Is Model Boats Magazine Going to 12 Issues per Year?

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Model Boats Magazine has always been 13 issues per year which means a 4 week gap between magazines.

I note that the November issue (30th October) is scheduled to be 5 weeks after the October issue (25th September) and if they then go back to the 4 week interval we will be getting an issue on Christmas Day 25th December .

Subscriptions are still 13 issues but the occasional 5 week interval is used by 12 issue magazines to fill the year.

I wonder what, if anything, is going on.

[Ray Wood 3Participant @raywood3]

Hi Chris,

As nobody responded to this post it's fairly obvious nobody else cares. Well 110 people who didn't comment !

Ray

Edited By Ray Wood 2 on 31/10/2020 14:33:56

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Posted by Ray Wood 2 on 31/10/2020 14:30:13:

Hi Chris,

As nobody responded to this post it's fairly obvious nobody else cares. Well 110 people who didn't comment !

Ray

Apparently not..

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Whilst nobody is apparently interested I note that there was a 5 week gap between the October and November issues and there is now to be a 5 week gap between the November & December (3 December) issues. 13 issues within a year looks very unlikely.

I appreciate that Covid is making life difficult but given that we are told that the staff of the magazine is effectively one person full time + 1 part time, both of whom could work from home, I am not sure what is going on or why.

Perhaps we just need to be pleased that anything is being published and forget previous rules for the time being.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

I don't think people are not interested, they simply understand the problems.

As already said, tjhere isn't a Winter Special this year, hence the extended publication gaps this Autumn. I believe (but don't quote me) that the present intention is to return to 13 issues for 2021 but obviously that could depend on the impact of lockdowns on newstrade sales etc. The editors and designers have been working from home for many years now but sale receipts have to cover salary and production costs etc. It's pretty straightforward really.

I'm sure we'd all like some certainty ona lot of things but we live in uncertain times at the moment.

Colin

[Richard SimpsonModerator @richardsimpson88330]

I think most of us are simply appreciative of the fact that there is a magazine on the shelves at all. I don't think readers are not interested that there are only going to be 12 this year rather than 13, I just think there are far more serious things to be concerned about at the moment.

The staff required to publish the magazine is only a part of the equation, not much of which adds up to a profitable publication at the moment. We are now down to only a single model boat magazine in this country to read so I would suggest that we look at that as positively as possible and support it as best we can.

[Charles OatesParticipant @charlesoates31738]

Well said Richard, on every point. I agree very much that support is all important, buying, subscribing and contributing to the magazine are the keys to it's survival and growth.

Charles

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

I agree to a point , however I do think that TM need to be a bit more forth coming with information, If they are only going to produce 12 this year then say so , but all the places they advertise, Ie The Mag, on here and face book they are clearly saying you will get 13 issues a year and that is in the latest editions. so I am sorry but that is wrong if they knowingly do to not intend to print 13. I do understand the current situation but they are not helping matters, and some people may, I hope not, but they may stop subscribing because of that.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Well, the magazine was suspended for part of the year so obviously not 12 issues.in 2020 but the intention seems to be 13 issues for 2021. It can only be an intention at this point for obvious reasons.and will depend on whether the revamped business model will bring in sufficient revenue over expenses to allow this to be done. Just like many thousands of other businesses which are struggling to stay afloat in the curent situation.

Obviously if people just buy the occasional issue when they see it as and when it it takes their fancy, subject to lockdowns etc., then there is less likelihood of it happening than if they take out subscriptions which help bolster the finances.

It's not rocket science. The covid restrictions have resulted in an enormous drop in newstrade sales and income so the magazine is largely surviving on subscriptions and by cutting costs including massive reductions in contributor payments.

If people stop subscribing because they doubt the intentions of the company they they are simply helping to make matters worse.

Colin

[Richard SimpsonModerator @richardsimpson88330]

Posted by The Long Build on 17/11/2020 16:53:44:

I agree to a point , however I do think that TM need to be a bit more forth coming with information, If they are only going to produce 12 this year then say so , but all the places they advertise, Ie The Mag, on here and face book they are clearly saying you will get 13 issues a year and that is in the latest editions. so I am sorry but that is wrong if they knowingly do to not intend to print 13. I do understand the current situation but they are not helping matters, and some people may, I hope not, but they may stop subscribing because of that.

So have you sent a message to the editor making that point? People always seem quick to criticise via the internet without taking the time to first point out the error to the appropriate person to give them the opportunity to respond.

[The Long BuildParticipant @thelongbuild]

Yes, I have sent an actual letter , not email, about 2 months ago but not to the Editor as I did not feel it was fair to bring it up with her as she was only just started, also I doubt that Lindsey would have much control over it but direct to TM , and to date have had no response.

However considering that the Subscription is spread out over 2 full pages and has been in since the August Issue its not hard to see really it and so having to point it out that they have missed this 13 issue point which I would find hard to believe after all it has now been in 4 issues since printing restarted and the 13 issues is mentioned 4 times in the Add, 2 of which are quite prominent. Also the same with the link on this forum. I also pointed out that it still has Martyn as the editor on the link for subs on the forum.

