Dunno. I subscribe to MR and Trains but also read MRH online. Each format has advantages and disadvantages. I also have a Kindle reader and while it's very convenient for traveling, etc, sometimes it just feels better to have a hardcopy book in hand. No iPad or tablet yet, but my first job in 1979 was writing software for AT&T, so I'm no techno noob
I'd wager hardcopy will exist for as long as there is sufficient demand for the "feel" of a book / magazine.
More than 100 magazines and newspapers are available digitally for e-readers.
None of them have eliminated their print versions. The e-reader version looks just like the print version on your screen. You hold an e-reader in your hand just like a book. My wife keeps hers in her purse.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Maybe they are thinking of the employees that still need that job in todays economy, hard to split up such a large family as MR, just my thoughts on the idea of paperless mags. Jim.
I would also like to have a downloadable form of the magazine. I'm lukewarm about reading MRH and other electronic publications (including back articles from TRAINS and various sailing and ham radio publications) on my full-size computer, but I LOVE them on the iPad.
If you haven't used an iPad for Web browsing and reading articles, you've missed a treat. There's something about holding the book-sized device in your hands that makes the entire experience different from using a computer. I take mine in the car every time my wife and I go out somewhere because I know that there will be some occasion when I'm left on my own while she goes into a store.
Like most men, I usually shop like a hunter: go, get it, go home -- while women spend much more time with the process. With the iPad and some electronic reading material, I'm never left in a fabric store or mall with nothing interesting to do.
andrechapelon ...Some have brought up the issue of technophobes. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of sympathy...
...Some have brought up the issue of technophobes. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of sympathy...
I don't really have much sympathy, either. If you can't keep up, you fall behind. But I think at least one post i read was referring to the fact that if the magazine has a large portion of subscribers who cannot or will not switch, they are shooting themselves in the foot if they go digital-only, especially if the competition does not.
I also think one factor in the popularity of paper - even on this electronic forum - is that model railroaders are, by and large, a nostalgic bunch of cusses.
That said, I prefer paper and digital, but would still read it if it was digital only.
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
As far a having something to read when your in the bathroom, is that the only reason we need hard copies? Really????? LOL
Cerainly not now, but when my late grandfather was a boy, the Sears Catalog sure came in handy. 'Course, back then, it wasn't printed on slick paper and served as more than reading material.
A person can scan a distribute hard copy of MRR quite easily, where is the piracy argument then? If I loan it to my neighbor, is that piracy?
It's a lot more work to scan a printed item than it is to copy a digital file and it's probably not worth the effort. Loaning your neighbor your copy certainly isn't piracy. However, scanning and printing a copy and giving or selling him the copy certainly would qualify.
Andre
Andre, I agree with you.
Some of us are just more tech savvy than others. I would be happy to see an download option for the rest of us.
And the piracy argument is silly and uniformed. How do you think ITUNES sell millions of songs, movies and books? T-E-C-H-N-O-L-O-G-Y.
I prefer to have my music, movie and book collection on my IPAD, I can access them anywhere I go, which is typically in airports, airplanes and hotels during the week. (Yes I work for a living)
It's personal preference, and those people who prefer hard copies of books and mags, fine.
Those who still write checks in the grocery store and have 56k dial up shouldn't feel threatened by those of use who have moved on with a different technology.
I don't concern myself with how other people do things, and they shouldn't be concerned about some of us wanting a digital version of a hobby mag.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
tstage Andre, I see at least two issues here: One is a "for profit" circulation; the other is not - If you are doing something gratis then you don't care how someone gets a copy; albeit downloading from a website or someone else's thumbdrive. If you are doing it "for profit" then you have to limit the accessibility to subscribers only. Sadly, there unsavory characters - even MRRers - who would abuse the system if downloadable subscriptions were available. Most folks would prefer taking their MR to the "reading room" in hard-copy form - If I'm looking for something to read, I like the ability or the freedom to peruse and a hard copy is readily available for me to do so. Otherwise, I'd have to take a laptop or tablet with me and that - to me - wouldn't be very convenient. Others, obviously, may feel differently. I do understand your predicament, Andre. Although it would take time, you could scan each issue into your computer in .pdf format. That would make transporting them between east and west coasts much more easy. OTOH, 75 years of MR on DVD is now available from Kalmbach for ~$200. If my calculations are correct, that comes to ~$0.22 a copy. That might be $$$ worth investing, given your situation of moving around during the year. My ... Tom
Andre,
I see at least two issues here:
I do understand your predicament, Andre. Although it would take time, you could scan each issue into your computer in .pdf format. That would make transporting them between east and west coasts much more easy.
OTOH, 75 years of MR on DVD is now available from Kalmbach for ~$200. If my calculations are correct, that comes to ~$0.22 a copy. That might be $$$ worth investing, given your situation of moving around during the year.
My ...
Tom
My understanding is that the "OLMTMNBN" is actually a for profit enterprise. It's just that ALL the revenue comes from advertisers rather than charging for each issue or by subscription in addition to advertising revenue. That also gets around the issue of somebody burning a copy of an issue for somebody else. If the download is free, who cares how many copies are made (unless of course somebody tries to start charging for copies - kinda stupid because it's free to begin with).
