Ad-funded by small fry is dying

To keep up high quality free content you either need to have a high paying job that gives you a decent amount of free time to moonlight, or you need to be getting someone else to pay the freight — in the past that’s been by going ad-funded (aka, sponsors). However ad-funded is dying for the small fry producers.

Even CNN, MSNBC, and FOX are feeling the pinch because the big trifecta websites Google, Facebook, and YouTube are taking most of the ad placements now. Amazon's in there as number four as well.

Reference this recent article (Nov 2019): https://www.fipp.com/news/features/ad-funded-journalism-thing-past

Notice this trend is way bigger than just our hobby or just MRH -- it's affecting ALL ad-funded (previously free) media.

Like it or not, the trend is toward readers/viewers needing to pay for the best content. Say hello to the 21st Century and say goodbye to free media except for the few Internet global megacorporations that will control the ad-funded model totally.

If the rest of us want anything else, it's going to cost a fee. What I predict will happen to save us all from getting nickeled and dimed to death will eventually be package deals somewhat like cable but over the internet and grouped into interest blocks -- one affordable monthly fee gets it all.

COPPA and demonetization

One of the big issues facing YouTube content makers is the recent ruling regarding COPPA. YouTube was found blatantly violating the protections put in place for children, so naturally rather than change their practices, they paid their fines and then kicked everything back on the content producers. If there's any possibility that your content could be construed as being "for children," (and let's face it, that's how the general public views model railroading), then you have to self-identify the video as being "for children," which removes all ad revenue and removes the video from certain search results. If content producers DON'T self-identify their videos and are caught by YouTube's algorithm and censors, the producers have all their content removed from YouTube and face a lifetime ban. Appeals are possible, but most content producers aren't confident that the appeals process will be fair or unbiased.

I'm guessing that's what is driving these channels going to paid memberships. Otherwise, they'll get demonetized due to COPPA or get banned from posting any content at all (and therefore making no money).

Mike in CO

Thank goodness for Train

Thank goodness for Train Masters TV.....That is the only pay for videos this modeler is willing to pay for. Which is a shame, but I only have so many modeling dollars to spend and I will not spend them on U Tube. That's just me, I would much rather buy a nice pc of rolling stock or something else useful to my RR. 

Not sure about YouTube "membership"

It's early, but I'm guessing that a lot of the popular YouTube sites will find that the perception of their quality will go down a bit once they charge a fee.

MRH battled the "popular because they are free" perception, but I kept reading (and now subscribe) because the quality is as high or higher than the other paid competition.

Trainmasters TV sets a pretty high bar for video cost vs. value.  While I subscribe to many YouTube channels, I don't see the quality level, worth paying, in more than a handful.  Even the best are "maybe."  They really need to step up the quality to compete with TMTV.

There are some very interesting YouTube channels, but the production values are nowhere near TMTV or Kalbach's Videos.

When a guy is doing it for free, I don't expect anything, at any quality level, on any schedule.  I appreciate the contribution to the hobby, and the effort it took.

But if I'm paying, I will expect regular, high quality videos on a predictable schedule.  I don't want to hear the typical, "sorry guys, I haven't done anything for a while, but here a shaky video taken without a tripod that shows something you've seen before...."  after a few weeks of no videos.

This post may sound negative, but it's not intended to be.  It will be interesting to watch how this develops.

gs  

YouTube model railroading videos- job or hobby?

I don’t understand why YouTube channels feel the need to ask viewers for money. Even Patreon requests seem bold to me. If you need more money for better equipment, cameras, lighting, editing software and audio effects, then get a job in the video business. I think subscription numbers go to people’s head and they feel the need to produce a weekly show. 

I find most of the YouTube how-to videos in the model railroading field very poor in their information and execution of the subject matter. This is especially true with the avalanche of weathering videos. IMHO,  99% showcase very bad efforts or methods. 

If we have to pay to watch your channel, and it is not even close to TMTV standards, I wish you luck. Just because you produce a lot of videos, does not make them watchable.

Can’t touch Luke

Luke Towan would be the only You Tuber I would pay for. Exceptional in all his productions from scripting, presentation and voice. Watching his videos make it seems they were produced by a major production company. Even other big name women and men on You Tube cannot touch his standards and seemingly a lot do not try.

Tom

@ AzBaja, TomO and the discussion in general

I don't have any major insight in this discussion but just a few comments.

