Hi All,
I was thinking of getting Apa Park in print and have offered my layout to the big 4 (BRM, RM, Hornby and Model Rail)
3 have come back VERY keen to run the article and have heard nothing from Model Rail (that is not to say they won't reply).
Now I'm not so bothered about levels of remuneration nor am I the terms of the copyright etc, I just would like to get my layout out there and hopefully inspire some more people to give APA's a go in various scales...
My question arises thus, I personally haven't bought either magazine for over 10 years (or in Hornbys case never!) so I must ask, if it was you, which magazine would you pick and why?
My current thinking is:
BRM - Always used to be 'cream of the crop' layouts but very steam era biased (rarely bought)
RM - Lots of GWR branchlines and articles featuring lots of text and small pictures but good for reviews/classifieds/shows (bought occasionally)
Model Rail - The new kid on the block, lots of how to's and excellent full page/large photographs. Good mix of steam/D+E (subscribed)
Hornby - Never bought an issue but have seen lots of references online to helpful N gauge features.

Help!

Personally ...

• BRM - used to sub, but that was because of a very attractive blonde sub offer at the time (more value than the sub was !); stopped the sub at the end, as I didn't rate the mag (despite it's steam preference) and new sub offers were poor value
• RM - never bother with it; don't like it or think it's worth the money
• Model Rail - is OK; seems to go through good & bad phases ...
• Hornby Mag - again OK, again seem to have phases ...

Out of them, I probably get HM to MR on a 4:3 ratio ...

I'm probably biased in that I buy RM every month and the Editor (Steve Flint) kindly judges our annual Photographic Competition

In deciding which magazine to be published in, put aside your preferences as a reader and think about how they will present your layout to the audience and what market you want to target.

If you want to reach the widest audience then Railway Modeller is still the biggest seller, and since Steve Flint took the editors chair, I think offers the most consistent quality and variety. Model rail has the smallest circulation.

Photos for RM are mostly done by in-house staff and so they are a consistent quality and tuned in to what is required for publication. The others make much more use of freelancers (HM and Model Rail I think entirely) with a resulting variability in quality and style. If they sent Chris Nevard, you've scored, some others, bad luck... BRM and HM tend to "enhance" photos more with fake smoke, photoshopped backgrounds etc (you may or may not like that) photos in the other two are a bit more honest.

Generally BRM will edit your text the least - mostly just grammar and punctuation errors. HM reputedly change it the most (have been known to introduce their own errors particularly in photo captions).

Generally BRM and HM articles tend to be more photo based, the other two, more detailed text, but all do vary depending on what is submitted.

Of course if three are interested in publishing, there is no reason not to be in more than one, but leave a gap of at least a year and do vary the themes. I'd think about a fairly general article in the big selling RM now and a follow up focused on a specific feature of the layout in a year or so in one of the others.

I buy RM and MR regularly.

RM I think will get you a bigger audience and a larger spread.

MR I class as the 'Playboy' of the model magazines - I'm not too keen on the photo enhancement that goes on (I know it's a model, I don't need to see things that won't be on the model if I see it IRL). If they put smoke on pictures for Apa Park then one of the 66s is on fire!

Hornby I can't see the point of if you model 'N', they don't produce anything in 'N' so the vast majority of the content is of no use whatsoever.

Quote from: Steve Purves on June 11, 2014, 09:05:16 AM
Hi All,
I was thinking of getting Apa Park in print and have offered my layout to the big 4 (BRM, RM, Hornby and Model Rail)
3 have come back VERY keen to run the article and have heard nothing from Model Rail (that is not to say they won't reply).
Now I'm not so bothered about levels of remuneration nor am I the terms of the copyright etc, I just would like to get my layout out there and hopefully inspire some more people to give APA's a go in various scales...
My question arises thus, I personally haven't bought either magazine for over 10 years (or in Hornbys case never!) so I must ask, if it was you, which magazine would you pick and why?
My current thinking is:
BRM - Always used to be 'cream of the crop' layouts but very steam era biased (rarely bought)
RM - Lots of GWR branchlines and articles featuring lots of text and small pictures but good for reviews/classifieds/shows (bought occasionally)
Model Rail - The new kid on the block, lots of how to's and excellent full page/large photographs. Good mix of steam/D+E (subscribed)
Hornby - Never bought an issue but have seen lots of references online to helpful N gauge features.

