We are all hearing the Bad news about Scale Auto Mag. Okay so what’s so different? We ship modelers lost a great ships only mag from a respected source. Before that Scale Ship Modeler. So where is this going? Well I wouldn’t be surprised to see Armor mags to falter next. Why? Less interest as the new generation grows up.
Remember this readers, we are all driven by the love of modeling, but those that model to remember someone special or something special that were communicated to younger ones is a moot point. They don’t want to hear about " Nam" or the “Sandbox”.
Why? Well, this is a testament to what I personnally know. The young Un’s I know are so self centered that is when they run into you with their skateboards whilst texting they don’t even apologize, instead they look at you as ask to why didn’t you get out of their way! That’s it sorry to say.
Lastly and Most Important.Which mags reach a greater majority of folks. Well, Sports magazines! Now I could care less about those overpriced purveyors of a Football or Basketball team. Why. Well there’s no real team camaraderie. It’s all business. that’s why! The ticket prices are so high I can’t afford them. But thousands of Americans will spend thousands OF DOLLARS! on sports memoriablia and tailgat parties at the games.
Hobbies,Phaw! Women will will read Quilting and Craft mags et.al. But then again it’s a limited market! See?Just like mags for woodcarvers and woodworkers. Their sponsors and advertisers sell tools so there’s a heavy return on their ad investment! Not so on the same level with Models, Model supplies or Tools. Most model tools don’t wear out as fast because they see only ,basically, light duty use! Going back to the first lines. Have you seeen what the price of a Quilting sewing machine sells for? How about The same price of a good used car!
I love scale modeling, I love FSM, was a 35 yr subscriber, used to Own every issue except the first few. Finally a couple of years ago I stopped subscribing, not because of the price, or the quality of the magazine.I just didn’t need it anymore. There is almost nothing in the magazine that I can’t find either on a forum or a blog or an article on line.Reviews, new products, news, its all there. Now I realize there may be consequences, the magazine may fold, the Forum may close down, what can I do,I will miss it and everybody for sure,but I’m sure we will all hookup somewhere else on the net.
I don’t have any magazine subscriptions anymore.Used to get Military History, Various sports magazines, local newspaper delivery, and the like. But really, magazines are old news, by the time you get them, everything can be read about on the net.
And when you’ve been around and reading long enough, the articles start to get very repetitive quickly. ‘Applying decals like a pro!’, ‘Weathering your first tank model!’, ‘Detail your plane’s cockpit!’ can only be repeated so many times. It’s like reading the 80000000000th article on the Battle of Stalingrad in a history mag - the likelihood you’ll learn anything you don’t already know is so remote, it’s tough to even read it at all at that point.
I subscribe to a number of magazines, SA, FSM, National Geo, Fine Gardening, Collectable Automobile, a couple of high end audio mags, and North Western lines (train magazine) and I subscribe to The Chicago Tribune newspaper. I have a variety of interests . The Internet is great and serves a usefull purpose, but nothing beats reading printed media. I will miss SA.
Agree…the internet is a wonderful tool, but I much prefer to hold what I’m reading in hand. There’s also the anticipation of the next issue of a favorite magazine. I’ve yet to have my magazine collection lock me out or crash.
I just dropped my FSM subscription. Don’t see the need with everything that’s available on the internet and I don’t need stacks of old magazines laying around.
Scale auto, and other modeling mags closing, has very little to do with the health of the hobby, its simply magazines are dying. Every genre of magazine has dwindled: music, cars, video games, quilting, news, etc.
i keep reading on this forum how everyone thinks the hobby is dying and young people would rather play video games, etc. Yes, your mom and pop hobby shops are closing And there are only a fraction of what there used to be. But is this an indication of a the hobby dying or simply an indication of people changing their buying habits and buying online? Malls are dying left and right. Does this mean people are no longer buying clothes and appliances? No, they are buying online.
right now, I have a choice of SIX online companies that only sell car model paints (zero, scalefinishes, gravity, MCW, splash, and trucolor). Is that indicating a dying hobby?
Regarding young people, perhaps this is a hobby that young people don’t get into anymore, but they will at middle age or so? perhaps new people getting into the hobby are simply older and not kids. That’s fine, the hobby needs new modellers, it doesn’t matter how old they are. If they start the hobby at 40, rather than 10, who cares?
Excellent point, go to the Introductions Section, just about everybody are older new modelers, so that’s definitely growth in the hobby, and they have more disposable income to spend on the hobby then kids.
Speaking of young people, many of them do not read hard copy. They are not into magazines nor newspapers. Even younger modelers get all their info online.
Printed information will increasingly disappear. As a plus-eighty person, I really revere printed material. My library cases are overflowing. But I know someday I will loose my daily newspaper. But, I need to get more involved with stuff online. So far, I have been unwilling to pay for online information. I think I will work on being more comfortable.
Mags disappear. Advertising and information will not- we just need to adapt to more online usage.
There’s not going to be a 30 year gap. For example, I’m 45 years old. I will be in this hobby until say 75. The 10 year old today will be 40 when I stop buying at 75 and would then start the hobby and replace me.
One thing to pay attention to is what are younger people building? A lot of Gundam kits and the manufacture Bandai is listening. They are making over fifty new kits a year it seems like and people are buying them. They’ve also done a lot of Star Wars kits and buildable action figures which are nicely detailed and can look great painted. At least where I am at my nearest hobby shop has switched over focusing mainly on Gundam kits as it’s become the biggest seller followed by sci-fi, cars and aircraft.
I think other manufactures are happy with the market they are catering to and there’s still a big enough demand. Otherwise we wouldn’t have Miniart releasing almost twenty different variants of T-54’s/55’s.