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The ‘other’ mag is stopping publication


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13 hours ago, iBorg said:

Wow, SAe could become the Rod and Custom in 1/25 scale!

Discontinued. Then "incorporated" into HRM. Then reintroduced for a while. Then discontinued again. Then resurrected again. Then discontinued. :unsure:

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Excited to read about the reboot of MCM on the Facebook page today - the intention to bring it back, and have it more like SAE used to be than Scale Auto (which wasn’t as content heavy as the older magazines, by far, much as I loved it) sounds intriguing!  

Good time to start publishing Model Cars Mag regularly again for sure!  

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4 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

Excited to read about the reboot of MCM on the Facebook page today - the intention to bring it back, and have it more like SAE used to be than Scale Auto (which wasn’t as content heavy as the older magazines, by far, much as I loved it) sounds intriguing!  

Good time to start publishing Model Cars Mag regularly again for sure!  

Great. This seems like good news, but.....

The magazine needs to be distributed to newsstands, Barnes & Noble, etc. My one remaining LHS does not carry magazines. Barnes & Noble seems to be working themselves into an early grave along with not carrying magazines in general.

Probably won't subscribe, and if I can't buy an interesting issue at a newsstand.... I won't be seeing it.

I wanted a couple of the Covid issues of SA, but either my local Barnes was closed or they never received them.

Cut my teeth on Model Car Science at the local grocery store. The latest issue was always accepted in Mom's grocery cart. I wish it was that easy now.

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4 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Excited to read about the reboot of MCM on the Facebook page today - the intention to bring it back, and have it more like SAE used to be than Scale Auto (which wasn’t as content heavy as the older magazines, by far, much as I loved it) sounds intriguing!  

Good time to start publishing Model Cars Mag regularly again for sure!  

That’s great news!

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On 7/18/2020 at 10:43 PM, PatW said:

Yes I had an email from Scale Auto outlining the last Scale Auto Mag would be October 2020! Also that SA stuff is being included in the Finescale Mag, but I don't want a tanks/aircraft mag!

I've ordered only this week their Contest Cars Annual 2020 and paid for it, so I hope I get it!

I've read various comments on other sites saying that the Finescale mag looks like disappearing soon as well! I've paid my SA Sub to December 2021!

Although it was my first modelling website, I shall be sorry to see it go. But since last Sunday I've not been able to access either SA or Finescale websites, they tell me that they had an IT upgrade of their sites last weekend and I should 'clear my caches and Cookies' I answered saying that they need to tell me how as I'm not IT/PC Savvy and don't know how to do it! 

 

It's July 31 st. I opened up my PC yesterday to find that although I go through the Cache, Clearing Data and cookies, regularly Scale Auto and Finescale are not accepting my passwords again!

At Finescale they tell me to change my browser, although I've used Google Chrome for years now all of my stuff is on there. Even when I do my 'Clearance' thing it knocks out my Yahoo email and my wife's  GMail email which takes time re-installing and all of my other model sites have to re-installed including  Fotki, I'm not liable to try another browser due to the hassle factor!

Not being a geek on PC/IT stuff it's just getting hassle every day!

I'll just be a guest watcher on both of them from now on!

Edited by PatW
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3 hours ago, mikemodeler said:

Something to ponder.....If they decided to pack it in at SA with the support of a publishing company and staff, what makes the likelihood of MCM succeeding without it?

Hopefully better -  Gregg doesn't have to deal with the corporate beauracracy.  idk, advantages to independence vs big backing.  Gregg can run his mag as he sees fit.  I mean we are all still here pulling for him right?  Seems as if.  WE are disappointed that SA has folded yet are pulling for MCM to come back again and he hasn't actually published in a year?  And that one was a couple years old material?  I'm not sure on all that.  I come here every day for modeling news, information, social, etc.  

