TOMM Magazine

Cobba, years ago Elanor handed the TOMM reins over to daughter Michelle. Debuting at an early Dubbo Truck Show her partner Rob launched Vintage Truck & Commercials. More recently they bought/took over Australasian Beekeeper which had been going for a century. With the current troubles newbie Leanne was supposed to keep things going but knows nothing of the subject matter and has invested the future of the magazines in on-line publication which might work for the industry oriented Beekeeper but for our demographic was a stupid move. That information is now months old and haven't had an update since.

I can see there is a new issue of VTC but electronic only.

Maybe they are struggling to keep it alive and believe they can get it out of the fire without announcing surrender to the world.

I have been closely involved (not my businesses) with a couple of these mom and pop businesses trying to stay alive. The agony and anguish is unbelievable. Unfortunately only those who have taken a risk and owned a business can truly understand. The worst thing that can happen to employees is they lose their job. Those who have had a go not only lose their job but often their home and not rarely have their marriage collapse from the pressure.

I am not excusing lack of communication with his subscribers but if the situation is what it appears there may be some excuse. Until you hear, everything is supposition and rushing around with government agencies for a few magazines is a little premature. All will be revealed eventually.

It's not the first magazine to go under and will not be the last. Australian Classic Car Magazine went under over a decade ago, The company that produced it was owned by the NRMA. The NRMA took no responsibility in refunding subscribers as "the magazine was published by as different company" as I had renewed my subscription and received nothing for it. Victorian Consumer affairs would not do anything as it was a NSW company and the NSW equivalent wouldn't do anything as I wasn't a NSW resident. It was the publication that featured my International in October 2009. So if consumer affairs will not take on the NRMA are they likey to do anything about TOMM.
Going online only reduces their costs considerably but will also reduce their subscriptions as a lot of their target market still prefer a printed magazine

I just went to their website ( www.tomm.com.au/ ) and there are digital magazines from this year available for subscribers. So it looks like the magazine is still going but digital only.

I looked at the Vintage Trucks and Commercials Magazine website ( www.vtcmagazine.com.au/ ) and the latest there is Issue 86. There is nothing to say what date that was

As I said, nobody knows the story at this time.

If it is a Pty Ltd company (which it more than likely is) and they fold it up you basically have no recourse, that's it. The old builders trick of folding Happy Homes Pty Ltd, everyone loses their money and sees a new company Happier Homes Pty Ltd start up next week with the same people. If the directors make a welter of this rebirthing companies ACCC will take an interest but not for a one-off. Hundreds of these little companies from coffee shops to local gyms fail each year and no creditor gets anything back. They do not do this lightly and in the majority of cases they work 70 hours a week and have put their home up as bank guarantee, milked mom and dad for large sums and have family members go personal guarantee. Nearly every business failure is a personal tragedy

ACCC, the Ombudsman, Consumer Affairs will have absolutely no interest. If they do fold you are free to put in a claim against the editor, director, subscription manager or whomever  personally (not the company, which no longer exists) in the Small Claims Court. Put in the paperwork, get a hearing date, both you and the director who lives in Qld must appear in person, sit across the table and have the judge adjudicate. In the unlikely case he finds the director personally owes you money outside the Pty Ltd structure he will award you your $50. No lawyers allowed in Small Claims Courts so no costs awarded. Small Claims probably have no jurisdiction outside their state which may be problematic.

My thinking would be if you want TOMM to survive, transfer to online magazine to support them in that manner as the paper copy does look a bit shaky at the moment.

I feel thats some good advise there Lang
Thank you

Paul

Lang wrote:

As I said, nobody knows the story at this time.

If it is a Pty Ltd company (which it more than likely is) and they fold it up you basically have no recourse, that's it. The old builders trick of folding Happy Homes Pty Ltd, everyone loses their money and sees a new company Happier Homes Pty Ltd start up next week with the same people. If the directors make a welter of this rebirthing companies ACCC will take an interest but not for a one-off. Hundreds of these little companies from coffee shops to local gyms fail each year and no creditor gets anything back. They do not do this lightly and in the majority of cases they work 70 hours a week and have put their home up as bank guarantee, milked mom and dad for large sums and have family members go personal guarantee. Nearly every business failure is a personal tragedy

ACCC, the Ombudsman, Consumer Affairs will have absolutely no interest. If they do fold you are free to put in a claim against the editor, director, subscription manager or whomever  personally (not the company, which no longer exists) in the Small Claims Court. Put in the paperwork, get a hearing date, both you and the director who lives in Qld must appear in person, sit across the table and have the judge adjudicate. In the unlikely case he finds the director personally owes you money outside the Pty Ltd structure he will award you your $50. No lawyers allowed in Small Claims Courts so no costs awarded. Small Claims probably have no jurisdiction outside their state which may be problematic.

My thinking would be if you want TOMM to survive, transfer to online magazine to support them in that manner as the paper copy does look a bit shaky at the moment.

From what I can find they haven't closed, just changed the delivery mechanism from printed and posted to online.  As you need to be a subscriber to access the online content it becomes murky as did you subscribe to a physical magazine or its content? Its content is still available to subscribers even if it's not in their preferred format.  I suspect the government bodies will find it all too hard!

If that is the case I think there is only one way to go. I believe it is quite inside the rules to change like this. You are still getting the content you paid for just not the old fashioned delivery system which is probably sending them broke.

We see it every day with banks changing interest rates, Microsoft killing off old Windows systems, Health Insurance saying they will no longer cover X. almost weekly changes to Google, Paypal etc user agreements.

It does seem strange people have not been notified. It would only have taken a notice to say "from the July issues all subscriptions will change to on-line". It sounds like he is still struggling to revive the paper magazine and does not want to take the final step. They will certainly lose a fair percentage of their older subscriber group. What effect their financial position or his mental health has on decision making is unknown.

Earlier this week I received an email from Georria Zavone in reply to my most recent email to Jarrah Media giving me a temporary password to access my TOMM account. She said JM had sent me previous emails to the email address on my account. However I had advised JM many times by email and website messages of my my present email address as the previous one had been cancelled. Anyhow that is fixed now.
I have logged on and looked at some of this years magazines which are ok to read but I need to zoom in to easily read the print. My subscription runs out at the end of this year so I am not sure if I will renew it as I like to read a physical magazine while I have a coffee break at times. There is no mention on the website of any printed copies being available now or in the future so it seems the future ia all digital.
My posts here about TOMM were to find out if it was still being published so that has been resolved, perhaps not how I would have liked but as others have mentioned everything changes over time.

Normanby
gudday m8
RE: I need to zoom in to easily read the print
Yes when your arms seem too short ............try this

hold down CTRL Key and hit the + key (next to backspace)
hit th@  afew times to get the large print on screen

CTRL   ...... - Key to go small print
Happy readn
cya