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BRM Price Increase


Poole
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I rarely drink beer so I don't know how much it costs but this link offers some information and sounds about right compared with what I've heard.  Plenty of places where you won't get a couple of pints for that £5.50 BRM cover price

 

https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/pint-beer-cost-uk/

 

A previous editor is reeling with shock a week ago when charged £5.75 for a pint in Kings Cross. You can be sure he sucked every last drop out of the glass.

 

Me, I'm a proper lightweight who prefers a small amount of really good beer or cider to gallons of cheap stuff and an evening shouting at pigeons.  

 

So, no sausage sandwiches/oatcakes here on the next filming day?

 

Anyway; all this price malarkey must have come from the news last week that NASA was spending $1.5bn on a Parker probe or something.

 

I'm still up for oatcakes. I'm not eating THAT healthily. When in Staffordshire, act like a Black Country Boy.

 

And those are American billions. Not proper, good, honest British billions. I can't think of the idea of a Sun Probe without remembering Thunderbirds.  Still, building one will make an interesting step-by-step in the mag won't it?

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A previous editor is reeling with shock a week ago when charged £5.75 for a pint in Kings Cross. You can be sure he sucked every last drop out of the glass.

 

Me, I'm a proper lightweight who prefers a small amount of really good beer or cider to gallons of cheap stuff and an evening shouting at pigeons. 

 

Although I don't know which former editor you're talking about, I'm not surprised he didn't like that price - it's even more than a model railway magazine!

 

However, as for the "small amount of really good beer or cider" and the "gallons of cheap" pigswill, you're definitely talking sense there.

 

 

Huw.

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I spent my £5.50, in McColls in Okehampton. Quite happy with the content, but I’m afraid the 3D pictures are a bit of a mystery. They and the glasses do work, but why bother? I only looked at one. I buy magazines to learn while relaxing, and holding and peering through 3D glasses isn’t at all relaxing. And putting one on the cover of the mag really hasn’t helped at all. Perhaps it’s a generation thing.

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This surely is a situation of 'cant please everyone all the time'?

 

If the quality of the magazine, the standard of the repro or the weight of the paper decreased - not talking one-off hiccups but a permanent change to keep the cost down - people would complain.  If the DVD was knocked in the head to save cost, people would complain (although I suspect in both cases, there would be a number of posts saying, id happily pay more for the title to stop that happening!).  The price of the magazine goes up to keep all of those things the same, people complain.

 

To be honest publishers (regardless of content topic) cannot win whatever they do, somebody will ALWAYS be unhappy, there are too many variables.  We should maybe remember that Warners provide us with rmWeb free of charge (as somebody previously mentioned) yet despite a lot of people thinking it is, the web isn't free - there are editors, web designers, bandwidth, servers to pay for, so BRM's cover price is supporting a freely available resource that has generated a good number of friendships and given us a focus for railway modelling, where people can talk freely, ask questions and get advice from a variety of people, and all regardless of their modelling ability and without having to pay a monthly or yearly fee.

 

A friend of mine once told me, don't look at what something costs, look at why you buy it and what you enjoy.  Do you feel you get value for money?  If so, then it doesn't matter what it costs - if not, well why were you buying it in the first place!  Sound advice as far I as I could see. At the end of the day, there are three pages of comment debating a change of 75p!  Not even a quid .. in fact its equal to just over a third of a tub of Pringles!  

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This surely is a situation of 'cant please everyone all the time'?

 

If the quality of the magazine, the standard of the repro or the weight of the paper decreased - not talking one-off hiccups but a permanent change to keep the cost down - people would complain.  If the DVD was knocked in the head to save cost, people would complain (although I suspect in both cases, there would be a number of posts saying, id happily pay more for the title to stop that happening!).  The price of the magazine goes up to keep all of those things the same, people complain.

 

To be honest publishers (regardless of content topic) cannot win whatever they do, somebody will ALWAYS be unhappy, there are too many variables.  We should maybe remember that Warners provide us with rmWeb free of charge (as somebody previously mentioned) yet despite a lot of people thinking it is, the web isn't free - there are editors, web designers, bandwidth, servers to pay for, so BRM's cover price is supporting a freely available resource that has generated a good number of friendships and given us a focus for railway modelling, where people can talk freely, ask questions and get advice from a variety of people, and all regardless of their modelling ability and without having to pay a monthly or yearly fee.

 

A friend of mine once told me, don't look at what something costs, look at why you buy it and what you enjoy.  Do you feel you get value for money?  If so, then it doesn't matter what it costs - if not, well why were you buying it in the first place!  Sound advice as far I as I could see. At the end of the day, there are three pages of comment debating a change of 75p!  Not even a quid .. in fact its equal to just over a third of a tub of Pringles!

 

Can I just point out you are over paying for your Pringles £1.25 at Tesco and £1.10 at Morrison’s.

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Can I just point out you are over paying for your Pringles £1.25 at Tesco and £1.10 at Morrison’s.

