NEW LOOK COVER FOR MEW

[Ches Green UKParticipant @chesgreenuk]

Mortons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortons_of_Horncastle) appear to focus mainly on print publications and events.

They do have online electronic copies of their magazines but, AFAICS, appear to have little or no online paywall protected sites.

They do have a few blogs eg OnTwoWheels (https://www.o2w.co.uk/), which actually looks OK.

I wonder if the day is nearing where Mortons switch most of their efforts to online publications only, since it is cheaper and quicker to publish with less overheads? As an example, the FT now gets 35% of it's revenue from their online edition (https://innovation.media/insights/the-financial-times-post-print-digital-newsroom-and-mobile-future).

Is the future MEW an online forum plus paywall protected content?

If so, then the magazine 'cover' will change it's nature drastically.

Ches

[walterf snowParticipant @walterfsnow68919]

Surely the cover is eye candy, there to do only one thing, to catch the eye of the casual buyer and hook him or her.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Digital only has to be on the agenda of some newspapers, the cover price of £2.80 a day for the Telegraph makes it too expensive for me. My special offer digital only subscription is only £13 a month at the moment which is about half price I think. They do subscription deals on paper copies but still too much money for me. Anyone with a substantial collection of paper magazines will be aware of the storage issues it brings, I disposed of my collection of motorcycle magazines which took up quite a lot of space in his landrover when the chap collected them. I am adjusting to consuming my media on screen although my MEW subscription is a paper one.

Mike

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

There is no future in crystal-ball gazing, but special interest niche-publications such as ME and MEW and classic bike mags and the like are among those publications doing best in the age of print decline. Possibly because of the age demographic of their audience in part, possibly because people with a keen interest in a specialist area will spend the money for a print product they can keep as a reference. So it's likely such mags will continue to weather the storm in print, unlike many publications of a more general interest nature such as newspapers, Newsweek magazine etc etc that have shut down or cut back.

Publications such as the FT do well with online editions because they are publications people in business and commerce have to read as part of their job, many of them aspirational young urban professional types who prefer to read on their phone or laptop while commuting or on their computer at work while pretending to be doing something productive. Not the same audience as MEW etc. Plus your FT readers are generally higher income types whom advertisers will pay to target, and whose data possibly harvested by the FT site is quite saleable.

I imagine that within a generation though, digital will be the overwhelming norm as the next generation takes over with new habits from birth in the digital world.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

The magazine rack in WH Smith grew larger throughout the 1970s and 80s, perhaps trebling in size. It remains much larger and is not noticeably shrinking yet, we will see how it goes.

Mike

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Mike Poole on 07/07/2022 11:50:09:

The magazine rack in WH Smith grew larger throughout the 1970s and 80s, perhaps trebling in size. It remains much larger and is not noticeably shrinking yet, we will see how it goes.

Mike

Yet UK magazine sales have declined by 60 per cent since 2005 with many many well established titles closing down. From Newsweek to Marie Claire. Advertising revenues, the lifeblood of publishing in the past, have suffered similarly huge declines.

Edited By Hopper on 07/07/2022 12:40:42

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Not sure why people are having a job piling up their mags, I've tossed a few recent glossy ones (ME so got more than MEW) onto the ever increasing pile and not had one move yet. Maybe a bit more attention levelling the pile rather than the Myford

Also not sure about the fixation with the issue number in the corner, ME seems to manage OK without it and there are 4600 to keep track of not 320

 

Edited By JasonB on 07/07/2022 13:15:36

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

If anyone wants to pre-order a copy of MEW 318 (perhaps to repeat Jason's stacking experiment) who hasn't got a subscription you may use this link:

classicmagazines.co.uk/issue/mew/source/digital22

Thanks

Neil

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The "bleeding" of one colour into another, seems to have a feature of MEW for some time. I rather like it. What I do not like is the header above the magazine title.

Also, if the objective is to attract print buyers, the announcement of content needs to be prominent, akiun to a menu inviting a purchase.

