I thought the content seemed light, and then I noticed the issue is just 66 pages compared to the normal 82. I didn't check ad count, but I hope the page cutback isn't permanent.
It's not. This goes in cycles. They'll add more pages again once they raise the price.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Are there ads in the online stuff, besides the ads on these pages on the forum? Are they trying to transition advertisers to online, thereby making the print version uneconomical?
I actually look at most of the magazine ads, at least briefly, because they're about model trains. I don't bother looking at ads online, because scrolling is awkward and many of the ads are for just random garbage products.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
nyoandwI thought the content seemed light, and then I noticed the issue is just 66 pages compared to the normal 82.
FWIW the October 1991 issue was 202 pages....
Let us not forget in 1991 the internet was not in commercial use. Ads were the main marketing channel.
But a 66 page magazine seems like the product is dwindling.
I wonder if at some point it may be decided it makes more sense to do like Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette does (and Railfan and Railroad used to do) and go to every-other-month issues...six 130-150 page issues per year, rather than twelve 65-75 page issues?
The issues page count has always been variable over the year thinest towards June and fatest in DEC and JAn Nothing unusual about it thin right now
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Lastspikemike Paper magazines are a tough sell.
Paper magazines are a tough sell.
Well, many of us prefer reading a real book or magazine and don't care to use a tablet or read from our computer screens. MRH is ok but I find I hardly ever read it any longer as I find it tedious to read online.
MR has always dropped and risen page counts month to month over time. I know not why! They always complain they need articles to print, which is true, but I have talked to many folks over the years who, like me, have submitted articles only to be rejected. Excuses cite lack of interest on the subject but wouldn't SOMETHING be better than NOTHING? MR always says you can gain good information from any article whether it's in your scale, gauge or era, etc and that is true so why refuse so much that's sent to you? Watching Cody assemble and paint plastic kits month after month can't be as exciting or rewarding as seeing someones S scale layout or building any layout and the techniques involved. I'm 71 and have been reading MR and RMC since I was about 6 and always find interesting things that have helped and improved my model railroading.
I guess they'll blame it all on covid as that seems to be the catch-all fault for everything nowadays!
oldline1
oldline1 Well, many of us prefer reading a real book or magazine and don't care to use a tablet or read from our computer screens. MRH is ok but I find I hardly ever read it any longer as I find it tedious to read online. oldline1
Same here, I long for the days when MR was a hefty magazine, but times change.
Its more comforting for me to think in terms of the "total hobby value" of all the information I have access to through my basic subscription to Model Railroader - the magazine, the website, free videos, forums, and so on.
Case-in-point, I've made good use of the "Add to Favorites" feature to save about 100 forum postings which were of particular interest to me. If you think of each of these postings, with the input of many experienced modelers, as (at least!) a magazine article... well, that makes up for a lot of "missing pages" in print.
Jim
Almost all paper-based magazines are suffering and will continue. It is ok if they cut the number of pages as long as I still have a magazine...
Mag is gone, give it 2 years.
Ugh! Another version of the "MR hobby is dead" post. Is the change in page count a one-off event or cycle? Just because there are fewer pages doesn't mean the content diminishes. There are probably fewer ads since many LHS closed and people have less money to spend.
I welcome thoughts from folks who know magizine publications. While not promoting "fluff" pieces to boost the magazine, perhaps some here can publish articles. Instead of another "here's my layout" article, why not present a unique or fresh angle to the hobby?
The size of one magazine does not indicate the state of the hobby as a whole. There are a whole lot of other options to obtain information in this day and age, besides a monthly print magazine. And like most everything else, you either adapt or become extinct like a dinosaur.
Yes, MR always has gotten thinner once peak model railroad time has passed - hard to swallow for anyone who doesn;t consider there is such a thing as "model railroading season" but even now it's sometimes hard to shake the situation I grew up in - we had no room in our house for a permanent layout, not really even a small switching one. So to me as a youngster, there most definitely model railroading season - it started around Thanksgiving and lasted until just past the New Year. That's when the furniture in the family room got crammed together and the layout got set up. This seasonal thing is still more common than might be expected, hence more interest in publications about model trains in the Winter months. Also even with permanent layouts - many people prefer to spend time outdoors during the warmer seasons, not down in the basement or in what in some climates might be an uncomfortable space, so there's still a seasonal aspedt to the hobby even for those with permanent layouts.
The time to worry is when the ads stop coming in. When advertisers find the revenue generated by a print ad isn't comparing favorably to the cost of the ad, they will seek other ways to advertise, and the lack of ad revenue will kill a magazine.
There are two sides to this new month to month subscription model - if you do that, you the subscriber have no long term commitment. But the publisher, too, has no long term commitment. If everyone pays month to month, they can close up at the end of the curren tmonth and every subscriber has gotten what they paid for.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
LastspikemikePaper magazines are a tough sell.
On line magazines are a tough sell too. Model Railroad Hobbyist is an on-line magazine and it has issues selling ads because the advertisers seem to prefer the targeted banner ads on websites vs a static ad in and on-line publication.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Magazines are simply easier to read in paper form. Can't really explain it, but they are, IMO.
