NEW LOOK COVER FOR MEW

...bottom shelf ...I have a subscription now.

Good points.

If 90% of sales are via subscription then, to some extent, the cover could be brown paper and it wouldn't affect sales too much

But, if sales are 50:50 (ie subscription:magazine shops/airports etc) then the magazine cover becomes an important selling tool for irregular and newcomer buyers.

I have a subscription.

I think it is right of Neil to ask for feedback.

Ches

Mayhap if 'twer covered in brown paper and placed on the top shelf, it would attact more sales.

And - at last a chance that someone might listen - NOT SLIPPERY. The last thing we need in our cluttered workshops as we follow an article is the magazine slipping from the bench into a pile of oily swarf on the floor. Ditto when reading in bed what we intend to try tomorrow.

Someone will say 'Oh, it wipes clean' but I remind you it should not get itself dirty.

There is one thing which is better on the example shown - no locomotives to be seen. Makes a welcome change.

Cheers, Tim

Do you actually look at the covers or just feel them Tim? Last one with a loco on it was No266, You may be thinking of ME.

In fact only 3 out of 318 issues of MEW have a loco on the front. And only about 25% of ME over the last couple of years have a Loco on the front

Edited By JasonB on 06/07/2022 16:19:59

Mortons asked me to seek feedback... they are getting it! keep it up.

317.. the 'young lady' on the lady is my partner, and I'm sure she will be delighted to be described as such

My main reaction is... the old MEWs had pictures of people in their workshops, but in the days when resources covered someone going out regularly to photograph them. Hence, a competition in the hopes that readers will be enthused to get a friend to help out and take some really good photos, for covers or inside pages.

Neil

Forum members aren't the right people to ask about covers because:

• we only care about content. We're already hooked and don't need to be reeled in by a fancy lure! The cover was important to me only once. It was when an issue of MEW caught my eye in a shop and I bought it, the rest is history. The words 'Engineering' and 'Workshop' were important, as was the picture of a machine. Now I mostly ignore the cover apart from the contents bullet list, which I would prefer to stand out boldly rather than be squashed into the footer. But it doesn't matter much: I read the whole magazine anyway.
• many of us are retired gentlefolk for whom all new things are bad. I don't care what it is, change upsets me!

To my mind, covers have been going downhill for years. In the good old days we had advertisements on the front, which is perfection:

In contrast Model Engineer had become disgracefully avant-garde by1942, and cost twice as much. Some young whipper-snapper changed the font and the layout. The content is thin too - the single reader letter, not LETTERS as it claims on the front, is about avoiding explosions in the workshop. I don't think it's wartime black humour.

Backsides are important too. This is from 1964:

After sneaking into the Pony Club an ageing romeo in a Sheepskin Jacket* is pictured introducing a couple of schoolgirls to their first cancer sticks.

Dave

* Only cads, bounders and Lotharios wear Sheepskin Jackets.

And sheep of course!

If you are going to put people pics on the front, maybe follow the lead of some of Mortons' bike magazines?

Or, more conservatively, run the plain machinery pic big -- after all that is what we are interested in, right? -- and the pic of the roughnut machinery enthusiast person smaller downpage: Gets the human element on there but keeps the main focus on the machinery.

Edited By Hopper on 06/07/2022 18:39:34

Edited By Hopper on 06/07/2022 18:43:49

Hi, after buying a couple of volumes of Model Engineer from a car boot sale, I thought to look in W. H. Smiths to see if the Model Engineer was still on sale and of course it was, however that's when MEW No.13 caught my eye.

Now I've got no qualms about the No.13 in fact I quite like it, but that was the one that started me to keep buying it and had it and ME saved in W. H. Smiths until I took out a subscription for them both, I then got a few of the previous issues at one of the exhibitions and the rest off ebay.

Regards Nick.

I know which one I prefer

I think issue 13's cover is far superior to the latest effort - simple, uncluttered, and giving a clear suggestion of what is likely to be inside.

Looking through the archive (good work getting that working again by the way), I'd also pick out the covers from 1997 to about 2008 as being pretty good, despite some rather lurid colour combinations for the text; subsequently there seems to have been an increase in labels (I don't know the technical term for these angled sticker-effect items) which give a messy effect.

And yes, lose the photos of old gits on the cover. If I want to know what they look like, I have only to look in the mirror...

I would go for a layout similar to Issue No 13. Clean, clear & no clutter. Issue # & date at the top so easy to locate in a pile.The nicely sized "The Practical Hobby Magazine" banner shows who it is aimed at. No need for lots of little panels containing tiny script.

Keep up the good work.

regards

Now that someone's taken the trouble to reproduce Issue 13 cover, I agree, it is much nicer to look at. Although, I think the date could have been a bit darker as it doesn't really stand out. Anyway, I'm not going to look through 317 issues looking for the best looking...

As regards "young ladies", Neil, I sincerely hope I haven't upset your partner. It's just a phrase to use when you don't actually know their age.

Cheers,

Peter G. Shaw

HMMM I think it is about time that we recognised that the workshop of today is likely to be quite different to the workshops we started in the post WW2 period. More and more engineering enthusiasts are moving towards CNC, Laser cutting, and other tech, now reasonably affordable. And this new cohort of engineers is able to take on paying work! Yes many do.
For manual metalworkers, as we have seen lately the prices of vintage machines Myford, South Bend, Colchester and many others have gone through the roof. And yes like it or not "import" machines can and often do represent better value. Again a change in the makeup of a workshop.
Manual versus CNC? that is a matter of personal choice the cost is fairly similar if you shop carefully.

To me a rethink on the way the magazine presents itself is in order.

Jason B got it right by emphasising WORKSHOP, I would take it further deleting model and hobby references altogether!


We want to attract the next generation, The existing subscribers already know what the magazine is about.

Regards
John

Trouble is the next generation are second-generation digital natives and not great magazine readers. They are more likely to go online to find out about their hobby. They refer to magazines and newspapers as "heritage media" and think it's quaint their grandad still reads them but can't quite understand why.

Edited By Hopper on 07/07/2022 00:42:54

BUT I haven't got a long forked chopper!

Neil,

I like the top of MEW, where "Model Engineers" seems to be about the right size and "Workshop" is also a good size - LARGE letters with that wonderful multi-hue colouring to the letters make it stand out and memorable, immediately indicating the content subject matter.

Well done so far, just keep it up!

John

Bearing in mind majority of readers probably baldies and Grey's or even snow white's with possibly deteriorating eyes, do away with that awful small font contents list which only repeats the inner contents list.

Get rid of that horrible slippery surface finish. When that recently re-appeared after a fuss made about that somewhile back, I thought, oh no, here we go again. Mags won't stack. Snow white and long in the tooth, what few are left!, I may be but always willing to consider anything new to decide if it's any good/what use to me? Change for the better always welcome.

If it is sat next to a copy of Model Engineer I think I would want to know exactly what to expect from each magazine. My normal interest in these magazines is "what is in here that I could make at home?" so my personal preference would be a picture of whatever is the project of the week. A picture of a person doesn't engage me (not matter how visually appealing) because that person could be on the cover of a magazine on Knitting, Model Railways, PC Maintenance, it doesn't tell me anything.

So for me a nice big picture of the project and clear writing showing what the magazine contains would be my preference, and anything else just clouds the impact.

Agree with Jon Lawes' comments in that the most interesting item inside should be selected with a reasonably bold title for the cover.

Wenches on wheels are ideal for a bikers mag.