This has been a mystery to me for 35 years
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My guess is it’s a bit of a marketing ploy. September issue goes on sale in early August and people think it’s all the very latest news. Little do they know they’re getting old news. Periodicals have always been done that way in my lifetime. Ed’s lead time comment is right on target.
I consider it to be better than getting the August issue before August dropped off the calendar, which was what I was expecting forty years ago. I would really rather receive the September issue at the beginning of September.
The publisher wants to provide a magazine per month and they like to be “ahead” by about a month, so they have to label the magazine on the news stand as for “next month”. But Subscribers expect special treatment, so they expect to get a magazine ahead of the news stands, so they have to mark the magazine two months off so that in August, the subscriber gets the October magazine, so the news stand can sell it in September.
For the record, the Facebook page says that the October issue was just received at the office today, and that subscribers should expect theirs in about ten days.
Every magazine is printed long before its publish date or newsstand date. Trains is not alone. Monthlies are often one to two months ahead, quarterlies can be a full quarter ahead, and weeklies even up to a half week ahead. It has been part of publishing since forever, as they say.
Every magazine I get is dated after I receive it. Even the old weekly magazines (Time, Newsweek) did the same thing.
Although I sometimes get it up to two weeks after the publication date (Thanks, USPS), the weekly paper for my old hometown is usually dated a day or two after it hits the newsstand.
As long as my Trains shows up once a month, I’m a happy camper.
Maybe just keep the date off the magazine and just send it out as Issue 1 Issue 2 etc… that way getting the magazine early or late isn’t a problem. In this day and age no one expects timeliness in a monthly publication. If you want the latest news then Trains Online is where you need to go.
And the larger question! Will print magazines survive? Will Trains’ print format be viable five or ten years from now?
U.S. News and World Report is no longer available in print. Newsweek is all digital. Time is a shell of its former self. It is not likely to survive much longer as a print news medium. Many of the nation’s newspapers are only available on-line. Or a tablet or smart phone or e-reader or wherever the digital world comes up with.
I switched to the digital version of Trains as soon as it became available. It is a much better format, and I don’t have to look for it in the mailbox. Or get print ink on my hands! Moreover, once the Trains publisher figures it out, digital stories can be nearly real time. Readers won’t have to read articles that are two or three months old. Yeah!
Oh, have I mentioned it? I am 74. I can hardly wait for the changes that I see on the horizon. The future belongs to the trends adopted by young people. Either Trains figures out what they want, or it will not survive. Especially in print format.
Tell you postal carriers to get faster horses and stop using the Erie Canal for time sensitive mail.
If everything is digital - what do you read in the bathroom?
Ignore this, I misread something so my reply isn’t applicable now.
All progress is change, but not all change is progress.
I’ve got my digital subscription on my tablet computer (Nexus 7). Quite portable, thank you!
Your Kindle…
[:|]
I suspect they pay the lowest possible postal rate, so they aren’t handled as promptly as bills, but I also suspect that the papers get tossed in a corner and handled “as time allows.”
I’ve had two papers arrive the same day - and this is a weekly publication…
Horses and the Erie Canal might be faster…
This may provide a partial answer. http://vimeo.com/61275290
Membership required to watch.
Can you load the Kindle app on your Nexus 7? Also, can you load the Nook app? Thanks.