Mailings from Business Week, Fortune and the New York Times all arrived in my mailbox a few weeks ago.

Fortune made an unbelievable “corporate” offer, about 27 cents an issue if I subscribe for three years. They can’t even mail the magazine for that, can they?

I’d change the negative guarantee (if it ever fails …) to a positive (you must be …) and I’d mention it just once or, if I had to mention it twice as Fortune does, I’d at least phrase it the same way both times.

The mailing includes a freemium, a laminated bookmark, but the whole thing is pretty stark. The OE, a double window #10, just has a single line of copy: DO NOT BEND. Odd, but maybe it gets the envelope opened. There’s no letter, no brochure, just the offer and a BRE. I guess at 27 cents an issue, there’s not much room for frills.

Businessweek offered 83% off in the same kind of stark mailing with two big differences: 1) Where Fortune had offered one, two and three year options, Businessweek offered only one year; 2) then, after the year’s up, they’re going to charge your credit card the prevailing rate for a renewal, unless you remember to tell them not to.

The New York Times offered 6 months for 50% off. I won’t subscribe to the NY Times for free until they demonstrate some integrity.

All three mailings are odd because they’re so frills-free, but each is also odd for at least one unique reason. Fortune’s spectacular offer is so compelling, I might take them up on it. Businessweek put in a poison pill, that “till forbid” automatic renewal, and the NY Times replaced the truthful “Irritating one-sided news coverage, egregiously biased analysis and elitist sophomoric commentary” with “Thought-provoking news coverage, analysis and commentary”.