November/December Ztrack Coming Your Way!

The November/December issue of Ztrack Magazine is coming your way. In this issue you will find articles on the following:

Bob Mitchell's New Haven Mikado
FR Releases New European Rolling Stock
Installing an LED in a Marklin F7
MTL releases weathered Conrail set
Ed Turner's modules
Owl Division's California Zephyr
Full Throttle releases new body style
Marklin's Autumn releases
And so much more!

Look inside your issue for a bit of a surprise! Also, make sure check out the new Ztrack shipping voucher code published in this issue. The voucher code saves you $2.50 in shipping on order placed on Ztrack Center, Ztrack Resale and Z Scale Track! This code is only valid for Ztrack Magazine subscribers.

Not a subscriber? Then get started today!

www.ztrack.com

Happy New Year!
Rob Kluz

I just recieved the Nov/Dec Ztrack and enjoyed very much the article on Ed Turner's Z modules. There is also a "Surprise" with this new issiue- But I'll let Rob spout off on that. VERY NICE!
A couple of things I did notice ... I like keeping the Ztracks in order... the last two volumns does NOT have the YEAR with the months/ volumn # etc..This is a minimul problem unless this continues for many years to come and my 3 ring binder somehow breaks........
There has been much discussion recently of a possible shrinking Z interest on the Z sites. I noticed that Ztrack has gone from 44 pages to 40.. Hope this is not a trend as it is almost a 10% reduction in printed matter. I was wondering if it is the lack of articles, advertizers, reducing the size of manufacturing ads, or maybe a weight restriction for the mailings??????? I also wonder if the subscriptions have fallen off or are expanding.
Fred

Fred thanks for the heads up on the missing year. I will correct this moving forward. I am not sure how it dropped out.

Yes, we dropped to 40. It was a combination of things, including fewer advertisers as well as less news. The Newsline had grown so large, that we were had to go up to 44. This is dropped in size due to less new products. But it is possible it will increase again in 2014.

Subscriptions are way off from our high. We reached a record number of subscribers before the big recession. But we have not fully recovered the loss of readers from the recession. We are pretty consistent with between 900 - 1000 subscribers. It fluctuates. But we would love to be over 1000 (this does not include hobby shop sales).

Yes, we do hope our big surprise will help us keep subscribers as well as attract more readers to subscribe. Full color is a huge milestone for us. We are very excited to be able to bring Z to live is all of it's glory!

Rob

Rob, I always think of canceling my subscription just to save money, but I always renew it because its the only magazine dedicated to z. I would hate to see it go away, so I am doing my part to keep the magazine going.

Offer a digital version. You will get more subscribers... including me.

While I do most of my work online, I love having printed copy. I guess we need to all get busy and try to submit photo's or articles.

Mr.JA wrote: Offer a digital version. You will get more subscribers... including me.

Thanks Alex, I can 2nd this. The only way to attract new readers is digital. Including me. I don't want stacks of magazines flying around my house. I want to be able to read it when I have time in between, on a tablet or phone. On top, as a former non-US subscriber, I was sick waiting for the November/December issue to get it "jusy-in-time" in February, with Christmas adds and "news" about offers and products already unavailable. Timely information in a convenient format is the way to go.
I know, Rob, you were "scared" of "illegal" distribution of digital copies. What's about honesty? My kids are selling all year long lemons at our front gate with an honesty box, guess how many lemons are not accounted for? 1 in a 100....

Gerd wrote:

Mr.JA wrote: My kids are selling all year long lemons at our front gate with an honesty box, guess how many lemons are not accounted for? 1 in a 100....

Okay... I will admit it. It was me... during my last trip to Australia, and you all were gone on vacation to Germany.

But, seriously... the points that Gerd makes are exactly the same for me. I long ago (during one of my many moves from country to country) purged printed materials from my collections of books and magazines. They are too heavy and too costly to move from one place to another... plus, they take up too much valuable space for... more trains! I travel a LOT. I have "stacks" of books and magazines loaded into my tablet for viewing on long-haul flights and waiting in terminals.

I think I would even subscribe to an online version. I could not afford to get them sent to Germany, and I have stacks of magazines that will also wind up in the dumpster. How do other online publications deal with it?

As Mr. JA. Said! I have a storage with boxes and boxes Old Mag some are even smaller than todays dated back in the 1930's of railroad books also they are good to go back and look thru them. They are pretty heavy to carrie around. Even with the CD's they add up also and fine a place to keep them to but with them comes a computer needed to look at them. Good Ideal and pleases, some people. so what's the answer. I guess I have my Mags. and books and some CD's.

Rob, forgot something: you might not get only new subscriber with the electronic version, but maybe contributor too...

Update... since Rob seems to be freezing from all that cold weather in Ohio (maybe his keyboard is frozen, too). All of the 2013 issues are available as a .pdf download. Some other back-issues are also available for .pdf download.

Alex, you got it! We uploaded all of 2013 last night. Here is our plan. Traditionally we would put PDFs up online sporadically. We would never offer the current issue for download until months after the issue reached subscribers. Our goal moving forward is to post the new issue PDF at the same time the issue is mailed to subscribers. This is a pilot program and depending how many downloads we receive, it will tell us the viability of offering this on a subscription basis. So folks, you got it, the new issue is available for immediately download!

www.ztrack.com

We will be finishing up 2012 back issues today and then add the missing 2011 back issues.

Kelley, do you know Marsilius Trains in Germany? They import Ztrack and you can purchases issues through them.

Rob

Rob,

Excellent! What do we need to do to access and download the current issue?

John

John, go to ztrack.com on Back Issues -> 2013 and you can purchase and download, at least you can try, my download didn't work...

Gerd,

Thanks. I misunderstood Rob, I thought we could download them if we already had a subscription, but I re-read his post and now understand.

John

BTW: download works from the confirmation email provided

Gerd correct. When ordering, you will receive a confirmation email that contains the link(s).

I am still working out how to handle current subscribers. This is a work in progress, but so far so good. We are getting inquires on digital subscriptions which is what we hoped for.

Rob

ztrack wrote: Gerd correct. When ordering, you will receive a confirmation email that contains the link(s).

I am still working out how to handle current subscribers. This is a work in progress, but so far so good. We are getting inquires on digital subscriptions which is what we hoped for.

Rob

Welcome to the brave new world of (partial) electronic publishing, Rob (and readers)!

As a health sciences librarian, I am quite familiar with the ins and outs of e-publishing, and especially of user authentication: just now, I received an e-mail from a publisher, instructing me to provide their website with the activation code provided - when I did I was told the subscription was already activated (so why did they ask me?). :-}

Overall, this will be a step forward.

Mike

Rob,
Good to read that more issues are available on-line. It's a great start, Although after spending the weekend tripping over boxes of old magazines trying to find the right issues, I'd be willing to pay for a DVD collection.

Regarding your subscriber numbers, I recently saw membership numbers for the NRMA PCR: down about 25% over the past 5 years, but starting a trend upward.

Mark