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Rich Griff
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After over a year of pestering what smiths caernarfon branch, guess what ?

 

They are stocking rcme mag again, hurrah !

 

Got febs edition with 049ier plan in it, the electric one.

 

Only quickly glanced half way through it, looks as if they have upper Thier game, interesting articles.

 

Will read properly tonight.

 

Thanks w h smiths.

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Yeah, I only buy it on an add hock occasion usually for the free plan, but, improved content would encourage me to buy it regularly.

 

Good content in fed edition, very interesting...

 

Kicked my self for not getting a subscription when the ninja twister helo offer was on !

 

If finances do not allow, I ain't going into debt.

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£6.35!!! Wow quite a jump recently but not surprising. I don't buy magazines anywhere near as regular as I used to - maybe the occasional Classic Motorcycle Mechanics if there's something of particular interest. Amazing to think of the number of Aeromodelling mags that were available not that long ago - even the US Model Airplane News was often seen on WHS's shelves.

I think it was Radio Modeller that used to run its Hotline telephone  modelling problem solving service.......how quaint in a pre internet and YouTube world.

 

Edited by Cuban8
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You can of course order a single copy online with (it seems ) free delivery, or subscribe at a cheaper rate than buying from a newsagents.   But all that means less sales through newsagents and therefore if it's not on the newsagents shelves then no chance of obtaining new readers who found it at a newsagent! 

 

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I was browsing the magazine section in Sainsbury's yesterday. A fraction of the size of how it was a year or two ago and with a much reduced choice. Mainly absurd lifestyle and 'celebrity' junk,TV stuff and kids papers with rubbishy toys to attract them.  A few mags on railway modelling and Hornby Magazine itself (I should think that the excellent Hornby series on the Yesterday channel has helped them out no end) Flypast Magazine and a few mags on cars. That was about it.

Edited by Cuban8
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Well, these days, with free news feeds onto the internet no one seems to be interested in buying model mags from the general browsing public.  The reason booksellers don't stock model mags is that people were not buying them in sufficient quantity to justify the cost of stocking them.  I suppose if you placed a regular order with them then they'd get you a copy but not a one off I suspect.

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IMO subscription is the way to go for magazines these days - unless you have easy access to an excellent newsagent the selection of titles on the shelves has shrunk dramatically - even in the likes of WH Smiths.

 

One pet peeve I do have is the provision of special Subscriber Edition covers, which Flypast is guilty of - I don't want a different front cover, I want the front cover of the magazine as sold in the shops, with the classic, familiar format. Please don't go doing that with RCM&E.

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Yes, the market for buying RCM&E at a shop must be declining rapidly - a difficult one for the publishers who have little choice but to raise the cover price, but at the same time are up against many people's reluctance to lay out fifty quid for a subscription in these belt tightening times - even though it does offer a worthwhile saving on buying individual editions in a shop.

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Another factor must be the rise of the collective digital platforms such as 'Pocketmags' and 'Readly'. For a tenner a month I get all the magazines I used to buy, including RCM&E & Aeromodeller, plus the car, aviation and tech publications of interest and half a dozen daily national & local newspapers. 

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28 minutes ago, John Lee said:

Another factor must be the rise of the collective digital platforms such as 'Pocketmags' and 'Readly'. For a tenner a month I get all the magazines I used to buy, including RCM&E & Aeromodeller, plus the car, aviation and tech publications of interest and half a dozen daily national & local newspapers. 

I'd completely forgot that I'd got a Pocketmags account John, and in having at quick look at it find that they're having a sale of RCM&E digital back issues for 99p!

 

January 2023 issue for 99p just downloaded............even I can afford that.

Edited by Cuban8
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Just looked at Pocketmags-  Not bad!  I presume that it's digital only?   I look forward to the free plans every month- one of the good things in RCM&E.

For a magazine that has gone  downhill, I used to subscribe to Model Airplane News for many years.  It's now a shadow of its former self- full of reviews, photos of really expensive jets and virtually no model plans and construction.

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7 hours ago, Rich Griff said:

Mags used to be supplied on a sale or return front cover page basis, some still do.

 

I have said this before but "mens" mags seem much more popular as WHS has loads, no where near Brighton.

Sounds like you would like to go back to the days when WH Smith stocked loads of mags allowing the public to browse them without actually buying them.  I think those days are long gone.  It's like the LMS - either use them or lose them and we chose the internet rather than the LMS.  The reason that "Men's" mags proliferate is that they are clearly being bought and not just browsed.  Says something about us doesn't it?

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The subscription has been offering free books, they seem to change which book(s) every so often.  Of course it all depends on whether you want the book.

 

In my case, I subscribed last October, got a free book, they say was worth £35 but take that with a pinch of salt, £27 from Amazon.  But it was a book I would have paid for so that’s like getting 12 issues for £20 (£1.67 each) and that’s delivered to your door.

 

Of course, the crux is whether you want the free gift.  A free gift that you have no interest in has zero value, no matter what they claim it is worth.

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My subscription to RCM&E (paid quarterly) works out as  £4.16 an edition, so quite a saving on the £6.35 price in WH Smith’s and not even the cost of a bottle of cyano!

 

I don’t even have to make a special trip to WH Smith’s when the latest issue comes out to get my copy (another saving), it’s delivered free to my door 😊.
 

 

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18 hours ago, Robert Cracknell said:

Cuban8

 

I have the Pocketmags app on both my phone and laptop and cannot find any mention of a special offers on back issues.

Can you give me any clues as to where it they can be found please.....

Many thanks

 

Rob

They do seem to tuck them out of the way....... On the Pocketmags homepage, in the left hand 'explore' list click back issues - find rcm&e back issues from the alphabetical list.

lots still available for 99p

I have to say that RCM&E has really raised its game if what I've read in the Jan'23 digital issue is to go on. Good conversational articles and some interesting constructional pieces. Well done.

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4 hours ago, TerryC123 said:

The dreaded ''Direct Debit'' putting me off as well!! You can do a years subscription tho!!

I do have a direct debit subscription I sent an e mail cancelling about 6 months ago but got no response have managed to track down a tel no will try that . Personally I no longer find it a worthwhile read 

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