Latest Articles

[ArneSParticipant @arnes]

[ArneSParticipant @arnes]

Anyone else puzzled about the “Latest Articles” section of this site?

I was expecting to find a brief synopsis of the articles, the sort of thing that might whet your appetite and encourage you to buy the issue.  But, there seems to be enough information to allow more “ecconomical” persons to justify not buying the magazine.

It seems a rather odd approach by a website funded by sales of the magazine.

ArneS

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

ArneS,

 

Thank you for your post. To answer your questions:

 

These are the “Latest Articles” posted on the website. They are in fact a selection of articles taken from recent issues of the magazine to show the sort of material that is published. If you click on them you will see the whole article as it was published in the magazine. Obviously we do not put every article that is published in the magazine on the website otherwise people would wait a couple of months for the articles to appear and not bother to buy the magazine!

 

All the articles that are put on to the Website do however constitute a very useful information resource for modellers and you can access these by category and by using the search facility by clicking on the Article Database link on the left hand side of the Homepage.

 

As far as future issues are concerned, you can see a copy of the contents list of the next or current issue by clicking on the top thumbnail in the latest article list. This will give you some idea what is in that issue.

 

To address the specific point you are making, I can inform you that those members of the website who have agreed to receive communications from MyHobbyStore will in future be receiving a short monthly newsletter which will summarise the highlights of the contents of the next issue and include other news which may be of interest to Website Members. Consideration will also be given to publishing some of this information along with the table of contents for the next issue on the Website.

 

I hope that helps to answer your query.

 

Regards

 

Colin

[neil hpParticipant @neilhp]

Colin, how far back can you search for past articles  in MB.

Is there a cut off date, please.

neil.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Neil,

 

When I took over the site there were around 125 older articles already posted. I have since put on another 27 or so dating back to the December 2008 issue. I think about 7 articles a month were loaded so on this basis I suppose it goes back around 18 months or so. Sorry but I can’t be more defionite than that.

 

Colin

[ArneSParticipant @arnes]

Sorry Colin,

Maybe I was not 100% clear in my posting.

I tried to suggest that putting such comprehensive articles on this website was likely to harm the sales of the magazine which I assume funds the website.  This would not just be through magazine sales but advertising revenue might be affected.

Cannot help but think that there is a lack of “joined up thinking” going on here.  Unless, the plan is to turn Model Boats into a wholly on line publication?

ArneS

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

ArneS,

 

As I said, only a proportion of the articles will be posted on the Website and these will be at least two months out of date. Most people do like to see the latest material so hopefully we will strike a balance here!

 

Also, the limitations of the Website mean that you cannot display the article exactly as published or reproduce any of the free plans.

 

Looking at articles on a website is OK, but I think most model boaters do prefer to have a hard copy to read. I know that I do.

 

You do make a valid point but the website is intended to show people what sort of articles they can expect to see in the magazine.

 

Colin

[neil hpParticipant @neilhp]

cheers colin.

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

ArneS does have a very relevant point regarding one of the possible directions that the magazine could take.

I am still concerned that the recent upheavals of changes to the web site are only the beginning of more substantial revisions that might include the amalgamation of web sites or even the wholly web based publication of the magazine.

Paul

[ArneSParticipant @arnes]

I have just looked at the two sister sites Military Modelling and RCME and was surprised to find that they seem to be very different in style.  Might be worth others looking at them to see if any suitable ideas can be “borrowed”.

Still unconvinced about the wisdom of publishing so much magazine content on the Internet.  Rather surprised that the authors of these items agreeded to this.  I guess they are adequately compensated for having their work rendered valueless (cannot be used in other magazines) after it has been given away on this site.

ArneS

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

Once an article is accepted by one of the magazines and payment is made to the author it can be reproduced by the company in hard copy or electronic form as the company may decide. That is the standard agreement which the author signs up to. Basically the author sells the article to the magazine. It could be published elsewhere subsequently but it is unlikely that any other modelling publication would want it if it has already been published by a rival publication. There is nothing unusual about this.

 

You should also appreciate that payment for articles is not great in the modelling press, Nobody could make a living from it! Most people do it for love as much as money!

 

There are no plans at the moment  that I know of to make the magazines web based or to amalgamate the websites although these do all share a common IT platform. The different website styles reflect the fact that they have different Web Editors and different readerships. For example, the military modellers and model flyers are likely to be on average rather younger than model boaters. Obviously I look at the other sites to see if there are useful ideas that can be used but I also have to take into account the amount of time I am allocated to manage the Model Boats website.

 

The recent changes simply reflect the change in management from Magicalia to MyHobbyStore and are aimed at reducing overhead costs where possible. The websites basically exist to support the magazines. If the magazines were to be published online in the future then subscribers would obviously have to pay for that.

 

I am always open to ideas to improve the website but the cost would need to be contained within the existing budget..

 

Colin

Edited By Colin Bishop on 31/03/2009 21:49:01

[Paul FreshneyParticipant @paulfreshney24971]

Colin is perfectly correct in all that he has written in his last post. The purpose of posting selected articles from off sale issues is to whet the appetite of web users who may arrive at this site and have an interest in the hobby. From that hopefully additional sales of the magazine will occur. A vibrant positive forum may well assist in that process as well.

There are no plans for this magazine or indeed any of the others in the group to be web only or available complete for subscription via the internet. One of the key reasons being that magazine advertising is an important revenue source and indeed without it Model Boats and indeed all the other hobby magazines would be much more expensive and the overheads of producing a magazine exist however it is marketed.

Paul. 

[Paul TParticipant @pault84577]

Thank you Paul and Colin for you very eloquent and detailed responses to our concerns I appreciate the openness of your comments and your obvious dedication to our hobby especially noting the time when your comments were posted.

I sincerely hope that we can all continue to enjoy the magazine and website in the current formats and with the existing, and may I say superb editorial team.

.

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