rw2516

The Weekly Reader. Around second grade. You subscribed at school. Brought money to school and gave it to teacher.

Trevor

Yep, I looked it up. It was called National Geographic World from 1975 to 2002, then changed to National Geographic Kids. Earlier, from 1919 to 1975, they had a pamphlet sent to schools called National Geographic School Bulletin.

I’m pretty sure I was a charter subscriber to World, as my parents were long-time subscribers to the main magazine. Don’t think I saved the issues tough, my hoarding started later.

davidh777

Yeah, I think that came as part of the Scholastic Book Club, then another club had Smash.

Sonny Corinthos

GamePro was first and then I added Nintendo Power.

rbrown498

Boy's Life for me.

PhantomStranger

Baseball Digest was my first subscription as well. I have fond memories of memorizing the included stats as a child.

tonyc3742

Interesting question.
Probably Boys Life through Cub Scouts. Maybe Highlights or Turtle as an even littler one.
First mag I personally subscribed to (that I remember) was probably Atari Age, followed by SPY or National Lampoon. I wish I still had the Atari Ages; I do still have my Sega Visions.
Oh, Dynamite, that was great. There was another one, not subscription but sold through the school book club, that was sort of a cleaner Mad-type parody magazine. I don't think it was Bananas, but maybe it was.

Right now I'm subscribed to probably a dozen, although my Heavy Metal expired recently and I might not renew it. I only keep MAD and Heavy Metal. I still get Readers Digest.

zyzzle

Games, Omni, and Byte Magazine. Actually I think BYTE was the first, started my subscription in 1975. Games and Omni came later, in '77 to '78 as I recall. Cinefantastique came later about '79. What a great magazine!

Now, I don't subscribe to any magazines or newspapers due to the skyrocketing costs, amateur level of journalism. Compared to "back in the day", you'd think current magazines were written for kids, the level of diction and professionalism is THAT bad! And, no, I'm not paying $8 to $10 for a crappy magazine!

I still occassionally pick up an issue of 2600, though. At $10, it hurts compared to $2 back in the day, but it's a quarterly issue, so it's at least justifiable. Have kept all my back issues as culturally relelvant artifacts since the first issue in 1984.

Trevor

I forgot about Boy’s Life. Was a Cub Scout briefly back around 2nd grade and had at least a year of the mag. Was it free for Scouts?

Also fondly remember the various small footprint sports ‘digest’ magazines, and was a longtime subscriber to Football Digest

tonyc3742

Boys Life was "free" (included in your dues) for Scouts.

The other parody kids mag from the book club was Maniac. (I remembered on the way home, out of nowhere).

I subscribe because I get great deals. I won't pay 8-10 bucks per an issue, but I will pay 8-25 for a year. The most expensive magazines I'm getting are Official Xbox Magazine, which was $25 for 13 issues, and Asimov's, which is $21 for 6 issues. (Oh, I was subbed to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine early on too.)
Everything else is less than a dollar an issue (I hate that Entertainment Weekly went monthly, that was like 20 cents an issue.)

Norm de Plume

My parents got me and my sister a subscription to Chickadee when we were very young, then Owl a few years later. The first one to which I subscribed with my own money was probably a video game mag. EGM, GamePro, or one of those.

Vibiana

American Girl. I think it was published by the Girl Scouts, but I can't recall. I was never a Girl Scout, though.

I just looked online and the version I subscribed to ceased publication in 1979, but there was another one by that name from 1992-2019.

Michael Corvin

Either Highlights or Nintendo Power. I can't remember for sure on Highights but I definitely remember Nintendo Power.

Max Bottomtime

Boy's Life and Mad Magazine, both in 1967

tommyp007

Playboy. I think I was 15 or 16.

Josh-da-man

I think it was, maybe Odyssey when I was seven or eight. I graduated up to OMNI a couple of years later.

story

My first-ever subscription was the Marvel G.I. Joe comic book, followed shortly by Boys Life, Nintendo Power, and Mad.

SterlingBen

Mad, then Fangoria

Three Day Delay

Mad Magazine
Baseball Weekly...both about the same time, 12 years old.

My family subscribed to National Geographic my whole life, which I still love.

davidh777

I’m not shocked that it still exists and almost want to pick up an issue just for the novelty of it.

Shannon Nutt

This. The pictured was my first issue and I got every one that followed until they stopped making them (and didn't refund the rest of my subscription, which I had just upped for two years!) in 2009.

Noonan

Either Nintendo Power or EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly)

Ash Ketchum

Other than a Newsweek subscription that we all got in my junior high school class in the mid-'60s, I don't recall what I subscribed to before 1990. I used to buy every magazine and comic book I wanted at the newsstands and magazine stores. I eventually subscribed to both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide in the 1990s because of the savings from subscriptions. I subscribed to Animerica Magazine in the 1990s and eventually started writing regularly for it in 1999.

Quatermass

My older brother was selling magazine subscriptions for a school fund-raiser and I used my own money to subscribe to Fate magazine in the mid-70s when I was 10 or 11. I had never heard of it but the description said it was "true" stories about ghosts and ufos and stuff like that, so I subscribed. It was the equivalent of modern-day creepypasta. I used to read the stories in the daytime, then be terrified every night when I tried to go to sleep.

VinVega

I think my parents got me New York Yankees Magazine at one point in my life, but I've never personally signed up for a magazine subscription.