I'm going to wade reluctantly into this discussion, then gracefully wade back out... LOL.
I stopped subscribing to mags when Science Fiction Age went belly up, and here's why.
SF Age introduced me to a whole slew of great short science fiction writers, and some wonderful stories. Craphound first appeared there, and as a measure of SF Age's quality, I remembered reading it immediatly after starting to listen to the podcast. And it wasn't just that tale, there were, literally, dozens of others that in a short print run, still rank among the best short science fiction I've ever read.
At the time I has a subscription to both Analog and Asimov's too, but every month I would look forward to SF Age while putting the digests aside for later reading. Once I'd ripped through SF Age, usually one afternoon was enough, I'd prowl the others. But, and this is very true for right now as well, they seemed to contain the exact same stories, and by that I mean plotlines, month after month after month from the same writers month after month after month. Alien contact, Asimov's. Alien contact involving complex mathematics, Analog. Off course space ship, Analog. Off course space ship with a humorous robot, Asimov's. Time travel to change the past, Asimov's. Calculate the orbit of an asteroid before it collides with space station, Analog. Third rate cyberpunk (because it was popular at the time), both. Then a novella from a well known author such as Kim Stanley Robinson, then some reviews, then convention listings, both.
Every month the same.
The last big mag purchase I bought was Analog and TMoFaSF to read on a day trip to Virginia for a meeting. I made it almost five whole pages into Analog when I hucked it into the trash. The first story had something like this for first sentence -
Paraphrasing -
"John and Mary were the sole survivors of the crash, everyone else was dead."
That sentence there stopped me reading even the next sentence of that story. The following tales were so wrapped up in the awesomeness of their own little literary microverses that they might as well have contained no characters or linear plotline, hell, for all I know they didn't.
Marion Zimmer Bradley had a great quote as an editor in MZB Fantasy magazine listing in Writer's Market, "stop showing me how beatifully you write and tell me a story."
I lost my taste for Asimov's when they published "Sensible City" by Harlan Ellison, who, in the introduction, detailed how he wrote the story in two days on a cruise because he was bored. The story was about two guys passing the same city on the highway over and over again.
Hey, you know what Harlan, get bent sideways.
I've read better stuff from high school kids who know nothing of science fiction but what they see on TV.
There are hundreds of writers who send stuff into the slush netherworld of these mags who are lucky to get a one page checklist form reply 6-10 months after submitting. There HAVE to be tales on that pile better than the vast majority of shit they keep publishing.
If you want to blame the right people for the decline of circulation of these mags, put the blame where it belongs. Put it on the editors who routinely showcase the least daring, most overdone, comfortable crapola they get from established writers.
That's why I don't subscribe to the big mags.
Here is what they can do to change things for the better (for both reader and writer)-
For readers -
Print better stories. Pass over that Robert Reed story for the one from the slush. Better yet, devote one issue a year solely to slush writers. Even better yet, keep 5000 words open in every issue for a slush writer.
Sell better advertising. I don't care if there is an ad for a Chevy Truck in the center fold. If it means you can publish a better cross section of fiction.
Advertise the goddamn magazine. Publisher's Clearing House is the only place I have ever seen an ad for ANY genre digest. I throw PCH stuff right into the trash. Underwrite an NPR show, finance a monthy show on PBS, produce a web series and release it free on Youtube. Describe why you are a better read than Star Wars fan fiction.
Work with SciFi Channel to put an anthology series together. The Outer Limits used to buy stuff out of all the digests, hell, they did a fantastic job with Think Like a Dinosaur by J.P. Kelly. Call it, Oh I don't know, Asimov's Science Fiction Showcase and produce one story from each year's magazine as part of the regular series run.
For writers -
Take e-mail submissions. WTF, it's 2007 already.
Respond in an acceptible time period. 10 - 12 weeks is a hell of a long time to wait. Or, accept simultaneous subs without complaint.
Okay, so that wasn't graceful...
Let me say this in closing. Escape Pod has the potential to redefine the way short fiction is presented, consumed, and received in the marketplace. Steve's committment to quality and his willingness to read and buy subs from guys like me with no pub creds worthy of mention sets a new standard for short science fiction and fantasy. We can only hope that others take to his model. Sure, I've heard a few stories here that I haven't enjoyed, but I still listened all the way through, and the number of those pales by comparison to the vast number of tales that I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy over and over again.
(edited to remove nasty swearword!)