A comment on another topic post has urged me to ask this question. It must have been asked before, but to what end?
[?] When will ‘Garden Railways Magazine’ become monthly? [?]
From the way I see it (and do put in your 10yen’s worth [2c] on this) there must be more than enough interesting and informative articles just from what gets presented on this forum to allow one issue per month! Wouldn’t we all like to see more ‘how to…’ and ‘What I’ve done…’ articles?
From the amount of comercial adverts it must be possible to support a monthly mag financialy.
I’d love to see more private garden railways and see what we all do in our gardens.
Other garden railway magazines are monthly, well GardenRail, the British one, at least. GardenRail is monthly and has just a small splattering of adverts, but maintains a good collection of well written articles, from staff and readers.
So, what do you think? Let’s kick this one around a bit and perhaps get those that have influence to do something about it.
I replied to the other June06 post but doubt if many will reply. I think the gardeners are attacking the slugs and moles and are a bit busy this time o year. [:D]
“From the amount of comercial adverts it must be possible to support a monthly mag financialy.”
I don’t think so. It’s one thing for an advertiser to place ads in six or seven issues a year, and quite another to place similar ads in 12 issues a year. That’s a big chunk of money, and you’re already seeing many advertisers reducing the size or frequency of their ads due to the rather sluggish hobby market in general, which is apt to become even more sluggish as “free” money has to be diverted to gassing up the car or to pay for the impact of oil prices on virtually everything else (even the post office is seeking another rate hike in the near future).
Beyond that, who is going to provide all the content needed to fill 12 issues? Everyone likes reading their favorite magazines, but few–very few–are willing to devote the time and effort to writing and photographing articles for these publications. With small in-house staffs, these specialized ublication have to rely heavily on “freelance” contributors to provide the steady flow of material they need.
Agh, the cruel sting of reality once again intrudes on the fantasy. You’re absolutely right, Allen. All it would do is increase the dealers’ costs without increasing their revenues. It isn’t like the additional exposure would entice us to buy any more than we already are - there’s only so much in my piggy bank.
Come come now, are you saying that there are very few on this forum who would actually write in articles? What about all the scratch-building that is done in this hobby? ‘How to’ articles are always interesting, even if just to find out how someone else does it.
I’ve received three mags of my subscription so far and have seen very little in the way of reviews. Is nothing new being tested and reviewed? Don’t people want to know the real low-down on new products before they type in the credit card details?
If the British counterpart can produce a full-colour issue, monthly, and the US mag can’t then…
No, no let’s concentrate on viability!
[?]Would you contribute articles, letters and whathaveyou if you knew there was a very good chance that they would
Allan, is right they need more articles WELL written and submitted by people like us in the forums. How to articles seem to be of most intrest from what I have seen from posters in the forums. Everyone here other than “newbie’s” know how to do something. So write an article about it and flood Marc Horiwitz’s desk with them. I believe if he thought he could fill 12 issues a year every year he would.
I myself let it go about 12 issues instead of 6 because I don’t have time to write articles, so I feel I can’t complain, gipe or what ever. The GR writer’s that they do have Kevin Strong, Vance Bass and others who do write have jobs other than GR, and families. Not to mention a RR of their own to work on. So fill the void and write something![:D]
I used to submit articles to the previous editor of ‘the UK one’ -only to have a series of rejection replies based on the fact that no-one would ever want to build anything like them…
Nowadays I use my prose and text editor on my web site. I have no idea who reads the contents -and it may only be the ultimate in vanity publishing. But it is all mine.
The UK magazine has become more thinner in content and I have stopped buying it. The US one is a ‘sometimes’ buy. The only railway magazines that I have suscriptions to are “Locomotives International” and “Narrow Gauge World”. Niether of which is a monthly!!!
I think it is about time it went montly, and its never been easier to do you own articles and photos, most of us have a good or even really good digital camara, we type on these forums about what we do in our garden railways, just put it in an article style, and email submit it with the digital photos to GRR. I plan to once I get just a bit farther along on my water/garden railway. While I love seeing the large deep pocket garden railways. Its the smaller lines with tight curves and no proper ballest, the track layed right on top of the mulch that probably comprises many garden railways. The trains are the minor player in my garden, they exhist with the flowes, bushes and other features. Ballest ect will come in time, but then I model civil war era and many lines were just laid in the dirt. Just my 2 cents on things. Cheers Mike
Can we coax a word from Rene? I think we would all be interested in an editor’s view point.
Money-wise, I counted only 50 out of 124 pages without adverts. I gave up counting individual ads as there are so many (interesting but still so many). I would pay more for more! It costs more to send over here but so what!
Seems we have a good few willing to write and send in articles. Not just US based either.
At the mo. the actual ‘gardening’ sections are not so abundant. I’d love more space in the mag on the gardening elements.
With all that’s being produced, even vaguely connected with GR, the reviews section is another favourite for a spot of growth.
These are just ideas. One wonders whether any real plans have been made.
Rene, please tell, is there any chance of 12 rather than 6?
Ok, I’ll step in here. . .Alan brought up some good points about the advertising. However, as for content, we would not have any problem finding enough. Marc H. has a huge backlog of manuscripts and offers coming in all the time. AFAIK, there are no plans to go monthly or otherwise change the frequency.[:(]
Let me say that it’s great to know that you are wiling to support us if we ever change. You are the reason we are here today! [:)]
I re-read all the comments so far and I must admit there have been some worthy points made both ways.
Thanks Rene for the comments. Though it doesn’t encourage me to send in any articles if there is such a backlog. Do some pieces just get thrown out and not used? It would be a shame.
I’m still in favour of 12 a year! Gas/petrol prices are taking a bite at the mo. and it affects us all. Nevertheless, a smaller magazine twice as often is appealing to me.
On the subject of ads, many pages have small ads where the smaller companies can use the space and larger companies take up two to six pages. Both kinds of ads are interesting, the smaller ones often more so. Just my thoughts.
Tony, what makes you say you wi***he British GardenRail would return to bi-monthly? Is that from an advertisers perspective? I wouldn’t have thought it would matter so much in the British mag.
Certainly not! We recommend emailing Marc if you have an idea first, to see if we are interested. It’s also possible we already have a similar article on file. Marc reviews all submissions and replies. If accepted, we mail a contract. If not, we return with the materials with a letter.