After reading the recent posts, I have "joined" as a SUPPORTING MEMBER for both my personal and business OGR Forum presence.
I don't miss any issue print or digital + the Forum and have the OGR Forum available on both home and office computer.
Happy camper.
Walter
@MartyE posted:My Digital Subscription just renewed about a week or so ago. As I said earlier supporting the forum for the $30 a year and getting some great content is well worth it. Getting all the back issues, extra content is a pretty exciting bonus. I think one way of looking at it is if you asked a question and got an answer, found a tip or trick for doing something on your layout, got advice for fixing or upgrading and engine or even bought a hard to find item from the Buy/Sell board and it saved you $30 isn't that worth supporting the forum in this small way?
I also find just helping people gives me great satisfaction. Very often if you help 1 person, you probably helped 10x as many with the same issue that when an internet search is done leads them to this forum.
If you like the paper then get that subscription. As Alan said he's running a combo special so it maybe time to kick the tires on the Digital side. You might just like it and again the extra content is a great value.
PERFECT Marty!!! This is so easy to understand and so hard for some of us to figure out why others don't understand!!
@Walter Matuch posted:After reading the recent posts, I have "joined" as a SUPPORTING MEMBER for both my personal and business OGR Forum presence.
I don't miss any issue print or digital + the Forum and have the OGR Forum available on both home and office computer.
Happy camper.
Walter
Walter....glad to have you aboard as one of our sponsors and advertisers in the magazine. We / I greatly appreciate all of our sponsors and magazine advertisers! AND...of course the subscribers as well!!
@DL Brunette posted:Our B&N located in the Lakewood, WA retail center, has a great magazine section. The store is well-supported by the community.
Music CD's and Video DVDs have gone by the wayside as well. I find it interesting that vinyl records are making a comeback. A few stores in Tacoma have expanded space over the last few years, one even sells vintage audio systems. Its a younger demographic in those stores. I have hope that the simplicity of vintage Lionel trains will find its way to a younger generation.
The other paper item that I have a hard time not having are the tickets to sporting events. I don't have a paper ticket for that great game between the university of oregon and the university of washington at Husky Stadium on October 14, 2023. I guess I will need to settle for great memories.
OGR no longer is in B&N stores because generally have a return rate of 70 to 80 percent in the magazine section. What this means is out of 10 magazines that we sent to them, they sold only 2 or 3. Most publishing companies can not afford to have that kind of return rate. It was costing OGR tens of thousands of dollars per year to be on news stands over and above any sales and/or subscriptions gained. We stopped news stands everywhere going on 5 years ago.
That's pretty ironic as it's at a B&N store where I first found OGR on the magazine rack. Perhaps 20 or so years ago. And learned about the Forum, then in its infancy. I'm also a print and digital subscriber. And thanks to all the OGR crew for all your efforts to support the hobby.
Rick
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:OGR no longer is in B&N stores because generally have a return rate of 70 to 80 percent in the magazine section. What this means is out of 10 magazines that we sent to them, they sold only 2 or 3. Most publishing companies can not afford to have that kind of return rate. It was costing OGR tens of thousands of dollars per year to be on news stands over and above any sales and/or subscriptions gained. We stopped news stands everywhere going on 5 years ago.
That is an eye-opener! I was thinking that a holiday special edition might be an interesting effort. It would be designed to be on the shelves from October through January and would include some previous content with some orginial content that would be interesting to someone that was looking at the general hobby section.
The goal would be to drive the buyer to explore the OGR Forum and get a subscription or be a supporter.
Put it up for sale on Amazon, at airports, etc.
That said, I wonder how much of an improvement we would get over the 70 to 80% return rate.
@DL Brunette posted:That is an eye-opener! I was thinking that a holiday special edition might be an interesting effort. It would be designed to be on the shelves from October through January and would include some previous content with some orginial content that would be interesting to someone that was looking at the general hobby section.
- Some smaller track plans from Ken Hoganson, that could be used as a carpet central, around the Christmas tree, or as a first layout.,
- The Jim Barrett two part series on building the Lionel D-265 dealer display
- Articles on getting vintage equipment up and running
- Collector's Gallery from Ed Boyle
- Some of the best layout articles in the past few years, as voted on by the OGR forum
- Other How-to-articles on scenery, etc
- Best reader tips from OGR. Like tricky problems that OGR Forum have solved.
