Bill, the 3/16's magazine was a good one to leave in view of visitors
and it looked good in the hobby shops. So one never can totally write
efforts off immediately as it might have taken years more. On the other
hand how long does a publisher and the advertisers have to wait for a
turn-around.
I had a customer for a few years who made an accessory for pickups and
SUV type vehicles. For about $30 you could add a adjustable spot light
to the roof of your vehicle with a crank mechanism inside the cab. I
put together a really great shot in the form of a double page spread
that was to run in the 4 wheel type magazines. I quickly found out that
he only had the cash to run in one issue. He had hired a girl to take
down orders. After two months she only took orders for a handful of
product. He kept the company going by introducing another series of
mounts designed for the commercial mkt.--utility and cable companies for
their service trucks. So it took him awhile to really find his market.
I saw the problem as that the product was too inexpensive--guys spend
thousands on toys for their trucks so $30 was deemed not worth it.
Later on he was selling these units with lights attached for several
hundred and nobody had a problem with it. If he would have reversed the
order of his clients--service trucks first and then the RV market things
would have been better--and this guy was a professional marketing guy!
Perhaps we're doing the same thing--having all kinds of magazines and
few to read them whatever the delivery system. So to find a nitch that
needs filling and then gather your numbers--solving problems like this
will make you great, but it's much easier to loose!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi Bob --
Back in the day of “3/16” Model Railroading”, our shop carried the
magazine and generally sold out. I doubt many copies went to guys
who weren’t in S scale, so its effect on building the scale was not
very much, good as the magazine was. It seemed like the plug was
pulled just as it was starting to become economically viable, as I
recall. Other than “Mainline Modeler”, it was the only magazine I
personally subscribed to until recently, when I started again with RMC.
Considering that “Newsweek,” and now maybe “Time,” have gone off paper
(still the likely death of both, in my opinion), it seems unlikely
that any purely S magazine can survive in any format if it isn’t tied
to some organization or related business.
Bill Winans
-------------------------
*From:* Bob Werre <mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 20, 2013 9:07 AM
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: {S-Scale List} 1/64's Modeling Guide?
I don't know how many of us are or have been subscribers to the Modeling
Guide, but nobody as mentioned that their last issue was sent a couple
of days ago. Bob sited two main reasons--economics and the poor
reputation.
Back in the day there was a pretty good magazine started by Ed L. with
the help of a few of us. Although it probably didn't make a profit
(most magazines don't for several years) it was also produced in the
days before the digital revolution had obtained critical mass to lower
production costs.
Billy Wade then tried a somewhat similar but smaller version but again
it was a lot of work and likely not profitable enough either. After the
sale to Richard Bendever things took (in my opinion) a deep dive of
unfilled efforts and bad medicine seemed to follow. I had a
subscription to all of those magazines for awhile but never saw them
progress to anything near what was started in the late 80's! This
brings us to the present! Mr. Nalbone seems to be willing to start
another publication with the same concept in mind, but could it succeed?
It might be time for us to realize that furthering S Scale through a
publication isn't possible without an actual printed copy available in a
hobby shop, while many of us seem to be well informed by just linking a
website to a discussion. It also seems difficult for our smaller
manufacturers to actually advertise beyond this list or an occasional
announcement. In most cases it's the advertisers who supply the
economic means for a magazine to exist. So at this point it looks like
maybe S and our communications have changed to a point where speciality
magazines, newsletters and similar promotions means aren't necessary for
our personal needs (despite the fact the internet isn't reaching a large
percentage of us).
What remains is the promotional effort that needs to happen to make S
progress. Since these magazines with the exception of the S Gaugian
never made it into too many hobby shops we really don't know what impact
they could have had on furthering S in general, their subscriber base or
in moving advertiser's products.
Just some thoughts this AM!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
