The October issue is out with the commitment to publish every other month starting with the next (January) issue. It is free if you haven't heard of it, yet.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2009-Q4">http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2009-Q4</a><!-- m -->
Russ Bellinis Wrote:The October issue is out with the commitment to publish every other month starting with the next (January) issue. It is free if you haven't heard of it, yet.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2009-Q4">http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2009-Q4</a><!-- m -->
I've looked at the e-mag off and on. Overall, what's your take on it (and other/similar mags)?
Rob
I think it is as good as anything available in print with the exception of the Santa Fe Modeler & historical Society's "Warbonnet" only because I'm a Santa Fe modeler and the Warbonnet is 100% Santa Fe. I'm also a car nut and have been subscribing to an E-mag titled "Winding Road" for at least 3 or 4 years. It was edited by David E Davis when I first heard about that mag and as he explained the editorial policy, the profit in print mags comes from the advertisers. The news stand and subscription revenues basically pay for printing and shipping. If the mag is offered on line, there is no printing or distribution cost beyond maintaining a web site. Joe is doing the same thing with Model Railroad Hobbyist. I find his approach much better than Model Railroader trying to coerce people into subscribing if they want to open articles on their web site. The other thing that is neat about the e-mag is that with their rich media, they can include video and "click & turn" in the mag. One other thing I like about Model Railroad Hobbyist is that the ads are all for model railroad related companies.
Russ Bellinis Wrote:I think it is as good as anything available in print with the exception of the Santa Fe Modeler & historical Society's "Warbonnet" only because I'm a Santa Fe modeler and the Warbonnet is 100% Santa Fe. I'm also a car nut and have been subscribing to an E-mag titled "Winding Road" for at least 3 or 4 years. It was edited by David E Davis when I first heard about that mag and as he explained the editorial policy, the profit in print mags comes from the advertisers. The news stand and subscription revenues basically pay for printing and shipping. If the mag is offered on line, there is no printing or distribution cost beyond maintaining a web site. Joe is doing the same thing with Model Railroad Hobbyist. I find his approach much better than Model Railroader trying to coerce people into subscribing if they want to open articles on their web site. The other thing that is neat about the e-mag is that with their rich media, they can include video and "click & turn" in the mag. One other thing I like about Model Railroad Hobbyist is that the ads are all for model railroad related companies.
Thanks, Russ. So it sounds as if it has good content and lots of online perks as well. I'm curious about this trend also because I work for a magazine (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.faithtoday.ca/digital">www.faithtoday.ca/digital</a><!-- w -->) and we've just launched an online version as well -- for the time being, it's free. There are still lots of print magazines for sale but (hopefully) the online and print versions can support each other. For example, I enjoy the convenience of both. I like viewing things online and seeing the occasional video, etc., yet I still like to carry around a print magazine as well and not always be sitting behind a computer. Hopefully, both can survive & find readers.
Rob
Model Railroad Hobbyist is also offering a printer friendly version. It is stripped of it's rich media, since you can't open a video on paper, so it is a lot lighter in terms of computer space it takes. You would need to download the entire magazine at once, because as Joe replied to one of my discussions on the board, the magazine is advertising driven and so he has committed that he won't offer anything without the ads included. That said, if you want to print a specific article only, you would download the printer friendly version and then just select the pages you want to print. I suspect the day of paper magazines is probably close to being over. I just don't think the publishers realize it, yet. Just look at how many magazines have ceased production. A magazine that my wife and I used to subscribe to was "Marriage Partnership" published by "Christianity Today." They have ceased publishing a paper version and offer it instead as an online E-mag only. A lot of publishers have either combined 2 or 3 magazines into one or dropped some titles altogether. Just look at the number of model railroad print magazines that have gone out of business in the past year. Model Railroader is trying to sell subscriptions by offering web only content to subscribers only. If Model Railroad Hobbyist becomes a successful competitor to the monthly print mags, expect them to rethink their offerings or go out of business, especially as soon as personal computers become as common in households as television sets. One thing that I have noticed in the case of the "Winding Road Magazine" is that they have a "news" section on their web site that is updated daily. If a manufacturer is testing a new car, and a photographer manages to take a pic of it, the magazine will have that pic posted on it's web page with a brief article describing what they can tell from the pics about said car. When a manufacturer makes an announcement of a new car, Winding Road has the news release published and distributed on their web site within 24 hours. The "paper" magazines with a 2-3 month lead time are "old news" by the time they hit the news stand. Model Railroad Hobbyist also publishes a monthly newsletter with the latest announcements of new model railroad products. Because the newsletter does not need to go to a printer and then be distributed, they can put it on the web site as soon as it is put together and the proof reading is done. If there is a mistake made somewhere in the newsletter that is brought to their attention, an edit "on the fly" can be made and an announcement posted to the message board.