Az....thanks for opening the topic. Your excellent post has started a very interesting discussion.

TomO......I agree with you on Luke's YouTube tutorials. When I need answers and approaches to scenery issues I look to Luke for methods that produce results that stand way above the norm. Your post illustrates the old saying that "Cream rises to the top". Only the highest quality cream will be worth paying for.

This new dynamic is not isolated to world of the publishing. Having spent 40+ years in the music industry I had to adjust to similar dynamics many moons ago to survive. 

I was thinking about posting

I was thinking about posting this topic after learning of Ron Marsh's and Steve Brown's new membership options, but I see it's already here. Thanks, Az!

My comments:

I pay less than five dollars a month for TMTV, and about the same for MRVP. Different styles to their productions, but both are professional quality productions.

Steve Brown is asking for (rounded off) two dollars a month for some additional "exclusive" content. Ron Marsh is asking SIX dollars a month to start, and has two additional membership tiers, with the most expensive being SIXTEEN dollars a month (these are again rounded off). And Tom has a top tier of nearly twenty-five dollars a month, just to be able to tell him what you'd like to see for future videos! WOW!

I might consider two bucks a month, but no way will I pay close to or more than the professional productions cost for a few amateur production extras. I understand there are certain equipment costs associated with making high quality amateur productions like Steve's and Ron's. But I pay for my hobby with my own money. I'm frankly not going to pay for their sub-hobby of model railroad video making with my money as well, unless they offer additional content worth the price. The extras they list are, to me, not worth the cost (and a cute little logo by your name when commenting on their content is not value, it's vanity).

But for anyone who feels it's worth it, don't mind me. It's your money.

So at what point does this

So at what point does this change form hobby to professional?  You bring up Luke.   I remember back in the day when Luke was rather sub par.  I recall the point when he decided to make this a professional endeavor and changed how he is doing his videos. 
 

My question,  is this the point where some creators are flipping from hobby to professional?  Were not all those so called professional people that you mentioned just hobbyists before they went professional?   What makes you a professional?  Better sound and camera equipment? An actual Studio?  A script etc.

can you please define for me what makes you a professional vs hobby?

My fear is when it hits this forum......

Back when the Atlas forum was the go to forum.  To Atlas it was suppose to be a side bar thing but when it became a job for someone to manage the forum, with no revenue incoming to the company from it, they shut it down. Fortunately for us here the Siskiyou Line blog became MRH family and has grown into what it is now - and is now, IMHO, the go to forum.

My fear is that the basic MRH will have to get watered down to support the RE but that the RE sales won't be enough to fill the coffers enough to keep the interest in the MRH umbrella and this forum will be affected in some negative way – goes away, subscription, etc

I do not think anyone what to

I do not think anyone whats to pay for stuff like this True,  So I do agree with you on some points.  Stuff like this is best served free.

I probably watch too much TV

I probably watch too much TV as is, so I'm trying to limit that and get more modeling done. If the free content goes away so be it. I'll subscribe to a few publications or channels and use the extra time to get more done.

Lou N

I do not think anyone whats

 Sorry, Az, can't tell who you're talking to in your last two posts.

Streamers

We are now living in a world where people make a comfortable living as "streamers" talking about video games. Some are actual "celebrities". They literally talk about nothing but games on "Twitch". It doesn't surprise me at all that this is happening with other hobbies and I don't see it ever changing now.

Interesting.

I just went through right at a week of ISP outage. Boring? Yes, at times, for I didn't realize how dependent I had become on the internet entertaining me.

So what did I do?

I searched for projects to indulge in, and I actually accomplished things. I got a lot done during the outage.

And where does this put me and "pay to play"?

First off, I will not be a part of the $5 here, $3 there, $10 here merry-go-round just for entertainment, or even "how to" hobby stuff.

I will enjoy what free content there is, and basically use the internet to keep my supplies coming, communication purposes, and such as that, and more and more of my online time will be diverted to hands-on projects.

If the free ride is over, no biggie. Life for me will go on, and my layout will probably get reasonably complete a lot faster anyway!

EDIT: I would like to add, that, before the advent of the internet explosion, we all used magazines, train meets, regional fellowship, and such, as our means of information and what have you. I actually had a couple of magazine subscriptions then. (However there was far less outgo in our monthly financial picture, too. Think: Cell phone bills, internet bills, this n' that).

