Hornby Magazine - Issue #1

QUOTE In an exciting new venture, we are joining forces with leading model manufacturer Hornby to launch Hornby Magazine on March 9th 2007.



How many times have you heard people say "I have a Hornby at home!". It is not a model railway. It is a "Hornby". In the anarokish world which we are classified as inhabiting it is cooler to tell your mates "I have a Hornby" than to say "I am a railway modeller". And Hornby are synonymous with introducing 100,000 newcomers to model railways every year so the title makes it reasonably clear who the mag is aimed at. Clever marketing. To date mags on offer have really been for modellers who want to do more than operate a layout on a 6ft x 4ft board.

What I was wondering is are there any other mags worldwide which have a model railway manufacturer's name in the title? If there are this might give us a clue as to the content.

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (Peter_Harvey @ 10 Feb 2007, 16:01) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Doug do you mean to say that Model Rail Forum will be involved directly with this magazine?
Will MRF be independant in there envlovment with the magazine or will they have to tow the Hornby line (Hornby is the best model producer in the World) as the deal breaker?

Pete
Sorry, I cut and paste from Ian Allan Publishing's web site. They were saying "we are joining forces...". It's not MRF that are saying "we are joining forces..."
I've added a quote to make it more clear.

You can subscribe from their site too.

>To date mags on offer have really been for modellers who want to do more than operate a layout on a 6ft x 4ft board.

True, though sometimes you would think it is for people who want to operate a layout on a 12ft x 2ft board

David

QUOTE (Gary @ 10 Feb 2007, 15:36) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
What I was wondering is are there any other mags worldwide which have a model railway manufacturer's name in the title? If there are this might give us a clue as to the content.

Well there is Roco Modellbahn Report, I can't say much about the content as my German is not that good, it does however appear to "show you how" (and has excellent prototype and model phtography) The last copy I saw was 74 1/2006.

Regards

John

Its an in house magazine for the promotion of Hornby products. Good luck to them in this venture, it might have a knock on effect on other magazines as Hornby may look to reduce their Ad spend in other modelling periodicals. I hope one of the one's to suffer is the Railway Modeller which has sunk to new low levels. It's a largely a boring read with zero innovation again for the glorification of Prichards Patient products. Independence in magazines is a good thing so I will continue to support BRM which has great photo's and model rail.

The patronising Mr Pritchard and his cronies down in Seaton need a good shakeup. His comments about British modellers in this months BRM could drive many with an a previous allegiance to Peco track to look else where for their rails.

They were surprising comments and maybe a little blunt for some people however was he not being honest?

Until we have had the chance to look at the new magazine it is too early to say what the editorial line is. The impression is that the magazine is for new modellers and that "Hornby" is as synonymous with this as "Hoover" is with vacuum cleaning. Are you saying Hornby have a commercial tie in with this magazine beyond that of advertiser?

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (Makemineadouble @ 15 Feb 2007, 09:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I hope one of the one's to suffer is the Railway Modeller which has sunk to new low levels.


But at least we no longer have the word Peco in bold everytime it appears in an artical - personally I always though that it was a bit pathetic.

Best of luck to Hornby though with the mag.

I know I've just posted "Live and let live" in another thread, but...

I have to say, very reluctantly, and through gritted teeth, that when I returned to the hobby a few years ago, I bought all the major mags for a few months to compare them....And I could hardly believe RM. It actually looked identical to my memory of it from schooldays...and inside, it definitely read like a museum piece.

I hate to say this, but that was my impression, as a newcomer, eager to learn and get up to speed on what was happening in the hobby. I settled on Model Rail in the end - by far the best for my needs (off-topic, I suppose, but BRM's photography is certainly astounding - how do they do it?).

I suspect some of the comments here about a lack of innovation are harsh but fair.

I might try the Hornby Magazine (from the Ian Allan web-site, I got the impression it was indeed to be a sort of in-house mag), and wish them well - but I stopped taking the Hornby Collector because it was too simplistic and kiddie-orientated for my taste.

Anyway, I will certainly be interested to see what editorial line they take.

QUOTE (Makemineadouble @ 15 Feb 2007, 09:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The patronising Mr Pritchard and his cronies down in Seaton need a good shakeup. His comments about British modellers in this months BRM could drive many with an a previous allegiance to Peco track to look else where for their rails.



Indeed they do, and if it wasn't for the fact that there aren't that many track systems available in the shops I think many people would!

Regards

John

I buy three model magazines at present by subscription:

model railroader : satisfies my lust for H/O modelling, this mag goes from strength to strength
British Railway Modelling: which continues to improve in both content and presentation
Model Rail : I buy this despite some of the claims of pulling power achieved on their office layout Frequently when I've bought a loco they have recommended it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, let alone pull stock off the track. They did do some ground breaking presentations to launch the magazine and this has lifted content even in the toddler.

I also get a narrow gauge magazine from the states.

I stopped buying the Railway Toddler on a regular basis when the publication started publishing anti DCC material in letters to the Editor. Personally I think it was a 5th column campaign from within the Toddler itself producing the rubbish. Clive Hardus was claimed to be the particular writer. This just tipped me over the edge, from being a lethargic regular buyer from habit, to actively making a point opf not buying it. I was already considering dropping the magazine on content grounds.

Not one of the British magazines has a decent web site, they all could take a leaf out of Model Railroader and have a decent web presence. So we have another magazine, in a shrinking market, for sure at least one of the established magazines will suffer, and yes for sure Hornby will at sometime reduce their ad spend in some magazines or all of them will feel the effect.

QUOTE (Makemineadouble @ 15 Feb 2007, 09:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Its an in house magazine for the promotion of Hornby products. Good luck to them in this venture, it might have a knock on effect on other magazines as Hornby may look to reduce their Ad spend in other modelling periodicals. I hope one of the one's to suffer is the Railway Modeller which has sunk to new low levels. It's a largely a boring read with zero innovation again for the glorification of Prichards Patient products. Independence in magazines is a good thing so I will continue to support BRM which has great photo's and model rail.

The patronising Mr Pritchard and his cronies down in Seaton need a good shakeup. His comments about British modellers in this months BRM could drive many with an a previous allegiance to Peco track to look else where for their rails.



Hornby Magazine isn't a house magazine for Hornby. Hornby have no influence over the editorial content. They even have to pay for their advertising like everyone else.

The magazine is aimed at getting those who used to be involved in the hobby before mortgages and families came along, back into it again, and also at completely new modellers who want to know how to get started.

Primarily the content will be BR 1950s, 60s and 70s and will major on 'OO', although other scales/gauges will be covered to a lesser extent.

I don't know about other modellers, but magazines that tell you to cut up your brand new Bachmann loco and improve it by adding bits and bobs are a bit beyond me. I wouldn't dare take a knife to my lovely new Fairburn tank!

The magazine won't assume that everyone is an expert modeller, but hopefully will have enough interesting stuff in it to appeal to more than just beginners.

How do I know all this? I'm closely involved you might say (not the editor though!).