Railway Modeller Digital Version - a warning

[trainsdownunder]

I subscribe to Model Railroad Mag and they use Zinio for access to "your subscription" library. However within Zino there is an option to print pages and so I print all the pages every month using a a program called PD24PDF (freeware). This software allows me to "print" direct to a PDF format which I can then store on my hard drive and so no longer need Zinio to view. So when my subscription ends I shall have no problems referring or reading old issues.

Useful piece of software - : http://en.pdf24.org/

[tutenkhamunsleeping]

I subscribe to Model Railroad Mag and they use Zinio for access to "your subscription" library.

Zinio are much, much, better.   Shame that Railway Modeller use Exact Editions, but the other UK model rail mags are substantially 'safer' digitally.

[Mark K]

I subscribe to Model Railroad Mag and they use Zinio for access to "your subscription" library.

Zinio are much, much, better.   Shame that Railway Modeller use Exact Editions, but the other UK model rail mags are substantially 'safer' digitally.

Whichever way that keeps subscribers happy is the way most (sensible) pubishers will want and need to go. EP's rant is just that, a rant, it is of no value in the current digital magazine world. If we and others, as publishers, withdraw access to that which you have bought should you decide not to subscribe any longer and receive bad feedback as a result, that will deter any others from using digital editions. The thing dies on its feet. RM has not fully understood this and, I suspect, has difficulty understanding digital editions at all.

Mark K

[EtchedPixels]

Whichever way that keeps subscribers happy is the way most (sensible) pubishers will want and need to go.

That unfortunately is not what has happened repeatedly in other industries, notably music and film where companies went under and content was lost, or where they decide to do nasty things to people. It's usually not the publisher being evil - its what happens when the publisher goes bust (which isn't *that* uncommon in the print industry).

If you can print it to a PDF or some other format that isn't locked down then its great. If not "buyer" (and I use that work loosely) beware.

Alan

[ParkeNd]

The thread has been invaluable as it points out an issue with some electronic magazines and maybe books which are not pointed out by their purveyors. I have crawled all over the RM advert for their digital edition and it doesn't even hint about a lack of permanence.

As one who thinks that books are now so expensive (£20 for anything about trains, £30 for many) I often wonder when in Waterstones when the hard copy book industry will finally price itself out of the market. This thread has highlighted that a more realistically priced alternative has not necessarily arrived yet.

[Geoff]

Well I have downloaded the Hornby Digital Version on to my iPad and to tell you the truth I shall be going back to the Magazine, it is OK but I think I like to have it in my hands.

Magazines are good.

[silly moo]

I think the penny has finally dropped!    With the RM digital magazine anything that has been saved on your device when you terminate your subscription can continue to be read while you have that device.

If for any reason you fail to download the issues you want to read before canceling the subscription you've had it!

If you get a new device you've lost them as well.

I am testing this theory by having bought a subscription for one month. Hopefully I will be able to go back in and retrieve some lost issues.

This will take sometime as our download speeds are a bit slower here.

This differs from the other digital magazines in that once you've 'bought' an issue it can be retrieved after the subscription has expired irrespective of whether you have downloaded it or not. It can also be read on a variety of devices. I can still read magazines and books on Zinio even though they were bought years ago and I no longer have a subscription.

My main gripe with RM is that their system has not been properly explained, ideally they should warn you to make sure the issues you wish to keep are downloaded before you cancel the subscription.

I agree with Mark K that the people at RM probably don't understand digital magazines very well which might go some way to explaining why they haven't been much help at all and don't have very clear advertising.

Regards

Veronica

[PLD]

There is an issue that the way we use our Magazines is subtly different to the mass market products that the electronic delivery services are designed for...

They are geared towards the disposable 'read once and throw away' model of consumption typical of the daily newspaper or the 'celebrity/gossip' mags, where you rarely want to go back to previous issues. They aren't tailored to the reading patterns of the hobby market with our habit of going back to previous issues and building up our own personal libraries of issues or articles.

the best solution for us for now is the ability to save a copy or extracts to local storage (which all provide one way or another just that some are easier than others) and ideally that should be in a device/platform neutral format such as PDF...