 

Not me, I can't stand the things.

 

Just as with model railway, and other magazines or books - our tastes vary and our interest vary so we like and dislike different things.  

 

And in supermarkets we pay different prices all the time as prices go up and down.  We regularly buy a particular brand of toilet roll and we stock up if they're reduced - this week a large pack is £8.25 in Tesco, yesterday a large pack was £7 in Waitrose so we bought a couple pf packs there - to join the ones we bought in Tesco for £7 last week.  Reason - the prices fluctuate - one or the other reduces the price to £7 every now and then so we stock up but otherwise they are £8.25 in Tesco and £8.40 in Waitrose so it' s daft to buy when they're normal price, just wait for the offer price.

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This is a really good point and one that I 100% agree with. This is why the price will only increase when we feel the Bumper Pack warrants it. You'll soon see what I mean. But, it won't suit everyone.

I don't like buying magazines in plastic bags because I can't view the contents before purchase to judge whether it is worth the price. I did buy the September issue but in future if the high price coincides with a plastic bag I suspect I won't bother.

 

Railway Modeller and the Model Railway Journal are my first choices. BRM is optional, though I have been buying it regularly up to now.

 

...R

 

PS ... Andy York or Tony Wright could produce much better pictures of Pendon.

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You can save a considerable sum by hanging it and tearing it correctly so there is no waste.

 

tp_diag04.gif

 

 

A month's savings here will pay the increase in your mag that you read in there !!!!

 

Brit15

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A few points. Although RMWeb is free at the point of use I'm not sure that Warner provide it to us out of the goodness of their hearts, A little thing called Advertising is also involved. If it wasn't generating revenue I'm sure it would soon be dropped !

 

As for the price of the BRM magazine, unfortunately in this digital age I think the cost of this and most other printed versions is only going to continue climbing, As more people go digital the cost of the printed version will be spread over a dwindling number of regular subscribers and casual shop browsers, In the beginning printed subsidised digital, but at some point if not already, this will reverse and digital will be subsidising a dwindling number of printed sales. We are seeing this in both printed and digital books and even hard copy vs digital software packages.

 

Also anyone wanting to can easily purchase digital back issues of BRM at the click of a button to read virtually immediately, although paying the full £3.99 cover price which is a bit disappointing. . What guys no half price offer on previous issues to boost sales of them ? Or buy a whole year at a discounted price ? Your missing a trick there guys.

Must admit though, £5.50 for printed vs £3.99 digital (drops to only £2.31 with annual subscription) I'll be going digital :)

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What guys no half price offer on previous issues to boost sales of them ? Or buy a whole year at a discounted price ? Your missing a trick there guys.

 

 

You missed a recent offer of 99p for any back issue!

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Can I just point out you are over paying for your Pringles £1.25 at Tesco and £1.10 at Morrison’s.

 

:O  :O  :O  :O  :O

 

Now need to work out the cost of the extra petrol to Morrisons  :onthequiet:

 

I don't like buying magazines in plastic bags because I can't view the contents before purchase to judge whether it is worth the price. I did buy the September issue but in future if the high price coincides with a plastic bag I suspect I won't bother.

 

Railway Modeller and the Model Railway Journal are my first choices. BRM is optional, though I have been buying it regularly up to now.

 

...R

 

PS ... Andy York or Tony Wright could produce much better pictures of Pendon.

 

 

Robin, I'll agree with you on that one. I know sometimes plastic bags are the only option for adding 'extras' but I must admit, unless the cover tells me about something, which I've seen previously and know I want to look at, anything with a bag, doesn't even get looked at on the newsagents shelf.  

 

Its interesting reading one or two of the comments above - I have digital magazines that I read on the iPad, both BIG railway, computer and photography ... but yet getting the digital version of BRM is something I've NEVER even considered.  Thats not to say I said no I didn't want, just didn't even think about it, despite knowing about it - yet Model Engineer I have through Magzetta and haven't picked a paper version of that up in ages!  Odd how different people think and react to different things!

 

Rich

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I did try a digital subscription of BRM for a year, to see how I got on with the format. As I have a massive collection of old mags in the loft, I was looking at digital as a space saving alternative. 

After 12 months I gave up for 2 reasons.

1 -  The format used was wrong (for me anyway) in that it was more or less unique to the publication, and was not (inherently) saveable. I did manage however to convert everything to a .pdf format, but long winded, and I saved it that way.

2 - I didn't like the magazine as much as the others anyway, my preference again.

 

It would be good if all the mags could be provided as a .pdf, or maybe a "new" industry standard that would work in a similar way. After all, if you buy a paper copy you are able to save it; why not with digital? If a standard such as .pdf ( or similar) was adopted then old copies could also be offered for sale. That would solve my space problem!

 

I have started a massive clearout, beginning with the "lesser" mags, which I have read through then scanned relevant pages, before disposal. A lot of work though.

