Michael,
I'm not sure who you're addressing, if anyone in particular, but we
basically have three things factors to be concerned with if want to see
our scale grow or even maintain it's numbers. 1, Promoting the scale in
general, 2. Promotion of products made in S and 3. Promoting the NASG.
They are all different but have, in some cases overlapping causes.
I don't know that any of our suppliers, at this time, are going to
sponsor any major projects "just for the good of S". In the past the
large feature ads by SHS in CCT perhaps came the closest to that.
Promotion can happen in several ways all the way from entering contests,
displaying modules, word of mouth, You-Tube videos, print ads, yearly
catalogs and yes, writing articles. Anybody who ignores any of this, is
missing the boat.
To the best of my knowledge, the NASG is charged with promoting the
scale in general, and it has made some decent efforts for such a small
underfunded group, but most of these have been one shot efforts or
rather drab non-competitive promotions. It reminds me of the typical
church, Boy Scout, school events with the non-functioning but squealing
mic, the dismal drapes, or the dozens of VFW plaques in the background
compared to the visual effect of the Jay Leno show (for example). At
one time, in my home town, you could rent the local VFW hall (a former
Soo Line depot) for a few bucks, run some streamers around the place, a
few typical folding tables with paper covers and you had yourself a
party place--not so much in today's world! I certainly don't know all
the the things that need to be done, but so many years of neglect don't
help matters.
I'm sure either Bill or Pieter is going to ask that we wrap up this
discussion, but I thought it important to acknowledge that some people
are trying, but it often takes a few mistakes to see the light!
Unfortunately the mistakes and misconceptions are out there to be seen.
So lets address all those articles that we need to be submitting. I'm
sure Jeff at the Dispatch will run what you give him, in short order,
same with Don Heimberger, and Mr. Nalborne. When it comes to the rest,
and I've said this before, they need to have requests for articles and
they certainly will cater to companies placing ads--it's a major
influence! When I have had S layouts published in Model Railroader, the
next two months I check for reader feedback. Rarely do I see much--was
it bad writing, bad photography (I hope not) bad modeling---or just so
few S guys actually respond--these guys rely on feedback. They sit
behind a desk cranking out issue after issue, but without feedback they
will run with what they have. It's just like a live performance--we've
all seen the poor beginner stand-up comedian with no audience
response--the hook come out and he goes away regardless of his
material. So with that in mind, magazines are unlikely to run much S
content when the N guys are demanding more, and the On30 guys are
wanting more too, plus it doesn't hurt that Bachmann runs big ads for
the stuff! I think Dick Karnes is probably the only author to be able
to get consistently published in the last couple of years.
Bob Werre
Phototraxx.com
On 4/27/11 9:08 AM, Michael wrote:
>
> I still think we're approaching this the wrong way. To ask a
> manufacturer to promote scale modeling in S is to ask for venture
> capital. Clearly, for someone like SHS there is not currently an
> adequate return on investment from the "only scale" modelers. This is
> a tough time to ask someone to develop a new market.
>
> On the other hand, an S scale modeler submitting material to
> publishers describing top quality work in S Scale requires an
> investment of time rather than money.
>
> This thread along with the criticism of the RMC feature begins to
> sound like we are asking manufacturers to do what we are not willing
> to do. What do you suppose would happen if MR, RMC, Dispatch, NMRA
> Bulletin, etc. each received three S Scale article submissions each
> month?
>
> -Michael Eldridge
> -Current project: laying track, repairing a failed switch motor
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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