Are magazines artificially inflating circulations?

I keep receiving free copies of magazines I don’t pay for, and never requested.
 
It started with ESPN magazine, then Entertainment Weekly. I figured they were just trial balloons; read us for a little while, then subscribe.
 
Six months passed; I was still receiving them. One year passed; still coming. Never an invoice, just periodic requests to subscribe to ESPN. Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly never communicated at all; just free magazines in a steady drumbeat.
 
Over the past eight months, I’ve started receiving two more free magazines, SPIN and Men’s Journal. Neither one has hit me up for money or communicated in any way.
 
Putting the four magazines in context with my prior history, I subscribed to Entertainment Weekly and Men’s Journal years ago. I’ve never subscribed to SPIN or ESPN (but I’ve subscribed to Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone for decades).
 
Curious, I surveyed Facebook friends and learned I’m not the only one experiencing this. Judy said, “We’re getting a bunch; now I know why.” Stephen gets Newsweek and Food & Wine. Jen receives Architectural Digest. Steve gets Outside for free. Michelle said she’s getting three unrequested titles, including a Hispanic magazine (which isn’t her ethnic profile).
 
This magazine publisher behavior is telling me a few things:

• The economy is smacking the magazine industry in the face. Consumers are opting-out of many subscriptions, tightening their belts.
• Some publishers are desperate. 
• Magazines can’t uphold advertising rates (and generate the revenues they need to make) if their circulation numbers aren’t where they need (claim) to be. 
• Advertisers are paying to reach a measurable audience; if the magazine can’t deliver this audience, then ad rates have to decrease and/or the advertiser decides not to spend money with that media property.
• With diminishing circulations, some publishers are sending out free copies of formerly paid-only magazines. They’re not sending out “trial” issues; they’re adding people to their paid subscriber rosters. In my case, two of the four issues I now receive free I paid for years ago; and two are closely related to magazines I still get.

AdWeek’s 2009 “hot” magazines story was interesting in this context. Wouldn’t you assume magazines that made the top 10 would be “up” in ad revenue, ad pages and circulation? Not the case.
 
Only three of the top 10 titles were up in all three categories (The Economist, Elle and Women’s Health). The remaining seven magazines were all down in ad revenue and ad pages (kind of curious for the top 10 “hot” magazine titles; imagine what state other magazines are in).
 
But here’s the interesting rub: four of the seven were up in circulation, (otherwise known as paid subscribers or paid issues). For example, Vogue (#8) saw its ad revenue decrease 5.6% and ad pages decrease 9.7%, yet its circulation was up 1.5%.
 
What do you think?
 
Is there a dirty little secret thing going on? Or is everything on the up and up in the magazine industry? Enlighten me please.