Model Railway Journal Milestone

Chris Klein

Active Member
MRJ 271.jpg I bought a copy of MRJ edition 271 this morning. The cover price is now £5.20, up from £4.80. I believe MRJ has earned the distinction of being the first UK model railway periodical to break the £5 barrier.

CK
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Don't mind paying that for MRJ, it's a bloody good mag. It's the only railway modelling rag I would pay over a lady for though !

Col.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
To be honest that is the way it is going for print media, the £5 - £6 mark seems to be the going rate for the vast majority of quality magazines so it's still a bargain. Competing with online media and reduced print runs it's only to be expected. I certainly don't think they are minting it at that price and if that's what's required to make it economically viable then I think it's a price worth paying.

Books are the same - I really do like buying a hardcopy and these days £30 - £50 seems to be the starting price for a good book. I've just spent £45 on a Mini book (The Self Preservation Society - 50 Years of The Italian Job) and it's something special that I will treasure - much like MRJ. I'm currently wavering on £225 for the latest Gordon Murray book (One Formula - 50 years of car design) although I'll probably eschew the £2500 unique edition (One Formula - 50 years of car design (Unique Edition)) :eek:
 

Ian Smith

Western Thunderer
Although it was a bit of a surprise to find it had gone up to £5.20, personally I will happily pay that much. MRJ is the only magazine that I read cover to cover (even if an article at first sight is not quite my cup of tea), and the only one that I retain. I very occasionally buy Railway Modeller or BRM (only ever bought 1 Model Rail - the one with St Ruth in it), but only if there is something in them that particularly interests me, and after a month or two I will rip out the page(s) that I want and recycle the rest.
 

Hobbyhorse

Western Thunderer
I stopped buying it a while ago, found the articles got a bit repetitive and dull. Occasionally read it when in smiths as certainly won't pay the new price. With the online forums, free mags online and YouTube these cover more than the mag does. The US free online mags such as MRH are very good and cover a lot of subjects not covered over here.
Whilst I appreciate what MRJ has done for the hobby things have moved on.

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
I stopped buying it a while ago, found the articles got a bit repetitive and dull. Occasionally read it when in smiths as certainly won't pay the new price. With the online forums, free mags online and YouTube these cover more than the mag does. The US free online mags such as MRH are very good and cover a lot of subjects not covered over here.
Whilst I appreciate what MRJ has done for the hobby things have moved on.

Simon

I generally buy (anything) when it has sufficient interest and appeal to make me wish to purchase it. Whilst price is important in terms of affordability (and other things too) I can't see the logic of making it any absolute arbiting factor.

Does £5.20 a throw make MRJ unafforable? No it doesn't - although I agree that it is an unexpected change and that the publisher has not offered any accompanying narrative.

Will the change affect sales? I don't know, I don't suppose it will increase them though.

I think you are overly dismissive of print as a medium, but then I would say that wouldn't I:p

Simon
 

jjnewitt

Active Member
The US free online mags such as MRH are very good and cover a lot of subjects not covered over here. Whilst I appreciate what MRJ has done for the hobby things have moved on.

But MRH is no longer completely free. They now include additional content that needs to be paid for beyond the basic magazine in an attempt to make some more money. They tried a completely free set up and the revenue from advertising alone wasn't sufficient to make a completely free magazine possible. Where there things are moving on to is perhaps not that clear...

Justin
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Wow!
MRJ - the best printed copy modelling mag, has gone over £5 per issue?
In my ever so umble opinion, that's cheap.
In any other part of Europe (wheresoever you can buy such modelling magazines!), the typical price is around €12 and in Germany "Hp1" (the German equivalent of MRJ) is over €20 per issue.
The price of "Model Railroader" and the like in the USA doesn't count as they have vastly different conditions (and, it's rubbish these days!) so you can only compare like for like with the rest of Europe.
It is no surprise really and we'll soon get used to it. How long before the other mags follow suit?
 

richard_t

Western Thunderer
I notice subscriptions are now for 4 issues only.

That will be a Christmas and mid-summer present to myself from now on...
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
I stopped buying it a while ago, found the articles got a bit repetitive and dull. .....

It looks like I'm not the only one who can find some of the issues a bit lacking. Though there are no automatic buys chez Rushby most will find their way home with me. The real test is how many I choose to keep, rather than pass on or pop into the recycling bin. Recently I've had a purge of MRJs and a quick count up of those on my shelves shows that a total of 22 remain, and I've been buying the magazine since it first appeared on the newsagent's shelves.

However does the price matter? Well obviously it does, there will be a sum above which would bring a sharp intake of breath followed by 'nah, don't think so' but I'd suggest that MRJ is some distance away from it yet. Does it represent value for money? Yes I think it does, even if I ultimately pass it on to my mates I'll have had a couple of hours reading and re-reading out of it at about the same price as a film at my local cinema. In fact the value is better because if my mates want to go to the pictures with me they each have to pay a fiver, a passed on MRJ is free.
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
I've watched the wife's weekly 'royal fans' magazine go from £2.00 to £2.30 over the past 12 months, so that's £9.20 per month.
 
Last edited:

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
I'm glad I kept all my copies, because over the timescale of MRJ's existence my interests have widened significantly and so many copies that might have been moved on have since proved a good resource - especially with a decent index to hand.
Indeed.
I missed the very early ones but subsequently bought first one mates collection then later, another mates collection- so I now have about 1 ½ complete sets! They are very precious to me and might as well go into the ground with me as I'll never part with them.
(I know, weirdo - collecting old magazines)
But I regard it as a repository of all the very best and most inspirational of British outline modelling.
Cheers,
John.
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
One thing I would like to see is a review of the fonts they use. I almost gave the magazine up a year ago since my ageing eyes had a hard time with the main text font, and the caption font was unreadable. A cataract operation and cornea transplant improved matters but the caption font is still a bit of a struggle. I did check back to my early editions to see what Bob Barlow did and they were much more legible. The main text font seemed to be slightly smaller but it was bold and black. The caption font was about the same size, but was much bolder and had serifs. The present day main font is serif, but not bold and the caption text is non serif, fine and non-bold.

Jim.
 
Top