In the “What Would You Like To See” thread, it was suggested that Model Railroader back issues be made available on CD ROM. I think this is an excellent idea. Who would buy this, and what would you be willing to pay for it?
I would be interested, but whether I bought it would depend upon the cost. I honestly can’t say what I’d be willing to pay.
I do remember that a couple of years ago there was a great deal of interest in this idea at Finescale Railroader. But the publisher nixed the idea when he checked into the time and expense involved in putting all of the issues of Outdoor Railroader and FR on disk. I imagine there would be many times the amount of work and expense to archive Model Railroader on CD-ROM as what FR was looking at. I guess what I’m saying is that the potential is there for such a project to be really expensive and the purchase price for a set of disks to be right there with it.
But who knows… with today’s technology, perhaps the price wouldn’t be so bad afterall.
I think this is a tremendous idea! I currently own every issue back to January 1940, but I’d probably be willing to sell off the early years if I could have them on CD ROM (space considerations). I don’t know how many issues would fit on a CD, but if they were to do this, I would like to see the CDs broken up by decade. This way if you wanted to keep your magazines, say from 1960 forward, you could still have the pre-1960 magazines on CD-ROM. Then they could sell the entire set for those who desired and they could sell decades separately for those who just want to hold on to their magazines but would like to have the early issues. Also, breaking it up by decades and selling them separately would allow those with limited incomes to purchase them over a period of time instead of having to pay a lump sum for the entire set. I really think this idea has potential. I would be willing to pay $25 to $40 a decade.
I would purchase the CD Roms.I feel that they should be put out in a series and not the whole archieve at MR put on one or two disc to keep the cost down,a DVD goes for around 15.00-20.00 dollars,a music CD goes for 6.99-10.99,I am sure there are many PC people who would purchase this item.What a great resource this would be ,you could view it at your leisure and enjoy the work of so many modelers of the past.
As I mentioned in the other thread, I’d pay good money for a resource like this. What’s good money? Depends on what is being offered. If it’s the ENTIRE MR catalog, probably in the neighborhood of $100-150. If it’s going to be modular, decade by decade, I’d pay $30-50 per decade.
I do like the idea of breaking up the decades because I’d probably only be interested in purchashing post-1970 editions. Based on the responses so far. It sounds like many would be willing to shell out money for this type of product.
Point taken; I guess I was talking out my backside. Iam a lifer. As long as they keep publishing it I will still subscribe.
Maybe they could scan all the articles and pictures into a server and link it to the magazine database. That way when you find a selection you want, you could click it and have it come up on your screen. Of course there is no money in that is there.
I hope that somebody from MR is reading this. It seems to me that the ever reducing cost of technology may make this more feasible than a few years ago.
Although I originally submitted this idea in the other thread, I think that the idea could also apply to Trains and perhaps other Kalmbach publications. I think that the $30-$50 per decade list price makes sense. Allen Kellers videos sell for $39.95, so this seems to be in the ballpark of what the market would bear. Kalmbach–what do you think?
I think this is an outstanding idea. A simple search engine could quickly locate articles for you. The space required for a decade or so of magazines would be greatly reduced. You would not have to worry about damage to the moisture-sensitive magazines. I would gladly spring $30 to $50 for a decade of MR on CD! Kalmbach?
After reading what the others have had to say up to this point, I’ll amend my earlier response. Like everyone else, I’d gladly pay $30-50 per CD volume; I don’t think that price range is out of line at all.
I’m no expert on the subject of CD-ROM’s by any means, although I do burn my own as data backups. So I’m wondering how many issues of MR will fit on a single disk. Do any of you know? Could an entire decade’s worth be put on one?
An entire decade of National Geographics fits on one CD-ROM, so I suspect that decade of MR would as well.
There was a survey a couple of years ago in MR on this. Nothing was ever published about the results but I talked to Andy Spandero and the NMRA convention in San Jose and he said they didn’t believe the business case could be made for it at that time. I suggested that new technologies seldom make the best business cases but he seemed unmoved at the time with the entire discussion and I couldn’t help but feel he was stuck in another generation.
You can put a lot on a CD but the key will be the amount of graphics included and the resolution required. National Geographic may get away with lower resolution because the pictures may not be studied in detail the way the MR one may.