Help!

RM may as well be GWR magazine but i would go with model rail as they have a good mix and have always covered N gauge

Quote from: talisman56 on June 11, 2014, 07:02:49 PM
Hornby I can't see the point of if you model 'N', they don't produce anything in 'N' so the vast majority of the content is of no use whatsoever.

Well, you evidently read that one 

It has nothing to do with Hornby, other than the licensed the name ...  After all, Joe Public associates any train model with Hornby and no-one else ...

its been mentioned about the way you'd like it presented, for my sixpenneth after reading them all I find that Hornby is the worst for photography the foucus is realy bad , more so in the reviews section, however if you take your own that way you'd know everything is OK.


alan

Personally I subscribe to RM, there is a bias towards OO but as it has the biggest catchment I don't find this a problem as most tips and techniques apply to all scales and good modelling is good modelling.  N Gauge does get a quite regular lookin now though.

To be honest I think the quality of the finished magazine is the best as well.

As a thought (thinking for the quality of the recently revamped NGS Journal) have you sent the article to the NGS for inclusion in the NGS Journal?

Just another note to say RM has featured several of our members layouts. Having spoken to Steve Flint at the Wigan Show last weekend he would be keen to show more

Hello

I've dreamt of having something published in RM since I was a teenager! One day maybe?

Steve Flint is keen to feature more N Gauge in RM.

I invited him to be a judge at the NGS AMMC but he was disappointed that he couldn't because of going to Wigan.

He already has next year's AGM's date and location in his diary. He's asked me to contact him early in 2015 to firm up arrangements.

Best regards
Michael

This is one of those subjects where everyone has an opinion!  Here's mine.   

I live in California, but I subscribe to RM and MR.  Overseas subscription prices are damn expensive and RM is almost twice as expensive as MR.  I think RM is the superior publication by far, but I enjoy MR's product reviews.

Somewhere above someone said RM's pictures were small back in the day.  Hardly!  Most layout pages are now full page photos with the text superimposed, and the photos are first-rate.  The production values of RM are excellent though I notice they switched to thinner and less glossy paper stock about 6 months ago.  I enjoy its no-nonsense tone and clarity.  It's classy and professional.  It tends to mute its criticism in its product reviews, taking the high road instead.  While that fits the demeanor of the rest of the magazine, it is not always ideal in a review.  An N scale layout or feature is almost always published each month, which I appreicate.

I like MR because 1.) its overseas subscription rates are relatively inexpensive, 2.) its product reviews tend to be more vocal about errors and faults, and 3.) like RM, an N scale layout or feature is usually published each month.  I don't like the color enhancement it does to its layout photos and I HATE the fake chimney smoke it always adds when a steam loco is shown on a layout.  Overall, MR seems more amateurish when compared to RM, or perhaps targeted toward younger modellers, but I still think it is good value for money.

I have purchased from newsagents occasional issues of BRM when visiting the UK, and sometimes back issues of it on eBay when I want to read a specific article I have heard about from forums on the web.  In general I do not like BRM at all.  My impression of it is that it targets the "rivet counter" audience and focuses more on fine detail modeling.  There is nothing wrong with that focus, but it is not my focus.

I have never seen an issue of Hornby magazine so cannot comment.  I had assumed it was OO only, but apparently not from what I've read here.

The NGS Journal is IMHO excellent and also an extremely good value for money.

Finally, it is nice to see someone already has next year's NGS AGM in his diary.  (Too bad not everyone can be bothered!)

Matt