 

Stewart

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Very Strange Stewart.  All of my digital BRMs are saved without any need for going the .pdf route.  It happens automatically and the proof of that is that I can read BRM when we have a thunder storm and disconnect the telephone to avoid the impact of lightning strikes.  the DVDs are not however accessible until the internet is restored.

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Well I had a browse in WHS for a magazine to buy . I did see BRM packaged as a big bumper pack which seemed to consist of the magazine , dvd and 3d glasses . Having browsed aviation and shipping mags I finally decided on Today’s Railways , mainly because it has an article on the new 385s and it’ll get me up to date on what’s happening on the real Railway . But quite a diffirential on price. Today’s Railways is still £4.60

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Well I had a browse in WHS for a magazine to buy . I did see BRM packaged as a big bumper pack which seemed to consist of the magazine , dvd and 3d glasses . Having browsed aviation and shipping mags I finally decided on Today’s Railways , mainly because it has an article on the new 385s and it’ll get me up to date on what’s happening on the real Railway . But quite a diffirential on price. Today’s Railways is still £4.60

But that is presumably a prototype magazine, rather than a modelling magazine that includes reference to relevant prototypes. Apples and oranges.

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Very Strange Stewart.  All of my digital BRMs are saved without any need for going the .pdf route.  It happens automatically and the proof of that is that I can read BRM when we have a thunder storm and disconnect the telephone to avoid the impact of lightning strikes.  the DVDs are not however accessible until the internet is restored.

Why can't you play a DVD with the phone disconnected? That's really strange!

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I did try a digital subscription of BRM for a year, to see how I got on with the format. As I have a massive collection of old mags in the loft, I was looking at digital as a space saving alternative. 

After 12 months I gave up for 2 reasons.

1 -  The format used was wrong (for me anyway) in that it was more or less unique to the publication, and was not (inherently) saveable. I did manage however to convert everything to a .pdf format, but long winded, and I saved it that way.

2 - I didn't like the magazine as much as the others anyway, my preference again.

 

It would be good if all the mags could be provided as a .pdf, or maybe a "new" industry standard that would work in a similar way. After all, if you buy a paper copy you are able to save it; why not with digital? If a standard such as .pdf ( or similar) was adopted then old copies could also be offered for sale. That would solve my space problem!

 

I have started a massive clearout, beginning with the "lesser" mags, which I have read through then scanned relevant pages, before disposal. A lot of work though.

 

Stewart

 

The reason for not providing PDFs is one of copy protection. Most PDFs can freely be shared around, the publishers obviously don't want that to happen really, hence things like PocketMag, which iirc only lets you save 2 pages at a time to PDF (though there are tools to combine PDFs if you require).

 

What is really needed is a good affordable *colour* ereader, with colour e-ink screens, rather than using a tablet that is often going to be very poor in sunlight. I have gotten rid of a number of paperbacks and converted to digital on an old Kobo eReader, that is so much easier. It doesn't work for PDFs/colour content sadly really (though it can actually read PDFs, but poorly). LED/LCD is just the wrong screen tech for books/magazines IMO.

Why can't you play a DVD with the phone disconnected? That's really strange!

I am guessing he means as he has the digital version, the DVD content is available via the internet.

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I did try a digital subscription of BRM for a year, to see how I got on with the format. As I have a massive collection of old mags in the loft, I was looking at digital as a space saving alternative. 

After 12 months I gave up for 2 reasons.

1 -  The format used was wrong (for me anyway) in that it was more or less unique to the publication, and was not (inherently) saveable. I did manage however to convert everything to a .pdf format, but long winded, and I saved it that way.

2 - I didn't like the magazine as much as the others anyway, my preference again.

 

It would be good if all the mags could be provided as a .pdf, or maybe a "new" industry standard that would work in a similar way. After all, if you buy a paper copy you are able to save it; why not with digital? If a standard such as .pdf ( or similar) was adopted then old copies could also be offered for sale. That would solve my space problem!

 

I have started a massive clearout, beginning with the "lesser" mags, which I have read through then scanned relevant pages, before disposal. A lot of work though.

 

Stewart

 

 

The problem with PDF files is that they can easily be passed around.  I know the guys at Railway Herald magazine have the same problem - they once told me they still do the PDF version because half of the readership prefers it, but they are fully aware that it gets illegally passed around to others - their subscription terms say that all downloads are for your own personal use only.  To me that fair all round, but people do pass things about which is unfair both to them as they loose money having produced it, and to me as a reader because I've paid the subscription, so why should somebody else read it for free?

 

So I suspect the likes of BRM and the rest are loathe to go down the same route for the same reasons.  The ability to pass a digital copy on and still keep your own version seems to be probably one of the two most inherent problem with the web.  Like photos, anyone can download a picture from a website, regardless of various companies and software that say they can stop it, they can't - its part of the DNA on how the internet works.  Once you can see it on screen its downloadable end of discussion.

 

EDIT: Sorry Kelly - your response must have appeared after I loaded the page!

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