7.99 was a one-time special price

$7.99 was for a one-time special issue that's 16 pages larger.

My own opinion is they're testing the waters for an eventual permanent price increase.

When it comes to marketing a product, one consideration is if you can sell fewer items at a higher price and make more money because the total take is greater.

We'll see. I would suspect the $5.99 price isn't likely to continue much longer. If you check other niche hobby magazines, $6.99 is not all that uncommon.

Joe, I see that and...........

.........just checked the November issue of  MR sister mag TRAINS which also was a "Special Jumbo Issue" 16 pages larger,  again priced at $7.99!

Peter

E.G. publishing is changing

E.G. it's natural to ask what's going on with the hobby's leading publishers. So far this thread has been mostly asking questions and wondering what's up - nobody's dissing MR.

MR is a traditional paper publisher with a large infrastructure to support, and like all paper publishers they're caught between a rock and a hard place as paper costs, ink costs, and shipping costs continue to go up sharply. Something has to give.

As long as a thread doesn't just turn into wild speculation around Kalmbach's motives, we're okay to let people blow off a little steam. It's best to not try to turn people into villains for wanting to discuss other hobby publishers on here.

Relax, EG, Joe is 100%...........

................... correct.  I was surprised the price went down and wondered why as prices "never" go down!!  Same thing with TRAINS magazine.  I'll leave the "are 16 pages worth an extra 2 bucks"  question to someone else.

Peter

As long as a thread doesn't

And THAT is why I like this forum! Common sense moderation...say it ain't so!?!

Attitudes and egos always show up

To think we can all be totally altruistic and never have an attitude or ego isn't realistic - we're not unfeeling robots. The main thing is to be civil, and recently we seemed to have learned as a group to remember we're talking about people and they have feelings.

As long as we can be nice about it and it has something to do with trains, then fine.

The publishing industry is going through radical change right now and the various publishers are trying to deal with it each in their own way. Plus these changes are affecting all of us in a big way.

To just pretend we don't see that and want to talk about it feels like ignoring the elephant in the room. Rather, let's politely point out there's an elephant in here, and let's talk about it.

...

My LHS has a memo posted that MR has dropped their price up here in Canada.  Doesn't matter to me, I don't purchase that magazine anymore. 

Attitudes and Egos

You are right attitudes and egos always how up. I will try and keep my ego in check.

BUT

My attitude is that over 4 1/2 years ago I found MRH magazine and since them I have not purchased one MR magazine. And in looking through a couple of issues last weekend at my buddies, I find I am missing nothing.

Keep up the good work Joe and Company.

Thank you for a top notch magazine.

Fortunate

Before I found MRH I found the MR.  I was trying to justify the cost.  From previous endeavors I found the advertising excessive and you had to look hard to find the topics.  The topics are so interspersed with advertisements you turn 3 pages to get one page of text.  Then you have questions and well you're left hanging.

What I like about MRH is I read a topic in the recent posts,  ask a question and you get answers. I walk away informed.  When I see examples of the excellent modeling done in the posts, the range of topics covered I know I'm at the right place.  I've learned a lot in a very short time.

Additionally I am committed to supporting our sponsors. They provide quality products and coupled with the constructive ideas and criticism provided by the members I know when I go from drawings to building my layout  I will be doing so with more knowledge and the ability to turn to members for good advice. 

True, MR isn't what it once was....

And in my mind the descent started after Andy Sperandeo left the editor position and Terry Thompson took over. We all know Andy is a "modeler first" and Terry Thompson was more of a "bean counter". Still, I do find things of value in the magazine and I subscribe to the digital format and I have tried out Video plus for the coming year. What I don't get about the attitude of some folks in this discussion is why we have to make this an "us vs. them" MRH vs. MR discussion. I enjoy reading both and feel I get the most full perspective of the hobby that way. I would even subscribe to RMC if I could but I just can't afford more than one magazine subscription a year. I certainly am glad MRH is free.

