One interesting note

Lower limit

Yup, still sounds like a reasonable deal.

There is probably a lower limit to the size of MRH even if ad revenue goes to zero - a decent MRH is the best advertising you have for RE.

Joe, Maybe it is time to bite

Joe,

Maybe it is time to bite the bullet and start charging for MRH subscriptions. Me personally, I would rather pay for MRH then see it and RE slowly deteriorate. Even if the MRH and RE subscriptions were set at the current rate for RE for both....so for current RE subscribers cost would not increase, but for non-subscribers they would need to purchase a subscription. Perhaps return to just one publication if you did that. You may loose a few readers but with the quality of the publications I would bet more folks would opt in then opt out. It would still be a huge bargain compared to MR. Just throwing out ideas.

Second The Motion

Joe, I second the motion put forward by manofkountry. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the idea of free content paid for by someone else (i.e. greedy commercial interests ????) was at best a short term phenomenon that lasted only until the aforementioned GCI realized they could advertise themselves without needing publication(s) in which to do so. You might as well charge for MRH and re-integrate that which became RE into a single publication. While there will no doubt be those who will wail, gnash teeth, and adopt sackcloth and ashes as their wardrobe of choice when presented with a bill for payment of services rendered, that too shall pass. Such malcontents who raise a mighty fuss about actually ponying up money for something of value will soon find something else to kvetch about and relative peace will return to the realm. Most assuredly it will be a short peace, but that is the way of the world. There is no end of things people can, and will, find worthy of complaint.

Mike

Still a bargain

The move to social media for advertising is being made by every industry.  I myself have been running a law practice for 10 years and have never done any print advertising.  That said, to any manufacturers who may be following, your ads in MRH did get me to click through and make purchases on more than one occasion.  

Charging for MRH — ain’t gonna happen!

Big problem with charging for MRH — even if it was 99 cents — is it will tank readership by 90%. Then the promise we’ve made to advertisers as to readership goes out the window and they won’t want to pay our now high ad prices for such a tiny readership.

MRH's monthly ad revenue is still the largest single income line item on our income statement. TMTV is next, then the MRH Store, which includes Running Extra.

For the record, Running Extra's subscription readership is just 10% of MRHs readership and has plateaued even though it's been a super cheap magazine. TrainMasters TVs membership is just 10% of MRH's readership.

Study after study after study shows the minute you charge even one cent for something that was free before, interest drops by 90%. The Running Extra and TMTV numbers fit that prediction exactly.

The quickest way to kill MRH Media entirely would be to charge money for MRH and kill what is still our single largest revenue generator, even though it’s down by almost 40%. Readership remains strong and by being free that gives us and advertisers a huge foot in the door for promoting all the other stuff we offer.

P.S. The thought of charging money for MRH has come up in our staff discussions before and I’ve brought up the only 10% number will pay each time it comes up. The staff has poo-poo'ed that number and said, “the MRH readers are different, we have a huge goodwill with them thanks to years of free magazines ...”

So we finally came up with the idea of a second magazine in Running Extra and making it no ads and not free. The $1.99 per issue price has been a bargain basement price. The staff was excited and threw around numbers like 50% of MRH readership, etc. ... the result?

RE readership launched with a “surge” to 5% of the MRH readership and crawled slowly up to finally hit 10% of the MRH readership this spring. Hah! I TOLD YOU SO ... the minute you charge money for something, everyone except your most loyal fans run the other way!

But It’s Not Forever Free, Someone Somewhere Is Paying

I suppose you could say “forever paid for by someone else”, but even that breaks down under scrutiny as the monies paid by advertisers are embedded in the prices charged for the goods and services provided by those same advertisers. Given that those advertisers are looking for ways to cut their own costs to improve their own bottom lines, it’s hardly surprising that they are taking advantage of the Internet’s capability for direct connection to potential customers. I get several emails a week from various model railroad vendors touting this or that good/service including, I might add, MRH. Additionally, there are several vendors I check out on an at least a semi-regular basis to see if there’s something that might interest me. The hard truth is, we really no longer need publications, either virtual or dead tree, to aggregate advertisements from vendors so that we may have a single source for information. 