Taking a hard copy to the "reading room" is not an issue with me. It's not to say I don't read there, just that I'm more inclined to read a book rather than a magazine.
As for MR on DVD, I plan to buy it when it comes out. It'll allow me to dump a bunch of magazines and give me access to everything through the cutoff date regardless of location. I just wish that future issues were downloadable. I'm downright ecstatic that 75 years of MR will be available in one place. I'm so ecstatic that any complaint about the price sends me into fits of uncontrollable laughter. I've already ejected nearly a half gallon of coffee through my nose.
You're right. The DVD's amount to 22 cents/issue. Assuming that Kalmbach will actually make money on the sales, 22 cents/issue is not that far off free. I wouldn't expect Kalmbach to give the things away since they have to make a lot of hardcopy digitally readable, but it would seem that free downloadable content with advertising paying all the freight is a viable business model going forward. At least it appears to be up until now. We'll see.
NittanyLion andrechapelon: it takes space better used for other things. If a magazine is a serious space concern, I suggest you drop out of having any hobbies and invest in a place to live?
andrechapelon: it takes space better used for other things.
it takes space better used for other things.
If a magazine is a serious space concern, I suggest you drop out of having any hobbies and invest in a place to live?
A little harsh, don't you think? I live in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. I like my hobby as well as living in New York City. If a space saving option is available, I look into it. Many in Europe don't have oodles of room either.
I find the ability to store articles on a computer much easier than thumbing through indexes and then hunting through file boxes easier. If you prefer hunting through file boxes easier, then good for you. Having the option to do either or is a beautiful thing. It doesn't cost MR anything since they already lay out the magazine on computer before they ship it to the printer. I would have no problem downloading a new issue every month.
In a few years, hard copy (printed) format will be considered old technology to be viewed in a museum.
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Mike Kieran
Port Able Railway
I just do what the majority of the voices in my head vote on.
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Got plenty of space. Magazine storage is just a PITA. We spend 6 months each year on opposite coasts and it's just not feasible to schlepp hundreds of pounds of paper cross country. Since I subscribe to MR, half the issues go to a West Coast address and the other half to the East Coast. It'd be nice to have them on the laptop (where I've got every issue of the Online Magazine That Must Not Be Named) so they're available any time I want to read them anywhere.
With WiFi, you can download just about anywhere. I downloaded the May issue of the OMTMNBN from an RV park while on the road from California.
citylimits It's perhaps a generational thing. I find the unmentionable e-magazine difficult to cope with even with a large flat screen monitor. But that’s not really the problem it's just that looking at a screen trying to read and navigate my way through on-line publications a discomfort and far outside my usual experience. Reading for me is a tactile experience - something that is missing reading magazines on line. I have toyed with the idea of printing off the afore mentioned un-mentionable e-publication but I haven’t done so yet and so it remains largely unread by me. I do have several pdf files bought from MRR on various subjects and I've printed these out and filed them in a clear page folder - geeeez I hope that I'm not in breach of copyright by doing that. Oh well, I guess that lawyers will be starting to circle if I have. Bruce
It's perhaps a generational thing.
I find the unmentionable e-magazine difficult to cope with even with a large flat screen monitor. But that’s not really the problem it's just that looking at a screen trying to read and navigate my way through on-line publications a discomfort and far outside my usual experience. Reading for me is a tactile experience - something that is missing reading magazines on line. I have toyed with the idea of printing off the afore mentioned un-mentionable e-publication but I haven’t done so yet and so it remains largely unread by me.
I do have several pdf files bought from MRR on various subjects and I've printed these out and filed them in a clear page folder - geeeez I hope that I'm not in breach of copyright by doing that. Oh well, I guess that lawyers will be starting to circle if I have.
Bruce
A generational thing? Shoot, I'll be 65 in August, so it ain't like I'm some young whippersnapper who's never seen a rotary dial phone, a record player or a reel to reel tape recorder (or wire recorder, remember them?) Frankly, I prefer reading off a screen and have no problem navigating the Publication That Must Remain Nameless. When I want to refer to a back issue, it's a snap to bring up that issue and go to the exact page I want. Furthermore, when I'm finished, I don't have to put the issue back where I found it in order to keep things in order. Granted, there haven't been very many issues yet, but I've got everyone of them on a laptop (as well as desktop) so they''re easily portable. Near as I can figure, the laptop takes up about the same room as roughly 5 issues of MR, but I could have hundreds of issues readily available without having to schlepp hundreds of pounds of moldering paper back and forth (we're "snowbirds").
Some have brought up the issue of technophobes. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of sympathy. My 92 year old mother has had a computer since the mid-80's. She also does all her banking online and has never had a problem. She was doing computerized bookkeeping back when 256K of memory and a 1.44 meg floppy was state of the art. My wife and I have been doing electronic banking since it first became available (on a Commodore Amiga, no less), again without problem. I doubt we write more than a dozen actual checks a year. As of right now, including grandchildren, there are 4 generations of computer literate Chapelons. It ain't all that difficult.
