How to cancel your Pioneer magazine subscription – ver 2.0

My three years old blog post titled “How to cancel your Pioneer magazine subscription” is one of the top ranked results when you search for information on canceling or unsubscribing from the uninspiring, self-glorifying Pioneer magazine, published by our Ministry of Defense (MINDEF).

However, I noticed recently that the subscription feedback link I provided is now a dead link (maybe too many people have been using it to unsubscribe from Pioneer). The contact email for Pioneer magazine listed in the post is outdated too.

Subscription to the magazine is “forced” on all NSF at 40 cents per issue via an opt-out system. It’s cheap, but  it’s still money. Not cancelling it will be wasteful if you do not read it. There is also the online version (slightly different) which is better for the environment.

To provide a service for my fellow Singaporean comrades who do not read the magazine and to do my part in saving trees, I am updating with a ver 2.0 blog post on canceling Pioneer magazine subscription.

Help spread the word to save the Earth as I believe most people just chuck their Pioneer magazine straight into the waste paper bin without even tearing open the plastic wrapper.

Here is an updated link to Pioneer magazine’s new feedback page on subscription matters.

Here are the steps for unsubscribing, quoting from another blogger, guanyinmiao’s recently updated experience:

If you are a NSmen: Write in to pnr_cir@starnet.gov.sg (which was given to me through an email correspondence with the MINDEF Feedback Unit) directly. For your convenience, you could use or adapt the following template in your email to the team.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Unsubscribing From Pioneer Magazine

1. I am Mr. XXX (S________), and I am writing in to express my desire to be kindly removed from the automated Pioneer subscription system.

2. I would also like the administration to reconsider the current mechanism of making subscription to Pioneer magazine compulsory for all NSFs at the beginning of their enlistment. It makes good sense, on many dimensions, to make it a fair opt-in system, rather than an opt-out one. Singaporean males would appreciate the liberty to choose whether they would like to receive the magazine, based on the quality of the publications.

3. [You can also choose to – at your own discretion – add in other concerns that you might have with the magazine, so that the relevant representatives would be able to process constructive feedback. For instance, some have environmental considerations (glossy pages wrapped in needless plastic wraps), others might be unconvinced by the repetitive content or uninspiring columns et cetera].

3. Thank you very much for taking time off to read this email.

Yours truly,
XXX (Mr.)

If you are a NSF: You can approach your Unit S1 or Manpower Officers to discontinue your subscription; if applicable, you could also consider using the aforementioned template to explain your reasons or justifications.

On another note, from around 2005, I started getting copies of Navy News, another equally useless magazine with equally uninspiring content (lots of articles and pictures of navy “big shots” getting medals and awards I do not know or care about). I do not think I paid for it and definitely did not subscribe to it myself. It should be a free magazine (anyone knows?). In any case, I will be contacting MINDEF to unsubscribe it as well as it is still a waste of paper even if it is free.