Anything Fred Frailey writes is done intelligently and professionally! I always get a good read out of his articals like I did when David P. Morgan was editor of Trains when I started reading it in 1959. I bought my copy every month at the newsstand in Tampa Union Station no less! Even then you couldn't please every reader. One subscriber who hated diesels returned the All Diesel Issue to Kalmbach torn in half. DPM published the photo of the magazine with the gentleman's letter!
I'm not forced to subscribe or purchase any issue for that matter if it doesn't contain anything of interest to me. I'm 67 and have outgrown short pants, shave everyday, even go to the bathroom by myself, and I know how to subscribe if I take a notion to do so. What I don't need is the excessive use of pop-ups which I consider media stalking that offers US residents BIG discounts but at the same time have very very small fine print at the bottom requiring me to pay additionally for overseas delivery. This is NOT their fault but the TOTAL mis-managed US Postal Service and their elimination of the 4th class printed matter rate. Item: Kalmbach used to give overseas subscribers a 5% early renewal offer. It appears that greed overtook them and they eliminated the 5 per. No, it wasn't much, but it showed me that they were interested and appreciated my business across the big pond just the same.
I'm silly to waste my time on these forums as it is, since it won't change anything the way Kalmbach conducts their business today but it is still very poor marketing in my opinion and is an indication to me that they don't give a hoot, toot or a whistle for us overseas supporters and I am deeply disappointed that they have lost track of their roots and the vision that A.C. Kalmbach had when he started the business in 1934 with Model Railroader. A pity indeed!
No free lunch, Boomer -- at least none with much substance. At Railway Age -- I was a paid subscriber -- you get the industry line; at the railroad websites, their spin. It's "news," all right -- but with no perspective but their own.
All sources, including Trains, have their limitations. Trains at least is independent -- which means no free lunch for them! They've got to milk those cows.
I'll admit they could do it more intelligently. Daily they admit me, as a subscriber, to the Newswire, no questions asked. (Don't even have to provide the password I used to.) Knowing I'm already a subscriber -- why hustle me for a subscription?
You better go to www.railserve.com and visit these magazine sites. Most have been around for a good number of years and an online magazine www.model-railroad-hobbyist, while new to the field, continues to grow in both content and popularity and is FREE FREE FREE with NO strings attatched!!!! The best professional prototype railroad news can be found at www.railwayage.com and it too is FREE to all readers as is their online magazine with no subscription required! Also, most of the railroads have their own news pages on their web sites. Friends of Burlington Northern Santa Fe is a great place to keep up with BNSF as well as their historical heritage and registration is FREE!
Gads, mabie the Free Lunch is returning afterall?
I expected that when I subscribed to CT, the pop-ups would have disappeared. No....they still pop-up, some even asking me to subscribe.
People, everybody should know by now that print media have to milk every cow to sustain themselves. Specialty magazines such as Kalmbach's make out a little better with their traditional print product -- subscriptions, display and classified ads -- but still need extra help.
At going outfits, a publisher or advertising manager who isn't creative in finding extra revenue will soon be trying to find a new line of work. In any case, the pop-ups are less wearisome than the commercials you must sit through on free TV.
Those other railfan/modeling mags mentioned above aren't in the same league with Kalmbach's. Most are irregular in appearance, and I wouldn't bet on them being around from one year to the next.
There's pop-ups on a LOT of the sites I go to for news or fun. It's just a fact of life now. I "X" 'em out immediately and just continue to march.
If you are using Internet Explorer 11, be sure Tracking Protection and Pop-Up Blocking are enabled. Then get either DoNotTrackMe or Ghostery to block even more of this infuriating stalking.
I always thought that "STALKING" was against the law, but apparently the almighty dollar trumps the law.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
There's no such thing as a free lunch anymore. It went out with the 5 cent beer in the saloons out west. Kalmbach has really gotten bad about pop-ups and "free" gifts. Advertised subscripion specials have very very (!) small print advising foreign customers that they have to pay additionally for overseas delivery. We used to get a 5% early renewal offer but it has been eliminated too resulting in the cancellation of all Kalmbach publications! I have deleted ALL of the Kalmbach e-mail newsletters because of excessive use of pop-ups. Carstens, Railpace and other rail related magazine sites refrain from this method of "stalking". Also, you are Forced (!) to subscribe to get prototype rail news and model product reviews on all Kalmbach sites.
Railfan & Railroad, Railpace, Railway Age, Railroad Model Craftsman, Model Railroad News, Model Railroad Hobbiest, O Gauge Railroading (to name a few), all offer news and reviews at no cost. I can Google all current railroad news items like the tragic train accidents that have occured in Quebec, New York and N. Dakota without having to subscribe to Trains! Kalmbach Publishing Co. has a line of great magazines with a staff of professionals but has gotten a big business public be damned attitude that in no way was the intention of Al Kalmbach when he founded the company that still bears his name. A pity indeed called GREED!
Having to pay for news that is on all newspaper web sites is a bummer just as paying for product reviews that should be offered at no cost since the model train manufacturers pay Kalmbach dearly for advertising in their magazines. The Looser is of course, as always, the Consumer! Read this quick before Kalmbach deletes it. Free Speech is going the way of the Free Lunch!
Might as well get used to it. We saw at least three TV-type commercials before we got to see The Desolation of Smaug (The Hobbit Part II) this evening. It was a CDN$100 evening, too.
I must have gotten 4-5 messages from Classic Trains telling me they had a "Free" Birthday gift for me...cool I thought...until I opened the "free" gift and found out NO GIFT but a "e-coupon" for $5.00 OFF on Kalmbach products, thanks for nothing!
Really too many pop-ups/ads cluttering this site, but I'll suffer though this because I do enjoy the Forum.
Happy New Year and good health in the New Year!
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