I have talked with the editorial staffs of MR and TRAINS over the past several years (nearly 10) at various times about this subject. My proposition has been either a CD or printed magazine at the regular subscription rate. I do not have the room for printed magazines to “pile up” over the years. If I had, I would have every TRAINS and MODEL RAILROADER since (at least) 1955.
It is possible to have all of the TRAINS or MR’s on one CD, but it would have to be PRINT ONLY and without any of the adds. To have the photo’s included, would take a CD probably for each year, or perhaps each 2 years. I can’t see a five year CD, but a DVD might hold 10 years worth.
But, perhaps, the best solution is to have all of the various magazines (here, TRAINS and MR) on a server at Kalmbach with access at the regular subscription price. Sorting by any keyword or subject you may want or by each individual issue. If you want the magazine in its printed form also, then the subscription price times two.
Just this past summer, I had dinner with Kathi Kube and we talked about just this item. Perhaps the .pdf offerings we see now from Kalmbach are a marketing demonstration project of all of our efforts.
And, Ed at MP173, you may just have it, perhaps this would, indeed, keep FM Dave busy making a true “Open Access” research and entertainment archive for the enjoyment and education of us all.
I would like to see a subscription based on Hard copy + a yearly digital archive, via CD or DVD. (DVD players are much more common now, and you could get pictures and all for a year on one!)
I would be willing to pay a little more for the combination subscription…
I prefer reading from a magazine, but dont have room to keep many for long…thus, with a combination subscription I could read at my leisure/convience, but keep for reference forever…
I suspect that starting that servie now would be a very small incremental cost to Kalmbach…I would be very surprised if the publishing effort is not digitized in some manner. After that, its a matter of conversion.
This would also allow another subscription opportunity…
a) hard copy only
b) hard copy + archive DVD (delivered in end of the year issue)
c) archive copy only, for sale at end of the year.
Of course, I would hope that the combination price would be significantly less than the A + C option…since they know how many they will need, it would be easy to predict expenses and keep the cost low, then all later CD sales would be Gravy…
As for past issues, I would like to have access to them, but am not sure what format would suite my cost/benefits requirements…The thought of a text only version (no pictures) is not very appealing at this point, because a properly used photo adds greatly to the impact and actually makes the article easier to understand…
I suspect that the scanned back issues model is the only cost effective way to do that…