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39 minutes ago, randyc said:

Hopefully better -  Gregg doesn't have to deal with the corporate beauracracy.  idk, advantages to independence vs big backing.  Gregg can run his mag as he sees fit.  I mean we are all still here pulling for him right?  Seems as if.  WE are disappointed that SA has folded yet are pulling for MCM to come back again and he hasn't actually published in a year?  And that one was a couple years old material?  I'm not sure on all that.  I come here every day for modeling news, information, social, etc.  

One magazine in the last 3 years does not instill confidence in one's ability to breathe life into something given up for dead. 

 

I, for one, am excited to see what a combined SA & FSM will look like. I remain hopeful that we will get a magazine that has broader appeal to more modelers.

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On 7/23/2020 at 7:26 AM, Bugatti Fan said:

 I guess Model Car Builder is still going but appears to be subscription only to the US and Canada land 

There isn't a subscription option for Model Car Builder, but you either purchase a hard copy, digital copy, or both, you can get the magazine sent to a uk address ,postage is just over $6 

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1812648

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Something to ponder.....If they decided to pack it in at SA with the support of a publishing company and staff, what makes the likelihood of MCM succeeding without it?

I think SA was saddled with one issue that was printed but had very limited sales due to the shut down. Kambach may also have corporate guidelines for ROI which SA couldn't meet. The motive of the merger may have been taking two struggling magazines and combine into one stronger one sorta like Sears and K-Mart merging. Oh.....we saw how that went.

The biggest thing going for MCM is the lack of competition when people are rediscovering the hobby. I fear for many of us, MCM is going to need to sell the first year as sample issues to prove its a viable magazine. Then ask those of us who buy the sample magazines to go to our hobby shops and convince them to stock it. WE ALL will have to put forth some effort to make it succeed. 

I do believe that a 44 page magazine could be digitally printed at a reasonable cost to make it break even for the sample issues. Only with advertisers who believe in it will it be able to be many more pages. 

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59 minutes ago, GeeBee said:

There isn't a subscription option for Model Car Builder, but you either purchase a hard copy, digital copy, or both, you can get the magazine sent to a uk address ,postage is just over $6 

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1812648

thanks for the link Geoff, ordered a few hardcopy issues to see what like

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Kustom and Hot Rod Models magazine does not do subscriptions. It is sold on an as issued basis, but all back issues are available. Also there is a group for it on Facebook. It will ship throughout the world. Go here to see the issues.  It isn't just kustoms and hot rods --- Emphasis is on vintage and old school automotive styles.

https://www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/17228

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14 hours ago, iBorg said:

I think SA was saddled with one issue that was printed but had very limited sales due to the shut down. Kambach may also have corporate guidelines for ROI which SA couldn't meet. The motive of the merger may have been taking two struggling magazines and combine into one stronger one sorta like Sears and K-Mart merging. Oh.....we saw how that went.

The biggest thing going for MCM is the lack of competition when people are rediscovering the hobby. I fear for many of us, MCM is going to need to sell the first year as sample issues to prove its a viable magazine. Then ask those of us who buy the sample magazines to go to our hobby shops and convince them to stock it. WE ALL will have to put forth some effort to make it succeed. 

I do believe that a 44 page magazine could be digitally printed at a reasonable cost to make it break even for the sample issues. Only with advertisers who believe in it will it be able to be many more pages. 

You could argue that SA had no competition as MCM hasn't been published on a regular schedule for years.

Not sure how a magazine will survive and attract new readers without any distribution in place. Hobby shops? Not sure how many are left in North Carolina where I live, none in the Charlotte area for sure. 

The hobby is changing, I shop for more of my models online than I do in person. Reading about the hobby is done online. Wanting to have a printed magazine to read is great, but the writing is on the wall- print media is dying. 

I work in sales and we stopped printing paper catalogs years ago and only print sales flyers on as needed basis. Even Harbor Freight has stopped printing their catalogs, realized the cost versus benefit was not there.

