Which is better?

Ah well, as usual I'm in the minority as I take both ME and MEW; ME since the early 1970s and MEW from issue 1.

Andrew

I welcome annotated pictures for MEW but ideally send a clean copy of the picture too, because:

• We are supposed to only use fonts we have a licence for
• Contributors don't know what size we will print the image or how we will crop it
• We always colour correct images with writing on as well as we would like
• Contributors don't always choose the most legible colours or fonts

If we get a 'clean' copy we will copy the annotations onto it.

Thanks

Neil

Don't forget that ME used to cover boating as well until Model Boats magazine took the market. From the seventies as computer based editing and printing made it all cheaper, along with better photo printing there was an explosion of magazines for every hobby or interest. My sister was an editor for a publishing house and started a few titles by being given budget for two issues and an advertising salesman. If the salesman could sell enough advertising it survived, otherwise it folded and on to try another idea.
Since the internet became cheap and portable the magazine era is dying. Like high street shops they must consolidate themselves, get bought by an asset stripper or linger on and risk crashing out like BHS.

A rather sweeping statement I fear, I somehow doubt that a majority have the actual capacity to do this, best left to the Editor to choose.

I went to the shops the other day and picked up Aeromodeller, Model Boats, ME and MEW, to cover my interests, and thought damn there's no change from £20 there !!...I put them all back on the shelf.

Give me the simple days of one magazine dropping on your doormat to read the covers 'off of' (dreadful Americanism) with a cup of tea. A treat every 2 weeks for the average Joe. Job done.

January 1970 ME, adjusted for inflation, costs the equivalent of £3.80 in todays money. People earn on average about £80 a week more than they did in 1970 (I googled it. Lots of variation in the data but it seems about right). I don't think thats a bad price rise for a dwindling hobby.

RevStew, You can bemoan today or you can be part of the movement that improves it. ME has had to evolve, and to my eyes its done very well. It's a very specific audience, and it increasingly has to appeal to a new audience or dwindle as the older audience does. Maybe you could submit some articles or suggest some to cover in the future? Because at the moment its just open complaints with no tangible suggestions for making things better.

If you don't buy the mags, they'll disappear...

It's fairly clear what the solution is, we should become like Radio 4 Extra and just reprint old articles...

Neil

Don't worry, Rev Stew that off of is American. When I were a lad the local expression was 'from off of' and that was before the Yanks arrived locally.

Tim

.

Don't push it, Neil

MichaelG.

Jon Lawes, you are of course correct. Whingeing will do the square root of bugger all to change anything. I need to crack on and get making, and that may give me enough material to provide a contribution of the type of thing I want to see more of.

Gandhi said 'Be the change you want to see in the world'

Or was it Michael Jackson?...No. Definitely Gandhi.

Going by the cover of 271 I though Neil had already started on the repeats

Stage one should be contraction or amalgamation of the multiple magazines to what ME was. I'm not sure I will be able to afford two mags when I retire.

It is worth bearing in mind that there are English language modelling equivalents in USA and Australia plus other language ones elsewhere. Sadly rather than import these mags the publishing houses started their own new ones.

Hint to Neil. how about instead of reprinting old ME articles find ones from Australia. There must have been a construction series on the Puffing Billy line locos and a model built to AU specs would then pass their boiler requirements so we can all emigrate to get the summer weather we have become used to.

At one time I used to buy Model Engineer, Bike Magazine, Classic Bike, Classic Racer, Electronics Today International, Sounds, New Musical Express and Melody Maker. My sole subscription now is MEW.

Mike

Baz, I think Diane and Martin are already there, couple of engine build articles I can think of that were previously in Maschinen im Modellbau which is a German ME mag, shame I had already seen them but the english text was useful.

Removed by V8.

Edited By V8Eng on 14/08/2018 20:48:26

I am pleased not to be in the business of magazine promotion and marketing !

Thinking some online research might be interesting……no circulation data for EIM, ME or MEW emerged viz. "Model Engineer - Nexus Media Communications - No longer registered"

**LINK**

Quote ~ “..latest consumer magazine reports show a continued overall decline for print. To end 2017…..overall print circulation across the entire market fell 5%, while digital purchases grew by 3%....online readership for consumer magazines jumped by 37%”.
(Understandable I suppose but then like all percentages, questionnable).

Elsewhere an intriguing article from 10 years ago:-
“Magicalia’s magazine Formula revealed”
For its magazines with websites, 30% of revenue comes from online, compared to around 15% for most consumer magazine publishers. The company is keen on any hobby that involves buying kit, which explains why it owns titles like Model Engineers’ Workshop. A quarter of the group’s online money comes from customers who read a review and then click through to a retailer’s site to buy the product. The company receives between 5 and 10p of the sale price for any purchases made. The company ensures every review is matched with a product for sale. Each title bought from Gardens Monthly to Model Engineers’ Workshop is linked into a community website where enthusiasts swap photos and news, shop for kit and trawl through the product review archives. Enthusiasts’ comments and reviews make their way into the print title.”
(Companies House shows Mytimemedia was called Magicalia from 2006 until 2008).

Neil has posted “If you don’t buy the mags, they’ll disappear”.
Conversely if the mags are worth buying they won’t disappear !

True there’s no longer regular contributors such as Geo Thomas, ‘Geometer’, LBSC, Radford, Harold Hall, Bill Hughes etc and my opinion on what format & content would induce me to buy a hard copy is worthless in isolation. Instead market research and product differentiation is surely needed (a flavour of which is evident in this thread) or the magazines will go the way of Homebase, Maplins etc and countless defunct periodicals where the owners thought they knew best.

No criticism of Neil is implied; this forum is one of the best for frank exchange of opinions with little or no abusive response. I'd pay to access it if ever required.

?????

Can't have been a particularly effective magic formula. I've been using the site for years before becoming editor and I've never seen a review you could click through to the retailer's site from.

I think it may have been wishful thinking... all our income these days comes from ordinary online advertising.

Neil

Andrew,

I can go one ( or two) better; my first ME purchase from newsagent was in June, 1962. Been taking it ever since, as well as every copy of MEW and EIM. Have collected second hand copies of ME from 1962 back to 1930, every copy and a few very early vols.

John