Unless they have changed programming in the last 24 hours due to your post, the shop feature on the nook is very clear that this is a monthly subscription. (At least on my nook, which is the only one I have to test.)
Unlike books, when you browse magazines, no prices are listed on the main page. When you select an item to view its details (using the handy little "o" button to the right on the touchscreen) it lists the Title (in nice big print), the publisher, the Single issue price, and, in the same size font, the Monthly Subscription price.
Maybe I'm like an Einstein or something, but this seems blatantly clear to me. 
Admittedly, monthly subscriptions are not standard practice for magazines. Newspapers, yes. Magazines, no. But I don't think they could make it clearer on the nook or on bn.com.
It is counter-intuitive that weeklies, quarterlies, and other non-monthlies are charged out on a monthly basis. That, to me, would at least be a valid gripe. To say that the pricing is unclear or misleading is not, in my opinion. It's right there at the top of the page.
@RHWright: My point is that it says "monthly" in one place only - which happens to be the one place I'd be least likely to look. In fact, it wasn't until I was looking at the same magazine on bn.com that I first realized that it wasn't an annual subscription. I'm not an Eintein but neither am I chopped liver, or so I'd like to believe. 
In my case, it'd simply never occured to me to look for the word "monthly" because in my previous experiences I'd hadn't seen or heard of a monthly magazine subscription.
@FeralWriter: You seem to have discovered my post in another board discussing the problem.
@Kirk-
Reading your post again, your reply, and looking at the nook store interface again, I can see your point.
If you are foucsing on the touchscreen, it could be easy to miss the info that's right at the top of the page. From a user-interface design standpoint, redundencies probably should have been built in. Each "breadcrumb" that leads a user along the points to purchasing should make what they are buying clear.
Properly, it should be at the top of the page, noted at the end of the overview, say something like "Subscribe at a monthly rate of..." (or something similar that will fit the character limit)on the touchscreen, and mention the subscription terms briefly on the confirmation screen.
Then, I think, no one could seriously debate that it was clear.
Along similar lines, by slightly OT, it would be nice if the confirmation screen would include a reminder that the local sales tax rate for my billing address may apply to my purchase. It's no biggie, but I always do a double take at my invoice prices, because NC (or at least B&N for the State of NC) only recently charging tax on e-books. And thanks to the way the nook works, I can physically be in a location with no sales tax (say, Deleware) but still be charged NC sales tax because that's where the e-book is being "shipped" to! Arrggh. 
