Why do you buy Steam Railway?

As said in earlier post, have you looked at getting it on subscription?
You get it delivered early and can save 50% on cover price! which includes postage.
The electronic versions for iPad etc are cheaper still, you can then print off what you want and have ready access at all times,
I got the offer for £5 for a year, which now carries on at that price but was with the magazine subscription to.
Heritage Rail worked out at £1.92 per issue, what a bargain.
I have no association with any of these magazines.

 

I never bought the magazine new until I saw the pictures of Duchess of Hamilton being re-streamlined and ever since I've been hooked

 

Talking of SR, and this is just out of interest, has something fundamental happened. Both the Editor and Deputy seem to have left at very short notice and we are no on guest editors, the first editorial (last month) having some strange angle of confirming they got storeis from wider sources than the internet.

Not stirring or anything like that, juyst appeared very odd.

 

very strange how staff come and go, arrive in a blaze of glory and then just vanish, with excuses like more family time needed

 

could it be down to circulation figures falling?? not a 'proper' job

 

Well the Deputy Editor has gone to the Railway Magazine, which seems like a reasonably sensible career move given their changing levels of readership.

 

No, Gary and Nick both got other jobs - I know them both (Gary for 25 years) and nothing sinister at all

 

Good stuff, shocked that it would appear that they were only on a months notice (farewell issue contained advert for replacement) but suppose there could be a degree of 'gardening leave' involved if going to a perceived competitor?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

Don't want to get involved in matters of personality here. It seems to me that the internet and groups such as NP have rendered the future of the monthly, "Steam Beano" type of publication increasingly problematical. "Railway Magazine" might be better placed as traditionally it has had a rather more analytical approach and caters for those who just want to buy one magazine per month, covering both heritage and contemporary railway matters.

However they will all have to watch it. Recently an article by Keith Chester in "Narrow Gauge World" dealing with the lead up and postscript to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand presented a new take on railways and World War One, well written, accessible and not assuming that the reader was a person of "light thought". I will be surprised to read anything better about W.W.I railways in a periodical during the next four years.

Does the future lie with the generalist publication on the one hand and the ultra specialist on the other?

P.H.

 

This troubles some of the more thoughtful railway journalists also. The one "fact" in the debate about print media versus pixel-world is that no UK national or major regional newspaper publisher has new presses on order. Beyond that all is speculation, with the parties with the most to lose apparently as clueless as the rest of us. The new-fangled Kindle is lowering the bar for niche and previously self-published books. My own little bit of blind guesswork is that the internet (not just Nat Pres but the various uses made of social media and easy to publish e-newsletters by special interest groups and heritage railways) has taken away from the railway press that facility to make a living reporting "news" that is actually no such thing : "Prairie tank gets new chimney shock". If they cannot identify a new business model, they will be doomed to contraction and merger. Those titles that deem to submit themselves to ABC Circulation audit show (if you are an optimist) sales that are dependanly stable or (if you are not) worryingly frozen. None of them seem to have the budgets to engage in serious investigative journalism, or even dare be a bit edgy so in our world, as in the real one, many good and important stories lay untold. I would love to see a railway version of The Spectator, very specifically aimed at those who are not "light of thought" and enjoy well argued provocation. But the numbers are horrible and the commercial risk daunting, even without the uncertainties of an unknown outcome to the communications revolution. This may turn out to be the age of the "light of thought", who will get the railway press they deserve. .

 

I fear you may well be right but, naturally, hope you are not! Also I suspect it is unreasonable to expect articles of the calibre I praised previously to be written other than in very small quantities.

Paul H.

 

The latest SR is good, and well above its 'Beano' reputation - articles on the Long Marston project, steam in Bosnia in particular but plenty more. Often there are interesting reflections on what might have been - such as this issue's article on a failed attempt to save a 'Crab' with interesting perspective on Chester in the mid Sixties. I generally buy RM each month for good overall coverage (more to life than steam!), and SR on a casual basis, but the attractive subscription offer may now turn this into a regular read.

John

 

Not really steam based, but some interesting rail stories including an exclusive regarding a memorial for Jack Mills.

I guess we will see more publications go 100% digital in the future.

http://issuu.com/railstation/docs/rail_announcement_issue_3_june_2014