March 2008 TRAINS

[Poppa_Zit]

Magazines are broken down into signatures of either 8 or 16 pages, which one a particular magazine uses depends on the type of press, webb or sheet feed, being used. So the next step up in size for the March issue of Trains would have been either to 72 or 80 pages. 

Even at 64 pages, the March issue was probably already high on the editorial/article side of the ratio shared with ad pages. To insert another 8 or 16 pages of editorial/articles probably would have not been economically feasible.

Jay

Great point. BTW, a sheet-fed press usually prints one color (of four) at a time on one huge piece of paper. Usually reserved for extremely "fine" reproductions on very expensive paper. Highest quality, but S  L  O  W.

Most magzines use the other and faster type of press -- an offset web.

Because of the page size newspapers run 4-page signatures, say an "average" page size of 11 wide by 17 deep. That's to the width (22 inches) from left to right if you pull a single sheet out of your paper, printed both sides for 4 newspaper pages -- or 8 magazine pages, which are roughly 8.5 x 11 inches or so. The paper comes in huge rolls and is wound through multiple press units arranged in a long row -- known as the "web". The last stage is folding with a cut as it comes off the press. An entire magazine can be printed at once using a web press with enough units. It only needs to have the cover (made of heavier stock for durability) wrapped around it, stitched (stapled along the fold) and trimmed to the final size.

So like garr says, adding another signature can cost ten-thousands of dollars.

My guess is Kalmbach prints its magazines on a heat-set web press. The paper it uses is "coated" with a thin layer of a substance like varnish or china clay which doesn't absorb ink like newsprint (the ink spreads about 20% like touching a felt marker to a paper towel). But on coated (enamel) paper the ink doesn't dry as fast as on absorbent newsprint so it passes through heaters to set (dry) the ink before folding. Ergo, the heat-set web.

Weekly national magazines like Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated are done this way -- at as many as four or five presses running the same issue simultaneously in different parts of the country. (Sometimes each issue contains regionalized ads -- ads that are targeted to a specific geographic area.) That means they can print them FAST and your copy doesn't have to survive cross-country snail mail before it hits your mailbox. 

This video is a little dated, but shows the principles.

Magazine printing video 60 seconds   

[nanaimo73]

I wonder what is the current trend of the circulation of Trains?   

It is not very good. I believe circulation peaked at something like 120,000 in the early 1990s, fed by those 100+ page issues full of ads for videos (what happened to Pentrex?). Now it is something like 80,000, isn't it ? The average age of the readers is going up as well, as not enough young people are buying Trains.

[egmurphy]

I just want to thank Andy for dropping in with an official word from Kalmbach.  It's nice to hear straight from the source.

I also appreciate PZ and Jay giving such good insight into the production and finance end of the publishing business.  It's easier to accept things when you understand a bit of the reasoning behind them.

Regards

Ed

[Kathi Kube]

I wonder what is the current trend of the circulation of Trains?   

It is not very good. I believe circulation peaked at something like 120,000 in the early 1990s, fed by those 100+ page issues full of ads for videos (what happened to Pentrex?). Now it is something like 80,000, isn't it ? The average age of the readers is going up as well, as not enough young people are buying Trains.

Wow. You guys are pretty well informed, collectively, about magazine publishing, but I did want to correct and clarify a few points that have been made.

First, and most important, our circulation actually increased last year and is well above 80,000. Circulation numbers are printed in every January issue. Combining our subscriptions and newsstand sales, we sold 96,618 copies of the September 2006 issue, and 100,321 of the September 2007 issue, a 3.8 percent increase.

That might not sound like much, but magazine publishing has been taking a beating lately. Time is down 17.57 percent; and Reader's Digest, 7.64 percent. Obviously, not every magazine that's published is going down, but we're pretty pleased to have gone up, even just a bit. And the entire staff is committed to doing everything we can to help those numbers increase even more.

