Well, after taking a look at the January 09 issue of MR, I now feel the magazine may be taking a turn back to the kind of content I appreciated in the past.
I liked the sectional layout project--as I said elsewhere, the fact that it isn't a 4x8 rectangle impressed me.
Several of the stories had very useful information, and the John Allen look-back was well done. (Did I miss a trackplan, though?)
The current editor may be on the way to putting MR back on a course to the quality content it used it contain, after a disasterous few years under his predecessor's management.
I've noticed that trend for several months now. I think the recent material the staff has been putting out in general has been pretty good. Is it the best ever? Probably not, but definitely heading in the right direction. Keep up the good work, MR staff!
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
Midnight Railroader Well, after taking a look at the January 09 issue of MR, I now feel the magazine may be taking a turn back to the kind of content I appreciated in the past. I liked the sectional layout project--as I said elsewhere, the fact that it isn't a 4x8 rectangle impressed me. Several of the stories had very useful information, and the John Allen look-back was well done. (Did I miss a trackplan, though?) The current editor may be on the way to putting MR back on a course to the quality content it used it contain, after a disasterous few years under his predecessor's management.
Wow....that is quite a departure for you. I too liked the sectional plans. I am considering building it just for fun. It looks like a lot of fun. I will probably donate it after I am done and run it a while. It just looks like fun and easy.
Ditto on the JA stuff....trackplan is online. I thought the same thing initially.
The editorial staff can only respond to what they get in feedback from readers/customers. I know that over the last few years I had several opportunities to respond to content via email surveys. Possibly the surveys might have been a little loaded to support current direction, but I had no trouble offering my opinions. You should too. Emails are usually responded to by the team.
ShopcatDitto on the JA stuff....trackplan is online.
This still bugs me.
Why should you have to subscribe to get he whole story? I paid for the magazine; shouldn't that entitle me to the entire story content?
Midnight Railroader ShopcatDitto on the JA stuff....trackplan is online. This still bugs me. Why should you have to subscribe to get he whole story? I paid for the magazine; shouldn't that entitle me to the entire story content?
I agree. Its a big problem in publishing in general. I work for a publishing company, and we fight like crazy over how to offer content on the net while still publishing and selling print media. Protecting intellectual property is important, particularly to owners of that property.
But, its way too impractical to print individual key codes in every mag so that only buyers (whether by subscription or retail) can access the online content.
Its a problem that my company and I suppose MR are trying to figure out. We want to offer new higher tech components, but security is dramatically different in the various media formats. And you just can't give away stuff willy-nilly. It shouldn't matter how you purchased the issue, but control is still a challenge. Unfortunately I don't know the answer, and we fight like cats and dogs in my company over this very issue. Some want to give enough away to encourage buyers to buy, some want nothing on the net. Its truly old school vs. new school.
Shopcat But, its way too impractical to print individual key codes in every mag so that only buyers (whether by subscription or retail) can access the online content.
Walthers prints individual customer codes on all their monthly flyers that they mail out ......for free.
It must be nice to have your copy. Subscription confirmed renewed on November 5th but still waiting to see the December issue in my mailbox...
Personally, we like the paper copy. It transports better. Sometimes it is an effort to find the article that you want, but between the two of us, one of us usually remembers what the cover looks like.
MR staff,.
Sue
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Shopcat Midnight Railroader ShopcatDitto on the JA stuff....trackplan is online. This still bugs me. Why should you have to subscribe to get he whole story? I paid for the magazine; shouldn't that entitle me to the entire story content? I agree. Its a big problem in publishing in general. I work for a publishing company, and we fight like crazy over how to offer content on the net while still publishing and selling print media. Protecting intellectual property is important, particularly to owners of that property. But, its way too impractical to print individual key codes in every mag so that only buyers (whether by subscription or retail) can access the online content. Its a problem that my company and I suppose MR are trying to figure out. We want to offer new higher tech components, but security is dramatically different in the various media formats. And you just can't give away stuff willy-nilly. It shouldn't matter how you purchased the issue, but control is still a challenge. Unfortunately I don't know the answer, and we fight like cats and dogs in my company over this very issue. Some want to give enough away to encourage buyers to buy, some want nothing on the net. Its truly old school vs. new school.
Why not make the online content free, but get an advertiser to sponsor it. For example, you click on the John Allen interview link and you get a Walthers ad, then you get the content.
I didn't re-up for MR when my subscription ended in July - I really haven't missed it because the content was generally so elementary and/or geared toward contemporary era modelers. You all are making me think I ought to give it another chance. I think I'll pick up the current issue and see what I think.
