Are the "Information Station" PDF articles too expensive?

[Anonymous]

Are the "Information Station" PDF articles too expensive?

[Anonymous]

There's another thread that discusses this, but it may be several pages down by now. I voted yes. I was going to purchase the traction one when I first learned about it. I thought it was a book. Then I found out it was a PDF and I got real excited - I could buy it and start reading it immediately! Then I saw the price. Bummer. Given the number of pages, the format and that you are basically purchasing it without having the ability to "thumb through it" - I'm afraid I'm gonna have to pass.

[PennsyHoosier]

I completely agree with dkelly. It's really a shame that these are priced they way they are. Seems to me that they actually discourage folks from getting more deeply into model railroading--thus defeating the purpose.

[Jetrock]

I don't mind shelling out $15 for a book--but for a PDF, well, that's rather rich.

[Anonymous]

I also voted yes. Simply because I have and do buy books at my LHS that are priced real close to that and have pics, diagrams, and wording.

[Wdlgln005]

Yes, they are too expensive!
Subscribers to the magazine & members of the Forum should get them FREE

Take it from the consumer point of view. We already paid an ISP for access. Bell South gets a cut for using the phone line, Comcast gets a cut using cable, Some store sold us the ink & paper to print them, not counting what kind of machine used to do all this.

[cacole]

Model Railroader's prices seem to be a little out of line for these PDF files. What does it take to produce these files? One person going through the computer archives of MR magazine, cutting and pasting up the articles, and converting them into PDF format. With the technology available today, one person could have put all of these articles together in one day, so it doesn't appear to me that there is any significant labor cost involved here, especially if that person is already a Kalmbach employee who is doing this as a routine part of their workday.

[yellowducky]

I think the cost puts a [B)] on the seller and a [:(] on me !

My first thought at the price was [:0] .

[Anonymous]

MR has stated to me in a thread I wrote that they are "Trying" out the Information Station. It costs money for Bandwidth, Support and building these articles and deploying them online.

From the threads that has come up since then, the cost is not worth it.

I wonder if they went ahead and digitilized the entire MR run from Day one first issue... then I may feel like I would want to have it on CD (or a set of them) much easier than trying to leaf thru piles and piles of old issues that are showing age and abuse.

[Anonymous]

I know the cost probably justifies having the costs they have, but an idea to bring down the cost would be to sell individual articles. That way you get the article you want and not the others you want. Just for reference a whole song bought online in mp3 format is .99 cents.
Andrew

[PennsyHoosier]

Andrew raises a good point.

For another point of reference, I am on the editorial committee for a scholarly journal with a modest subscription list. We put up pdfs of our past articles and distribute them freely. Now our readership is nothing close to MR, so this is a bit of an apples and oranges thing. However, trolling these articles out there has led to more subscriptions.

Also, if MR were put on a CD or 10, I would be very interested in purchasing it. Of course, I would have to see the proposed price. And if the information station articles are any indication...

[Anonymous]

Highiron and George,

That is a terrific idea!! If the entire MR from the 30's on were digitized it would be fantastic. You could buy individual articles, individual issues or individual years. MR uesed to sell bound volumes of an entire year. I can imagine buying a years worth of issues on a single CD. I would definately love to replace my "paper" issues dating back to 1964 with CD's. Save on room big time!! I wouldn't even want the thing edited just scan the whole page ads and all. How 'bout it MR?

[ClinchValleySD40]

Way too expensive for what you get.

[Anonymous]

Now, I dont think it should be that expensive... Speaking from a "farmer's point of view" knowing nothing at all about publishing... how hard is it to "Scan" these magazines pages and all "UNEDITED" into a computer? Several people over time should be able to get one year's worth pretty quickly.

It is important that all the content as published on every page in each issue be placed onto the CD "UNCHANGED" in any way or form. The illustrations, articles, and other content should also be untouched.