- Reviews of starter sets and lower end equipment from Eric Siegel
The goal would be to drive the buyer to explore the OGR Forum and get a subscription or be a supporter.
Put it up for sale on Amazon, at airports, etc.
That said, I wonder how much of an improvement we would get over the 70 to 80% return rate.
I appreciate your "suggestions" above but none of these would be cost effective in terms of printing a "special issue". The printing costs alone would not justify the potential sales and the distribution you suggest would be a nightmare in terms of shipping, placement, you name it. Print does not appeal to the digital reader and that is increasingly going to be our focus. Currently, over the last couple of years we have published books on Ken's track plans, a book on all of Jim Barrett's articles and other "book" publications. Those are cost effective because we contract with printer/publishers that do not require us to do anything other than provide them with files, pdfs, etc. Rich Melvin has helped us by doing the bulk of that kind of work and the printer/publisher takes the orders, prints the book, and ships it.
The forum is available anywhere and with very little effort those folks (our target audience) can find OGR and the forum with simple web searches. We make sure that anyone that searchs for O-gauge is going to find us via the major search engines. We can do every one of the things you suggest above by simply directing folks to a digital subscription via online and then all they have to do is use our master index. Note what some of the comment from folks above and how they use the master index. Also note that we use Facebook and now YouTube to cross promote the magazine and our publications / videos. This is the direction we will be increasingly going to because of the reasons I have stated earlier.
@Rick posted:That's pretty ironic as it's at a B&N store where I first found OGR on the magazine rack. Perhaps 20 or so years ago. And learned about the Forum, then in its infancy. I'm also a print and digital subscriber. And thanks to all the OGR crew for all your efforts to support the hobby.
Rick
Yep...it was an entirely different world 20 or so years ago as to how all of us engaged in the hobby. The digital world has taken over and there is no looking back (perhaps unfortunately).
@OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:I appreciate your "suggestions" above but none of these would be cost effective in terms of printing a "special issue".
Yea, I was about 99% sure the suggestion was going to be a non-starter and not cost effective. The toothpaste is out of the tube with respect to going back to print media, because once the paste is out, its hard to put it back in the tube.
Best, Dave
So, I think we all agree that time for the magazine is limited. And since the magazine is not generating revenue, why not stop production now. Take that money and put it into a major OGR Forum advertising campaign.
How to articles and layout stories could all be published on the Forum under special sections. This way we still get some of the magazine content here on the Forum.
At this point, even if there was a charge to be a member of the Forum, I think most people would be okay with that since they could use there previous subscription money to pay for the Forum fee.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I'm a consumer and I've been a subscriber of CTT since it's inception. I enjoy reading current trends, fix-it articles, photo's of customer layouts, command control articles, electric/electronic articles, new products, advertisements, manufactures history, etc. I'm not particularly interested in longer articles associated with home layouts. Consumer Reports is still publishing hardcopy but they have changed their content format. Gone are the long winded articles. Now are shorter articles cutting to the chase. My opinion is reducing the number of issues is a declining trend a kin to retailers reducing selection and stock as a as a means to a business growing end.
Our local newspaper was robust but degraded to a limited number of pages delivering yesterdays news except for the obit's. After a while we couldn't justify the cost.
FWIW, I signed up as a supporting member of the Forum pretty soon after it was announced by OGR. I've been a Forum member since 2000--member number 76--and though I don't post often (I've got only a 4x8 layout), I enjoy lurking and reading what other members are posting. As far as the magazine goes, I've been a subscriber since the Myron Biggar/Barbara Saslo days and signed up for the digital/print combination for a few years, but let the print subscription lapse at the last renewal and will continue with the digital version indefinitely.
On a related note, since the status of CTT started this thread, I spoke with Roger Carp at York in October when I was buying his latest special-issue magazine, and, in addition to talking about the switch to quarterly publication, he mentioned that digital-only publication is in its future, though he didn't allude to a time frame for that, though I suspect it will be sooner rather than later. He also said CTT's new editor, Rene Schweitzer, was planning on being at York in April, as Hal Miller, its previous editor, was in April 2023. It'll be interesting hearing what she's got to say by then.
Chris
Therefore, print will go the way of phone booths, Christmas cards, going to the library to research a topic and standard transmissions. Our view is from the perspective of a hobbyist (aka big kid) with enthusiasm for what we love to do with no compensation needed for our efforts. The reality is that both organizations must be profitable entities. What use to be, unfortunately, doesn’t cut it moving forward. What matters is that we can still have the material; just in a modern format.
