Volume 49 Issue 1 - October 2021

[clayliner]

...complaining that the NEWS was always late as by the time it arrived quite often the commercial magazines had already issued the following month's editions   Mick 

I'm not sure what the issue date of the 009 News had to do with other magazines (or even the price of fish), but presumably it was important to some members.   :)

David.

[MickT]

I'm not sure what the issue date of the 009 News had to do with other magazines (or even the price of fish), but presumably it was important to some members.   :)

David.

I never saw the correspondence or "record of phone calls" etc that Mark Howe received but it was certainly enough to cause him concern, which was reflected by the committee endorsement of his proposal to move the publishing date back to the month preceding the cover issue date. As far as I understand it, receiving your monthly stash of mags from WH Smith with eg "November" on the cover and 2 or 3 weeks later receiving your 009 News in the post with eg "October" on the cover caused many people to believe that the News was running a month late all the time.

This was excacerbated by often receiving the News with notices and branchlines reports featuring publicity for events and meetings etc which had already taken place by the time the News was released, and the longer delay for an issue to reach overseas members, who also have to be catered for. Simple comparator:

Old publishing date: September issue of the News published around 25 September, posted to members and copy received by member in Slovenia (we do or did have one!) 3 weeks later (not unusual) around 18 October, but the issue is the September one, therefore a month out of date.

Revised publishing date: Same dates, but this time it is the October issue that is published late - 25 September, same as above example, it is normally a week or so before that as you know; posted to members and received by Bostan in Slovenia around 18 October - it is stated as the October issue so it is in date and everybody is happy.

Next Question, wake up at the back Bryant...............

Mick

[Stuart Taylor]

I do try and purge items from Branchlines that I know will be in the past by the time members receive them. The fact that the date is somewhere areound the third to fourth week of the month means I have to be flexible on those items.

This is an interesting topic, in an academic kind of way.  ;D ;D ;D

Stuart

[B.Meldon]

I do wonder what the reaction would have been back in the 1980's when for various reasons the news went through a rather erratic time regarding publication dates etc.  How things have moved on since then.

[Stuart Taylor]

I do wonder what the reaction would have been back in the 1980's when for various reasons the news went through a rather erratic time regarding publication dates etc.  How things have moved on since then.

Brian, probably the same today with MRJ, you just never really know when it is going to turn up!

Stuart

[Ian Jopson]

Personally I don't mind what date is on the magazine, it's a great read at any time. I recall Model Boats magazine went through a stage (only a few months) of not putting the month, only the volume and issue numbers. Now that did throw everybody out.

[MickT]

I recall Model Boats magazine went through a stage (only a few months) of not putting the month, only the volume and issue numbers. Now that did throw everybody out.

I hope they had life jackets on

coat, hat, taxi!............. ::)

[Stephen Rainsbury]

Being a more recent member I am extremely grateful for the .pdf back issues, indeed currently being in temporary accommodation most of my gear is in storage so this online archive is proving a great source of entertainment.
I only keep the paper copies until I can download the pdf version, which is stored by year, but I also use "print as pdf" to extract articles into my my own archive which is organised as "Locos", "Layouts", "Scenery", "Painting" etc.. This also includes downloads from other online mags so its great to go back to these after a year and fins all manner of articles that I had forgotten :-)