BTW, my preference would be that the whole thing be online so I can print/save articles without having to store the ads.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Midnight Railroader Several of the stories had very useful information, and the John Allen look-back was well done. (Did I miss a trackplan, though?)
People without computers don't need trackplans.
wjstixPeople without computers don't need trackplans.
Woe unto thee of the sarcastic wit!
Of course people without computers won't be on this forum to see this thread either.
then again they can use one at a library.
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
Let me pose this question then....
If you are not a subscriber, but want access to the online content, would you pay a small fee, either per hit or one time access fee, to be able to access the special material?
Shopcat Let me pose this question then.... If you are not a subscriber, but want access to the online content, would you pay a small fee, either per hit or one time access fee, to be able to access the special material?
Absolutely not! If one is already paying more than $70 a year (the newsstand price), they should not be subject to getting only partial content of an article in their purchased magazines. Taken to the extreme, the magazine could end up presenting little more than an abstract, while making the full content of an article accessible on-line only at an additional fee.
CNJ831
If they are p
CNJ831Absolutely not! If one is already paying more than $70 a year (the newsstand price), they should not be subject to getting only partial content of an article in their purchased magazines. Taken to the extreme, the magazine could end up presenting little more than an abstract, while making the full content of an article accessible on-line only at an additional fee. CNJ831
If they are spending more than $70 a year for the newstand price, than they should be fleeced for what ever anyone can get out of them. Why? Because they obviously run a Wall Street investment firm (or one of the Big Three), and haven't realized that they could save half that amount if they just subscribed. Or, they have so much money they just don't care.
I think your argument is fair for the individual who picks up an occasional copy every now and than who might get into the hobby, but not for the regular newsstand purchaser.
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
I must say that this issue, I actually read pretty much every major article in it, lol, which I haven't done for lord knows how long, lol. And yes, the John allen look back was awesome. I also enjoyed Pelle's article on weathering techniques, gonna have to try those. I'd love more articles like this.
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Scarpia If they are pCNJ831 Absolutely not! If one is already paying more than $70 a year (the newsstand price), they should not be subject to getting only partial content of an article in their purchased magazines. Taken to the extreme, the magazine could end up presenting little more than an abstract, while making the full content of an article accessible on-line only at an additional fee. CNJ831 If they are spending more than $70 a year for the newstand price, than they should be fleeced for what ever anyone can get out of them. Why? Because they obviously run a Wall Street investment firm (or one of the Big Three), and haven't realized that they could save half that amount if they just subscribed. Or, they have so much money they just don't care. I think your argument is fair for the individual who picks up an occasional copy every now and than who might get into the hobby, but not for the regular newsstand purchaser.
CNJ831 Absolutely not! If one is already paying more than $70 a year (the newsstand price), they should not be subject to getting only partial content of an article in their purchased magazines. Taken to the extreme, the magazine could end up presenting little more than an abstract, while making the full content of an article accessible on-line only at an additional fee. CNJ831
Your lack of consideration toward your fellow modeler is rather sad. I think that you would find that there are far more hobbyists than you think who choose to make their monthly purchase of MR an excuse for visiting their local hobby shop in a regular fashion. Likewise, in recent years many modelers have gone to purchasing only those issues which contain subjects of direct interest/application for them rather than subscribing, as you did cite. In either case, imposing an additional surcharge for information that should obviously have been included with the article in the first place, the question I was originally responding to, would be an approach that I contend would only served to further decrease MR's annual sales figures.
As I noted and you quoted, your argument is fair for the individual who picks up an occasional copy.
I guess you're correct on my lack of consideration; as based on your example, I can't even consider needing an excuse to visit a hobby shop other than simply going there.
I for one appreciate the additional content that's on line - it means when I don't have my paper copy with me, but have a few spare moments (such as at work), I can continue to muse on the subject. That kind of flexibility of access is appreciated, and necessary in today's marketplace.
It would be great if the content were free online, but I understand the real costs that the publisher accrues even hosting online content, including this forum, and the need (read desire) to offset them.
Regarding the original topic, I would agree that MR has been on an upswing, quality-wise. Granted, it's relative to a very recent and deep slump (in my opinion, anyway). However, MR seems to be coming back from "Dream it, Plan it, Buy it" to more process-based model railroading. The past several months have seen a re-appearance of construction plans, a project layout that's NOT on a 4x8 (and that is based on a specific prototype and era and doesn't use all pre-built items), more N scale (one of my beefs), and other improvements.
