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Re: The Fall of Trains Magazine
Author: Margaret (SP fan)
Date: 06-05-2018 - 19:46
F40PHForever --
You hit the nail squarely on the head.
Yes, the internet has changed everything, and magazines and newspapers have become redundant, for the most part.
Social media does fill the need for getting information fast, but the photos on it are always fuzzy, compared to the photos here and on sites such as "railpictures.net" and "rrpicturearchives,net". But none of the info on any social media website is ever permanent -- you cannot depend on being able to get at it even only a few hours after it is posted.
And forums do fill the need for discussions that one can refer to years later, and photos and videos posted on non-social-media websites do stay there for a while, but text stays up as long as the site stays up.
Magazines should focus on printing artistic photos on good-quality paper, with good and informative captions -- to make issues that people would want to keep. But doing that every month is asking too much. Publishing magazines quarterly or semi-annually would be more realistic and practical. And that would give the editors much more time to select outstanding photos. Of course, the per-issue and subscription price would have to be set at a level that would allow the magazine to survive and prosper. And I am not referring only to railfan magazines, but to all non-news magazines in every area of interest.
The other problem is that magazines cannot publish anything if they do not get suitable articles. Also, I think that very few magazines could ever afford to pay decent wages to full-time staff. (I could be wrong about that.)
What has happened to the quality of Trains magazine is sad. It would take a person with a lot of energy and great ideas and a "We CAN do it!" attitude to improve the magazine markedly. And there still are people out there who are excellent writers. So, as always, "Hope springs eternal."
You hit the nail squarely on the head.
Yes, the internet has changed everything, and magazines and newspapers have become redundant, for the most part.
Social media does fill the need for getting information fast, but the photos on it are always fuzzy, compared to the photos here and on sites such as "railpictures.net" and "rrpicturearchives,net". But none of the info on any social media website is ever permanent -- you cannot depend on being able to get at it even only a few hours after it is posted.
And forums do fill the need for discussions that one can refer to years later, and photos and videos posted on non-social-media websites do stay there for a while, but text stays up as long as the site stays up.
Magazines should focus on printing artistic photos on good-quality paper, with good and informative captions -- to make issues that people would want to keep. But doing that every month is asking too much. Publishing magazines quarterly or semi-annually would be more realistic and practical. And that would give the editors much more time to select outstanding photos. Of course, the per-issue and subscription price would have to be set at a level that would allow the magazine to survive and prosper. And I am not referring only to railfan magazines, but to all non-news magazines in every area of interest.
The other problem is that magazines cannot publish anything if they do not get suitable articles. Also, I think that very few magazines could ever afford to pay decent wages to full-time staff. (I could be wrong about that.)
What has happened to the quality of Trains magazine is sad. It would take a person with a lot of energy and great ideas and a "We CAN do it!" attitude to improve the magazine markedly. And there still are people out there who are excellent writers. So, as always, "Hope springs eternal."