Thanks to all of those folks who produce these splendid periodicals.
Jay
Let me know how that works out when the power goes off. Paperless society......not without some innovations.
ECI
@EastCoastIron posted:Let me know how that works out when the power goes off. Paperless society......not without some innovations.
ECI
It will work out well, we have a whole house generator.😄
@CALNNC posted:One has to question the printing excuse since, the NRA who publishes and mails over 6 million magazines a month, does it for less than $4 a year out of your annual membership.
Economy of scale. There are far more NRA members than O-gaugers and many more advertisers in the gun world than the train world. I would imagine that OGR and CTT wouldn't have these issues if they were selling 6 million magazines a month.
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:It will work out well, we have a whole house generator.😄
But, what is the fuel for your "whole house" generator?
@NJCJOE posted:So, I think we all agree that time for the magazine is limited. And since the magazine is not generating revenue, why not stop production now. Take that money and put it into a major OGR Forum advertising campaign.
How to articles and layout stories could all be published on the Forum under special sections. This way we still get some of the magazine content here on the Forum.
At this point, even if there was a charge to be a member of the Forum, I think most people would be okay with that since they could use there previous subscription money to pay for the Forum fee.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Joe...you are close to what we are thinking about. Perhaps a little different in that we continue to produce the digital version of the magazine greatly expanded and tie it in with the forum as a bonus. We are still looking at 3 or 4 different options.
@EastCoastIron posted:Let me know how that works out when the power goes off. Paperless society......not without some innovations.
ECI
That paper thing worked out really well for The Library of Alexandria.
@Hot Water posted:But, what is the fuel for your "whole house" generator?
The same fuel that is used to produce and ship paper.
We'll have bigger worldly problems beyond reading our digital train magazines if the power goes out on a large-scale/long-term basis. Besides, without power how are you going to run your electric trains?
@Hot Water posted:But, what is the fuel for your "whole house" generator?
500 gallons of propane
Classic Toy Trains has been saddled with their narrow subject title, Post War trains, which limits the appeal to a small and now dying group of prospective customers. I find the first 10 to 15 years of CTT magazines of more interest to me for my Post War train interests. O Scale Railroading magazine had a similar small appeal and was wise enough to change their focus to O Gauge Railroading and widened their appeal to many more model railroading hobbyist to even include the later trend of finely detailed and modern remote control of the model trains.
Magazines are doomed by requiring the high energy costs of paper and kaolin paper coating production, which are required for magazine grade paper needed for colored pictures. Many magazines also have to carry the high costs of postage. Energy and postage (energy and labor costs both) have constantly been increasing in recent times. With digital being a reasonable, much lower cost substitute for magazines for many, magazines are getting more extinct as time goes on.
Charlie
I just finished reading this thread and I found it very interesting. I do have a print+digital OGR subscription. I usually only look at the print version but for the last two years I have been considering going only digital but I just can’t bring myself to do it. I am not sure why.
I used to have 7 magazine subscriptions but now I am down to 4. One went out of business totally and I canceled the other two mostly because I just had two many magazines coming in. Something had to go. I do really love finding a magazine in my mailbox. There’s a definite excitement to it and I can’t wait to open it up and read it! Like Chris R I have been an OGR subscriber since Myron and Barbara in the late 90s and all have enjoyed OGR all this time but they are really starting to pile up. The one thing I like about digital is it takes up less space.
One page 1 I think it was Jim R who wrote “ask a 30 something how many magazine subscriptions they have?” Well Jim didn’t specify print or digital. I suspect/assume he meant print which my guess would be the answer is zero. However I say ask a 30 something how many digital subscriptions they have and I would be very curious to hear the answer.
We all agree that it is infinitely cheaper to put out a digital magazine right? My point is will people pay for it? Will the magazine give them stuff they can’t get elsewhere on line for free? I don’t mean current forum members and OGR subscribers but new younger folks years from now coming into the hobby. If they were used to never having a digital subscription will they get one now?
