Competition Magazines & Subscriptions
Long before the internet arrived, the main source of competition information for compers was from magazines like Competitor's Companion and Winners Friend. These titles followed in the footsteps of the first ever magazine, Competitor's Journal which launched in 1913. Fast forward to 2025 and competition magazines are an endangered species. Today, Compers News is the only option of an actual magazine for compers. However there are also subscription services like Lucky Legends that offer an alternative to the traditional comping magazine.
Compers News
If you're looking for a printed magazine on comping then today the only option is Compers News. It's published by Accolade Publishing and a subscription gets you a magazine, access to the digital version of the magazine and access to the Chatterbox Forum. According to the website the "team scours the UK's high streets, shopping centres and supermarkets as well as hundreds of newspapers and magazines and online media". If you're lucky you may be able to get a trial issue of the magazine for just £1. We have seen a number of offers running so it's worth keeping an eye out. However a full subscription doesn't come cheap. An annual subscription is now £77.40 for 12 issues or £59.40 if you agree to an annual direct debit payment. A single issue costs £4.95 via monthly direct debit.
Compers News Express
Compers News also has a sister publication - Compers News Express. This will cost you £21 for six months (via direct debit) and it's "dedicated to discovering and winning short-life competitions". The competitions in this publication aren't the same as in the main title. This means that you can pay almost £120 a year for both Compers News and Compers News Express. Whether that's good value really depends on whether the competitions aren't listed elsewhere and whether you can win enough to more that make the outlay worthwhile.
Lucky Legends
In July 2024, Di Coke launched a new subscription service called Lucky Legends. It doesn't offer a magazine but subscribers get access to a private competition forum, a Compers Shopping List and a monthly livestream. Subscriptions cost £5 a month or you can pay annually a £50 fee. You can cancel your membership at any time. Most of the content is provided by members and includes "comps you won't see anywhere else" as well as "prize-winning advice from some of the UK's most successful compers". In our view it's probably the best option if you're thinking of choosing one of the listed subscription services.
Simply Prizes
Simply Prizes is the online subscription service of the former magazine. An annual subscription costs £99.95 a year but you can choose to pay quarterly or monthly. For your money you have access to "1300 new competitions added every month". These are a mix of online, social media and postal. It has a sister online publication, Coffee Break Winner, which offers "135 short closing competitions added every week". An annual subscription will cost you £69. Again you'd be paying out almost £170 a year if you subscribed to both titles.
Prize Magazines
Instead of the above services you could also consider purchasing a magazine subscription. Titles such as That's Life, Take a Break, and Puzzler feature a wide range of puzzles and competitions for you to enter, often with big prizes. Note that some of the competitions listed in these titles can be entered online and for free.
Should You Subscribe To A Competition Service?
Spending £50, £120 or even £170 a year on a subscription service sounds insane to us because we think there's more than enough for the majority of compers here on Loquax. And if there's not enough here there's plenty of other sites and ways of finding competitions that won't cost a penny. Keep the cash in your pocket and/or use it to buy qualifiers for purchase necessary competitions. But obviously we're biased! If you are looking at spending money then we advise looking at all options, check the sites, see what you're getting for your cash and decide if it's the best value for money. For the best advice about the quality of the publications why not visit our forums and ask other compers for their opinion?