I’m one of the latecomers to “Running Extra”. It wasn’t until the article on a “crowd sourced” steam locomotive appeared that my interest was sufficiently piqued to cough up the money for a subscription. There’s a bit of irony there as I was more than willing to pay real money for a subscription to MRH from the outset, ads and all. The fact that “Running Extra” is ad free is not, from my perspective, important at all. There’s a real irony here. Over the last few years, I’ve accumulated a considerable number of British model railway publications. The most numerous in my collection is “Model Rail” as it seems to have the most interesting mix of articles in each issue. A copy of a single issue of a British mag in the US is, at a minimum, approximately 50% the cost of a year’s subscription to “Running Extra”.  I highly recommend getting several months worth of “Model Rail” to see the variety it offers. If nothing else, get the June, 2019 issue. While not my favorite, it’s chock full of variety, including 2 layout plans based on the Falmouth Branch in Cornwall. Charge it off to market research. After all, the UK has 5 hardcopy publications dedicated modeling railways in a country with 20% of the population of the US.

Mike

There's also too cheap

There's also an odd phenomena called "too cheap" ... if something is really low priced your mind goes to "what's wrong with this -- it must be junk" and you pass it by.

I think Running Extra single issues at $1.99 and ~300 pages has just been priced too low. Even at $2.99 it's still 300 pages for a penny a page. Compare that to the paper magazines that are $7 and 80 pages, that's almost 9 cents per page ... and they charge the same price as paper for their digital editions, so the comparison totally works.

So yes, RE is not free. The no ads and virtually no editorial content in RE means it's hard-core meat through and through. If you like ads, there's still MRH, and we put MRH on the back of RE so you only need one download -- super convenient.

If you're a new manufacturer or a foreign manufacturer looking to break into the North American market, MRH is still the best deal going as to ad rates and audience reach in North America. Our YouTube channel and Facebook pages have 50% MORE audience than Model Railroader, too -- so if trying to get known is your desire, MRH is still a superb way to go as an advertiser to raise brand awareness.

RE and value for the money

Joe:

I got a one year subscription to Running Extra back in November in a deal offered as I recall in combination with TMTV.

Have been very happy with the product; in fact, I think the last two months have been the best yet...ie....its getting better and better.

I would encourage anyone who hasn't, to try RE for a month, or better yet, for a year to see if they like it, and to get your "Make it Run Like a Dream" series. ( I have an electronic subscription.)  I have thought the first two books outstanding, giving me information I had never seen before, and am looking forward to the third.  And, as mentioned above, I have a subscription to TMTV.  The only thing I lack there is time enough to watch all the videos I want to see. 

I dropped Model Railroader at the end of last year, as I felt it wasn't giving me enough for the money.  And that minimizes the paper that my children will throw in the dumpster when I depart.

Keep up the good work, and I hope some on the fence try Running Extra in one form or another after reading this.

Have you considered lowering

Have you considered lowering the ad rate in MRH as a way to possibly get more advertisers? I'm sure you have looked at it, but it seems it may be easier to get 2 advertisers at $150 each versus 1 at $300. While we have Facebook and other channels at our fingertips it does take some time and effort to build those numbers while placing an ad is less of a time sink. And while clicks are easily measured, brand awareness isn't. While someone may not click on my ad they may be more interested in checking out what's in that new packaging with the logo he had seen somewhere before.

My situation may be a bit different due to my choices of ad copy and logo which makes it seem as if I manufacture only one prototype's equipment (Milwaukee Road), which frankly isn't too far off right now, but even with that my best day for traffic has been when I posted a new release to a FB group with around 2,000 members. Not the day MRH is released.

I'd like to keep advertising in MRH and help support the mag but am really on the fence at this point. One thing I would suggest, and did a few months ago, is to have the link open in a new window/tab when clicking an ad. It's extremely frustrating to be reading through the magazine, seeing an interesting ad and clicking, then being returned to the very start of the mag when hitting the back button. I avoid clicking ads due to this unless I find it very interesting and try to remember to right click and open in new tab.

edit-I asked once how one gets on your FB page but never heard back.

