I received info from Zinio support that has helped me understand.
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Although Zinio delivers your publication on behalf of the publisher, Zinio does not manage 3rd party subscriptions. If Zinio receives a request from the publisher to make a delivery to you - we will do so automatically.
Please note that it can take a publisher up to 4-6 weeks to send us a file including the list of their new digital subscribers. If it has been longer than this allotted period and you still have not received your issue, you will need to contact whomever you purchased the subscription from to ensure that everything is set up correctly, in particular the email address.
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So basically when we sign up, our info has to be manually sent to the digital publisher. Weak.
And all the links to "digital editions" you find around the finescale site just point you to how to sign up, not to actually view your digital publication.
Funny how phone support didn't clue me in to that and told me it was a temporary glitch when it's not.
I hope this helps some poor newbie some time and stress figuring this out the hard way.