MARCH/APRIL 2017 N-SCALE MAGAZINE

[PGE_Modeller]

The cover price of the magazine is $6.75 US dollars which, at today's exchange rate comes to $8.98 Canadian dollars.  Price at my LHS is $9.15 Canadian - not unreasonable since he is paying US wholesale price, having his order drop shipped to a US address, and driving across the border once a week to make a pick-up run. I certainly don't begrudge him his transportation costs and he is entitled to a reasonable profit on his expenses - particularly since I want to see him stay in business so I can actually see first-hand items that I am going to buy!  At $9.15 per issue, my annual cost for the magazine comes to $54.90 Canadian.  That is a substantial difference from the $55 US ($73.15 Canadian) that it would cost me to subscribe and almost enough to pay for another freight car.

I would definitely prefer the digital edition as I have run out of storage space for my magazines, but I am not going to pay $73 for the digital edition when I can get the print edition for $55.  I have the 75 year collection of MR on DVD and I have the N-Scale CDs - but still have the print editions of Railroad Model Craftsman, Mainline Modeler, Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette, etc.  I would love to have those as digital editions in place of the print editions but the $250 US price tag for the Mainline Modeler collection from the C&O Historical Society puts it out of reach.

Cheers,

[peteski]

Pete, I think you and everyone else needs to contact Pamela at the magazine and ask her this question. Maybe it's just me, but it seems she drops these updates on the various N scale web site forums and rarely answers any questions from the forum members. Who knows, maybe Walt will even post a few questions with answers in the "Letters to the Editors" column.

Pamela is the publisher of the magazine with Walt being the editor. And you are right, in the online forums she mostly just posts the updates about new issues being published.

As far as letters to the editor go, I have contacted them few times (via email) over the last several years and I was surprised to find that most of my letters were published.  While I do think it is a good idea to contact the magazine via email, I'm not sure if this type of a question is something they'll publish and answer in the letters to the editor.

[Pamela Clapp]

I want to thank all of you for your comments concerning N-Scale Magazine, especially regarding the digital edition. I was hoping to receive feedback to hear if you were able to view it and navigate through the issue with ease. Were you interested in downloading the issue to your desktop, or simply go to your choice of online browser and view it? Were you interested in additional content? I am surprised I didn't receive any requests or comments on that. I shared this with both The Railwire and Trainboard and this forum only questioned pricing, so I want to address that.  I assure you that I am more than happy to discuss any questions you have.
It is and remains my intention to include additional content to the digital edition in the way of photos, videos and more from the authors that are not able to be included in the magazine due to page limitation so you receive more than you would with just a printed copy.  There are fees involved in producing a digital edition, and extra charges for additional photos, videos, etc., that most are unaware of.  Trying to get the first digital edition up and running, with all of details involved, was a very large undertaking, so please be patient. Now that I have accomplished that, I will focus my efforts on including additional content for the digital edition I know you are going to be interested in.
Pricing is set for 2017 digital subscriptions, but I will be reviewing pricing before next year for new digital subscriptions beginning with January/February 2018. I truly appreciate your comments and hope you will continue to support N-Scale Magazine through this new venture as we grow. Thank you. 

[Chris333]

FWIW you can only get the digital version of my local newspaper if you subscribe to the print edition.

[nkalanaga]

Chris333:  I've seen several like that, which makes no sense.  If I subscribe to the print edition of a local paper, I don't NEED the online edition.  If I want an out of town paper, and can read it online, I don't need the print edition, which would arrive a week after I read it.

The two worst cases I've met are the Spokane Spokesman-Review, which actually cancelled all of their mail subscriptions, and told out f town subscribers to subscribe to the online edition.  Payable by automatic charge to a credit card, monthly, as the only option.  I declined the offer.

The other was one I didn't subscribe to at all.  The local paper in Dunedin, NZ, used to have a very nice online edition.  The first page had a list of sections.  Each section page had a list of articles, and a one-line description of the content of each.  The articles were usually text-only, with an occasional picture.  Quick loading, easy to read, and always worked.  The replaced that with one of the "e-edition" facsimile websites.  No index, just load a picture of each page, in sequence, and click on the picture to enlarge an article.   

I tried it at work, during the demo period.  On a T1 (high speed) connection, it took 45 minutes to read the days paper, when I could go through the interesting articles in the old site in about 5 minutes. 

The price got me.  To subscribe to the new e-edition would have cost me more than having the print edition mailed FROM NEW ZEALAND to the US 6 days a week!  I quit reading the paper.  They dropped the e-edition, and now have a free web edition, but I seldom read it, having gotten out of the habit.

[Chris333]

Our papers website doesn't make them money, so basically that is why they do it.

I recently posted that 0.17% of people click online ads. ***
Just searched and found two more statistics:  0.10% and 0.06%.


I'm sure a Model Railroad specific magazine will get more clicks with Model Railroad specific ads, but it is a business model that digital only will lose them money while they are still printing. So that is why they charge the same either way.  (this is just a guess)

[peteski]

I'm sure a Model Railroad specific magazine will get more clicks with Model Railroad specific ads, but it is a business model that digital only will lose them money while they are still printing. So that is why they charge the same either way.  (this is just a guess)

But I guess that the gripe here is that there is a foreign surcharge applied even when ordering digital-only subscription.
USA: $38, Canada: $55, International $80, all in US dollars!!  Does it cost the magazine extra to supply the electrons to Melbourne, Australia than it does to Schenectady, NY, USA?   

[Chris333]

Yeah it seems they could at lease remove the shipping they'er not paying.

[Teditor]

The current exchange rate is $1.00 US = $1.32 Aus, so the Digital copy costs $105.39 Aus, MRH is totally FREE, but I have never actually read a copy (I do have a quick glance through it) and all the bonus's mean zilch to me.

Ted (Teditor) Freeman
From the land down under
Where even the electrons cost a lot more to make function upside down!

[craigolio1]

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

[MichaelWinicki]

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

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.

[MichaelWinicki]

But I guess that the gripe here is that there is a foreign surcharge applied even when ordering digital-only subscription.
USA: $38, Canada: $55, International $80, all in US dollars!!  Does it cost the magazine extra to supply the electrons to Melbourne, Australia than it does to Schenectady, NY, USA?   

Yeah that would be a legitimate gripe.

If the digital edition has more content just offer it for say (and I'm just throwing this out there...) $50 a year no matter where you live.

[MichaelWinicki]

Our papers website doesn't make them money, so basically that is why they do it.

I recently posted that 0.17% of people click online ads. ***
Just searched and found two more statistics:  0.10% and 0.06%.


I'm sure a Model Railroad specific magazine will get more clicks with Model Railroad specific ads, but it is a business model that digital only will lose them money while they are still printing. So that is why they charge the same either way.  (this is just a guess)

That's the pickle right there. 

Ad response in a digital universe is downright dismal.  Advertisers don't get the response (for many reasons that I won't go into).  They start pulling their ads when they see print circulations decreasing because they know (at least the ones that track) that their digital ads aren't creating as many sales as when they appear in an ink-on-paper publication.

[casmmr]

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.

[Van Horne]

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