Todd 

Lines West Products

Our FB page

Visit the community menu on the right.

Ad links

Interesting. Obviously, you're talking about the online version of the magazine, are you not? Downloaded PDF versions of the magazine always open an ad in a browser window, and do not affect the PDF page location in the least.

When I browse the online magazine in Chrome and click on an ad, it opens a new tab. Question is -- what is different about what you're doing that makes it NOT open a new tab?

I'm a bit puzzled, Joe. You

I'm a bit puzzled, Joe.

You appear to be counting all the free MRH pages in your RE cost-per-page analysis. So essentially, either your calculation is incorrect, or you're saying that what non-RE subscribers get for free, RE subscribers pay to receive.

Looking at the past four issues of RE - JUST RE, page count is as follows: March 2019 - 58 pages; April 2019 - 52 pages; May 2019 - 64 pages; and June 2019 - 60 pages (and those counts include the cover and table of contents pages). That averages to 58.5 pages per issue, not 300. 

So the actual per-page cost of RE is a smidgeon over five cents per page (5.11 actually), not one cent per page.

I'm an RE subscriber (otherwise I wouldn't be able to count the pages in every issue), and I think it's well worth the cost. But I don't understand how you can amortize the cost of RE across the pages of the free magazine as well. Seems like misleading advertising, at best.

Facebook

I believe he wants to know how to get his product mentioned on facebook since he is an advertiser already.

Getting mentioned on MRH's Facebook page

First I have to know you are on Facebook 

Done - my MRH Facebook account is now following Lines West Products.  

It does help that when you announce new products, it is very specific in the post that it is a new product. Not dinging you - I haven't gone back through your posts yet to see how you post new things - but just a suggestion based on my seeing a lot of product posts, some of which make you wonder if it's new, or if the manufacturer is just trying to raise it's visibility a bit. And there are a few companies that do custom work, and they're posting photos of it on Facebook, but will never release it as a generally available product. 

Now to go through our advertiser list and see who else I might have missed... 

When I browse the online

I don't know what is different but I just tried it again and it's the same. I also use Chrome and actually have it set to default "open a new tab" when clicking a link. This is the downloaded PDF, landscape, which simply opens the mag in my browser. It doesn't save to my computer where I have to open it separately/manually.

ETA-This is the link from my ad in the current issue. It seems there is supposed to be something in the link to instruct the browser to open a new window. (I did a website in HTML yearsssss ago so don't remember everything)

https://model-trains-universe.com/adserver/www/delivery/ck.php?bannerid=2318

Todd

Pages and page cost

First, make sure you count pages correctly.

We use the Portrait Edition since those are the pages we paste up individually in our pasteup software. Our pasteup software allows us to output either as pages or as SPREADS for the landscape edition. You’re counting spreads (landscape edition), which comes in at half the number of actual pages we paste up.

We’ve been using the portrait pages in our page count goals ever since we launched the portrait edition way back in 2011. When we launched the portrait edition in 2011, we simply doubled the number of pages in the old landscape edition, so nobody got shortchanged.

RE PROPER PAGE COUNT
So the RE page counts are: Mar - 116, Apr - 118, May - 128, Jun - 120. As a service to RE readers you get the MRH pages included in the back.

We could debate what that service costs you since you are paying to get all the pages in one convenient package. We're paying to host much larger magazine files and we're paying staff to construct yet another version of the magazine (two versions, actually). Each version needs to have their own unique TOC page links and cover teaser article links determined and put in -- and then tested to make sure the links all work correctly in those other versions.

VALUE OF THE MRH PAGES ADDED SERVICE?
MRH is free, yet we have people pay to buy the magazines on a data DVD for $20 each and ship the DVD to them. Are they paying for those free pages even though they could download it for free as well? You bet.

What if the paper magazines routinely gave away sample magazines that had 20 pages from the full magazine in them. Does that make those 20 pages free in the 80 page magazine you bought for $7?

If the magazine publisher then tells you your $7 magazine that's 80 pages costs you ($7 / 80) per page, are they being deceptive? You see the problem ... if you want to consider those 20 pages free in the magazine you bought for $7 because those 20 pages are also available free elsewhere too, nobody's going to stop you!

