Good to see RM on here!

One reason some of the steam news may have appeared elsewhere is due to production cycles. Steam Railway publishes every 4 weeks, so 13 issues a year. Heritage Railway is published on a different timescale, so there will be occasions when they can get the news in print before we can. Similarly, given our timescales of the 1st Wednesday every month, there will be times when we get news published ahead of our competitors.

There is also a need to plan and design pages throughout the month as you can't design a 100-page magazine in 3 days, so deadlines for some pages occur as the month progresses.

But add to that that we are also a journal of record so try to include every key story, and some readers only buy one title - The Railway Magazine.

The editorial team are also able to react to bring you the latest Headline news too, and our dedication won us the accolade of "IPC Title of the Year" back in March. No mean feat considering IPC publishes nearly 100 magazines.

Let me take this a step further. Our Headline news pages at the front of the magazine are the very last ones we sign off, and that's what we'll be doing next week, ready to publish on October 3.

The terrible accident at Heck on February 28, 2001 happened on a Wednesday in our press week. We were less than 24 hours from signing off the Headline news page which were designed and proofed, just awaiting checking. But after an editorial conference, we ripped apart 7 or 8 pages and completely re-wrote them to include the story of the Heck crash, so when the issue was published on March 7, it would still be fresh.

Ditto the Pendolino crash at Grayrigg in February this year, although that happened on a Friday, so we had more time to plan, and get it on the cover. And we, like Rail magazine, also have to deal with a stream of enquires from our national media colleagues who are not as well-versed on railway matters, so need a little bit of help !

You get instant news into your living room courtesy of BBC, ITV and Sky, we obviously can't compete, but we are as close as is humanly possible.

Hope that helps.

 

It does, many thanks.

Regards
Chris

 

It does, many thanks.

Regards
Chris[/quote:d79b5]

Welcome to the forum from all at Steam Railway. RM is good read every month and a worthy competitor, although I think the two mags compliment each other very well. As for the Big Four issues copying accusation... no copying involved, more a question of 'great minds' etc. We had ours planned six months ago. Buy both and revel in them.

 

So who has been complaining about copying then?

I can't comment on what Danny says about their decision on an LMS feature, but regular readers of The RM will know this is the third special issue relating to the Big Four, the GWR appearing in 2005 and LNER in 2006. Both are sold out, so if you see a copy in a second hand shop grab it so you can get the set.

As Danny has said and indeed Robin Jones at Heritage Railway and I would all agree upon is that competition is healthy, even though we all serve different market sectors.

And you may be surprised to know that we do talk to each other when we meet at events and functions !

 

It does, many thanks.

Regards
Chris[/quote:4f4a0]

Welcome to the forum from all at Steam Railway. RM is good read every month and a worthy competitor, although I think the two mags compliment each other very well. As for the Big Four issues copying accusation... no copying involved, more a question of 'great minds' etc. We had ours planned six months ago. Buy both and revel in them.[/quote:4f4a0]

Okay it was me that mentioned "copying"! I'll own up. I didn't mean it in a derogatory way I just hinted that the same ideas were being used after The RM had started their series of collectors issues. So it's just friendly rivalry then! :smt002

 

Just waiting for heritage Railway to get on here and all should be well...

 

The issue of production cycles having been raised, and the comment made about Railway Magazine being a journal of record - one thing I would like to see in every issue (and of every magazine!) is the actual 'press date' (especially as it is so far in advance of 'cover date'), so one has a datum point for the included news (and views) - especially for when one is going back to (then old) issues in the future.

Jeremy