I am subscribed to the digital magazine Model Railroad Hobbyist which is free (it’s predominantly a scale HO magazine) but they do sometimes have articles that can be applied to any scale. I haven’t read it in about 3 years. I just forgot all about it. They (MRH) also have another magazine that you have to pay for and that is also only digital called Running Extra. I would love to know how they are doing with that magazine financially? I assume they are making some money on it because it still exists but I would also like to know if the number of subscribers are growing or staying the same and what folks say about it? They charge $2.99 per issue of “Running Extra” or $29.99 per year. I guess the future is coming and you either have to jump on board or die out like Fezziwig did in Scrooge.
I don’t mind reading a magazine on my tablet but my tablet is very old and needs to be replaced. I already got the battery changed last year and new battery isn’t as good as the original Apple and always dies quickly. But I digress......
Edit: Out of curiosity I just checked out the current issue of MRH on line and it takes forever for each page to load probably due to my old tablet. Years ago I would download the entire file to the tablet and it worked a lot better.
When I was but a lad, a business owner I worked for shared with me a humorous idiom:
"IF a company always makes a profit... it will never go broke."
Obviously, that is true... but it's that "always make a profit" part of the saying that is the challenge.
I would not want to be in the paper publishing business in this volatile and evolving market. I can't begin to imagine the behind-the-scenes stress on the part of those at OGR as they look at the future in contrast of their "today".
For me, in spite of primarily being an HO modeler, I sincerely want OGR to succeed. We've all come to know those involved with OGR. They are good folk. Plus, on the human side, they have homes to pay for, transportation costs, have families/etc. I don't want any of them to face financial hardship. (In fact, I hope they make a killing. I do NOT begrudge hard-working entrepreneurs from reaping benefit from their labor.) Therefore, I personally will understand any drastic measures they may take in order to maintain solvency and hopefully expand their market and become more profitable.
Further, if the changes need to take place quickly, so be it. This friend of OGR will adapt to the new business model.
Andre
@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:It will work out well, we have a whole house generator.😄
Will you have access to fuel for it long term? This isn't meant to be a smart arse question, I'd like to go that route myself. Definitely great for power outages, but what about long term? I now have a gasoline powered generator. Great for short term, but how long do you want to tote gasoline, presuming you can even get it? Yeah, I'm a pessimist. 
Be interesting to see what comes out of fusion. I'll still take a book! 
ECI
@EastCoastIron posted:Will you have access to fuel for it long term? This isn't meant to be a smart arse question, I'd like to go that route myself. Definitely great for power outages, but what about long term? I now have a gasoline powered generator. Great for short term, but how long do you want to tote gasoline, presuming you can even get it? Yeah, I'm a pessimist.
ECI
Define "Long Term". A few days, a week, a month?
"Will you have access to fuel for it long term? "
In many parts of the country, whole house generators are fueled by natural gas, the same fuel used for the furnace. These generators are not designed for long term use but can get you through a few days to a few weeks of electricity outage. Natural gas supplies are rarely if ever interrupted (knock on wood). If natural gas supplies are interrupted for more than a few weeks, the availability of internet services and electrical power will probably be a secondary problem to staying warm, dry and safe. Most people don't have whole house generators and manage to survive electrical power outages without terrible consequences. Without heat, electrical power and hot water, moreover, the availability of paper magazines will provide (pun intended) cold comfort indeed.
I consider OGR as a small company. There’s no way they can continue selling a product at a loss. They’ve been upfront with us about what’s to come if they are to survive. Me, being a bullhead, respects their honesty so I will RENEW MY DIGITAL today so that I can continue to enjoy the forum and magazine. Whoops, digital magazine.
@H1000 posted:Define "Long Term". A few days, a week, a month?
Years.
@EastCoastIron posted:Years.
You better divest yourself of electric trains so you're ready.
@rplst8 posted:That paper thing worked out really well for The Library of Alexandria.
I don't belong to that library.
@MikeH posted:You better divest yourself of electric trains so you're ready.
All things must pass.
What you fine folks don't understand is the fact that I'm simply stating a preference. I'm sure Mr. Arnold will do what is financially feasible, and I wish him well. I think he is a fine person. That said, my preference for the format of my reading material is still papyrus. LOL!
Merry Christmas to ALL and to ALL a goodnight!
@MikeH posted:You better divest yourself of electric trains so you're ready.
Rechargeable battery operation!
@EastCoastIron posted:Years.
You'll have bigger problems to worry about than reading your digital (or print) magazine about electric trains (which you can't operate anyway) if there is no power for more than a year.
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