So, what I'm saying, is that if the trend is toward the "nickle dime you to death" approach, I'll pick one publication and subscribe, and the other's with their hands stuck out are flat outta' luck. As far as I'm concerned, MRH is the best going, so it's a no-brainer that my subscription would be MRH.

Andre

"My fear is that the basic

I subscribe to the Running Extra only to help keep the forum up and running. I'd still pay the $20 or whatever per year just for the forum if it came to that. I'd much rather subscribe to this forum with unlimited number of contributors than to a youtube channel with one content producer. Youtube is great in it's present form with many folks giving us multiple viewpoints on the subject but would lose it's appeal and usefulness if we had to pay to see each of them.Just last week I used youtube to find a video on replacing the valve cover gasket on my truck, it saved a lot of time figuring out which parts needed to be removed for access but if I had to pay first to see it I'd have just skipped youtube and went to work on the job......DaveB

Ditto

Don't get me wrong, I love both MRH and RE but I find this forum of more value to me than anything else.

Mark's comment about sums it up for me.

"I might consider two bucks a month, but no way will I pay close to or more than the professional productions cost for a few amateur production extras. I understand there are certain equipment costs associated with making high quality amateur productions like Steve's and Ron's. But I pay for my hobby with my own money. I'm frankly not going to pay for their sub-hobby of model railroad video making with my money as well, unless they offer additional content worth the price. The extras they list are, to me, not worth the cost (and a cute little logo by your name when commenting on their content is not value, it's vanity)."

MRH and the forum

My intention is to always have free a PDF/ePub with ads you can download and to maintain a free forum.

Most of the new traffic to this site comes from Google searches. The day we lock all that up behind a paywall is the day we kill most of our new growth. It’s the rich free forum and the 20,000 free PDF pages that keep us going.

Even though we’ve had to weather the global downturn in free ad-funded internet content, we’re still growing in terms of total eyeballs even though revenue is down. Our total MRH registered member base is larger than ever at 34,000. That would die on the vine quickly if we put this forum and the free MRH behind a paywall.

As long as we can get even one advertiser, I intend to publish a free MRH. It may be small, but I intend to also edit it accordingly to always minimize rambling or wasted space. Think more meat less fluff.

As for only putting the good stuff in RE and having MRH get the leftovers, that’s not how we select the content. Layout stories are very popular so they tend to go into MRH. Ken Patterson’s What’s Neat is also popular and with its renewed emphasis on how-to content again, that popular column goes into the free MRH. 

Mike Confalone’s articles are also very popular and Mike has asked that his articles target MRH rather than RE, so that’s what we will be doing. Mikes got a scenery how to coming up, and that will be going into MRH.

There's also our popular Electrical Impulses articles, and those are staying in the free MRH. Those typically cover some very useful and meaty topics that tend to be scale and era independent.

Bottom line, we can’t afford to put all the good stuff in MRH any longer, but we’re also not deliberately putting just leftovers in MRH.

And as I said, no plans to ever erect a paywall in front of the forum. It’s just too useful to have all your great discussions market MRH for us free on Google.

Agree

I've seen "paywalls" kill forums every time.

RE: best content in Running Extra?

Free

LIFE magazine was never free. National Geographic is not free.  PBS depends on sponsorship. Trainorders.com has been a successful pay site for several years, and the content improved after the annual fee was established. Who on this list goes to work and does not expect a paycheck in exchange for their time and effort?

Let the YouTubers charge fees and let the modelers sort them out.  Production and circulation cost money. People who don't mind doing these programs as a hobby can continue that.

Actually ...

Yep, a FREE eBook "The Internet for Model Railroaders," actually, coming soon to join the Acrylic Painting Guide as a free eBook for registered MRH members.

Paying For You Tube

Steve of It's My Railroad has 4 different channels. His Dirt Guy channel is a non stop BS. Listened to it once and was highly unimpressed. He did let out one comment which was telling. It sounded like in the long run he expected to make a fair amount of money with You Tube. and figured out it's probably not going to happen. Not sure how unless it is by having folks click on the ads. And the ads are beyond annoying on any channel and I click the skip button ASAP. He has also gotten signed up with MR and is part of their video plus series. Good for him. Just one example of someone who got snagged by the make a lot of money with you tube story line.

My vote is no thanks.

Jack