ORIGINAL: combatpigg

Completely over thinking it and using gross assumptions to arrive at your conclusions.
Please understand, this isn't me overthinking anything, this is years and years of research at the cost of millions of dollars to try and understand how to get end users the biggest bang for their buck. There were no gross assumptions made, it is how through research we have learned folks buy advertised products.

Saying that ad space in MA has less value than any other magazine is at the extreme end of the reality spectrum.
Actually that is very much based in fact. Let me ask you a question. If you purchase something how do you care for it? Depending on the cost of the product you will tend to take better care than if you were simply given a like product. The end user feels more of a sense of ownership if they put hard dollars on the line.
With all the technology and marketing science known to man, huge and disasterous mistakes get made every day in the business world.
I completely agree with you on that point, but that does not make what I posted incorrect.

Trying to make this sound like rocket science instead of the very in-exact science that it really is adds no credence to your argument.
I really don't want to offend you, but if you can't understand how these concepts are arrived at, I can't help you. Suffice it to say that advertising works, because it is not a shot in the dark like you suggest. Ad concepts are very accurately aimed at the very target market they want to sell to. Years of study and research backs that up and because of that companies spend millions on that process. Would they spend the money if it didn't work?
A magazine like MA is in a unique position to test the waters to see what their ad space is really worth. Yes indeed, you can name your own price if you control the bulk of the market. The mega advertisers already have ads in all the other magazines and if one of them was to vacate MA over a rate sqabble, that will serve to create a vaccuum that opportunistic competitors will fill.
If MA ran their mag like they either had to make a profit or close the doors, I'm pretty sure that the numbers in the auditor's report would do a 180. The magazine should be looked upon as an asset that the AMA can profit from, instead of the magazine looking at the AMA as an asset that they take profits from.