I think all periodicals will eventually end up in digital format. It will take some time but eventually the cost and convenience of digital publications will win out. I appreciate what everyone is saying about the pleasure derived from reading hardcopies as well as the issue of maintaining backups. I share many of those feelings but ultimately would rather have digital copies of MR. That way I can run searches and can keep back issues without taking up space that I would rather dedicate to other things.
Maybe it is just that I am an old fashioned guy, but I prefer to have a paper copy of my monthly MR magazine. I now and then like to retire to my sofa and leaf through a bunch of back copies, while my wife is watching the idiot box. Can´t figure doing this with an electronic book reader or notebook.
I am also a subscriber to the not to be named e-zine, I tend to just skim through it, searching for something interesting and delete it after that. My MR copy is for keeps.
andrechapelon Now that MR is producing a DVD version of the first 75 years, why not get with the program and make MR downloadable like a certain magazine whose name I won't mention? Get rid of the hardcopy. It's heavy, it molders and it takes space better used for other things.
Now that MR is producing a DVD version of the first 75 years, why not get with the program and make MR downloadable like a certain magazine whose name I won't mention? Get rid of the hardcopy. It's heavy, it molders and it takes space better used for other things.
I read MR and MRH. And RMC, too. And I have both paper books, and some of the downloadable PDFs. I read a lot - both on paper and on screen, both related to this hobby and to work and other hobbies and what not.
One can say "get with the program" as much as one like, but reading stuff on paper is still a way more pleasant reading experience than peering into a screen.
I find that I tend to re-read paper magazines and books, but not the downloaded stuff. I know I have the downloaded stuff available, but I find that I don't actually seek it out to re-read it.
Reading stuff on screen - even with big, nice screen, is not as pleasant as leafing through a paper magazine. For me. Your mileage may vary.
It is not important to me to have a "complete collection" on my hard disk (where it may or may not survive for 30 or 50 years of new computers, disk crashes, new backup systems - if you actually do both take backup and test restores ...) , instead of using say 4 feet of 10" deep shelves to hold 10 years of MR magazine, but I am not that much of a pack rat.
And my home - albeit small by American standards - is not so small that using a shelf unit with three 4-6 foot long shelves to hold 20-30 years of hobby related books and magazines is a big deal..
I can see that it would be different if I lived in a mobile home or small urban apartment, but neither of those are in the cards for me for the foreseeable future (the mobile home never - we don't use them for anything but transportable lake cabins in this country, a really small apartment perhaps in the last few years before it is the nursing home for me).
Anyways - we shall see what happens. If all magazines go digital delivery only, I of course also will have to adjust to that.
But I am not yearning or clamoring for it to happen - reading stuff on paper is a much more pleasant reading experience.
Heck - I very likely would be willing to pay more to still also get the paper issue if they went mainly digital.
I am not trying to force my preferences on anyone else - just pointing out that having tried both paper and downloadable, I still prefer paper. And I am not an old, computer illiterate geezer - I am in my mid-40s, work with computers all day, and spend quite a bit of time on web related hobby stuff.
As always - your mileage may vary.
Smile, Stein
My wife gets Canadian Living (hope its OK to mention this one, unlike the Magazine That Shall Not Be Named ) as both hard copy and digital. She looks at both, but it would be the hard copy that gets the most reading. What she uses the digital copy for is printing off recipes and the like, rather than scanning/printing from the hard copy.
Now if MR could be had in e-pub that I could read on my Kobo, then that might be an interesting option. But it would have to be like CL, both hard copy and digital.
The world is still not quite ready to go paperless. There are many people who still distrust e-commerce to the point that they will still only mail payments, or do phone transactions.
The long-predicted paperless society is coming, but it's still not here.
Dan
Cold!
Jim Murray The San Juan Southern RR
Interesting topic: I typically like to read e-books that I've downloaded but for some reason this is one magazine I look forward to seeing in my mail box. I've read this magazine for as long as I can remember and would not have any interest in a downloaded version. It is nice having this magazine next to my chair that can be picked up and read at a moments notice without having to turn on a computer.
The other day, when my brother was visiting, we wanted to visit a train store in Billings and didn't know the hours of operation. It took less than a minute to find the answer by just browsing the Retail Directory in back. BTW: Jim's Junction in Billings is a great model railroad store.
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
andrechapelon it takes space better used for other things.
There are several reasons, not the least of which is an organization known as the Audit Bureau of Circulation whose statistics justify advertising rates for hard copy publications based on the number of copies printed and number of copies sold.
It would probably be very difficult to control downloaded copies and use the number of downloads as a substitute for the number of printed copies. How could you control piracy? Personally, I'd rather have a printed copy than have to use my own paper and ink.
Another problem is that there are probably still many people who do not have or know how to use computers among the print copy subscribers.
We who use these forums are in the minority.
Personally, I don't care if it's free (like the unmentionable publication) or if there's a slight charge for downloading it. If you don't want to try it with the monthly mag, why not try it out with MRP and GMR? Expand to the various books and when you're finally convinced it's a viable business model, kill the presses.