All we need is the holy grail of a "Complete" and almost untouched MR collection... if such things exist. And several scanners, workstations and enough drives to hold the information as well as software to burn and convert from Bulky paper issues onto CD's.

They can be replicated very quickly electronically at a CD burning facility and then made for sale. If you could take the entire 1930's set onto one CD and sell it for say... 60- and create sets for each decade after... I am betting the income will soon pay for the expenses without the worry of bandwidth and internet connections for those who cannot get anything besides 56k.

This also will probably be made availible in hobby shops so that people dont have to worry about committing money online in today's dangerous environment against "Black-Hats" seeking to steal money, account numbers etectera from the customers.

And eventually I think even MR will have to digitilize the entire collection from day one... it has to be costly to maintain those orginal magazines.. never mind what may be in people's attics and basements over years of storage.

I suppose I am advocating the CD's as a way of preserving the MR from it's very first issue and also as others pointed out reducing the space needed to store bulky magazines.

I too recall the old offers in MR for "Back issues" in both volume and bulk form... with CD's Shipping would be very cheap and all that is needed from the customer is a computer capable of viewing ...Reading .. that's it.. reading the MR from past issues that he or she has bought and paid for on CD.

Judging from the number of forum activity daily in Trains.com, I am betting there is a customer base that may support the positive cost flow to MR from such a project. It may even touch those who were exposed to trains in childhood but use computers in the workplace today.

And I think also it would a great service to the hobby from a collector's point of view. There are people who attempt to find every issue of MR all thier lives and pass away. The Estate may dispose of these issues and eventually it will be lost to time. CD's would fit in with the need to preserve our past.

Maybe someday the Pdf.s may become a defacto standard for publishing but I think nothing beats going to the hobby shop and actually buying a copy of the MR. And a kit, track and some paint etc etc etc.

CD's would also be less intimidating to those who otherwise may not want to take the trouble of moving pdf's online for money that may otherwise seem a bit too expensive.

I am sorry for such a lengthly post that may have alot of words and english errors but it is difficult not to get on a [soapbox] once in a while.

Lee

[Anonymous]

I voted Yes, the files are way too expensive. I wrote to MR several years ago asking if they ever considered putting complete issues of MR magazines into digital format and selling them on CD but they said that at that time it was too expensive. I would more like to see each article as an individual file that could be downloaded for a fee. I'm sure that newer articles are all done in digital and sent to the printer in that way. These could be made available and at some future date earlier articles scanned and digitized for use.

[Anonymous]

You doggone right, we've already paid for them once when we bought the magazine years back, why do we have to buy the articles again. Sorry Kalmbach, make them free or close it up. I won't be buying any.

[cefinkjr]

Let's take the MR on CDs one step further. Bind a CD copy of last year's magazines in each subscriber's January issue.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

[Anonymous]

It's the same thing with most of the books I have bought from Kalmbach. Nothing new, just collections of past articles and stories from the magazine. I have 5 Kalmbach books and I am extremely disappointed in the content. I bought them looking for new and additional info. The pdf's are the same thing-old news.

[Anonymous]

That's true -- a lot of the new books from Kalmbach are nothing more than collections of articles. Fine if you don't happen to have those back-issues in your collection, but not so good if you do.

At least they're still producing some books with new material...

[Anonymous]

Paying $15 to download a PDF article does seem a might steep on the surface, but there are probably good business reasons for Kalmbach selling them at this price. This is not a question of getting current content scanned because it's already in electronic format anyway. But to be truthful, scanning older, printed copy into electronic form does take a lot more time and resources than common sense would seem to indicate, and it's not as trivial an exercise as we might think.

Having said that, the idea of selling PDF files doesn't really stand up to muster in today's electronic market place. Railway Modeller, the largest British railmodelling mag has included CDs with article, editorial and how-to content in it's December issues over the past few years. And if you go to:

http://www.finescalerr.com/

you'll find "the only major publication in the world offering identical versions both in print and online. " (their words, not mine).