I hope the trend continues. I had considered letting my subscription lapse when it runs out, but the last several issues have me hooked again. That's good. I've been expecting model railroader in the mail at the beginning of ecah month all my life (either my father's subscription or my own)... so it's nice to think of that continuing.
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
I do not get a host of bells-and-whistles everytime I crack the pages of Model Railroader Magazine; nor do I get a host of bells-and-whistles every time I crack the pages of N-Scale Magazine; nor do I get a host of bells-and-whistles every time I crack the pages of N-Scale Railroading Magazine; the Oakland Raiders have been absolutely atrocious for the last four or five years and I don't catch a lot of their games on the tube but sometimes they have me sitting on the edge of my chair with excitement . . . . .
. . . . . but sometimes . . . . .
You get the idea.
I do not expect a continuous diet of edge-of-my-seat excitement in everything I engage in in my everyday life. Sometimes--perhaps often would be more meaningful rhetoric here--I do little more than scan the magazines; this most recent issue of MR--the one under discussion here--did capture my attention with its content and I read more of it than I usually do. Like most others I have directed interests but even then I might find a featured article will peak my interest even if only momentarily. One reason I do not dispose of my back issues is because of their archival value; a current article might reference a prior article and it will send me in a search for that particular issue in order to see what the other author had said on the same subject--which mighty then send me into a frenzy of delving into a particular subject. As a for instance I am a hydrocal-and-papertowel hardshell advocate and I have pretty well skipped over this foam that everyone is currently foaming-at-the-mouth over--not sure whether that is a pun or not; before I commence a new layout as soon as I have tried out my hand at writing that Great-American-Novel I am going to hunt up back How-Its-Done articles on using this material.
Articles such as Building an O-Scale 0-4-0T from 4-8-8-4 parts do not generally draw my attention partly because I am not modeling in O-Scale nor am I particularly interested in 0-4-0Ts. But there are, however, readers who are interested in O-Scale and who are interested in 0-4-0Ts and, despite the frivolity of that title, would find any O-Scale article of interest.
Model Railroader Magazine is not published in my interest but rather in the interest of its advertisers. I suppose it would be a fair analysis that it--and RMC as well--are HO-Scale oriented. After all, HO-Scalers account for about 70% of the hobby and therefore there are going to be many more manufacturers of HO-Scale items than others. Like others I would like to see more N-Scale articles published but myscale only accounts for about 20% of the modeling community. There are, of course, multi-scale manufacturers--Kato and Atlas come readily to mind--and their volume of sales allows them to run substantial advertising in both MR and RMC as well as in scale directed publications i.e. N-Scale and N-Scale Railroading Magazines; pure and simple (uniquely) HO-Scale manufacturers do not put their advertising dollars into (uniquely) N-Scale publications and you would be hard pressed to thumb through the pages of HO-Scale oriented magazines and find an advertisement by a uniquely N-Scale manufacturer.
Over on some of the uniquely N-Scale forums there are frequent prognostications that N-Scale will one day supplant HO-Scale as the #1 scale in the country. NO WAY! JOSE! In fact I will prognosticate in the exact opposite direction: two or three decades down the road--I will most likely be long gone by that time--it would not surprise me to see Z-Scale knock N-Scale off of its #2 perch. This will probably come at the expense of HO-Scale more than at the expense of N-Scale. This current economic downturn is likely to bounce a few HO-Scalers as well as a few N-Scalers--and not a few potential HO-Scalers and N-Scalers--into smaller quarters and into smaller scales.
Model railroading magazines ain't Playboy which in its heyday had a monthly circulation of around three and a half million copies. There cannot be much doubt that at this particular moment if the editor has to make a decision on whether to publish an equally viable HO-Scale, O-Scale, or N-Scale article you know which one is going to prevail. As smaller scales--N-Scale and Z-Scale--come to account for a greater percentage of the market in order to maintain its 150,000 copies per month circulation they are going to have to appeal to participants in those smaller scales which will, undoubtedly, turn the advertising community upside down at least in comparison to what we have today.
MY CRYSTAL BALL HAS NOW SPOKE N FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I have enjoyed my subscription to MR a lot, and like accessibility to the online content. But it is the only hobby mag I get through the mail.
The n-scale magazines I pick up at the LHS (partly to support them, and partly to give me an excuse to go there).
The only problem with this scheme is when I get to the LHS and the issue I want is already sold out (not uncommon when a local modeler contributes regularly).