Pieter, and others; I think the support aspect is a function of the numbers: If every single S scale person in America, Canada and the UK all subscribed to an S scale only magazine, I wonder if the subscription/advertising revenue/profit would work out?
It costs considerably more per unit to print 5,000 copies of an 80 page magazine than it does to print 50,000 copies, per unit, of exactly the same publication. That impacts in a number of ways. For one, it limits severely how much profit a publisher can make, if any. This means the person has to have another means of income, yet have plenty of time to devote to the "good of the hobby." It also means that person cannot afford to pay professional writers and photographers on a regular basis. Why do you suppose the S Gaugian has survived lo these many years? Besides the fact that Don H. has diversified the business, he doesn't pay his contributors. My best guess is that he may compensate with trade in kind for cover photos, but that is just a guess. Then too, there are far many more AF folks, his primary focus, than S scale. But we know that already. So fewer subscribers means the publication can't charge as much for advertising and can't print enough copies to reach an economy of scale necessary to flourish. I am not saying that someone can't make the formula work, just saying it ain't easy. Roy Inman From: Pieter Roos <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [email protected] Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:03:56 -0800 (PST) To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: S Scale website; 1:64 Modeling Guide Hi Richard, all; The counter argument is that the same deserving population, techie and non techie, have over the last 30 years: 1. Failed to support the original Herald to a level that it could exist without regular subsidy by Wally Collins and considerable content writing by editor Frank Titman. 2. Failed to support the S 3/16ths Scale magazine; a very professional publication in its time, BTW; sufficiently to allow it to continue more than about four years. 3. Failed to support the S/Sn3 Modelers Guide under Bill Wade, and required Bill to write a considerable amount of the content himself. 4. Apparently are failing to support the NMRA Scale SIG. This is not counting the continuation of the Herald and S/Sn3 continuation publications, both of which were erratic in publication. This raises the question of what would be different in any new publication? With the continued deterioration of the Local Hobby Shop as a venue it would seem less likely that such a publication would be seen by potential S Scalers or those not privy to announcements on the internet than was the case with earlier magazines. Do you have some different business model in mind that would succeed where these others have failed? The second question would be if there is really such a pent-up reserve of S Scale material that is both so S specific that it cannot be printed in any of the "big time" magazines (MR, RMC or RMJ) and cannot find a home in Dispatch or S Gaugian? Enough to feed a monthly or even quarterly publication on an ongoing basis? If there is enough material but the printing and distribution is the hurtle, maybe a hybrid plan is in order; the wed-zine as a draw for material and ongoing "reminder" of the effort, with the best elements collected and enhanced with additional material and illustrations and published as an S Scale Handbook or S Scale Annual. The book version could be produced under contract with or sponsored by an existing entity such as S Gaugian (who used to publish a similar Handbook) or NMRA SIG/NASG (I hesitate to suggest the latter only because I know what will follow the suggestion). Pieter Roos Richard Karnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:rnk2202%40yahoo.com> > 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 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [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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