Just to allay any fears, anything we do on the Apple store would be in addition to what we're doing now. For instance, you will still be able to download free issues over the Internet like you do now. Any Apple store presence would be more ways to get MRH and to find us ... Those of you who never do anything Apple should not see any difference and you probably would not even be aware there was an MRH anything on the Apple store.

For those who would fear we might dilute our MRH focus by doing anything for Apple, that has nothing to do with this. MRH Gen 2 is deliberately being designed to be less work to build and to have the widest possible distribution options, including the Apple store and Amazon.

Plus if we sold eBooks (reprinted content or totally new content - all without ads cuz it would be a book title and not a magazine) - then our revenue should increase and we could do MORE not less because we would have more funds.

Joe,

What has been touted in the previous replies is a great idea, a premium content or "baited hook" to drag in another set of potential readers and modelers. So working from the premium content line, why not offer as others have suggested a article or how too story that is add free, along with some premium wallpaper/desktop backgrounds from either user submitted photos/articles or your "It's a Model" banners?

If your trying to attract new readers and modelers you want something with WOW factor that is going to make the 0.99 cents not even factor into the equation and make people sing praise they have finally found the holy grail!. Then use whatever money you make from the newsstand to pay for the user submitted photos or articles.

Makes it a cost neutral venture really, the price pays for the content, the content draws in more readers & modelers, more modelers means more content for your newsstand and away you go!

Just my thoughts...

Jas.

If all we put on Apple was a "front" for MRH, Apple won't approve it. Whatever goes on the Apple store would need to be its own publication, with content that makes it stand on its own.

Doing what Kalmbach does, this could be a "best of MRH" reprint around a given topic, for example. Or completely new content, also what Kalmbach does. To be consistent with our business model, this special content would be an eBook with no ads and a cover price. These special eBooks would, however, have one house ad for MRH.

Sounds like this might work ... But it would need real content (read: 48+ pages), not a 99 cent 6-page front for MRH.

Says Who?  Apple tells you what a "legitimate" publication is??  And they tell you want constitutes "real" content??

Look at the news articles, most of them are just regurgitate from another source...If you wanted something that stands alone, publish an index of all of MRH issues for the prior 12 months.  It's a quick informative packet of information not available elsewhere in that same page by page format...

Keep it short, keep it light, keep it Low-labor, and it'll do everything you want it to do, which is specifically draw attention to MRH.  No more than 10 pages, max.  The whole thing is an infomercial, a catalog; so be it!  If you have to put content in there, do so, but really, I see no reason you CAN'T publish a Circular in this manner. 

It's counterintuitive and it goes against everything "Natural business" dictates, but then in a natural business flow, you the publisher are not about to give away your flagship publication for free.  So you've already gone and "broken the unwritten rules" dictate by all these publishing dealership houses.  I wouldn't be afraid to go and break a few more!

Hey, I am all for anything that might generate more revenue dollars for MRH to put into buying more quality content and improving even more, an already great magazine.

The only thing is, I have always figured everything Apple did/does (particularly once Jobs stole the company from Woz) was/is solely about padding Apple's wallet so I question how much MRH will actually benefit from any association with Apple.

Now if we're sure that I'll still be getting my "moneys worth" out of MRH every month...no loss of content or reduction in quality and no content in the fruit store that I can not get with my subscription or buy directly from Model-Trains-Video.com.  Then I don't see it as the end of the world.  I still say, leave Apple alone, and I really don't believe that there are all that many potential model railroad hobbyists in the "fruitarian" ranks anyway, but what do I know anyway...

Hey if Bruce is using an iPad, surely everyone is no?  And they probably all want to be model railroaders!  Hmm, do any model railroaders actually wear turtlenecks?

As it turns out, I like having a phone that is smarter than I am!  I found this great electronic reference app, and a SPICE circuit app plugin for it that I am having a ton of fun with, all on my android phone.  It's got all sorts of useful tools for circuit builders and anyone working with LED's and resistors.

And Bruce/Joe, how about an advanced electronics for model railroaders video to complement the basic one?  I'll buy both if you promise to make the advanced one!

I'm typing this on a new android nexus 7 tablet of which they expect sales of 8 million by the end of the year. I'm very anti apple, and wouldn't welcome paying for mrh just because its bent to apples demands. I'm from the UK and the adverts are invaluable in showing me what you guys have on sale in the US.

there is also such a diverse range of modelling in the US that if you had to pay for it I wouldn't unless something fell in to my area of interest which means I'd miss out on a lot exceptional modelling.

