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An interview with the New Owner

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Posted by AEP528 on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 3:05 PM

I'm really at a loss how someone could read literally any construction article on the MR&T and think it was modular.

Perhaps now others on this forum will stop blaming the editorial staff for the current state of the magazine?

One thing I found interesting is Ken's liking and promoting of print magazines given that the owner/editor of the online magazine he's closely associated with is heavily anti-print.

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Posted by tstage on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 2:26 PM

richhotrain
wjstix

To be fair, they're not actually journalists. Ken is a photographer / professional modeller, one of the guys is a chef, another owns a company that buys and sells used model/toy trains.  

Rich

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 1:18 PM

wjstix

To be fair, they're not actually journalists. Ken is a photographer / professional modeller, one of the guys is a chef, another owns a company that buys and sells used model/toy trains. 

 

That may be true, Stix, but you don't need to be a journalist to ask meaningful questions.

Rich

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Posted by wjstix on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 10:25 AM

To be fair, they're not actually journalists. Ken is a photographer / professional modeller, one of the guys is a chef, another owns a company that buys and sells used model/toy trains. 

Stix
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Posted by YoHo1975 on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 1:17 AM

hon30critter

 

 
tstage
To be honest, I would have MUCH rather preferred David Popp give a solo interview with Craig Fuller.  I think the questions would have been more insightful and there would have been far less gushing.  I found the latter fairly annoying from the host.

 

Hi Tom,

I totally agree! The lack of professionalism on the part of the hosts was really hard to get through. I ended up skipping through the video to watch only the segments with Craig speaking. And, speaking of David Popp, I was embarassed by the way the hosts failed to engage him almost totally.

Cheers!!

Dave

 

 

It's a podcast and one of the most popular ones for model railroading out there. Not a rigorous journal. 

Ken sets the perfect tone for a podcast situation.

It was also an extremely fortunate get that Craig and David were willing to go on at all. Kalmbach doesn't exactly have a Podcast to leverage here and running the interview themselves would have looked far more self serving than going over to Ken who is somewhat affiliated with a competitor. It was a gushy interview, but is legitimized by the venue. 

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Posted by hon30critter on Monday, May 20, 2024 11:06 PM

tstage
To be honest, I would have MUCH rather preferred David Popp give a solo interview with Craig Fuller.  I think the questions would have been more insightful and there would have been far less gushing.  I found the latter fairly annoying from the host.

Hi Tom,

I totally agree! The lack of professionalism on the part of the hosts was really hard to get through. I ended up skipping through the video to watch only the segments with Craig speaking. And, speaking of David Popp, I was embarassed by the way the hosts failed to engage him almost totally.

Cheers!!

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

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Posted by hon30critter on Monday, May 20, 2024 10:57 PM

I think that the odds are greatly in favour of Craig Fuller succeeding. He has done it before with several other magazines so this is not a stab in the dark, and he is obviously prepared to put money where his mouth is.

Cheers!!

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

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Posted by nyoandw on Monday, May 20, 2024 7:45 PM

Those guys doing the interview certainly are not journalists! 

One thing that made me kind of sad was Popp saying the staff was doing everything they could to keep MR going - it really sounds like it was on the edge of getting shut down. 

Does anyone know who owns Kalmbach?  Popp also made it sound like the owners were really looking at the magazines as a source of cash and not ere not really interested in the product itself.  Also pretty amazing Kalmbach sold the building before they had buyers for the publications. Based on that I bet the magazines sold at virtual fire-sale prices. 

Glad David Popp sounds like he'll definitely be staying on!

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Posted by tstage on Monday, May 20, 2024 7:07 PM

I only remember one question asked by the host, Ken Patterson, during the entire interview (Time mark: 24:48)...

"What's going to happen to the [MR&T] layout?"

Some of the other probable questions were actually answered by Craig, as he was sharing how the acquisition came about and what concerns he had gleaned from "talk" on the internet.

To be honest, I would have MUCH rather preferred David Popp give a solo interview with Craig Fuller.  I think the questions would have been more insightful and there would have been far less gushing.  I found the latter fairly annoying from the host.

I do hope the promised improvements materialize.  For now, I will take everything with a grain of salt.

Tom

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Posted by BATMAN on Monday, May 20, 2024 10:24 AM

It will be interesting to see where we are at in two years. Craig Fuller said they have made 20+ acquisitions. It would be interesting to see what staffing changes have occurred at those companies in the two years following the takeover. If you are not current in communications, you will be replaced. 

Reading Craig's body language as the questions were presented to him was interesting. I saw sincerity in his answers to these guys are clueless facial expressions as he answered.

Fingers crossed for the future.

 

Brent

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Posted by Pruitt on Monday, May 20, 2024 8:53 AM

Having been one of the minions impacted by mergers and aquisitions in the past, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Reality often does not reflect the goals, hopes, and outright hyperbole of the early days.

We'll see.

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Posted by fiatfan on Monday, May 20, 2024 7:08 AM

The future looks promising but some patience will be needed.  Fingers crossed.

Tom

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An interview with the New Owner
Posted by "JaBear" on Monday, May 20, 2024 5:11 AM
 
An interview with Craig Fuller, the New Owner, and David Popp.

Having thought about what I’ve viewed, I’m looking at a glass half full.
 
 half full glass by Bear, on Flickr
 
Cheers, the Bear.Smile

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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