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Also keep in mind that MR, like the other magazines, binges on particular authors. John Pryke and Pelle Soeborg seem to be current favorites; the problem is that, while they've both done really outstanding work, the editors print their mediocre stuff as well, and they quickly become overexposed. A major reason, I would think, is laziness. In his John Allen biolgraphy, Linn Westcott pointed out that he in fact went many years between John Allen features, and readers still beat him over the head for too much John Allen. In more recent times, MR has decided to tire us out with various authors much more frequently (but so have the other mags). One thing the editors of the major mags seem to have stopped doing is developing new contributors. I can recall Linn Westcott editorializing about asking submitters to re-take photos. It appears that this was part of Westcott's interest in bringing along a large pool of potential writers. If my experience is an indication, neither MR nor other mags provides feedback any more -- they either publish your stuff, or they don't even acknowledge it. While I'm not actively in N (I have a display case on the wall with models from an earlier N layout, though), I like to read about good modeling in all scales, and I've felt shortchanged by all the major magazines who seem to be risk-averse about publishing new writers or new layouts. Compare the current mood in the hobby with the mood in the rail industry (and even the hobby) at the middle and end of the Great Depression: railroads were taking risks and doing new things with streamliners, luxury coach trains, and diesels. People were investing money in new model railroad products and founding the present-day model railroad hobby. While we see investment in new products now, and innovations like ready-to-run high quality products, the magazines are uniformly sticking with known quantities -- same authors in each issue (or in MR's case, staging comebacks of yesterday's mediocrity, Malcolm F.), same old formula. I can't sympathize if the publishers feel business is bad overall.
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