Poppa_Zit pointed out the ad/edit ratio concept — and did a very nice job of explaining it, I might add. When I worked at a railroading trade magazine, the ad/edit ratio was 45:55 because that magazine relied entirely on ad sales for support. Trains' ad/edit ratio is 30:70, meaning we can get a lot more space to provide the charts, maps, and deeper content for our readers.

The bummer side to this is that, yes, when ads are down a little, we need to go down in pages, too. (Thanks to Jay and P-Z for the explanation on printing signatures.) The brighter side to this is a huge comfort in knowing the company is being very fiscally responsible to help ensure the magazine stays profitable and can stick around for years to come.

Finally, Bucyrus questioned whether it'd be better to eat the loss during the smaller months. We call that going "off formula." It might seem that way, but that wouldn't be a very responsible way to approach it, since you can't predict with any great certainty which months will be better and which will be more challenging. We do go off formula, though, when we have special jumbo issues. You're paying more for those magazines and should get more for your money. The difference is, that's calculated into the long-term plan. (BTW, our next jumbo issue will be coming in July and we're already hard at work on it. We're very excited about the project and confident you'll enjoy it.)

Yeah, we've had a couple of tight months, but we're happy to be coming into the warmer-issue months, as they typically do better. Don't worry. We're not going anywhere; we're doing what it takes to ensure that.

As Mr. Wrinn would say, "Have a steam-filled day." (Personally, I'd rather have one with an SD45 working its way up a hefty grade, but that's just me.) Either way you prefer it, have a great one!

Kathi

[Modelcar]

...Kathi:

I believe I come down on your side leaning to hearing 3 or 4 hard working diesels down almost on their knees pulling a consist up a grade.

I've heard many of both....steam and diesel and maybe I'm just a bit more interested hearing the internal combustion engines working full throttle to get up the grade.

At least one doesn't get covered with cinders as one did with the other kind of power.  Of course, I did enjoy the massive machinery they certainly did represent.  So many moving parts as they passed, groundshaking too....Awesome...!

[Bruce Kelly]

Kathi, does Kalmbach still contract its printing with Quebecor? I recall hearing that was the case some years ago. As you know, Quebecor World (the print division of Quebecor Inc.) recently filed for bankruptcy. The parent company, meanwhile, is said to be in good shape because it's diversified into various media besides print. As for that 120,000 circulation peak during the 1990s, I believe that was due in large part to a subscription mailing blitz where Trains mailed out cards (not sure what mailing list they used) offering a free trial issue, or a "pay-later" subscription at a reduced rate, or something like that. The result was indeed a huge increase in circulation (paid or otherwise) that lasted for some time. At Railfan & Railroad, we used to call the late-winter/early-spring issues the "annorexia issues" due to the sudden drop in page count when all those Christmas season ads went away. Some magazines (like National Geographic) get by with very minimal advertising by virtue of their monumental circulation (which justifies charging monumental prices for the few ads they run), and that monumental circulation is achieved by having not just a wide range of content, but top-quality content as well. Railfans and those working in the industry represent a small enough market that even if the majority of them subscribed to Trains or any other single magazine, the paid circulation figure might not be high enough to allow the magazine to run with something like an 80/20 ratio of editorial to advertising. As for incremental increases in page count, in addition to jumping up by an 8-page or 16-page signature, a saddle-stitch magazine like Trains should be able to jump up by 4-page signatures as well, though these may require special pre-trimming and other handling in the bindery (as will an 8-page signature if it's running 2-up on a full-web press, as opposed to 1-up on a half-web), hence they're not as cost-effective as a jump up by 16 pages.

[Murphy Siding]

     Rather than start another thread,  I thought I'd mention that the July 2008 Trains Magazine is 98 pages, and suits my tastes to a T.

[videomaker]

  Chefjavier,

  Can you email me ?I have a question for you about the Austin Metro start up..

I want to ask some questions that I dont think need to be ask here...Thanks