Also to point out that my query was more will we be getting 13 issues or will the Subscription be extended as I can only see mine has been extended by 1 month and not 2 ., so if it is now the case we are not getting 13 issues will it now be extended a further month. Which is another letter as this was not really known at the time i wrote the first one.

[Chris EParticipant @chrise]

Posted by Colin Bishop on 17/11/2020 10:14:53:

I don't think people are not interested, they simply understand the problems.

As already said, tjhere isn't a Winter Special this year, hence the extended publication gaps this Autumn. I believe (but don't quote me) that the present intention is to return to 13 issues for 2021 but obviously that could depend on the impact of lockdowns on newstrade sales etc. The editors and designers have been working from home for many years now but sale receipts have to cover salary and production costs etc. It's pretty straightforward really.

I'm sure we'd all like some certainty ona lot of things but we live in uncertain times at the moment.

Colin

Firstly Colin I don't think that most people do understand the problem. It is easy to blame everything on Covid but that is not really understanding the problem.

Until this post I had never really thought of the "special" as anything other than a name for the 13th issue, which obviously couldn't be a month, which was slightly different to the other issues. It was simply 1 of 13.

I have no idea of the economics of magazine production but since subscriptions are for 13 issues the fact is that the fewer magazines issues you print merely means that subscriptions last longer and you don't get more money (subscription renewals) in as quickly to help pay fixed costs. The same is true of shelf sales. How advertisers react to the number of issue I don't know but the total advertising revenue is surely smaller if you produce 12 rather than 13 issues.

Don't get me wrong I am delighted that they are trying but the communication with loyal readers/ subscribers has been woeful. I regard it as counterproductive to try and sell subscriptions that are not reality as it hardly increases confidence.

As an aside since the December issue is due to be published on the 3rd December the next issue, 4 weeks later, would be 31st December. I anticipate a third 5 week issue.

[Richard SimpsonModerator @richardsimpson88330]

Larry, I would just like to take a moment to try to put things into perspective.

So far in this country over 50 thousand families have had loved ones prematurely taken away from them. The NHS is only surviving as a result of people who are prepared to work ridiculous hours under potentially life threatening conditions. Companies large and small are failing on an almost daily basis with hundreds of thousands of people not just loosing their jobs but many loosing the industries which they worked in.

The publishers of Model Boats Magazine had their income slashed overnight to the point whereby they could no longer afford to publish the magazines. The only option open to them was to stop publication to prevent the publishers going bust. During the two months when Model Boats was not published various options were looked at such as printing every other month or printing a half sized magazine. At one point one editor was going to have to manage two publications. Eventually due to a reshuffle and as a result of a certain magazine being closed down permanently Lindsey was asked to take over Model Boats. During this time, as Colin has mentioned, the allocation for contributors was dramatically slashed so Lindsey didn't even have any funds to pay contributors.

All the regular contributors were approached and the new rates for contributions were discussed. From what I can gather every one of us agreed to continue for the sake of supporting Lindsey and because we believe we have a responsibility to keep the magazine going. I have written more in the last couple of months than I have done in a very long time to ensure that Lindsey has some articles in hand and she is supported as much as we possibly can do and I will receive approximately a third of what I used to get for those articles.

Sending your letter to the publisher under these circumstances is probably not going to generate the greatest urgency. They are currently fighting for survival. They do not know if this lockdown will finish them off or whether the next one might. If I was the owner of the publisher and was faced with sleepless nights worrying whether the company could survive the next few weeks or shut it all down and retire on what was left I know what decision I would have taken.

If you have a question or a query regarding the magazine I would send Lindsey a message. Editing the magazine is her job and I'm sure she will do the best to respond. She is an amazing lady to have got the magazine on the shelves and the fact that we have 12 issues of a full size magazine on the shelves is a bit of a miracle to me. On top of that she spends all day on the phone trying to get hold of some pretty amazing prizes for the prize draw and she is still pushing forward with trying to open up communications with the readership via a letters page and including readers models.

I agree loosing a Winter Special is a disappointment but gaining 12 full sized issues to me far outweighs that. How or whether that is going to be compensated for I suspect hasn't even been decided yet and discussing what is happening next year when no-one in this country knows what is happening next week seems a little irrelevant.

I have always been a huge believer in the power of a positive attitude, which i think is probably more important now than it has ever been. This can be nothing more complex than being grateful for what you have got rather than complaining about what you haven't got. If My Time Media had gone bust you would have nothing and would have lost what was remaining of your subscription. They still might without our support and subscriptions forms the backbone of that.

[Tim RoweParticipant @timrowe83142]

Right on the button Richard.

If push came to shove I expect there would be people willing to keep their subs going regardless of the number of issues just to help the magazine survive.

I used to be able to buy copies of the magazine in our local Spanish (Mallorquin) newsagent but that seems to have dried up so my early Christmas present this year is a new subscription.

Little glimpses of light in a major global catastrophe.

Tim R

[David WyperParticipant @davidwyper21207]

December / January Model Boats Magazine.

Have suscribers to magazine received the latest copy ? ……. I'm still waiting for mine to be delivered….

David

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

It's almost certainly down to postal delays. I got mine yesterday, some people got their on Monday. They would have all been sent out at the same time but the post can be very erratic at the moment. Sometimes items arrive overnight other times it can take days.

Colin

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