[michaelt]

Considering how often they've been sued over the content of the magazine [1] I suspect they quite like knowing that every publication is immediately water under the bridge.

Once they've mailed out the magazine they can't delete a story, no matter what - and if someone doesn't like the content? Two weeks later it's disappeared from news stands.

Newspapers that rely too heavily on advert revenue also often have conflicts of interest (which you'd know about, if you were reading the Eye) so I suspect they like having enough subscriber income that they only need to sell ads for wool sweaters and reading lights - advertisers who are unlikely to want a story spiked.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Eye#Libel_cases