Point being that charging for downloadable article content is just not the right thing to do these days. It's too easy to obtain what we need in other, much less expensive ways.

[Anonymous]

We get to use this whole darn website and forum for free, well, free of $$, but not free of advvertising exposure which has value to Kalmbach and the other sponsors. It is kept in a tasteful balance, if you have pop-ups turned off. I think the PDFs ought to be free too, but to make it fair, it should come with a message from a sponsor that helps to defray the costs. When we buy the printed magazine, we are only partly paying for the cost of publication. Half or more of the $$ you spend on magazines goes to support your Local Hobby Shop, some goes to shipping, some to the publisher. The vast majority of the cost of putting out a magazine is supported by advertisers. I think its just fine to attach an ad to the PDFs and make them free to download. I read the ads in the magazines and always learn somethinf new. Most magazines published in the last 15 to 20 years were created digitally, NOT from paste and paper layout. The magazines are ALREADY in digital format!!!!!!!!! What conversion??? Most printers use PDF, or a compatable file easily converted with a few mouse clicks.

MR by the year , or in sets by the decade, YES YES YES, I have most of them from 1950 to the late 8os, and starting up again about 2000, I would love to have an indexed full set, I would gladly pay a hundred bucks, or maybe even 149.95 for the full set from the very begining.

[lyctus]

I am dissapointed at the cost of the PDF downloads, and knowing that somewhere in the bookshelf I have got most of the content already in the back issues of MR, but for say , a couple of dollars, I would use the service for a themed collection of wanted info.
I would really like to be able to purchase the MR collection at reasonable price on CD, wow , that would be good.Access to all articles would be a breeze.
BUT, would I dispose of the huge collection of MR back issues ??? I sorta think not. Heck, have I got a problem !!!

[Anonymous]

Geoff,

Good point. While I would love the MR collection on CD, I probably won't dispose of my collection of back issues (dating back to the 60's) either! Too many good memories. While I would love the CD's for looking up specific articles, there's something about pulling an old issue out and sitting in a comfy chair leafing through the pages.

[Trainnut484]

I too would be for past issues of MR be scanned to CD. A great space saver!

Take care,

Russell

[Anonymous]

Eric......Are you hearing or seeing this, perhaps you need to get with "Powers To Be" and pass this along to them.

[cisco1]

Yes, the current offering of PDF files is pricey. Yes, I'd love to get MR on CD. Yes, I'd be willing to pay up to $10.00 per year of publication (if they could be bought in 1 to 5 year lots). No, I won't get rid of my old MR back issues without a fight!
Chris

[PennsyHoosier]

Running this forum is very inexpensive. Once set up, the maintenance is minimal. All it takes is a modicum of oversight by the administrators (which they do very well, I might add). It is a very different thing to produce and distriibute text or pdf files. Not harder--just different. The question is one of what the sponsoring institution would like to do. Who is your audience? What do they want? What will they pay? Seems to me the disjuncture is between the second the third questions I posed..

[Anonymous]

Approximately 15,000 letter-sized, black and white page Tiff’s will fit on a single CD. A DVD can hold approximately 125,000 pages.

I think thats more than a years worth of issues on one CD. You could get several years issues on one CD and perhaps a decade of issues on DVD.

And if done right you could sit in front of your large screen TV flipping through your DVD "pages" on your comfy couch. You would be the ultimate armchair model railroader.

Here are some price quotes I pulled up.
http://www.bgscanning.com/pricing.htm

[Anonymous]

Based on the PDF scanning prices I posted from here:
http://www.bgscanning.com/pricing.htm

A ten page PDF file costs MR $1.20 to get scanned and converted to PDF. Then I think they charge $1.25 for burning the CD and a jewel case.

Now...MR charges $5.95 for an 11 page download article:
http://store.yahoo.com/kalmbachcatalog/mrpdf009.html