What is the reason for a 30% increase of the Jan. issue? It certainly is not matched by an equal in crease it content.
Gee, Maybe they just want to pay the bills. 30% is quite steep though, isn’t it?
Now, if anyone can really tell me that 30% is the amount that MR raised their price, I might just consider a cancellation in my subscription.
Anyone else, anyone??
Probably because it was the 70th Aniversary, they did it on their 65th aniversary.
Yeah well 70th anniversary and all that. Jolly good!
If they would have liked a real eye opener and huge round of applause they could have sold the issue for the same price as MR Vol1 #1.
OTOH I was never one to hold my breath for such grand gestures.
As of the Feb issue it will be back to the library copy, that’s much better value in my book.
What I do like are the reviews etc. that are on the website.
BTW it isn’t 30%; at least not here in Canada.
It is 28.77% according to my calculation.
And I’m sure according to the “bean counters” it probably is “only” 23.35%. After all those guys always take the new price and compare it to the old price, when the price goes up or down. That way they always get a more favourable figure i.e. smaller increase, larger decrease. [;)][:)]
Funny part is we never seem to have extra money in our pockets with that kind of accounting.
Why 30%? How about 50%!! I stopped purchasing the mag. years ago, just go to the library and read it for free. If you take out the ads, you have a magazine about 10 pages long with interesting topics, great pictures etc etc etc. One would think that all the ads would be way enough to pay for the magazine and lower the price to a buck or so. Seems to me, someone is getting very wealth.
Happy New Year!!!
Yep, when you boil it down that’s what MR and GR turn out to be.
I had been buying MR since 69 (when I arrived from Europe), I had been buying GR since I started in Large Scale 4+ years ago.
One day last winter/early spring I sat down, had a hard look at what I was getting and decided that the library issue will do just fine.
At the same time I started writing for a German garden railway magazine which has a much nicer balance between ads and articles.
I counted 82 pages of full ads. Not counting the pages in the first half of the issue that are 2/3rds ads. Subtract the Editors page, Al Kalmbach life story and Tony Koester’s stuff I never read. You may have 20 to 25 pages of content. Granted there is a lot of pages with new product releases which are sort of ads. Oh and the monster layouts that are 400+ square ft. that are beuatiful and redone about every 8 to 10 years. So why fo I subscribe. I like the small amount of workshops they have, the events calendar and the new releases. Is MR worth the money? Some months yes many months not at all. Is the magazine worth $6 NO! I can get most of the info supplied by way of the internet.
RMax
Has MR stated they are raising the retail price of the magazine or is all this just supposition based on the 70th Anniversary issue price?
Randy
Looking at December and January:
The cover price went from $4.95 to $5.95 or $1.00 this is a 20% increase. This is $71.40 for one year up $12.00.
Tthe subscription rate box on the credits page the one year sub is the same $39.95 (also on the postcard inserts). The two year sub went from $67.95 to $74.95 or $7.00 a 10% increase.
Three year from $94.95 to 106.95 or $12.00 a 13% increase. (all percents rounded off).
Looks like the cover price is where the biggest increase is. More incentive to subscribe. Probably a reflection of the wholesale price they get from the retailers vs the sub price less postage. Unfortunately, everything is going up and MR has probably been holding off for a while.
Still I think MR is the best model rr mag. Whether it’s worth it, is a personal decision.
Paul
yes!
Doug, in Utah
I think the magazine is losing subscribers and this is a way of trying to get more by making the news stand price out of site. Unfortunately I think the reason for the news stand buyers is because the decline in quality over the past few years. Recently the magazine has improved in some regards but I can still live without the reruns of layouts past, large amount of ads and some of the monster layouts. It’s true that the magazine is worth the price if it’s a value to you. If you buy off the news stand you are able to pick and choose if the magazine is worth anything to you. If you subscribe it just comes in the mail. A price increase on the news stand would just effect my = value a little more.
