The Magazine Manager
The Magazine Manager is a comprehensive publishing CRM designed to help you manage advertising sales, production workflows, and digital editions within a single integrated web-based platform.
Recurly
Recurly is a subscription management platform that automates billing, optimizes revenue recovery, and provides deep analytics to help you scale your recurring revenue business with ease and efficiency.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | The Magazine Manager | Recurly |
|---|---|---|
| Website | magazinemanager.com | recurly.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Subscription |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | $249/month |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✓ 0 days free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2002 | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Coconut Creek, USA | San Francisco, USA |
Overview
The Magazine Manager
The Magazine Manager is a specialized CRM built specifically for the unique needs of the publishing industry. You can manage your entire publication lifecycle from a single dashboard, moving seamlessly from initial ad sales and contract management to production tracking and final invoicing. It eliminates the need for disconnected spreadsheets by centralizing your contact data, flat-planning tools, and digital asset management.
You can track your sales pipeline in real-time and automate the billing process for both print and digital media. The platform also includes tools for circulation management and email marketing, helping you grow your audience while keeping your internal operations organized. Whether you run a single local title or a large multi-national media group, you can scale the system to fit your specific team structure and workflow requirements.
Recurly
Recurly provides a flexible platform to manage every aspect of your subscription lifecycle. You can launch new plans in minutes, automate complex billing cycles, and handle global payments without manual intervention. The software focuses heavily on revenue optimization, using machine learning to recover failed transactions and reduce involuntary churn before it impacts your bottom line.
You can integrate the platform with your existing tech stack to sync data across accounting, CRM, and support tools. It serves fast-growing startups and established enterprises alike, providing the tools you need to experiment with pricing models and promotional offers. By automating the heavy lifting of recurring billing, you can focus your energy on building better products and growing your subscriber base.
Overview
The Magazine Manager Features
- Ad Sales CRM Track your entire sales pipeline and manage contracts specifically designed for print and digital advertising schedules.
- Flat-Planning Tool Map out your magazine layout visually with drag-and-drop tools to organize editorial and advertising placements.
- Production Tracking Monitor the status of every creative asset and automate reminders to clients for missing artwork or approvals.
- Automated Invoicing Generate invoices automatically based on your flat plan and sync your financial data directly with accounting software.
- Digital Edition Creator Convert your print layouts into interactive digital editions to expand your reach across mobile and web platforms.
- Circulation Management Manage your subscriber lists and distribution schedules to ensure your publication reaches the right audience on time.
Recurly Features
- Subscription Agility. Create and modify subscription plans, add-ons, and coupons instantly to test new pricing strategies without writing code.
- Revenue Recovery. Recover lost revenue automatically using machine learning that retries failed payments at the optimal time for success.
- Global Payments. Accept payments globally with support for multiple currencies, languages, and over 20 integrated payment gateways.
- Automated Invoicing. Generate professional, tax-compliant invoices automatically and send them to your customers based on their specific billing cycles.
- Subscriber Management. View and manage the entire customer lifecycle from signup to renewal, including upgrades, downgrades, and pauses.
- Advanced Analytics. Track your most important metrics like MRR, churn rate, and LTV with real-time dashboards and exported reports.
Pricing Comparison
The Magazine Manager Pricing
Recurly Pricing
- Up to $500k in annual sales
- Hosted payment pages
- Automated dunning management
- Credit card & PayPal support
- Standard reporting dashboards
- Email support
- Everything in Core, plus:
- Up to $2.5M in annual sales
- Advanced revenue recovery tools
- Manual invoicing & check payments
- Business logic & integrations
- Priority phone and chat support
Pros & Cons
The Magazine Manager
Pros
- Built specifically for publishers rather than general sales teams
- Centralizes sales and production in one unified database
- Excellent flat-planning tools for visual issue management
- Strong reporting capabilities for tracking sales representative performance
Cons
- Interface can feel dated compared to modern CRMs
- Significant learning curve due to the deep feature set
- Initial setup and configuration requires a time investment
Recurly
Pros
- Highly effective automated revenue recovery tools
- Clean and intuitive user interface for teams
- Seamless integration with major payment gateways
- Flexible coupon and promotion management system
Cons
- Pricing can be high for small startups
- Analytics reporting can feel limited on lower tiers
- Steep learning curve for complex API configurations