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1 hour ago, mikemodeler said:

 

I work in sales and we stopped printing paper catalogs years ago and only print sales flyers on as needed basis. Even Harbor Freight has stopped printing their catalogs, realized the cost versus benefit was not there.

Even with model clubs and shows!  Model clubs stopped printing newsletters a decade ago!  I still get several as PDFs attached to emails.

NNL East used to print and mail a 4 page prospectus each year.  Turns out it was costing over a dollar apiece to send these out.  Today a postcard goes out, directing people to the website for more information.

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19 hours ago, mikemodeler said:

One magazine in the last 3 years does not instill confidence in one's ability to breathe life into something given up for dead. 

 

I, for one, am excited to see what a combined SA & FSM will look like. I remain hopeful that we will get a magazine that has broader appeal to more modelers.

I too am anxious to see the combined FSM and SA and will draw my conclusion after receiving a couple of issues.

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43 minutes ago, High octane said:

I too am anxious to see the combined FSM and SA and will draw my conclusion after receiving a couple of issues.

If it’s not enough Scale Auto I will not be interested.  Fine scale modeling might be next to fall..

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Much as I enjoy old-school magazines (I'm going to be sitting in the sun reading a 1960 Model Railroader for the next hour or so, a 94-page magazine that's very rich in content), at this point in time, I just don't see the need for more paper mags.

Couple the fact that most people today read poorly (or don't even bother, which is evident from the number of questions you get on a very detailed build thread where everything has already been addressed fully and in depth), with the wealth of information that's available online (if you already know enough about the subject to be able to distinguish useful information from downright stupid rebleated gibberish)...why bother to print a mag? People want pictures and videos that they don't have to process excessively...so give it to them. Just continue playing to the dumbing-down trend that's been going on for decades, if not centuries.

Still...I'd gladly pay for downloadable/printable access to how-to articles and some build threads and kit reviews presented in an "online magazine" format, just to have incorruptible hard-copies of stuff I want permanent reference access to...like I have in my 50 and 60 year old magazines. 

And if MCM comes back in print format, will I subscribe? Probably, if for nothing more than nostalgia's sake.

EDIT: As an aside, I've learned a great deal about materials and techniques from reading FSM occasionally. Many of the modelers represented therein are absolutely world-class.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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On 7/16/2020 at 9:57 AM, Classicgas said:

Seriously? Being interested in military technology makes you a war monger? Nice slap in the face to those of us who have served our country and those who died to give you the right to spout that. But i do agree that most likely auto coverage wont increase much.

Ditto to both your points. 

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49 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

(I'm going to be sitting in the sun reading a 1960 Model Railroader for the next hour or so, a magazine that's very rich in content),

A few years or decades ago I began to realize how many techniques and materials from Model Airplane World were finding their way into Model Car World. Interestingly, many of those techniques (weathering, just as a fer-instance) had drifted over from Model Tank World, and had come there from Model Railroad World, where they'd been used since the 1950s, the '40s, the '30s, even beyond. 

If you've ever enjoyed any of Ken Hamilton's diorama-build articles, they'd have been right at home in model railroad magazines of 70 or 80 years ago. B)

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I think that the paradigm for printed magazines as we know it are going away. Printing 10 of thousands of magazines to distrubute is expensive. High volumes allow higher advertising rates to help pay the costs.

In the current environment it is difficult for a a low magazine. Larger volumes allow web presses to be used which decreases the cost of printing.

For low volume niches magazine on demand printing seems to be a more viable option. Its more expensive but it has a better chance of being sustainable.

Finally is the issue of where to see the magazines. How many hobby shops are going to be able tovweather the storm from the virus? Second I think Barnes and Noble are on borrowed time. Almost half of the store is dedicated to selling toys, games and calenders. I don't see how that is going to really sell, if anything it just creates a larger footprint to pay rent for.

One possibilty might be to get hobby lobby to sell MCM. Just a thoight.

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