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BRM April '18 + FREE DVD


SteveCole
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Looking at the excellent digital pictures of Treneglos it's quite hard not to think that the layout might have been built to one of the wider gauges - or does Andy have a new 18.2mm lens for his camera?

 

DT

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Another mag (non-railway) that I subscribe to does two editions, one for subscribers which only has the title and a photo on the cover and a separate newsstand edition with slightly reduced content and a busier cover design with those shouty attention grabbing captions.

 

https://singletrackworld.com/magarchive/

 

Odd, I can't find a single mention of bucolic branchlines in that link :jester: .

 

Anyway back to BRM and I look forward to the Glam Rock edition featuring a North Wales slate railway, or maybe New Age featuring, hm, New Bryford (sorry Mick).  Nah, I won't go on but the idea does come over as a bit cheesy although I shan't behave as if I live in Tunbridge Wells and cancel my subscription in a fit of disgust.  In fact despite the weird 'country and western' blurb on the cover the contents are top notch with loads of really good stuff yet again so keep up the good work on content even if the covers might remain influenced by cheddar.

 

And couldn't that image of DP be used on the cover of an issue with an article discussing express passenger train operation? hat, coat and umbrella because it's raining out there

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Looking at the excellent digital pictures of Treneglos it's quite hard not to think that the layout might have been built to one of the wider gauges - or does Andy have a new 18.2mm lens for his camera?

 

DT

Treneglos was definitely OO, although we were asked on a fairly regular basis at shows if it was EM. C&L hand-built trackwork did the trick.

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I have just watched the DVD for the second time to check if I was hearing correctly the introduction from the Ffestiniog and LLANFAIR Railway. No hearing test needed. Was this Andrew Charman's influence?

 

Brian Hunt

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I have just watched the DVD for the second time to check if I was hearing correctly the introduction from the Ffestiniog and LLANFAIR Railway. No hearing test needed. Was this Andrew Charman's influence?

 

Brian Hunt

 

No influence at all, entirely my fault when recording voice overs  - was able to correct for the digi edition, but the DVDs had already gone! Of all the mistakes!!!

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Here's the paper copy in its fully glory...(there's a photo of the layout hidden on there somewhere)

 

post-6675-0-95068900-1522343594_thumb.jpg

 

Completely unprompted my wife has just commented "What's country and western got to do with the layout?"

 

I've had to tell her that she's not in the target demographic for such headlines.

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Here's the paper copy in its fully glory...(there's a photo of the layout hidden on there somewhere)

attachicon.gifrps20180329_180935.jpg

Completely unprompted my wife has just commented "What's country and western got to do with the layout?"

I've had to tell her that she's not in the target demographic for such headlines.

I got duped thinking I was going to see my beloved 45xx in a scenic country setting....

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Here's the paper copy in its fully glory...(there's a photo of the layout hidden on there somewhere)

attachicon.gifrps20180329_180935.jpg

Completely unprompted my wife has just commented "What's country and western got to do with the layout?"

I've had to tell her that she's not in the target demographic for such headlines.

Sorry Phil, but despite your assertion that lots of research has gone into what grabs potential buyers attention, to me that cover is just a mess.

 

Jerry

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Sorry Phil, but despite your assertion that lots of research has gone into what grabs potential buyers attention, to me that cover is just a mess.

 

Jerry

 

If you can design a cover that will appeal to absolutely everyone then you'll be earning enough to set up your own company manufacturing 2mm finescale live steam and be able to sell the products for £50 a loco.

 

Two points:

  • When the mag is in a plastic bag, there are tantrums on here because people can't look through it to see if they want to buy. To get them even to bend down to have a look, the cover has to be a contents page and one that entices the reader with very few words, and nice simple ones to as no-one spend more than a fraction of a second scanning covers. To make things even harder, a chunk of the BRM cover is taken up by the DVD, reducing the available space for headlines.
  • If all the research is rubbish, and I'm lying to you, why do all the other mainstream magazines in all areas design covers in a similar way? Does the whole magazine industry know nothing? Remember, this is a mass-market magazine that has to fight for readers in the marketplace.

 

Anyway, we've had the magazine cover discussions on here many, many, many times. I'm pretty sure they will be had again. And again.

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Thanks to Jerry Clifford too for arranging for me to see Paul Stephen's very good Winsor Hill scene as part of his evolving S&D N gauge empire.

 

 

 

Andy , have any more shots of Treneglos you can share that didn't make the mag please.

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One point about the cover - and I do realise it's obvious presence might be a selling point - but why not put the DVD on the back cover?  Or is it too part of the 'cover design'?

 

Interestingly another mag, aimed at a similar market, also using a full colour cover shoves all sorts of contents 'attention grabbers' on its front cover but it usually seems to manage to keep them clear of the business part of its cover illustration (but it doesn't have a dvd of course).  Presumably BRM knows what percentage of casual readers it picks up solely down to its cover design but  the tiny sample in this thread shows that folk who bought the April issue did so because Treneglos is in it and that appears in a far less obvious manner that the hint of a dance event.  However it might have worked because folk also bought the wrong issue.

 

PS I wish 'The Daily Telegraph also came in a plastic back because of the twit I cam across reading it in Tesco the other day.  When i suggested he buy a copy, as i tried to extract one for myself, he replied 'I don't take a paper'.  So I duly asked why the bl**dy hell he was reading one?'  A vote for bagged magazines, and newspapers!

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Sorry! That cover is a mess. It looks as if it has been designed by a 12 year old.

 

It seems to be a case of "See how much we can get on there".

 

It is a total waste of a good photo of a fine model railway. I may be alone in this but a good photo of a good model on the front cover of a magazine will make my pick it up off the shelf.

 

That just looks desperate! You can see so little of the layout that you might as well not bother with a photo on the front cover at all. It is just disrespectful to the photographer and the layout owner to do that to their work.

 

Just what is the point of putting writing on the front cover to tell us what is inside and then covering it up with a DVD?

 

In design, sometimes less is more.

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Just what is the point of putting writing on the front cover to tell us what is inside and then covering it up with a DVD?

 

 

We don't. The area behind the DVD is left clear of text. Something that caused yet another load of abuse in the comments on last month's magazine.

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One point about the cover - and I do realise it's obvious presence might be a selling point - but why not put the DVD on the back cover?  Or is it too part of the 'cover design'?

 

 

I assume it's because the DVD is a significant part of the package now. It's certainly popular, but if it was on the back cover (I'm not sure if this is technically possible in the automated production process), people wouldn't see it. The other option would be to slip it inside, but then all the issues would have to be bagged, cue more tantrums...

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