dana Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 I get Model rail , BRM . Hornby model mag and model rail roader at my local british rail model shop but my mags are always a month be hind such as if the mag says september i have to wait till september and need less to say i alays miss out on the special offers such as the rapido "The canadian " offer for uk customers which had to be ordered by september 2 for 2012 release date . Just got the mag to day october 1st . How hard would it be to release a digital magazine of Model rail as its all laidout on computer anywas before being sent to the printers then shipped to the mag distributers and so forth . .Just wodering if there's those out there that would like digital version of the magazine before writeing a letter to editor and asking for such a thing , iunderstand i may have to pay in pounds and a bank account in england would be easyier for Model rai l but my family does have acounts in englad so its just a mater of wireing canading funds to the bank accounts in england and authoriseing the british bank to pay model rail but i wonder if thers a demand for a digital version of model rail out there ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Sounds like a good idea, but I assume there would be some tough security challenges to stop it being copied and becoming a free circulation magazine. If the style of RMWeb's MI is anything to go by, I'd subscribe purely from the benefit of easily searching and cross referencing articles and not having to keep boxes and boxes of magazines. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
McGomez Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Both Rail Express and Hornby Magazine can be acquired in digital versions so the security aspect can't be a problem. Rail Express is cheaper than the printed version and I get it delivered to my inbox before a couple of friends receive their paper copy. I stopped subscribing to Model Rail due to the fact that I used to receive it, like you, about a month after it had hit the shelves in the UK. It could well have been partly due to the Spanish Post Office but There were times I'd read on RMWeb that people in Australia had their copy in half the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Red Fox Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 2, 2011 I wouldn't mind digital copies of past issues made available, much like Railway Modeller did with its CD annuals. A couple of CD's would certainly save on shelf space. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Downendian Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 2, 2011 Almost all Scientific journals are available in PDF format, and are highly secure, so the technology is there. Most of them with a print subscription you can get access to electronic copies. I would support this as my back numbers of Model rail are filling valuable cupboard space, and with a search feature will make the articles highly addressable. MR could then make extra income by charging for download of articles in PDF format. Neil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redkiterail Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Model Rail is own by Bauer Media so its up to their owners if they want to go on the digital format. Rail Express and Hornby Magazine are owned by small publishers so the changeover can happen with little change to other magazines or products. Bauer Media has a lot of magazines and they might do a changeover bit by bit or one hit but either way its a costly exercise with a big enough sever and website that is maintained. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 But it is the future. In the 'States we're way behind on the hard copy and beside my Wife is always bitching about mags laying all over the place. We never get the special offers anyway and pay through the nose for a subscription - with a download it doesn't matter where you are and we would pay the same price as consumers in the UK. Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimP Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 The Hargreaves review for the current government advised that the law should be changed to allow "format shifting" i.e as long as we have bought it you can store it in any form you like for personal use - at least this would mean that we could scan and archive articles we like. There is even a chance this review may be enacted as the govt welcomed the recommendations (on the whole). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovenor Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Going by MRH you can get enough revenue from advertisers to allow the on-line magazine to be free to users, I dropped my long time subscription to Model Railroader in favour of MRH. Don't see why a similar model won't work for a UK magazine. Keith Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 2, 2011 I wouldn't mind digital copies of past issues made available, much like Railway Modeller did with its CD annuals. A couple of CD's would certainly save on shelf space. An annual is quite easy to be made available for recent & future issues (those produced on computers?), assuming the publisher is interested - many aren't, but what about historic issues? There are sites such as this one. http://andibradley.com/railmags/ Which doesn't seem to be working today. I seem to recall that Andi is trying to convince publishers to allow the mags to be made available in pdf format. Kevin Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Of course, here in UK I have the same problem with MR, and MRC is ONLY available AFAIK from SPV on the same basis - one of the problems of modelling the railways in an overseas country, I'm afraid! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Hi I have being on the Hornby Mag site and I cannot find where you can subscribe and get it in digital format. Could someone please provide the link. Thanks Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 2, 2011 An annual is quite easy to be made available for recent & future issues (those produced on computers?), assuming the publisher is interested - many aren't, but what about historic issues? Kevin Martin Whilst it might well be simple from a technical viewpoint sorting out copyright isn't so simple, and it seems few UK magazines can justify the time, money and hassle, given the size of the UK market. Personally I'm not a fan of browsing magazines on PC/tablet/whatever, I'm happier with a physical product. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 2, 2011 Hi I have being on the Hornby Mag site and I cannot find where you can subscribe and get it in digital format. Could someone please provide the link. Thanks Martin http://gb.zinio.com/browse/publications/index.jsp;jsessionid=5E66629560F674EDA3CC7DEDD9AADFAB.ns101c?productId=500598814 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty Mc Posted October 2, 2011 Share Posted October 2, 2011 Thank you so much, that makes life easier. Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 2, 2011 Does seem rather odd that there's no easy to find link from the HM website! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold traction Posted October 2, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 2, 2011 I have sent Ben Jones at model rail an email about getting a digital format, here is the reply. This was a fair while ago now, thought I'd post this so he doesn't get loads of emails, although the more he gets asking for this maybe the bigger chance of it happening? Dear Ian, Many thanks for the message and suggestion. I have discussed the possibility of a digital edition with our publisher on a number of occasions, but at the moment our parent company – Bauer Media - has no plans to offer this option. I can see the benefits, but there are a number of concerns with this format, not least the possibility that multiple copies of the PDF could be distributed free, damaging sales of both the digital and printed version. We already have occasional copyright issues with people scanning pages of the magazine to publish on forums (or asking others to do so), so it remains a bit of a minefield. However, I will keep pushing for this option to be made available as it has real benefits for overseas readers who currently have to wait a long time for magazines to arrive. Kind Regards Ben I know you can get the Hornby magazine as a digital copy via Zinio and yes it works up to a point, but they don't allow any printing out, well they didn't a few months ago, so if you do get the magazine and it has a free Scalescenes kit in it you're a bit snookered. I think Ian Allen publishing were going to look into this so that you could only print off the kit pages, I've not tried it for a while so don't know if it's changed. What would be nice is to have all of the issues available as back issues. Having Yearbook 1 available is nice as on ebay people are asking stupid money for it! Cheers Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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