Michael

MR vs RMC

I've felt for a long time that MR was great at getting people into the hobby but it lacked in material that would interest the more advanced modeller while RMC confused the heck out of new people and has more appeal to the more advanced modeller. 

Looking back and ahead

Looking back:

When MRH came into existence four years ago, I signed up as a subscriber, and shortly thereafter decided to not renew my expiring MR subscription.  The reasons: (1) MRH was a great substitution for MR and was free to me, leaving more of my limited funds for trains.  (2) no more storage of paper mags.

I thought, and probably wrote the comment, that MR (and other mags) would have to respond in roughly three years, as more people chose as I did, let their subscriptions lapse, and the economic signals (read "less money") were received in ever increasing volume by the MR staff.

So, here we are, having this very discussion.  About a year ago was when I really started seeing MR ramp up the electronic marketing (I'm still on their mailing list, though I can't click through any of what they promote, because I'm not a paying subscriber anymore).  They're playing catch-up, with a business plan that needs to be changed, not just modified.

Looking forward:

With the rapidity with which trends are changing and technology is evolving, the question is raised:  can MRH keep up.  my view is that the staff of MRH is setting the line to toe up to, and is moving it forward in appropriately timed increments.  Thank you, MRH.

MR:  There is discussion in NMRA publications about demographics, and particularly about the aging, retired modelers that are dominant but will be going away.  (I can talk this way, because I'm now called "old" by fellow employees; I'm 66 but still working!)  I will guess that the majority of the subscriber base for MR is in the "old" group, while the hobby as a whole has a greater range of ages.  I've had communications with, and have met some MRH forum posters, and the range of ages is from 15 up, with several in their 30's or 40's.  Everyone is dialed in to what the next step in technology can give us as hobbyists, and all are excited about whatever is coming.  MRH is there in the midst of the mix.  MR is not.

I thinking, two years, for the next paradigm.

MR vs MRH?

MRH keeps me more informed...

....at this stage of the hobby for me. I've been doing this on and off now for 35 years so I'm no beginner. Still, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy some of the content of MR as well. That was the basis of my comment. It's not like you have to choose one or the other.

Michael

time and information

MR vs MRH:  I spend much more time with MRH than I ever did with MR. 

When I received my monthly issue of MR, I would, usually that night, sit down and read through it, sometimes even the ads.  I would mark an article occasionally that had some appeal, with the intention of going back to it.  Rarely, I would write down an advertiser's address or URL to check out.

With MRH, I download the full version at home, start reading it, click stuff, go to advertisers' pages, read some more.  In a few days time, I've covered most of it.  I also download the short version at work, so I can read it at lunch time, offline (That keeps our IT department happy).

So, time occupied by publication per month:  No contest:  MRH  by a mile.

Advertising effectiveness:  anything I see in MRH that interests me:  I check it out then and there.

Are We Counting Magazine or Forum Time?

I find I spend about the same amount of time reading MR and MRH.  The Forum is where I find myself spending a heck of a lot more time on the forum, because there is so much more information available in the MRH Forum here than on the same effort by the MR crew. 

Much of the MRH Forum is based on the contents of the ezine, but  the topics cover everyones' questions and a lot of information on "how to" or "how I did it" etc.  Frankly this the arena that MRH has managed to dominate.

I did buy the May MR

Solely because of the Traction Layout article.

Since traction layouts are such a rarely published subject, I overrode my usual reason for not buying MR. (Expecting a hobby magazine editing staff to at least understand the NMRA standards as well as reasonably support them).

Also in that issue was an editorial article on several future technologies that supposedly will change the hobby. (wireless, etc., as one of several previously discussed here.) However that section included a treatise on a different, "lower friction", wheel profile as a significant improvement over RP 25, without offering any NMRA or other technical viewpoint to put the claim in context, or otherwise verify it.

So I did use their on-line facility to send a "letter" to the editor instantly.

It remains to be seen if that will be published.

MR is getting ready...

MR now has digital, don't they. All they need to do is stop printing when there are enough readers. Probably not that simple but moving in there