What I’d like to see MR to is start with recent editions and work backward. Relatively recent editions should all be in digital form anyway so making those available on CD should be relative cheap. Older editions would require scanning and decisions about resolution etc. but if the 90’s for example sold like hotcakes I think it would be worth someone’s time to try the 80’s etc.
I agree with the pricing suggested.
I thought I better weigh in on this one because it really does reflect on the options we’re looking at for the future at Kalmbach. There are a number of issues and hurdles to overcome in practical, financial and technological terms before we put past issues on CD or archives available for download, but there are also a number of opportunities. What didn’t make sense a couple of years ago may make sense now. Heck, what didn’t make sense yesterday could turn out to be a brilliant idea by this afternoon.
The posters here have addressed one of the key issues: Would anyone buy it and for how much? This is hardly a scientific survey but the numbers thrown out do sound like ballpark figures.
But it’s not just a question of putting back issues of MR (or any other Kalmbach mag) on CD. The real question is how do we make use of advancing technology to provide more services to the reader, services that the reader is willing to buy so it makes business sense to provide. Your comments here are valuable so I wanted to reassure you that yes we’re reading and there are possibilities we’re taking a close look at. I’ll write more on this in an upcoming column for the site, but for now I encourage you keep coming up with ideas. They can be a powerful leverage for change.
Tom Chmielewski
Editor, Trains.com
Tom - Thank you for your reply - it’s nice to know we’re not just shouting down the rain barrel!
I am highly interested in this to gain more storage space.
Why can’t they contract this out like was done in the old microfiche days???
A great idea! By the decade is a very practical way to market this.Yes, I too, would spend thirty to fifty bucks for this resource.
I think this would be a great idea. I don’t know how far back MR’s digitized records go, but it could even be extended to compilations of articles on a given topic; i.e. layout visits or the “Working on the Railroad” column. Would I pay for it? Of course. How much? For a custom-made CD, $30 to $40 would not be unreasonable, less for something mass produced.
The one thing I think you have to look at is how they go about it.
The articles and pictures are paid for at a given price, knowing how many pages would be published. Now if they want to publi***hese articles again do they have the right or do they owe the authors a commission. What about the photographers? Do they have to include all the advertisements again? If they do have to pay these people again how do they go about finding them. Most may be decesed already. Do they have to locate an estate or a trust to send the funds to. There may be some strong legal ramifications that we are not thinking about.
I guess I am coming at this from a different angle than the rest of you. I own every issue of MR. It took me about 15 Years of collecting and searching but I got them all. I would still probably buy the cd version just for the ease of finding the articles faster. But I can only wonder what the complete set would be worth if a cd version were published. I know how much I paid and it was a lot more than 50 bucks a decade. I mean at that price I might cancel the subscription and wait for the cd to come out. We are paying 40 bucks a year. Why pay 400 when you can wait and get it for 50.
That gives me an idea. The Subscribers March issues have the index from the previous year in them. Maybe they could include a cd of the previous year with their March issue. I am sure they could iron out any legal stuff and go forward and maybe more people would subscribe to get the cd. Of cousre then there would be all the people burning copies for their friends and then Kalmbach would not meet the profit margin.
What a world we live in.
Kevin
The idea of on index month producing a cd of the last year is a splendid one.
HowI would go about it is to produce an “annual” with the highlights of the last year in a blurb form and an including a cd with EVERYTHING from the last year. Advertizers? a 650meg CD would have room for the ENTIRE Walthers catalog in each edition with room to spare for any other advertizer who wanted to publi***heir catalogs of annualized items in this form with links to the online ordering facilities of the advertizer and/ printable order forms for snail mail…
The whole package could go for 29.95 or whatever and be shrink wrapped for security’s sake.
Thanks
Doug, in Utah
What model railroader would wait 10 years for a CD just to save money?
I would like to see all the back issues on CD in decade lots. Mostly because I only started in the hobby in 94 dropped out in 96 and took it back up in 2000. I missed a lot of articles that I dare say would of been useful especially if cross referenced. The how to articles on building things in particular e.g. a 4x8 layout could have links to the manufacturers of the track and buildings used to make ordering the whole lot easier. I would be willing to pay $30-$50 U.S. which would be $65-$110 AUS. Even a little more as the reference convenience value would be high. (Im not sure the last last sentence makes sense but Im sure you know what I mean)
Chris