Dave

I suspect that you'll get fewer new readers if you start to charge.  Of course, once someone reads this, they're hooked--but a lot of folk won't put down money to view something they have no clue about the quality of.  Apple's greed is out of control, and it's ridiculous that they won't let you post on their newsstand.

They are have gone from a model of innovation--the best of American capitalism--to a showcase for American corporate greed--I won't touch their stuff.

Rotten, and greedy - terms we read throughout this thread (even in the poll question).

I guess not every one thinks that way, as their stocks just hit $680 a share....

Back to the question at hand the Joe, have you asked Apple if you can put up a free zine? Just a thought.

Yes, we will ask Apple if we can do free.

Some seem to think because we might have to charge a small fee for MRH is we posted it on Apple's store that would mean everyone could no longer get it free. In other words, thanks to Apple, your free magazine would go away.

Not at all. MRH will remain free - only Apple Newsstand users would have to pay - if we did make MRH available there. But it's not likely if MRH won't be free, but we thought we'd ask rather than assume.

We will ask Apple directly if we can do a free magazine on Newsstand, and let you know what they say.

As to Apple being greedy - while Apple's products aren't cheap, they are well built and reliable so like many things you get what you pay for. If you disagree, well nobody's holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy Apple. But a *lot* of people do agree their stuff's worth what you pay for it or they would not be one of the best capitalized companies on the planet. You don't get there by overcharging for junk.

We will ask Apple directly if we can do a free magazine on Newsstand, and let you know what they say.

You might point out that they've apparently got a pretty negative image in the minds of a lot of folks, based on the feedback you're getting here.  Maybe it would be in their best interest to try playing nice with the open source crowd and see if the good PR doesn't get them more business in the long run.

Rotten, and greedy .. I guess not every one thinks that way, as their stocks just hit $680 a share....

Maybe, maybe not.  I think pretty much every major corporation on the planet is rotten and greedy (rotten in that they don't have any real concern for people or morals except as they impact the bottom line, and greedy in the sense that they exist to funnel money into the hands of their shareholders), and yet I am a consumer who contributes to the bottom lines of those corporations.  The biggest example of my finally giving up (or selling out, if you like) is that my wife and I both have laptops with Windoze on them.  For many years I have complained about Micro$soft, and refused to pay for their products.  I have used competing operating systems, and taken advantage of every possible opportunity to explain to people just why M$ is so bad and greedy and deserving of evil fate.  And yet, here I sit, typing away on a laptop running Windoze 7.  I gave up, the fight is just not worth it, I got tired of the hassle that comes from being different, and I realized that it wasn't going to change anything anyway.

So that stock price might be more of a reflection on the economic benefits of greed than a moral endorsement of it.

We're getting a bit off topic with the greed discussion.

There's nothing wrong with making lots of money as long as you're meeting people's needs. If you do think people who make lots of money are inherently evil, then maybe you're the one with the greed problem? Not all large companies don't care about people - be careful painting all large profitable companies with that broad brush, or assuming all people who make lots of money don't care.

Compared to most people in the world, nearly all Americans are wealthy - so using the greed line of thinking, all Americans are evil and greedy.

Nuff said. Back to MRH, our publishing direction, and model trains.

Joe,

My biggest problem with online payments is trust. When I buy a $10 item, I also buy another $50 item as a result of fraud. I like the free magazine because of this.

My wife has an AT&T IPhone and we have to call and have fraudulent charges removed about 6 times a year.

If you had charged for this online magazine, I may not have signed on over a year ago.

The IPhone guys are to busy playing Halo, besides they would have to get off the couch to build a model railroad. Please I'm just kidding! No hate replies!

Regards,

John

******************************************************************************************************************************************

A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He's got to ride that nag till it drops. >> Johnny Bench

complaining about something that won't affect them.

While you're calling us all cheap you seem to be missing the point. They make money on charging for advertising space within the magazine. They're looking for a larger audience to charge more for add space based upon subscription numbers. Theres a small company named Facebook that makes money this way too...

Guess I should be paying for that too...

