QUOTE (Peter_Harvey @ 14 Jul 2007, 09:33)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Well I had my copy come this morning looks good not had chance to read it all, But no free gift with it so I dont know how you got your free gift? No mention of it in the mag ither.
Pete
All subscribers are to be sent one of the re-railers under separate cover.
The reason there wasn't one on subscription copies isn't anything to do with the good old Royal Mail, it is far simpler than that.
When we asked Hornby if they could organise a free gift to launch Hornby Magazine, they came up with the re-railer idea. It was going to be something like Skaledale road signs, but they were going to be too expensive and difficult to stick on the covers. We suggested 30,000 as that was how many magazines we planned on printing. In the event, they didn't arrive from China in time, so we went to plan c) which was to include the free Scalescenes kit.
The re-railers arrived in time for issue two, but there were two problems. The first was that due to the first issue selling out in most places, the print order shot up. The second problem was that the re-railers came in very loose and unattractive polythene bags which couldn't be stuck onto the cover.
Scalescenes bailed us out at the eleventh hour with a second bespoke kit.
Meanwhile I went to the printers to see if we could work out how to mount the re-railers on to the cover of Isuue 3. We decided to unbag them and print a carry card which could go onto the cover. There was some expense doing this as you can imagine, plus the time it takes to man handle 30,000 of the things.
However, one problem we have in magazines is predicting the print order, which comes in late from our distributor, Market Force - typically three or four days before we are ready to actually print it - which isn't a problem with established magazines as they are fairly consistent, but new magazines are a different matter! The signs were that the print order would be nearer to 30,000 so there were no concerns, but it came in higher again. We had already briefed the news trade that there would be some 'model railway accessories cover mounted' so had an obligation to go ahead. As we know all of our subscribers' addresses it made sense to post these out later when we could get hold of some more.
Bear in mind also how patient Hornby had been with us after kindly organising the promotional gift.
It doesn't matter whether it is worth 50p or £5, or whether it is useful to everybody or not, I agree that everyone should get one, and there is no way we would descriminate against our most loyal readers who have shown great faith by taking out a subscription. It may take another week or so, but we are actively trying get a further supply from Hornby's stockroom and will post them out as soon as we get them.
It is true that such gifts are designed to encourage new potential readers to pick the magazine up in the shops. Retailers and wholesalers are more likely to stock magazines that run promotions as it shows them that publishers are commited to helping them to sell magazines. But there is aways a conflict of interests, especially where promotions are exclusive to W H Smiths for example. I prefer to treat everyone the same and that way there are no arguements, so I can assure you I was really disappointed when I realised last week that there weren't enough to go round.
As for the post, the subscription copies arrived from the printer last Tuesday and were turned round straight away. Some copies may have got caught up in the postal strike, but they couldn't have gone out any earlier. They are sent by lorry on the same day that copies are delivered to the main trade distribution point, but on this occasion were overtaken due to postal strike action. I am looking at getting the next issue finished a day or two earlier to avoid this happeneing, but if we had closed earlier this time we would have missed out on the Bachmann Class 47 (Brush Type 4) review as it literally came in the day before we closed for press.
There won't be a gift with issue 4, but we do have some extra treats coming up later in the year.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support, which really is appreciated.
Paul
(Black 5 Man)
