On line rail magazine for free

[Steve B]

OK this is a link to Britains first on-line railway magazine, have a look and see what you think. do you think an American version would catch on like this one has. You can either download the PDF version or subscribe for free and get it electronically every Friday, if you go for the PDF download there are two versions, one for dial up users and one for broadband users, this is a lot better quallity.

take a look and see what you think

http://www.railwayherald.com/

:D

[jbaakko]

Thats nice. I'll have to start reading.

[roundhouse]

OK this is a link to Britains first on-line railway magazine, have a look and see what you think. do you think an American version would catch on like this one has.
I published an online magazine for DCC (Digital Railroader), but it died due to a lack of advertising revenues. So, unless this digizine is well-funded, they'd better hope they attract some advertisers! :(

[Steve B]

Hello Frank,
They are working on seeking advertisers, at present it's ticking over very well, so hopefully it will only get bigger and better. Railfan's here are showing a lot of intrest in it,

BTW, you have some great stuff for sale in your shop

[roundhouse]

They are working on seeking advertisers, at present it's ticking over very well, so hopefully it will only get bigger and better. Railfan's here are showing a lot of intrest in it.

I'm just wondering how successful the same type of thing would be here in the USA. With my experience, it was worse than pulling teeth trying to get substantial advertising, and that was with a topic that was really HOT. Trouble is, there is just too much available online, and a digizine could get lost in the shuffle. Anyone that starts here will have to develop a user base that is huge and verifiable.


BTW, you have some great stuff for sale in your shop


Thank you! It's also a struggle with an online retail venture, for just about the same reason as I mentioned above!

[Railphotog]

There's a fellow in Australia doing an On30 online magazine, "On30 tracks". A while ago he decided to go by subscription only, can't recall what the cost was. I had visited it online a few times and it was pretty thin. he "articles" were not much more than captioned photos. There might have been more that I missed, but I wasn't overly interested. And much of the time the pages weren't accesible due to server and other ongoing problems.

The idea of paid subscriptions failed, not enough signing up. So now it's back to free, but you have to register to be able to read the content. I didn't have the interest to register the last time I looked, but might do so in the future. Thanks for those "throwaway" e-mail addresses!

There is so much freely available hobby information on forums such as this and many others that to make a successful online magazine is probably quite difficult to do.

I read general news on CNN, ABC, etc., and long ago noticed only the main stories get changed regularly, the everyday items stay on their pages sometimes for weeks or more. So if the big guys can't offer very much content, how can a small hobby like ours? Would this proposed online magazine pay authors for their work?

[Steve B]

I read that they hope to be paying for photo's soon, that's a start i suppose, not sure if it would have an impact on who submit's stuff, some would send more in but some would not, things change once money is on the table

[CP-FAN]

Hey Steve

Thanks for free on-line mag - info. Looks good and worth exploring too.

[Steve B]

Your Welcome,

In the latest addition track maintenance equipment is in abundance, some very interesting stuff

Railway herald (http://www.railwayherald.co.uk/BackIssues/Issue73.pdf)

[Steve B]

Heres a quick update for you, this issue has some American and Canadian content including an article covering an order from FREIGHTLINER UK Heavy haul for a fleet of new loco's from General Electric.

The magazine is doing a roaring trade and is launching an international magazine, which is also a free download in PDF format.

This is the link (http://railwayherald.co.uk/worldwide/)

give it a go and register, the more that do the better the content

[Steve B]

Here we go, the very first of the new free online magazine

Issue ONE Railway Herald magazine WORLDWIDE (http://www.railwayherald.co.uk/)

:D
If you can contribute anything please feel free to do so via the contact link in the menu

[Steve B]

Check out

the story about the new intermodal route CHINA to GERMANY in 15 days

The Americas news including north and south america and canada

australia

europe
and a few more,

[Steve B]

Issue two (http://www.railwayherald.co.uk/magazine/viewissue.php?type=WW&issue=2) of Railway Herald world edition, some great shots and stories from all across the globe, check it out and if you want to contribute feel free to do so, BNSF appear to be dominating the pictures,
ONE million hit's a week for a new free magazine, :)

[Rogue]

Great Stuff Steve, just brilliant!

[JeffShultz]

Joe Fugate is looking at doing an online magazine - he's looking for content and trying to figure out the financials of it. Somehow it looks like I'll be involved as well. If you have any interest either as a reader or possible contributor, he's discussing it at http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?6768

[jfugate]

Joe Fugate is looking at doing an online magazine - he's looking for content and trying to figure out the financials of it. Somehow it looks like I'll be involved as well. If you have any interest either as a reader or possible contributor, he's discussing it at http://siskiyou-railfan.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?6768

The one big difference with our new model railroading PDF magazine is it is being designed from the ground up to be formatted for optimum online reading pleasure.

The bulk of the magazine PDFs I've seen so far use a print magazine design mindset and are a pain to read online -- you have to scroll around, zoom in, zoom out -- the fonts and writing is print magazine style ... the list goes on and on of things that should be done differently for a magazine you read on a computer screen.

Our new magazine is being designed from the ground up to be read on the screen. Forget how print publications are done -- we've started completely over with this magazine's design and are using all the latest research on how to format and write content for the most pleasant online viewing.

With a total "design it to be read on a computer" model for your publication, all kinds of new abilities open up to you: audio clips, video clips, 3D virtual reality images -- and we're adding these in as well to get a "rich media" PDF publication that we believe is a real first in the hobby.

And did I mention that it's going to be free? The first issue will debut January 2009, it will be quarterly, and totally ad supported.

[jfugate]

Just a quick update on the new free model railroading magazine.

The new magazine's web site is here:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com

One of the more fun parts of the site is MRH Theater. Right now there are almost 20 video clips from the 2008 Anaheim National Train Show.