Apple stock is on the rise with money in the bank. Facebook stock is in the tank. Pay to play vs free. Looks like free is not a smart move ask a facebook stock holder vs an Apple stock holder. The sad thing is every one wants somthing for nothing or have someone else pay for it. I do think the influx of cash for a paid subscription would go a long way in improving MRH. Just do a water down version for the free preview and bells and whistles for the people that choose to suport MRH. Like I said before the adds just get in the way and I have not once spent any money do to an add in MRH or told a person I picked your store do to an add. In fact I go out of my way to avoid spending money with company's . That run the in your face types of adds.

Our business model is to grow our audience size as large as possible by being free with quality content - then we sell that audience to advertisers. The bigger our audience the more we can charge for ads.

Studies have been done on free versus charging a few cents for items and the volume plummets the minute something is no longer free. Slate magazine found when they went from a paid model to a free model, their circulation went up 10 times.

If we charged for MRH (even a few cents) our circulation would plummet and we'd go from being 60,000+ and number 2 closing on number one, to about 6,000 circulation - making us the smallest general model railroading magazine out there.

So we aren't going to charge for MRH. If we do any publishing with a cover price, it will be for eBooks that don't have ads. If it had ads, it will be free. That's our business model, and we're not changing it.

If we think we need to start charging for content, we'll do more eBooks without ads. MRH magazine will be forever free, just like we've been saying. Only under very special circumstances will we charge for MRH (like the get every issue DVD, where we burn a DVD and ship it to you for $10. Because physical media is involved, it can't be free.) We thought the Apple store might be another special case, but we were never inclined to charge even then unless our poll showed people were in favor of it to grow the hobby with the funds.

But as we suspected, most people are against even paying for MRH to fund growing the hobby. So we won't be putting MRH itself on the Apple store unless it can be free. Instead we will do eBooks with a cover price and that don't have ads (except with one house ad for MRH in the eBooks).

..........stick to your original business model, it works.  I am curious about the one post with a picture of what I believe is an I-phone with what I think are copies of the covers for MRH on the screen.  Were they in the infamous Apple Newsstand?

Peter

I would focus on an iOS and Android based app.  You'll will reach a wider audience if you're on both platforms and their respective app store.

With a dedicated app you can offer begin offering over time.  Push "new issue" alerts to the devices, offer access to backissues, articles can link directly to discussion threads, in-app access to forums and blogs, ability to make a blog post, etc.... 

Having a dedicated app opens a world of possibilities on how to engage mobile users with MRH while expanding your audience with the app store exposure.

I see the positive advantages to MRH developing their own App.

However, it does not address Joe's bigger pull; how does MRH reach that 1%-3% of that potential 400 million who use Apple's newstand.

Joe,

 But as we suspected, most people are against even paying for MRH to fund growing the hobby.

This couldn't be further from the truth.  I firmly believe what MRH is doing right now will have a profound impact on the growth of the hobby, and on the growth of hobby publications in general.  What I object to is bending your objective [MRH forever free] not because you lack customer base, but because one of your "distributors" is basically dictating to you the terms of your business if you want to do business through them.  To this, I object!!

I am against you compromising your principles in such a manner.  THIS is what I am against!

I dare you to try the light [1-6 page] publication and put it on Newstand.  It all comes down to content layout and editor spin, and finally, walking through the place like you belong there.  I don't believe it wouldn't hurt if you at least tried it first before assuming it won't work; what can they do, say no?  If it does go through...whoosh!

Doing this little light ad on Newstand would then give people like E.G.Hall and others who feel people should be paying for this content a place where they can donate some money each month directly to the MRH cause...even if they have missed the point of your model.  [the Point, E.G.Hall, is that you directly infuse your subscription money into directly into Supporting the people who make the hobby "possible" in the first place - not the publishers, but the -TAILERS who buy ad space!!!]

The idea of an ad-free MRH option may do more harm than good.  I'm just a regular reader, but I can't help but wonder how the advertisers would feel about that?  They're the ones who make it possible for the magazine to exist (financially speaking) and now there'd be an option to cut them out of the deal?

The most powerful word in marketing is the word FREE.  I think if you find a way to remain 100% true to the "Forever Free" mantra and not pass the cost on to the end user, people will find MRH. 