CONCLUSION
Anyhow, it all gets down to how much the service of adding the MRH pages is worth to you. Quarter cent a page? Half cent a page? I like to keep the explanation simple rather than get all mired down in mental gymnastics around what the MRH pages being included are worth (since they're value-added and not free).

Rather than trying to explain all that, I’m just keeping it simple. It’s not an attempt to mislead, it's just a rabbit trail that could turn into a lot of debate over just what those pages are worth to you. Like the $7 paper magazine, if you want to consider pages that are also available elsewhere free as being free to you, then go right ahead!

P.S. At the end of the day, it's all going into the same bucket here. RE funds are being used to help prop up the flagging ad revenue of MRH. So yes, as far as we're concerned, what you pay for RE is also underwriting (and therefore paying) for ad-funded (aka "free") MRH pages too.

One could argue that's actually less deceptive -- otherwise if I declare MRH pages to always be free regardless of where they appear, you could say I'm artificially elevating the value of the RE pages by making them cost more!

It's a browser setting!

Actually, this is a browser setting or a browser add-on to get this behavior, so it's not a magazine default per se. Just google the name of your browser and "open links in new window" to find out how to change the default.

For example, if your browser is firefox, google:

firefox open links in new window

You will get this back:

Scroll up and you'll see I

Scroll up and you'll see I described what it's doing. I do use Chrome and already have it set to open in a new tab and have for years.

Edit- I think the opening the PDF in my browser is also a Chrome option. Doing that the ad links do not open a new tab.

Another edit-Just tried the online version and it doesn't open the ad link at all. My tabs "flicker" like it's trying to open but nothing. Really odd. I'd be surprised if I'm the only one with this problem.

Popup blocker!

All modern browsers come with a popup blocker included and enabled. You need to tell your popup blocker to allow the online magazine pages to be an exception, and then it will work great.

joef First, make sure you

I didn't even think about the portrait page count, since all I've ever read is the landscape version. Thanks for clearing that part up for me.

Also, thanks for answering my comment about not understanding how you amortize the cost of RE over 300 pages. I now see how you figure the one-cent-per-page cost. Some of the logic in your approach seems a bit ... unusual... to me, but that's neither here nor there. As long as I see it as worth the cost (which I certainly do!), the discussion is wholly academic.

It's all good!

Dumb question about subscriptions

Do you send you renewal notices or is there some way I can check when my subscription is up? Just curious since I payed for another year for another year of MR and they started sending me two copies. If I could I’d just set up an autopay when the time rolls around. 

To me it's how we use the funds that's the kicker

I added this postscript, and to me this is what really matters ... 

P.S. At the end of the day, it's all going into the same bucket here. RE funds are being used to help prop up the flagging ad revenue of MRH. So yes, as far as we're concerned, what you pay for RE is also underwriting (and therefore paying) for ad-funded (aka "free") MRH pages too.

One could argue that's actually less deceptive -- otherwise if I declare MRH pages to always be free regardless of where they appear, you could say I'm artificially elevating the value of the RE pages by making them cost more!

So to us, you ARE paying for the MRH ad-funded pages as well. You can consider them free since you *could* download them for no cost elsewhere.

But like the paper magazine that also provides a free 20 page edition sampler each month, you're still paying for those "free" pages too in the 80 page paper magazine you elected to buy. To paraphrase Obiwan in Star Wars, "it all depends on taking a certain point of view".

@NeilEr - We've got you covered

Yes, we will send you a renewal notice, for sure.

If you have an auto-renew subscription, you have a management panel that looks like this below:

In your case, Neil, you have a one-time sub that will just end -- but on all those subs, we will be sending out an email in advance that offers converting it to auto-renew in plenty of time so you don't miss anything.

We also are converting to all auto-renew subs going forward because it's so easy to cancel any time -- just go to your sub management panel above and select the cancel subscription link -- done! We also warn you via email so you can cancel if you don't want the auto-renew.

In your case, Neil, your sub will end in October, so we'll be contacting you in September to convert to an auto-renew if you wish.