Several comments have been made (pro and con) re: the on-line scale magazine
marketability. Personally, I find the on-line mag much easier to access and
print for my own needs than dealing with a paper magazine but I don't find
it more enjoyable than flipping thru a well-done paper magazine. I may be
"old school" in that regard but my business is 100% computer-dependent. I
still find reading cover-to-cover to be relaxing, even with at least 50% of
most mags now being ads. When I'm finished reading them, I toss them in a
"get a round tuit" box and . eventually . gut each one for articles of
interest and toss the rest in the recycle bag.
I think there is a market for both printed and on-line venues. Face it, S
scalers are a tiny portion of the S market and an even tinier portion of the
model railroading world. O scale is no different. I've heard the same
arguments from modelers much more experienced than me, that there are far
too many O scalers (not 3-railers) with no 'puter access to justify going
all on-line. But, the Proto 48 on-line 'zine has proven its worthiness amid
these negative comments. I believe there are far more S scalers than P:48
modelers (the last estimate I heard 4 years ago was around 200 in the US),
so if they can do it, why can't we? Joe G. does an excellent job with O
Scale News (catering to O and P:48) but it takes a LOT of effort to maintain
that quality over the 40+ issues he's printed.
Bill Wade and Don Thompson commented that mailings and shows are the major
sources of sales for them. Each of their fine companies is much larger than
mine and I have an industrial customer base that is my bread and butter, so
our customer bases are much different. For my money, I find having a web
site and announcing new kits on-line yields the results I want. I also have
a small dealer network which supports resin kits. Product
reviews/announcements have appeared in Richard's mag and S Gaugian . and,
yes, I do get sales from these . but only a tiny fraction of what on-line
advertising brings in. It all boils down to what works for each of us,
either personally or corporately.
Although email and web sites are not free, the cost-per-reader when viewed
from a worldwide customer perspective, is so small that it's hard to
calculate. On-line is also fast and as current as the writer makes it.
Magazines can't claim either and the cost-per-issue is often very high for
specialty pubs. It would be very difficult to maintain a quality paper
magazine aimed toward S scale modelers due to costs, production schedules,
etc., but, to me, it seems easier to update PARTS of a web site on a more
frequent basis (ala Proto 48) . maybe bi-weekly? . than having to wait til
the editor has enough material to justify running an ENTIRE issue . twice a
year (maybe). Sure there will be those that have no access to on-line
services and won't take the time to visit the library for their free
services either, but those are not the ones we should target anyway. I
don't want to sound insensitive but time marches on with or without our
input. If you don't want to get left behind, sometimes, we have to make the
move to keep up.
Jim King
Smoky Mountain Model Works, Inc.
www.smokymountainmodelworks.com
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