Well, my posting certainly changed the topic. A lot of good thoughts and speculation has been stated I thought that if would briefly respond: Richard Karnes (posting below) 1. FYI +80% of 1:64MG subscribers have no email and rely on the magazine for there Product News. An e-zine website would not service them unless a supplement were made available to them.
2. Not exactly. Subscriptions have remained steady for the past two years, so to state that the 1:64MG is "tanking" is pure speculation. As for the name change, for the first year the subscriptions never rose above 290 and since the Sn3 subscribers were less than 5% and the "other gauges" were left out of the name we felt that the name change would create a sort of unity or brotherhood. The result, subscriptions dipped for a short time and now have exceeded the first year. I did get lost in the pig & chicken story but there is a website (I forget which one) that lists all the 1/64 vehicles by brand and a very small percent of them is exactly 1/64. Yes, some are close, but 1/60 isn't exactly 1/64 now is it. As for asking subscriber "to support" me (and Debbie) or we "would fail", please understand that we were looking for folks to assist with the articles, editing, etc. If you want the whole story, just open up you 1:64MG back issue and you can read the exact words. Yes, in terms of advice and articles Dick has been a staunch supporter of the 1:64 Modeling Guide especially with the Engineering column. But, I don't seem to find the stack of articles. Would it be possible for you to contact me off list with your list so that I can get them back to you? I would like to make a side-bar statement here: Please let me make it quite clear, Debbie & I are NOT; let me repeat this: are NOT closing down the 1:64 Modeling Guide magazine. This business remains a source of revenue for us and we have new subscribers joining all the time. As I stated earlier, many of our subscribers do not belong to, nor do they know about the S-scale Yahoo Group let alone the Sn3 group, Sn2 Group, Sn42 Group, S-trains group and all the others so they depend upon us for their 1/64 news. Any words without evidence stated or written to the affect of this publication tanking, folding, etc are slanderous and liable. The primary reason for my response to the original posting was to hopefully find someone who may be able to do a better job with this publication that I have done, that's all. We've been telling you guys for years now that we needed more help and finally it has gotten to the point of rather throwing in the towel and quitting; we thought that as we plug along there may be someone other there who would like to take a stab at publishing this scale magazine and perhaps do a better job than I have done. Oh, by the way, did anyone read the part that I still wanted to remain a supporter and contributor as Billy Wade as done with me and this magazine? Please don't misunderstand me, Debbie & I really like Dick Karnes. Dick has been a huge amount of information and advice. I am sorry that he feels that we would ask his advice only to do the opposite. In hopes of not to be confused with the pig and the chicken reference, it is very difficult for a person to sit in the back seat of a car and give directions. The best place for a navigator to sit is in the front passenger seat and Dick's advisor position did not afford him the luxury of sitting up front and that was not his fault. Finally, as for someone's posting of "what's there to own" by purchasing the "S/Sn3 Modeling Guide" (magazine)? Well to start, there is the established (as Dick states below) name S/Sn3 Modeling Guide which is copyright protected. We also own the copyright to : S/Sn3 Buyers' Guide" and the "1:64 Modeling Guide" as well as the websites (FYI the websites do not build themselves!). We also have 16 years of back issues as well as the displays for all these issues from which to draw orders as they com in. We also have all the films from Billy's tenure and all of our issues on DVD. The software to publish a magazine such as this is over $1,000 and a Wal-Mart computer won't run it. The software requires CPU power and memory- lots of memory. We also have databases of non-subscriber s and tons of files for articles, images and advertising. We purchased this publication for a modest $10,000 in 2002 and have added a great deal to it. Our offer to a new owner is the same generous offer Billy made to us with all the advice and assistance needed as well as article support and contributions. This may not look like much to some, but it can be a full-time job with many rewards. Best regards, Richard E. Bendever, Editor "1:64 Modeling Guide" ********************************************************************* --- In [email protected], Richard Karnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > All -- > > Two things: > > 1. The proposed S scale e-zine website. I am opposed to this idea. Reason is that only about half of us do e-mail. The entire S scale fraternity deserves a publication, not just us "techies." > > 2. 1:64 Modeling Guide. The reasons 1:64MG is tanking are not simply the health and the other businesses of Brother Bendever. It is because of a series of judgment lapses on the part of Dr. Ben. Firstly, he changed the name of his well-respected magazine from "S/Sn3" to "1:64," and promptly lost most of his Sn3 subscribers. He had lost sight of the value of the name he bought. Then he made it known that he intended to sweep in vehicles, boats, and airplanes, figuring that he'd get a lot more readers. But he forgot that the S scaler is committed (as the pig is regarding breakfast) -- Our entire layout must be 1:64 scale, whereas the vehicle modeler is merely involved (like the chicken re breakfast) because he doesn't need to do all his modeling in the same scale. So he lost more railroaders. Then he told all his readers that he doesn't know much about model railroading. Whether true or not, this is not the way to generate confidence. Finally, > he told his readers that they needed to support him or he would fail. When you actually print this sort of statement, it generally becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. > > Ben is not article-shy, at least from me. He is sitting on several as-yet uncommitted articles. Based on his now publicized effort to shed the magazine, I have asked for my unpublished articles to be returned. > > Personally, I like Ben, and I had made it one of my missions to help him succeed, despite the fact that he and I had different ideas on what should be said and done. I had advised him regarding every one of the episodes recounted above, but he had gone his own way anyway. Sometimes I thought he asked me just so he could figure out what the exact opposite ought to be. > > So why have I told you all of this "inside info?" Well, it's because there's a lot more to this story than the seemingly simple explanation that S scalers can't support a magazine. Maybe we can and maybe we can't, but Ben's mag is not an appropriate test case. Now that he's folding, anyone interested in taking up the challenge needs to know why he failed. > > Dick Karnes > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ ______________ > Be a better friend, newshound, and > know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! 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