MARCH/APRIL 2017 N-SCALE MAGAZINE

[MichaelWinicki]

I have to agree that Pamela has completely missed the point here.  It is not a question of why the price of the digital edition is the same as the print edition.  The question is why the digital edition has different prices for different countries.  There is no difference in the cost to the magazine in providing access to international locations.

Dave

My interpretation was "It's cost us a great deal of resources to do a digital edition with additional content and this was the way we chose to amortize our costs."

It might be a "ham-fisted" way of doing it but it is what it is.

[MichaelWinicki]

The answer supplied by Pamela did not answer the question of why different prices for the digital edition.  It would be the same edition, just different prices for different countries.  Until digital becomes cheaper than print, I will stick with print.  Digital should be cheaper than print because no paper and printing costs, no postage costs.  The set up costs should be the same as you set up digitally for printing.  Check other mags, digital is same as print.

The challenge is that you just can't take a publication that is done using desktop publisher software and then convert it to a pdf... Well you COULD do that but it would not make the publication "secure", which is something that scares the bejesus out of every publisher– Content going out the door that is easily duplicated and shared to non-paying individuals.  And even then a pdf version isn't really the best for "reading" a digital publication like a magazine.

[sirenwerks]

And even then a pdf version isn't really the best for "reading" a digital publication like a magazine.

Depends on what type of device you're reading it on.  Reading digitized print materials on a tablet is great, at least using Zinio.  Acrobat's system of delivery, however, is clunky for casual user and publisher alike, it seems.  Morning Sun's cranking out stuff that is truly a PITA to use - images (and that's what they are, picture books) don't fill the viewing area significantly and the zoom capacity is far to limited.  When I have to pull out a magnifying glass to blow up a screen image, you know it's bad.  MRH seems to have it pretty well in hand, however, but it's free and doesn't have as many security concerns too..


In regards to NSM going digital, I really hope NSR does the same soon.  I don't subscribe to NSM, in fact I think I have only bought one issue in a couple years.  The article quality just doesn't get me, the layouts it features don't do it for me and there's not enough actual modeling.  NSR on the other hand has consistently good photography and writing and the articles are of interest to me.

[Pamela Clapp]

Attached is a link for those of you interested in viewing a sample digital edition of N-Scale Magazine. I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you.
With regard to some of the comments, I will be reviewing the digital pricing vs print pricing. Your comments are truly appreciated. Pamela
http://digitaledition.qwinc.com/publication?i=354489

[Scottl]

Pamela:  It is a nice presentation and an intuitive interface.  I found the links to the ads were limited to just the url tag, so I would suggest making the entire ad clickable if you can, but otherwise it is fine.

I would strongly consider you revisit your digital pricing for non-US sooner than next year.   Postage differentials are completely reasonable, but not with digital delivery.

[John]

So the Aus and Can subscriptions will have even more content just for those markets, justifying the difference in price?

Sounds good to me!

Craig

No .. but it will be upside down 

[Doug W]

Looks good Pamela. I agree with all of Scottl's comments.

[bdennis]

Thanks for the link Pamela.
I like the interface and agree with the above re the entire ad should be clickable.

I agree with Scott. It make no sense for the Non US pricing for the digital version to be any more expensive than the US digital version.

Please review your pricing as I cant subscribe at the current prices and I would be happy to subscribe to the digital version at the US price.

[craigolio1]

I doubt that Craig.

That would make it even more complicated (costly) to create two separate editions... One for the US market and one for non-US markets.

I know. That was my poor attempt at a bit of sarcasm. I checked out the MR website and they also charge different prices for international digital subscriptions, but they are less than the printed subscriptions.

Craig.

[C62-2]

But MR includes a hard copy mailed overseas in all of the rate packages that I can see. [I finally found digital only subscriptions on the MR web site - the overseas rate is the same as the US rate] I like what Morning Sun books does - the digital books are cheaper than the hard copies, and cost the same anywhere on the planet. It's actually increased the rate at which I buy books, since I don't have to worry about shipping to Tokyo, and the price is near the "I've spent that much going to Starbucks" range. Fortunately for my wallet, most of the ones I want aren't available in digital format yet

[RAILCAT]

Living in Ireland the cost of postage from the USA is a great put off when buying
anything, product or magazines. The post cost often exceeds the value of the item.

If the digital copy was around $30 yearly I would find that acceptable.