Trains delivers...
I've had experience of Trains for as long as I can remember really, my Grandpa had a subscription in the 50s, which were bound volumes, my Dad used to buy it in the 90s and now today I have a digital subscription to the magazine...
My Prince Edward Island project led me to source the September 1963 copy, and I was completely blown away by it - it's production quality and images would sit well even today. Who isn't drawn to that cover, black and white with the red label popping right off, and the clean and uncluttered text...
Inside this continues and the photo section feels so luxurious, with full page beautiful photos, real amazing shots, well composed, beautiful. I've taken a photo of one spread, but I could have used any of them... if I didn't want to keep it, I'd have cut it up and used them on the wall, they're just lovely images.
Today's cover, January 2021 is tailored for what people in publishing think is necessary to sell magazines off the newsstand - BUSY - too much over writing, a preview of what's inside... the red label of Trains has grown in size, but the lineage is clear...
With the advent of colour I think the art of photography reproduction has suffered a little, however this issue has some lovely photos and those of Cumberland Mine's 17 mile coal line are splendid examples of the art...
Over the years the magazine has survived and evolved, and with the internet offering up insrantenous gratification of photos news, as it happens, a magazine needs to bring something else - and I think Trains does that (although I fear a little watered down on historical content after Classic Trains was launched) with it's mix of industry commentary, historical articles and creative diary / journal pieces. I still enjoy reading it, as a light touch but engaging distraction from the day to day. More soon...
If I have one comment, I don't believe that these days magazine need such cluttered covers. The internet has changed our relationship with magazines, as such I think a clean crisp cover would actually sell better, than the complex and busy new-stand (friendly, or unfriendly) cover?
Magazine covers are analysed to death. It's by far the most technical page in any issue. Even the way a newsagent displays the magazines on a shelf will influence the design. Post-publication reviews often look at the cover and compare it to the performance of previous issues to find the sweet spot that gets people buying. A good example is the choice of loco for the front. You sell more if it's steam.
ReplyDeleteEnthusiasts generally claim to prefer a clean cover, but the casual buyer tends to need to be spoon-fed I'm afraid. If we didn't need to put it all up front, they won't bother picking it up. The world has changed but mainly in reduced attention spans. Selling means giving the buyer what they want, not what we think looks nice or they should want.
Larger photos inside are a feature of many magazines now. I'm encouraged to use less images, but bigger and it's undeniable that they have more impact that way. The trade off is less text, because readers find that off putting. And that has been tested, it's not conjecture.
Thanks Phil, it’s good to have an informed and well thought out response. Food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI personally, and I know it’s not your opinion but that of the industry, feel that ‘this was lies demons’...
“ Selling means giving the buyer what they want, not what we think looks nice or they should want”.
I think that being a producer of a magazine, having done that myself in the past, there is a fine line here that is trodden carefully. There are more paths than the common one, it may take courage and not be well trodden, but treating your readers as intelligent switched on passionate about what they love, model railways in this case but mountain biking in my past life, can open up a world where your regulars become very loyal and passionate about your magazine as they do about the hobby. For this, style and content matter more than what the salesman say...
But hey, I’m not in railway modelling or traditional hobby publishing, what do I know! You’ve got me thinking and hopefully I’ve got readers thinking about what they want from a magazine... thank you!
Personally I like having what is effectively the table of contents on the cover. I can quickly scan the cover and decide if there's anything there I'd like to read. I do that often with magazines.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, perhaps the magazine shouldn't be doing that, to force me to actually open the magazine to see if I want to read it...
Yes another good point.
ReplyDeleteTo the causal buyer does a beautiful photo and clean style encourage them enough to pick something up? I guess not.
I’d always suggest the contents page is page 2, so that opening the mag one page you can see the contents...
Perhaps I should market a magazine and see what happens? I’ve always fancied doing something with model railways and print. One day...
If I reflect back in my past I am aware of two mags doing something similar...
Evo magazine offered subscription mags without the busy covers, just the main image. Classy and well written with some wonderful cars, when I had my Series 1 106 it was a regular read. The other was Singletrack, a mountain bike mag, similar offering for subscribers... however the cover, like the better BMX and skate magazines of the time (Ride UK and Document) was really clean, like the old Trains mag here...
Nowadays, being "brave" might mean "losing sales and closing down". Intellectually satisfying, but not much help when trying to pay for goods in the supermarket. I know of occasions when different design styles have been tried, seen a marked decline in sales and been quickly reversed.
ReplyDeleteYou do find loyal readers, but they tend to exist in a niche, not the mass market. NG&I is a good example, or even MRJ. However there is a reason Hornby Magazine quickly became the 2nd best seller in the market and continues to this day and it's entirely down to working out what would sell and delivering it, especially in the early days.
Of course, it is technically possible to produce more than one cover. It might be that subscribers can have the big picture version, whereas the news stand version gets the contents page style. I'm sure there would be a cost implication, but I know of at least one mag that does two versions.