Looks to me that the Economist mag IS automatically renewed (scroll down into the details section) http://www.magazines.com/the-economi...efault,pd.html

I sent a message about how the automatic "renewal terms" will affect payout but haven't heard back. My guess based on other posters is that it has to do with not awarding miles for the cost of automatic renewal 1+ year from now.

Any experience on this?