RMax
Please note that the $5.95 single copy price for the January issue of Model Railroader is for this single issue only. It is not a permanent price increase. This special anniversary issue was priced higher due to the inclusion of additional editorial pages and foldouts.
Effective with the February 2004 issue, the price will return to $4.95.
I hope this clears up any confusion.
Michael Barbee
Circulation Director
I have to disagree with anyone who says that the 70th anniv. issue didn’t have a lot of extra content. I thought it was great, especially the piece on the Tehapachi layout in San Diego (excuse my spelling if this is incorrect) and the Altoona museum.
Guys, first of all we have to remember that we have chosen to partake in a somewhat expensive hobby.
Secondly, we have to remember that MR does not have the kind of circulation of TIME, Better Homes, GQ, etc etc. It’s a real niche market and so I’m not surprised that the prices are a little higher than some other magazines. Besides my subscription to MR, last year I also had sub’s to Railroad Model Craftsman, Model Railroading, N Scale, and N Scale Model Railroading. I’m here to tell you that none of these others offer as much content even as MR in my opinion. They are also full of ads as well. What’s more, some of them are only bi-monthly, yet are the same prices or even more (which means you pay just as much as MR but receive, at most, 1/2 the content). All in all, MR is still the best value and the best resource. I have since let my sub’s to the other mags lapse because of the lack of content (and because it was getting too expensive!).
I would like to see more, however. I think MR could give us more layout features, how-to, DCC articles, etc. I especially like articles on the future of DCC such as the article in the Dec. 2003 about the bi-directional DCC we can expect within the next year!
The 70th anniversary issue was beautiful and it’s good to hear they magazine will not be going up in cost. As a whole the Staff of Model Railroader Magazine do an excellent job. Like everyone else there are some parts of the magazine that I like and parts I do not. I’m sure there are people out there that like what I don’t care for. They compete and walk a very fine line. For the price of just over 2 issues you can buy some of the how to books that have more specific information. On the other end Railroad books are very expensive. $60 or so for 100 pages or less of prototype info. Sometimes when I wasn’t a subscriber I would weigh buying a car or the magazine(about the same price).
RMax
I believe there was another post on this topic not long ago. It was explained by the people at MR that the price increase was only for the January '04 issue. This was due to special foldouts, extra pages, and such for the Anniversary issue. The February '04 issue is supposed to be back to the normal price (same as December '03).
A suggestion: If you purchase a subscription to MR, you will not be as affected by price increases. Especially if you get a multi-year subscription. If the price increases during your subscription, you won’t have to pay the higher price until you renew your subscription. Thus you save $$ in the long run. In addition, you usually save $$ with the subscription when compared to buying the same number of issues at the cover price. This is true reguardless of what magazine you subscribe to.
Dale B.
I’m a subscriber, so the additional cover price of the January 2004 issue didn’t have a direct effect on me; however, with all of the additional advertising that was in the magazine because it was the 70th Anniversary issue, and the advertising rates being what they are, they should have been able to give the magazine away and still show a profit. Charging more just because it’s an Anniversary issue is not justified when all of the additional content is advertising, and there were no more news items than prior issues.
Biting the hand that feeds you… It looked like my subscription cost will be going up again this year, had to let Trains elapse and buy it when I could a few months cause
I didn’t have the extra $40, but could spare single copy. Finally renewed my sub. got my wife the Trains sub. afterwards, she got a better rate. Didn’t miss any, but the sub elapsed for about 7 months. I get the mags, but missed out on a few microtrains releases…
[^] I think the increase is worth it for a 'zine that goes hand in hand with model railroading. Subscribing clearly is more cost effective. Personally, when I pause to consider the amount of money I’ve wasted on other items that had little if any real value over the long run, I think the price increase is worth it. At least I’ll have issues that I can turn to repeatedly months and years from now.
I hope that the 75th Anniversary Issue will be more like the 50th Anniversary issue than the 70th Anniversary issue. MR is still good, but the internet and forums provide more relevant information sooner.