My first thoughts on Goodman’s “Level Up” magazine

I have to admit that I haven’t heard about Goodman Games’ 4E magazine “Level Up” until a few minutes ago, when I noticed that criticalhits has twittered about it. Perhaps I’ve actually read something about it before, but today was the first time it grabbed my interest.
So I’ve checked out Goodman Games’ site and checked out the “Level Up” preview page. The cover for issue #1 is looking sweet. If you would secretly replace the text “Level Up” by “Dragon” it would look exactly like our former favorite gaming magazine. And I mean that in a good way. Of course I can’t comment on the contents but at least the exterior looks sweet.
And the price of $1,99 would be incentive enough for me to walk to the nearest gaming store and pick it up as soon as it’s out. BUT there are some problems with that:

1. As far as I know the last FLGS in my vicinity closed a couple of months ago
2. In the good old days it was sometimes hard enough to get your hands on a copy of DUNGEON or DRAGON, I am pretty sure almost no german store will sell Goodman’s magazine
3. $1,99 at the store and $4 for subscribers (or the PDF variant)??? Are you kidding me? Usually the cost for subscribers should be lower than for the people who pick it up at the store, but perhaps just me. But perhaps the $1,99 is just a reduced price for the first issue. But nevertheless, bad move, Goodman Games.

I would love to check out a 3rd party 4th Edition magazine (especially for such a low price) if it was widely available or not horribly expensive for European gamers. But usually you pay enormous amounts for shipping and handling. A PDF variant could be interesting but not at double the normal price.