# I want to buy digital media ad-hoc like I used to buy magazines

# Buying magazines in the past

As a kid, I used to love browsing the magazine aisle in a supermarket. I would often buy the National Geographic Kids or Minipage (I think that's what it was called) magazines as a pre-teen. Later as an older teenager, I would buy the Popular Mechanics. Sometimes, I would buy something completely different, like the South African travel magazine, Weg (opens new window) or a food magazine, Sarie Kos (opens new window).

We also had a store in South Africa called PaperWeight that imported unsold magazines from the US and sold them for cheap. Whenever we were in the mall in the city, I would go hunting for the Nickelodeon magazine or WIRED magazine there.

Being able to buy single editions of magazines gave me the freedom to try all sorts of different ones, get a wide perspective of view points, and kept things exciting. There was also the dopamine rush I got from going home while knowing there's a fresh new magazine in my bag.

# I don't want to commit to a subscription

I still love reading long-form articles and listening to podcasts. And I want to support the journalists and creators who write the media I consume, because I know journalists have struggled with getting funding since the fall of printed media. It looks like it things will become even more dire (opens new window) for newspapers, unfortunately.

However, call me indecisive or stingy, but I don't want to commit to only one or two creators or platforms and buy a $80-$100 subscription for a year. Instead, I have been starting to subscribe to Patreon accounts for a month at a time, especially when I saw they had an article or podcast that month that especially piqued my interest. I would subscribe and then soon thereafter cancel my subscription.

Cancelling makes me feel a bit guilty though. I feel bad for the creator who's going to see my drop-off in their analytics. However, since there's usually no once-off payment option for a specific episode/article/edition, that's the only way to do it for now.

Unfortunately, some platforms don't offer monthly-based payments. For example, I would have loved to support Outdoor Magazine (opens new window), because of some of their fantastic long-form articles I discovered via Longreads (opens new window), but I don't want to pay $60 for the maybe 3 or 4 articles I read.

I also have not been supporting enough creators (in my own view) - proportional to the amount of high-quality media I consume.

# My solution for now

I've been brainstorming projects that could allow people to support creators in a more ad-hoc way, instead of having to commit to monthly subscriptions. However, I don't think there's a way right now to do that without convincing creators to move over to your new platform. And in any case, maybe it's just a me problem.

In lieu of a such service, however, I want to give myself an online media budget once I start working full-time again. Then, I'll try to be more disciplined in spreading that budget to my favourite creators by varying which subscriptions I toggle on or off on a monthly basis.

I could imagine a UI for this in the style of a magazine rack would be pretty cool, but don't have the time, energy, or frontend prowess to build it at this stage.

By the way, if you're interested in seeing my recommendations for your reading, listening, or viewing pleasure, see my links page.