With all this talk about S magazines, I thought I would bring the conversation into the 21st century.
Paper publications are dying. The "Gray Lady"( NY Times) is a good example of the demise of the news"paper" industry. Is the same true about the model railroad hobby? Well, if you look at the shrinking number of pages per issue and the circulation figures of all the magazines out there, you might conclude that this is true. In order to survive, newspapers have web sites. They are supported by advertisements. That is what keeps the sites free for subscribers. Some of the MR magazines have created web sites, but they exist mainly to promote the printed magazine. However, there is a web site based magazine that I have mentioned on this list before. It is called "Model Railroad Hobbyist". (http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine). No one to my knowledge is participating over there besides myself and that leads to a promotional problem. Other model railroaders will catch on the to fact that they see the same old S scalers every time there's an article in a magazine or a post on a blog at e-zines like MRH. This only fortifies the idea that there aren't a whole lot of S scalers out there. It's been said a lot over the years that we need a greater variety of authors, but not many have answered the call. In my opinion, S needs a venue similar to or at MRH. If scale only is what you all want, so be it. But I agree that something has to be done. Thanks to China, Inc., S is in a lull period as far as new products are concerned. Actually, I felt that the products were on the wane before the Chinese closed AM and SHS down as I scrambled for product announcements for S Curves. I was beginning to include HO stuff that was suitable for S, and while that's OK, it hardly helps promotion. Anyway, the bottom line is that I strongly feel that the best bet for the present and future is on the internet. I urge you to check out the MRH site and examine all the features that they have and see if it could be applied to S scale. I'm not promoting MRH, but only want to point out what is possible. I would also point out that subscription to MRH is free. Here are some options: 1- A blog or Forum Topic on a site like MRH. By doing this, it accomplishes two purposes. First, it gives the S scalers a place to congregate and focus on the issues we all love to debate and a place to share pertinent news in the scale.Secondly, since it shares the overall site with the other scales, others will occasionally be driven by curiosity and peruse the contents thereby exposing S to them. Layout tour types of postings would greatly promote our fine layouts for all to see. 2- An S scale only e-zine similar to MRH This would be great, but would take a lot of work and upkeep. In other words folks would have to volunteer their time, etc. I'm sorry, but if I examine the track record for this, I have little cause for optimism. Meanwhile, I do sincerely wish Bob Nalbone success in his 1:64 venture, but he's up against history and long odds. He needs your support. Roy ------------------------------------ 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! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
