Railway Herald to become paid-for?

[55003]

All of Ian Allan's transport titles have been sold to Key publishing,will this include the Railway Herald?

 

[swt_passenger]

All of Ian Allan's transport titles have been sold to Key publishing,will this include the Railway Herald?

Yes. It is mentioned on page 4 of the current issue.

 

[55003]

Thank you for that. I had not read the current issue. I wonder how committed Key Publishing will be to this e magazine in the long term?

 

[Bonemaster]

I certainly wont be subscribing and will extend my boycott to Key publishing, I wont be giving any of my money to anybody I know who has the kind of convictions the RH editor does

 

[theblackwatch]

So now that RH has gone subscription only, has anyone here subscribed and is still getting the magazine?

 

[flymo]

So now that RH has gone subscription only, has anyone here subscribed and is still getting the magazine?

Not me I'm afraid, I gave it up.

 

[Oliver]

Not me I'm afraid, I gave it up.

Yes, I have paid for a year. The magazine is pretty much as before, and being weekly it is relatively up to date with the news. Whether you regard it as being worth £18 per year is a matter of opinion. I think around 40p per issue is OK.

 

[Geezertronic]

Not me unfortunately. I liked the landscape PDF copy so I could take it offline and read it. Now they have reverted to a portrait PDF copy, it seems like a step back

 

[philden]

I subscribed for a year with the hope that at some stage they'll revert to the landscape format. If they don't I am unlikely to renew.

 

[gazthomas]

I am warming to the e-reader version works well on my iPad, but I would prefer landscape over portrait as it is better suited to most photographs. Look at most magazines and there is a lot of cropping, front pages in particular.

As a subscriber I think a "value for value" model might have been better by taking donations instead. I contribute photos but get no financial reward unless my photos are featured in the magazine. I have had quite a few in the magazine it the past, but none since the pay wall came up. Have my photo's got worse or less newsworthy? Or are there less photos now that fees are paid? Maybe normal photo contributors should have credit towards the subscription.

The move to Key Publishing is a sign of the times. Whether we like it or not printed media is in decline. There is very little to distinguish them these days - all the same news stories, similar photos and lots of Hattons adverts. I would expect Rail Express to merge with the Railway Magazine before too long and one of my old favourites, Traction has been in terminal decline since David Brown left.

I like Railway Herald because it is weekly, as a result there is more news variety, though they need to have more pictures. They also need to finish the web site - you still can't comment on photos and I would like to know what people think and also get the advice of others. They don't need forums - this site does exactly that!

 

[theblackwatch]

The move to Key Publishing is a sign of the times. Whether we like it or not printed media is in decline. There is very little to distinguish them these days - all the same news stories, similar photos and lots of Hattons adverts. I would expect Rail Express to merge with the Railway Magazine before too long and one of my old favourites, Traction has been in terminal decline since David Brown left.

Whilst I will not argue that, in general, sales of printed media is in decline (particularly with newspapers - there have been reports in the past week of a number of local daily newspapers being reduced to weekly), two of the magazines you mention there actually saw an increase in sales in the past year. With regard to Traction, as you say, after David Brown's depature it went rapidly downhill (even reducing to bi-monthly) but following its sale to Atlantic and the appointment of a new Editor it does seem to have improved standard's again with some more quality features and a higher standard of photographs.