Forum Slowdown

I wonder if the forum will restart

Mrsmackpaul wrote:

Well page 4 of issue 83 says they are still printing the magazine

 

I'll be seriously cheesed if they just stopped printing as I have had a subscription from the very first magazine

I do really enjoy the magazine in my hand so much more than reading online

Paul
 

I was reading the editors message in the front of magazine this morning and noted that it is a quarterly magazine now
I thought it was every two months up until mid year this year and just assumed it was a technical issue and was been delayed 
And this morning I read it is quarterly 

So am I right in my thinking the VTC magazine was 2 monthly?

Paul

Yep, sure was. Less magazines for more money now. They just want us all to do the online thing.

They have done the same with the TOMM magazine. It got that bad that I cancelled my subscriptions after many years.

Shrink-fation

I wonder if they are suffering the same problem the HCVCA Yearbook did years ago:
- People stopped writing stories/providing information saying it was on their facebook page if wanted
- Readers complained that all the photos were from Facebook (most were not but people had seen similar ones on Facebook so that was close enough - I am not sure how you take event photos that don't end up like someone else's photos of the same event)
- There were other issues with the HCVC Yearbook (such as support from the various committees) but it wasn't the fault of the volunteer editor that it closed down.

It could be, having said that I don't see anywhere to write in with a story, not that I have much to tell

Paul

Well ...
Having written an article or 3 for the magazine .. this is my experience.

Firstly, I had a lot of my stories written for some time before submitting them ... Some had been sitting there being polished of as new info came in ... A few were at least 5-6 years in the making. So unless you write a single page article with a bunch of photos in it, it's bloody hard work to make sure the story is true and correct. I'm a bit of a stickler for making sure I have proof of info in my stories... Infact I'm that way with all my research so no one can argue the point with me.
Then my stories were so big they needed to be split over several issues, which can be good for the magazine as it encourages a reader to buy the next issue to complete the story. It's not just a matter of submitting a story and waiting for it to be printed ... There's a LOT of back and forth with the editor to get everything in place, or trim bits up to fit pages etc. what you read may not be the actual full submitted story, bit a slightly condensed version.
All this ... For me ... Was a labour of love ... It still is really ... So I still need to hold down a good paying job .. which cuts down on my research time.
I would be still submitting stories if I had about 36 hrs a day, but I've also been working on a few other book projects for myself and others which has taken my time up. If I could make a full-time job out of it I would in a heartbeat... But alas it will never be that way.
So for every time someone sits down and reads a 5 minute story in the magazine ... There's been many, many hours put into its production, both by the writer and the magazine team, and people (average Joe?) just don't seem to have the money to spend on such things as magazines. 

Anyway enough rambling from me ... Back to my researching 
 

The print version of now quarterly TOMM is an edited version of the on line one and by chopping chunks out of research and other articles they are doing a dis-service to the authors as well as readers.

As  Werkhorse and several others mentioned it is all about cost and return.

And it is the law of diminishing returns. People who do not understand marketing try to keep solvent by increasing the price to cover fewer sales. I recently browsed another dying business - the local news agent's multi racks of endless magazines. The prices! I could have a trip to Bali for the cost of a single magazine.

For every on-line subscriber there is one less paper subscriber yet the paper people expect the same service with half the magazine's previous income. As soon as anything goes on-line it is the death-knell for hard copy and very often, the death-knell of the whole operation. You actually look forward to the specialist ads in a magazine while on-line ads are just a "Skip" nuisance. So many dead and dying specialist magazines like TOMM ranging through aviation, steam trains and gardening relied upon an audience who had a stack beside the lounge chair or in the toilet to be browsed time and again and indeed used as later reference.

On line is 100% here and now on a pissy screen that requires your attention fully. A knock at the door or call to the dinner table requires total departure not fold a page corner and come back to where you left off. You can not have it on your knee to read between TV ads or while your wife is telling you about some woman down the street having a difficult mammogram.

On line is endless information - Information is not knowledge.

Funny thing is Lang, even the electronic instant world isn't instant enough these days
Take the forum for example
It is the instant modern world yet it is getting slower and slower, and it isnt just this forum it is all forums across the world

I dunno, I'm just past it, I still enjoy a magazine or a book for all of the reasons mentioned above

Paul