Doggone it, I just saw Dana Kawala’s item about the advantages of subscribing. I know Dana has to be faithful to his employer, but I wonder about the long term effects of Kalmbach’s push to convert over-the-counter purchasers into subscribers. It’s long been acknowledged that the LHS has to struggle to stay alive. I feel that purchasing the magazines (MR, Trains, Classic, etc.) from the LHS is one way I can help the small retailer out, even if I’m not prepared to make a big purchase at any given time. I actually pay more per issue when I buy it that way because I don’t get the reduced price of a subscription. For years I’ve lived with this higher expense because I’ve felt that the hobby is better off if the LHS is better off. It seems that Kalmbach, by pushing subscriptions this way, is contributing in a small way to the weakening of the LHS, and I don’t see how this can be a good thing.
To be sure, some readers live a long way from any LHS and must have a subscription in order to get the magazine at all, just as those same folks may not have a nearby LHS and must rely on the mail order or online suppliers. I understand that. That’s why Uncle Sam established a Post Office a few years before I was born.
MR also offers special incentives for us to subscribe, by giving freebies, such as videos, to subscrbers and keeping non subscribers from having access to those freebies.
I’ve read MR for well over 50 years, and I have a collection of Kalmbach magazines that goes back farther in time than most, probably all, of Kalmbach’s staff have been on this planet. I’m a loyal Kalmbach customer, but I really don’t like to have to make the choice between loyalty to Kalmbach and loyalty to my LHS.
This is something I’ve always regarded as both a personal prefernce and a chicke-or-egg question. I’m sure everyone’s in favor of supporting your LHS, including Kalmbach.
On the other hand, Kalmbach has to look at the trends and its own future. More and more, the LHS just isn’t that much a part of the MRR experience. Not by choice with most of us, just because that’s the way it is. To stay connected, it’s important for Kalmbach to keep subscription in front of people. That’s why they’re making a push to emphasize there’s more available if you do make that commitment. More for nothing? Yes, people love it. I don’t think that’s bad, even for the LHS, because the strength of MR reflects the strength of the hobby – and the customer base for the remaining LHS.
Although talking about the same magazine, it’s really kind of an apples to oranges comparison. And it kinda depends in whether you prefer an apple or an orange. It’s herd immunity we’re looking for here and I’m not sure there’s an absolute best answer. Go for whatever’s most comfortable without feeling guilt.
I live in the UK and to give you an overview : We have very few LHS ,in fact the internet is killing them off quicker and quicker. But what we do have is a nationwide network of newsagents who carry both modelling heritage and us and continental magazines. But the hobby is surviving. I don’t know if US newsagents carry magazines, even our equivalent of Walmart has them.
Except for my very first two issues (in 1964) I have always subscribed and have never felt guilty about it. Nor do I feel guilty about going to train shows and swap meets. The LHS gets plenty of my business –
I don’t know the markup involved for the LHS, but a 3 yr sub works out to $2.64 per issue vice $5.99 on the newstand/LHS. Since I would buy every issue that’s quite a savings to me. I also suspect that a large subscriber list helps sell adverstising and for a higher price.
I’m all for supporting my LHS, but in Culpeper only Walmart carries MR. And they already get plenty of business from me. Wish they carried trains.[sigh]
If you want to support your LHS, buy your engines and other high ticket items there. Since I don’t have a LHS, I buy at train shows and from Internet dealers.
I have never, not a once, bought a magazine in a hobby shop. I’m pretty sure more issues of MR and RMC came from the supermarket than subscriptions and B&N combined.
The local hobby shop is not a newsstand. I doubt they make much if anything selling the magazines.
It might be detrimental to their overall business if they didn’t sell magazines. They do draw customers who may find other items to buy that are more profitable for the shop.
I can’t affoed to subscribe to every magazine I might potentially like, but do occasionally purchase an individual issue of a magazine I dont suscribe to.
In Tampa, the two Hobby town franchise stores stopped carrying ANY modeling magazines after the end of 2014. There are no other LHS’S in town. No news stores since the late 1990s, and with the closure of Borders book stores several years ago, only Barnes & Noble is left carrying MR. The SuperWalmarts have stopped carrying MR since the mid-2000s as well. These circumstances almost force the need to have a subscription, by default.
My two nearest LHS’s do not carry MR. Or any other hobby magazines for that matter. Nearest LHS that does? 45+ mins away. Not worth my time (and gas money) to go that far just for a magazine. If I didn’t subscribe, the grocery store would get my businsess on this front. I buy enough food (and cleaning products, household nessecities, etc…) from them already.
When this came up some years ago, someone who knew the business said that the LHS makes almost nothing on magazines, even at full MSRP. They carry them because customers want them, and yes, some will come into the store specifically for a copy of MR, and then might buy something else.
I subscribe to the print version of MR. But, I go to my LHS the first week of every month to get the Walthers flyer, which only arrives occasionally even if I sign up for it. My LHS does a lot of special-order business, so he’s happy to see those flyers go out the door.
Damned if they don’t, but damned if they do. They are effectively competing interests. Maybe not way back when, but with the internet and e-tailers making so much headway these days, the end for Mom 'n Pop’s Train Supply is slowing and about to come to a full stop…single short whistle. The largest and busiest do well, and we all know who those are…their ads feature rather prominenty in the magazine. Those other small places are relegated to the white pages at the very back.
If the customer is always right, and doesn’t tend to favour shopping so much at the mom 'n pop’s anymore, what should our host do? I would urge them to adapt to what pays them the most for coverage. If MR is to survive, it must follow the revenue, and these days it’s not so much from small LHS’s here and there.
FWIW, I am on Vancouver Island, well away from an LHS that can serve my needs and desires in the hobby. I have recently (in the past 14 months) purchased some scenery stuff from an LHS up-island 40 km away (25 mi), but they don’t sell rolling stock and construction items that I need. So, I must resort to credit card and internet searches. So far, so good.
Old habits are hard to break sometimes. I would go in to work and often I would have nothing to do for long periods of time. I would go to the local Safeway and pick up a MRR and then go find a place out on the ramp at Vancouver Airport with a good view of the runway. The middle of the night and quiet as could be for long periods of time. I would have the windows open to smell the warm sea breeze coming off the pacific in the middle of the night. Feet up on the dash reading away.
Then one of these hitting the runway in front of my face would bring me back to the real world and it would be GO…GO…GO! for an hour or so, to get it offloaded and loaded and on its way. Then back to my quiet spot and my MRR mag.
When I packed it in at work and took my work bag out of the trunk of my car at home for the last time, I realized that it was quite heavy. I thought it was just all the regs manuals I had, but no, it was full of MRR magazines.[(-D]
If it hasn’t already been pointed out, I equate subscriptions to season tickets. The publisher has an idea how many copies to print, and the advertisers know how many people will see their ads. The “tickets” are sold regardless of the weather, or any other condition that makes purchasing a walk-up purchase optional.
I subscribe to MR, but sometimes pick up CTT at the hobby shop. But my local hobby shop just announced it is closing. My purchases over the last year amount to nothing for the continuation of this store.
The lack of retail outlets for their magazines is probably harmfull to the publishers of rail and model railroad magazines.
I boughr my first model rr magazine (Railroad Model Craftsman) at a newsstand in 1963. The newsstand was also a barbershop. I was there for a haircut. Before I spotted it on the rack, I did not know such magazines existed.
