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I went digital about three years ago. I have decades worth of Model Railroader and Garden Railways and they are taking up too much space. I don’t have room to store any more. I still get special issues as both print and digital.
To answer your question - yes the issues are held captive. There is a Zinio app that downloads the issues onto my iPad but there is no way to capture the files and save them to a drive. On a PC you can read on a web browser or a desktop app, but the problem is the same.
When I started digital via Kalmbach, Zinio was presented as the only option. I have been having MAJOR customer service issues in the past year. Each time a new issue comes out, Zinio fails to deliver it to my account. Each month I have had to complain to Kalmbach to tell Zinio to send me my issue. If I contact Zinio directly they blow me off and tell me to contact the publisher.
I would love to switch to a subscription through Amazon for my Kindle app, but then my magazines would be divided into two different places.
I am with ZINIO also. Perhaps their 'out of USA' customers must use this. I seldom use it and read the magazine instead. Does not cost much and can access anywhere my iPad or phone is. Worth it.
I get both digital and print.
I live in Australia, and the digital copy is available up to a month before the print copy arrives and I get to see things at the same time as inthe USA.
My subscription is with "Zinio". I can access any copy from the time I first subscribed, but only on line. This isn't a big problem for me....
But the small extra cost of the digital subscription is worth it.
The subscriptions expire at different times but are paid at the same time.
Peter
I had the digital version for a while - rarely read it. I still got the print version, and I have stacks of them in the spare bedroom. Sometimes it's fun to grab one and see how the world of railroading looked 30 years ago (I think I've got some nearly 50 year old copies).
I read the digital versions via Kindle. To me, it's a lot easier to grab a copy and flip through until I get to an article I want to read (or re-read), not having to worry about whether the tablet is charged, etc., or having to scroll through the whole issue to get to the last page.
I don't recall how long those versions would be retained. If they were saved on your device, eventually you'd run out of memory.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
To my mind Digital creates an out of sight, out of mind situation.
A magazine shows up in your mailbox - you do 'something' with it, even if it is just setting it on your coffee table. You will view the coffee table multiple times as your day moves from wake up to bed time - and the magazine laying there will maybe catch your attention on the way by.
If you get an e-mail about digital publication - besides deleting the e-mail, it takes further action to access the e-zine. In the 'rash' of e-mails that show up in the morning inbox you probably don't want to access the e-zine at that time - and as the day progresses you forget all about it. In many cases you don't even get a e-mail about the e-zine and it is totally out of mind.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
LensCapOn .
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You might be answering your own question. Perhaps digital subscriptions are not very popular because of their ethereal nature?
Personally, I'm not so sure that print media is all that enthusiastic about the trend towards digital, I think many of them are doing it mostly because they see their historic model in decline, and so they feel they need to embrace the new...or else.
But, I've seen a number of attempts by historically successful publications to "evolve" along with the perceived marketplace fail, so perhaps it is in order to try and put yourself in their shoes?
PDF's are too easy to copy and redistribute, What's to keep people from copying them and distributing to a few hundred of their friends? I'd personally be very wary of distributing anything that I was trying to sell subscriptions to via PDF.
I'm kinda old and gray in the beard, and have subscribed to a number of magazines over the years, and have traditionally boxed them up and stored them away as some valued treasure. Yet in all honesty, I don't think there has been more than a couple dozen instances in all those years where I have bothered to dig back in and retrieve something I recall from years earlier.
So for me at least, the "hoarder of information" model really hasn't paid off all that much. Once I've read the latest edition, it always seems like a good idea to save and inventory those magazines....until I move.....or until someday when I eventually pass on and then someone will be pitching them all into the dumpster.
So, perhaps "on the cloud" has benefits worth considering?
Just a thought, but selling digital editions for 50% off cover price that remain on a server somewhere...which I can continue to access only so long as I maintain my subscription....might have some benefits. After a subscriber accumulated several years worth of a subscription, they would have a very strong incentive to keep their subscription in good standing, or lose their library entirely.
PS don't overlook the value of the "prt sc/sysrq" function on most PCs.
Based on all the looks but no reply the best guess is no one here HAS a digital subscription. I have bought a small number of copies from Amazon on my Kindle. While I am happy enough with the product it is clear that I do not own my copies. I doubt Trains has actual control of these copies. Amazon, a.k.a Bezos, owns these copies. I always fear the controlling entity could go all Darth Vader on my copies. "You changed the deal! Pray I don't change it further."
There are several on-line based publications that have released their magazines as PDF files, which means you actually own them and they can last as long as a currently universal format does.
As things now stand, I worry about Kalmbach's long term existance.
I would like to know in what form the didgital subscription is delivered. Is it something like a PDF where there are multiple reader available, or is it something more proprietary? Do you get a file that sits on your drive and you can transfer around or does it sit in "the cloud" and you can only access it but not "own" your copy?
What can you tell me?
Thanks!
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