they are discontinuing the DVD attached to every issue and are dropping the price nearly in half.

I have mentioned in the past I can't stand having to pay an extra 4 dollars every month for a coaster. One wonders of NewtypeUSA wouldn't have survived if they had done the same. Here are more details:

In these hard times, does it make sense to give our readers more for their money? We think so.
That's why we've decided to start offering the content of the OTAKU DVD on our website each issue, and discontinue inserting the DVD in the magazine, while drastically reducing the price you're paying for the magazine.
Now, we haven't done away with the DVD altogether. We'll still include it in each December issue (when there are a lot of new Anime offerings). But most of the time, you can log on to the website, http://www.webotakuusa.com type in the readers code listed several places in the magazine, (this issue its OTAKU209) and watch the contents of the DVD on the website. You must have the code listed in the magazine to view the virtual DVD content.
What's that mean for subscribers? It means that we'll credit your remaining subscription by one and a half copies for each issue you have left on your subscription (and we round up!) That means if you have one copy left on your subscription, we'll send you two more issues. If you have 2 issues remaining, we'll credit you for 3.
How about newsstand readers? The price for each issue will decrease from $9.99 to $5.99—almost half!
What do subscribers have to do to get your extra issues? Absolutely nothing. We're doing it automatically.

Will everyone like the change? Of course not. But will everyone get MORE for their hard earned cash in these tough economic times? Absolutely.