[MikeDunn]

bought a subscription for one month. Hopefully I will be able to go back in and retrieve some lost issues.
[...]
I agree with Mark K that the people at RM probably don't understand digital magazines very well

Oh, I dunno ... they've got you giving them more money when you didn't intend to    Sounds to me like they understand it well !!!

[ParkeNd]

------------------------- that the people at RM probably don't understand digital magazines very well which might go some way to explaining why they haven't been much help at all and don't have very clear advertising.

Regards

Veronica

It would be really cuddly to believe that this was just a case of simple lack of knowledge. And maybe that is true. But it doesn't take much to imagine a meeting in which someone says "now how do we make sure we lock them in" - and once the method is agreed "Oh no. We can't tell them that up front - they would never sign up".

[Mark K]

------------------------- that the people at RM probably don't understand digital magazines very well which might go some way to explaining why they haven't been much help at all and don't have very clear advertising.

Regards

Veronica

It would be really cuddly to believe that this was just a case of simple lack of knowledge. And maybe that is true. But it doesn't take much to imagine a meeting in which someone says "now how do we make sure we lock them in" - and once the method is agreed "Oh no. We can't tell them that up front - they would never sign up".

Cuddly? Hmmm. Publishing is a commercial operation and our obligations are threefold. They are to our readers, our staff and contributors and finally to ourselves. We incentivise repeat subscriptions by producing a product worth re-subscribing to, either paper or digital. Most sensible publishers do because we know we know that trying to screw subscribers in the way you suggest is a ride over the cliffs. Catherine has twigged it. If you download it onto your comp you can access it for evermore. If you unsubscribe without doing that then, well that's silly but understandable. Publisher needs to be able to fix that.
Mark K.

[silly moo]

PLD has made an excellent point, some magazines and newspapers are only read once and are quickly out of date, if I was subscribing to a newspaper for instance, I would really only be interested the most recent copy of the paper, perhaps that's how Exact Editions has been designed to work.

Anyone with a hobby will want to keep back copies to refer to, that's why I had until recently every paper issue of Model Rail from day one and was running out of storage space!

[talisman56]

Anyone with a hobby will want to keep back copies to refer to, that's why I had until recently every paper issue of Model Rail from day one and was running out of storage space!

That's why I find RM and MR so helpful. When I need to put back issues in storage I can cut the advertising section(s) at the front and back off and just keep the editorial section in store - makes it a lot smaller for storage and the time-sensitive bits (the advertising) that is unlikely to be needed is not cluttering up space...

[Bealman]

Yeah... good tip. Something I should maybe do.
[smg id=3967 type=preview align=center width=400]
On the extreme right of the middle shelf are the 1971, 73 and 74 Railway Modellers in those folders the mag used to sell for them. Dunno if they still do?

The rest of that shelf stretching to the left are railway mags - mostly old RMs!

[woodbury22uk]

The same thing applied with my Continental Modeller subscription. Replaced my iPad with a newer one and lost everything because I no longer have a subscription. For a hobby where we traditionally keep back issues of magazines, the Peco/Exact Editions format is out of step with what folks want and out of step with what we can do with the format/supplier chosen by the other mainstream model railway magazines. The Exact Editions format may well be suited to the gossip magazines which end up in the recycling after a few days but potentially undervalues Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller unless that is the route Peco has chosen to take with their publications.

My contact with Exact Editions generated a standard response:- "Exact Editions subscriptions work on an access model basis. This means you can access an archive of back issues, as well as each new issue, for the duration of your subscription. Exact Editions do not sell individual issues of magazines, nor permanent access to specific issues. Sorry I can't be of more help!". At least the writer had the decency to include an exclamation mark at the end of his "apology".

Trust RM to be different, and in my opinion not the best in this instance.