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/3463#comment-27600

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/spread_the_word

Joe, I didn't vote for any of the three choices, because - as robboxxx showed - I already use whatever PDF viewers I have on my iPad/iPodTouch/MacBook Pro to read MRH. I can download MRH using my iPad or MBP easily, and one of those two is usually what I use for reading MRH (I'll use the MBP laptop when I need to print something out).

You might separate the two questions covered:

1) How to reach potential MRH readers (who are more tech savvy, perhaps), which might involve some app in the App Store as mentioned (a mini-MRH), a la - pardon the example - the MR freebie article composite things you get from MR when you re-subscribe (I have all of those and more than I need...).

2) How to provide MRH for people on Android or Apple readers - you already have that capability with the PDF files. The only (and secondary, IMO) real issue is whether/how to provide a MRH or MRH-type version which reads more easily on the smaller screens of phones/iPod Touches.

The second issue is mostly solved, except for the size of the screens being smaller.

Jim

(And why all the rage against Apple/their products, anyway?)

I am a self proclaimed Apple fanboy and enjoy reading MRH , as well as several other publications, every month on my iPad. I don't always agree with Apple's models, but much of this has to do with reshaping the paradigms of the antiquated publishing industry. If you want to expand the potential readership of MRH without charging anything, then develop an app to make it easier for people to download and read offline. The newstand items really a just apps anyway. I download my issues and either store them in iBooks or on my Google drive to read. The more platforms and venues MRH is available on, the better.

If once a year we could buy a  collection of all the articles in one read, together with just a add for the magazine for say $5.00 to $10.00. I would buy it just for convenience, this attracts new members through the newstands (all of them), doesn't involve new articles just some digital putting together, and also let us pay and download it on the computer for those of us who are happy with just them, Sounds better than when I started typing,

comments please Joe.

regards Kenn

Hmmm, a yearly compilation woutd run something like 1500 pages - huge. Not sure people would put up with something that huge as an ebook ... plus it would be a third of a gig in size. Apple and Amazon charge by the MB downloaded - so a book that huge would cost an arm and a leg to simply have hosted by Apple and Amazon.

More interesting, I think, would be topical compilations that have been appropriately micro-priced. Smaller and more focused, and also far more affordable to deliver via Apple and Amazon.

Hi Joe,

I voted for a new App. That said, I think the idea of a paid publication is great. Put out a special issue with the same style that the free mag is. Let people see the quality and mention the FREE magazine often. I have an Android phone. I also have an iPhone. While I dont purchase anything for the iPhone if I had an iPad I would buy ebooks on occasion.

Rob Teed

Joe my apologies if I got my downloads wrong December's Mag was 17MB with all the adds so I took of a couple for them say 15mb then by the year came to 180mb, which is not a lot for a yearly book. where did I go wrong?

It takes a while to do it at home to put them all together so I still see it as a great timesaver,

maybe to keep it fresh it could be each quarter which could be arranged to cover a project nicely,( cutting down the Mb's)  again and would possibly keep the new people interested.

Regards once more Kenn Downunder Country

I've read the posts so far - I would definitely pay for this magazine.  But, I bought a whole bunch of Joe's downloadable videos, which gave me a great start when I came back to the hobby last year.  In my mind, it's not which platform you use (I happen to be all Apple here) - technology should enable and be invisible.  Even the most rabid Apple users eventually treat that iPhone as a hockey puck when a newer, more powerful phone comes out.  I very much value the experience of others because it helps me to see other ideas and ways of doing things.  Another element that is very important to me is being able to see a historical view of a town or a piece of equipment.  Having a well documented story about something I'm trying to recreate is priceless.  And when I can recreate a scene even half-way there, I get a lot of satisfaction knowing it resembles a place or piece of history.  So I would very willingly pay for this publication.  And I do agree Joe, that making money is perfectly acceptable as long as you meet a need.  The quality and content of the DVD series convinced me of the worth of this effort.  And now I know why Joe never posts there anymore!  I also know that to be ambitious and create something with a lot of features takes capital.  As a Kalmbach subscriber, I see the amount of money they have invested in buildings, layouts, studios, video equipment - none of that stuff falls from the sky, it takes capital.  For this publication to continue to put out quality articles using cutting-edge technology and techniques will also take more than just the writer's and publisher's time.  If we are super willing to consume the content, then we should be willing to pay for what we are getting. There is an old proverb - "Don't muzzle the ox while he is threshing the wheat"...

