Well, just got the email from trains saying I can add the online version for $10…being a subscriber who already pays a fair sum per year for that, why do I need to pay that much more, and why isn’t there an online only option? It seems as if this is a one way deal, us hardly getting any more convenience while trains gets a full 20% more profit.
-putters off to read model railroad hobbyist-
Just read the same e-mail(?) 10 bucks pushes my subscription price to north of $52…
I do enjoy the TRAINS Mag, and Forums. Have not quite blasted myself into a Digital frame of mind. [:^)] Being an old geezer, I still enjoy handling my reading material. I do print probably an excessive amount of reading material to look at when I get ready to settle in and do some serious reading.
As for subscribing to Digital Trains. I think I’ll stick to the print edition, and wait and see what happens to the working out of the ‘bugs’. I would love very much to have the ‘magazines on a disc’.
I don’t want to have to save a computer to specifically play it on; while the computer geek squad works out the bugs found when they put it out for public testing, and then try to place patches, fixes, and whatever else you might call it while they thrash out the problems folks have with real world use.
The way my luck runs, I’d buy the disc, put it on my computer and then the whole operational environment would change, I’d have to make the first disc a sun-catchers and then go out buy the next version, and would probably need a new computer, and the whole thing becomes a"Why the dog died story." [:'(]
Paying extra for digital access to TRAINS would be worthwhile if it came with access to back issues, but I suppose that would decrease the value of the $200 disc set. Perhaps charging $40-50/year for online access only to the entire back issue catalog of TRAINS would offer them sufficient profit while maintaining a price point customers would be willing to pay.
Print media go where no electronic media should ever tread. Secondly, electronic media has a much narrower message spread - it is only available to THE individual who accesses. Print media is available to all those who happen to come across it, and who would NEVER HAVE THOUGHT to access the electronic source. Example - magazines available in Doctor & Dentist and all other forms of waiting rooms get perused by thousands of people who would otherwise never have seen or though about the subject matter of the magazine until the came across it.
If Trains, or any other form of print media, is considering going ‘digital only’, they are signing their own death warrant. Several clubs I belong to have taken their newsletters all digital - I think I may access these once or twice a year - when I am looking for something else an stumble across them - otherwise it is OUT OF SIGHT; OUT OF MIND. When a publication shows up in your mailbox you actually look at it, touch it and read it.
Justicar - Welcome to Trains.com! [C):-)]
Why would a subscriber to the magazine want to receive an online version of it?
Long term subscribers may want to check with customer service when resubscribing. I do not know what the threshold is, but I was offered two years of Trains for $56.00. Three years was in the $85 ballpark.
I am still not interested in the digital version as I see too much of my computer as it is. However if added features justified it I would consider it as an add on only as I by far prefer the printed version.
Jay
Do people actually prefer to receive their Trains magazine content online as opposed to reading the hard copy? If so, why?
A few reasons for the on-line version:
#1 No delays due to problems with snail mail
#2 Zoom feature helps those with fading eyesight
#3 Electronic copies take up less physical space than hard cpies
Having said that, I usually prefer print versus electronic forms.
You must have got a different Email than me because I was offered an online only subscription for $29.95. This looks very attractive compared to $59.95 for a hard copy overseas subscription and I would probably get each issue at least a month earlier than that of a hard copy. They don’t call it snail mail for nothing!
I looked at the order form but it did not appear to include an online only option, at least for domestic subscribers. I already subscribe to one magazine in that format. It is a weekly whose content is somewhat time sensitive, so the online format solves the snail mail problem. Living in the “great empty” I am always annoyed when some other Trains subscriber makes a forum comment based on a magazine I have not as yet seen. I suspect my format decision would have rested partially on the discount from the printed version.
I find observing the print media publishers trying to transition to a digial world very interesting to watch, but I’m happy I am not in that business.