In the April issue, I noticed what I thought was a lack of content, not just less advertising compared to back in the day.
I saw one layout article, and one other significant article, the one about detailing tank cars.
There used to be two or three layouts per issues, one being the main feature layout and then one or two more lesser layout articles. And then a few more specialized articles.
- Douglas
LastspikemikeJust as you'll soon be able to download and 3D print your replacement locomotive parts you can't actually physically buy at the moment, eventually everyone will simply print the parts of a magazine they actually want to read. Including the advertising item they are interested in.
And not to get too OT, in the end, the cost of me buying a printer, paper, and maintaing the digital infrastructure will result in higher overall cost to me and higher overall profit to the company.
Pushing down the costs, including time and labor, to the consumer is the real point of the digital age, IMO.
BTW, since everyone is working at home and companies are no longer going to rent office space, saving them money, are they going to pay every employee that money to have them fix up their home office, or will the company expect the employee to spend their own money to make their home work-friendly (including home wifi), and simply pocket the money they used to spend on rent and infrastructure?
Just like everything else, the pandemic has acelerated what was already happening. A lot of places stopped ordering magazines for their waiting rooms and a lot of librarys did the same. This along with less money in some households has cut deeply into subscriptions not to mention a few supply issues on all sides of the game. This is not "the hobby is dying" thing, the hobby is doing better than ever but some parts of the game are changing including the LHS. The LHS was affected the most due to people getting used to online. The LHS just can't compeat for the most part, especially since the hobby is more diverse than ever and will continue to be so. Lets just talk the modern era, say from the 80's on, so many nitches and new eras will continue as long as there are trains, I remember when there was talk of those going away but instead of going away they got more efficient.
Doughless Lastspikemike Just as you'll soon be able to download and 3D print your replacement locomotive parts you can't actually physically buy at the moment, eventually everyone will simply print the parts of a magazine they actually want to read. Including the advertising item they are interested in. And not to get too OT, in the end, the cost of me buying a printer, paper, and maintaing the digital infrastructure will result in higher overall cost to me and higher overall profit to the company.
Lastspikemike Just as you'll soon be able to download and 3D print your replacement locomotive parts you can't actually physically buy at the moment, eventually everyone will simply print the parts of a magazine they actually want to read. Including the advertising item they are interested in.
Digital infratructure? Generally I've thought most have a computer and printer already - so that's already there I'd guess. But I could be wrong. Where I see the cost of printing a magazine, or part of a magazine, at home is the silly high prices of color ink jet consumables, or color laser jet consumables. I got so tired of that rat race that my wife found a low cost b/w laser printer. It's so much cheaper on consumables and most of the time b/w is just fine. No color ink cartridges to expire and the printer refuses to print. That ink jet merry go round was one I was glad to get off of. What a racket!
I wonder what percentage are "everyone". Some maybe, but where I work, some IT systems I cannot work on from home. Same for most of the users I support. I only worked every other week from home during the Mar - Sep 2020 period but starting in Oct 2020 I and my co-workers were put back on-site 100%. After that we only worked from home if we reported any symptom from a list and then had to be symptom free for 10 days before returning to office. Our office has been adapting the spaces to get as many people back on site safetly as possible altough some are still working from home or alternating weeks so they can have access to some systems not accessible from home. Some companies may allow more to telework after the pandemic is over than before, but I wonder how overstated this new "everyone working from home" condition is. Reason being, a lot of companies like to see their employees busy in the office and quite frankly, out of site is often out of mind, and I've even read some fear this will hamper upward mobility.
Back to the topic. Yes, there is an online only model trains magazine for the past ten plus years, but I never warmed to it because I don't want to go have to sit down to a computer to read a train magazine. I do not have a huge tablet either to enjoy a magazine say at a sofa, or in bed or in the "library" (kerflush!). I've kind of gotten a lot of what I used to get from magazines on train forums, blogs and Youtube anymore, so magazines in general have kind of fallen away as having much use in my life. I only very occasionally read them anymore, hard copy or digital.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Printing from home can be very hard, people like HP put in things to stop you all the time ink wise saying they are upgrades. It took me forever to purge the latest and would have bought a new printer, but they were not available, at least here. Microsoft had a virus that they refused to do anything about because it was just a type of tracking software for websites and it pushed Bing and Edge. It is very hard to delete Edge.
The new RMC seems to have more interesting content-and more pages-than the current MR.
MisterBeasley Are there ads in the online stuff, besides the ads on these pages on the forum? Are they trying to transition advertisers to online, thereby making the print version uneconomical? I actually look at most of the magazine ads, at least briefly, because they're about model trains. I don't bother looking at ads online, because scrolling is awkward and many of the ads are for just random garbage products.
We are on the same page, Mr. B. I use an ad blocker because pop-ups and jittery ads do not improve my mood first thing in the morning. I much prefer the choice of reading what is already on a page and that can be flipped over if I am not interested. Like you, I tend to at least glance at the marginal stuff in printed form, but my mind wants to wave it off here.