I was buying so many mags back then that I had to weigh what demos were on that disc before justifying buying it. I could have subscribed but it almost felt faster to drive to town, buy the magazines from multiple locations, drive home, repeat weekly all month long than simply subscribing to each (our mail man sucked and often "lost" issues of previous subscriptions I had).
Dial-up Internet was not even an option for me - long distance charges and such were cost prohibitive.