Just my 3 cents...

My opinion of Apple is not very PC and is full of lots of multicolored anatomical improbabilities.

It takes a lot of guts sometimes to do the right thing. I suggest not giving in to Apple's strong-armed, near extortion tactics, is the right thing. Especially when doing so would cause you to break your oen principles and promise-- forever free. If Apple wants a copy of MRH they can download it for free just like everyone else-- on the ANDROID platform if necessary.

That's my two cents

John

This isn't so much about putting a price tag on MRH as it is getting Market Exposure on Apple's platform.  Everybody needs to carefully look at the difference between these two ideas!  You can do one without doing the other, you just have to use the publishing process to your advantage.

All MRH has to do is develop something worth $0.99 - perhaps from back issues, like so many of the Kalmbach publications - pull three/four articles of related content together, nothing too difficult or time consuming [no "new" material], and throw in a big splashy advertisement at the end or beginning that says "Want to see MORE?  SUBSCRIBE to MRH!" with a link to the main MRH page.  Once they're here, mission accomplished, they never have to go back to Apple Newsstand.

Tack that item onto the Apple Newsstand each month and you have your bill filled.  And MRH itself stays forever free!

The goal here is to tap 1% or .01% of the millions who use Apple Newsstand, thus expanding monthly readership, thus increasing the appeal of MRH to advertisers.

Rather than cow-towing to Apple's rules somehow because we're Apple fanboys, this is more about getting an MRH presence on the largest and most popular mobile app store on the planet.

Regardless of what you think of their rules, you can't just ignore Apple if you're a digital epub producer. As Benny points out, it's more about how to get something on the Apple app store that aligns with our ezine goals *and* takes advantage of this huge marketing opportunity. Apple is too big to ignore, so we need to find creative ways to get around their rules.

If would be a bit like (in the pre-internet days) being a local business that says phooey to being in the Yellow pages because you don't like something about their policies. You can cut off your nose to spite your face, sure - but a smarter way to go is to figure out how to meet their requirements and also not sacrifice your principles.

Most likely, we will offer some ad-free sampler/compilation and charge 99 cents for it. Included in the content will be one house ad page for MRH and our website - mission accomplished. Our guideline is if it has ads, it's free, if it has no ads, it's not free. You get this useful ad-free content for 99 cents, and you can easily go to our website and become a subscriber to the free magazine - and we won't have compromised our principles.

The only thing worse than finding a worm in your apple is finding that the apple is rotten to the core.

Now enough about evil empires, let's get back to playing with trains.

Joe,

I have been learning a lot about marketing and specifically marketing on the Internet, over the last five years or so. I understand what you are looking for in going with the Apple Newsstand. Normally, marketing is about getting targeted traffic. You want people who need or want your product. If you have 100 people come to your site, but only one buys anything, you have a 1% rate of conversion (ROC). If you target your traffic to just people with a strong interest in your product, you might only get 24 people, but 12 might buy a product. That's an ROC of 50%.

This is different. You aren't trying to sell any products. You hope that those who read the magazine will buy from your advertisers (and so do your advertisers), but the magazine is free. Steve Jobs may not have understood giving away valuable things, but his partner, who was the engineering genius behind the original Apple computer, Steve Wozniak does. That's probably one of the reasons Woz left Apple all those years ago. (That and the $900 million he was worth)

Going with the Apple Newsstand does have the potential to increase your circulation, but in order to do that, you're going to have to stand out from the crowd. How will people who don't know about your magazine find it, among the 10,000 other magazines to choose from? What makes it different?

If you can get Apple to agree to it, being free will set you apart from every other magazine they have, and you will find that your magazine literally flies off the Newsstand's virtual shelves. You will become the #1 most downloaded magazine they have. EVERYONE likes free.

That will grab attention.

Just as Apple reinvented the music business with 99 cent downloads, MRH has the potential to reinvent the magazine publishing industry. I really don't believe I'm over stating this.

Don't forget the Android market. There is an even larger Android base just waiting for the ezine to show up.

If I understand correctly Model Railroad Hobbyist would remain free online?

As with the other APPS on my iPhone I would pay a one time, $.99, charge to download the app from the Apple Store?

If I go to the Apple Newstand then I would be able to purchase Model Railroad Hobbyist, at the "newstand" price?

Seems like the best of all worlds.