I am not suggesting just a list of contents (That appears inside )

To me the previous way of showing some of the more appealing articles worked best.

Be a little wary of showing young ladies on the cover, no matter hoe flesh they show. A previous editor got a roasting for showing his daughter, as I recall, decorate with tinsel for a Christmas edition.

"Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" did not approve, but personally, it made little difference to me.

The cover needs to tantalise the prospective reader with what is inside. The magazine will be bought for what bis inside, concerning what can be, is is being done, in workshops,.rather than some flash illustration.

Remember, "If it ain't broke; don't fix it", or not radically!, too rapidly.,

Howard

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Credentials: I'm well past my allotted three-score-and-ten years and still remain an incompetent model engineer.

I was an avid read of M.E. for very many years but my commitment & therefore my subscriptions to it declined quickly when it was (foolishly IMHO) decided to launch MEW. The consequential "dilution effect" of informative model engineering articles within one magazine ~ leading to uninteresting space-fillers in both publications ~ at twice original cost ~ lost me as a customer. A return to the pre-split format could be welcome.
In my senility, I am therefore aligned with those above who consider function to be more important than appearance (as with wives?).

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

MEW 317 carries tributes to Stan Bray who died recently..

He suggested MEW but, like Fowlers Fury (I owe the "Three score years and ten" several years, so we are alike ) the then owners of M E thought that it was a bad idea.

The proof of the pudding seems to be that the initial "Once and once only" special issue had to be reprinted to cope with demand, and now at over 300 issues, says otherwise..

Obviously there is room for both camps.i

Howard

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The Bleeding of the Workshop lettering is a poor attempt at giving it a chrome look possibly to stop people thinking it covers other workshop activity liek woodwork. maybe with teh new glossy cover the graphics should be revisited

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 07/07/2022 14:10:04:

If anyone wants to pre-order a copy of MEW 318 (perhaps to repeat Jason's stacking experiment) who hasn't got a subscription you may use this link:

classicmagazines.co.uk/issue/mew/source/digital22

Thanks

Neil

You missed a trick Neil, should also have linked to the recent Binders thread, keeps those slippery mags under control or has that been the cunning plan all along

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Let's appeal to a wider audience…

[Graham TitmanParticipant @grahamtitman81812]

FFS

[VicParticipant @vic]

Get rid of the chainsaw rubbish at the top would be my suggestion.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Certainly +1 for that

Howard

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

S O D

Issue 666 is a devil ,of an idea!

Just being catty

Howard

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Vic,

Reasonable idea, but please retain the Issue Number in its usual position and size. Placing it 1/4 of the way down and in tiny letters is just not on.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 07/07/2022 18:58:35:

Let's appeal to a wider audience…

That's 319 right there…

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Vic on 07/07/2022 19:44:08:

Get rid of the chainsaw rubbish at the top would be my suggestion.

Serious question – why?

 

Edited By JasonB on 08/07/2022 12:08:32

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Common practice on many magazines and newspapers from the Guardian to the Daily Tele to have pointers above the masthead. Apparently it works for them.

 

Edited By Hopper on 08/07/2022 12:23:45

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/07/2022 11:16:50:

Posted by Vic on 07/07/2022 19:44:08:

Get rid of the chainsaw rubbish at the top would be my suggestion.

Serious question – why?

 

Edited By JasonB on 08/07/2022 12:08:32

Sorry edited your post rather than quoted but this is my reply as to why

Because it would be better placed below the title, which would still have it in the visible part of the page . Keep the title at the top and one liners below. 

Look at issues before 151 and just move the date below Workshop then the title can sit even higher

Edited By JasonB on 08/07/2022 12:15:59

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/07/2022 11:16:50:

Posted by Vic on 07/07/2022 19:44:08:

Get rid of the chainsaw rubbish at the top would be my suggestion.

Serious question – why?

Serious answer – because it is just more clutter for the eye to not focus on.

Replace it with the "The magazine for….." strapline.

The issue number doesn't need to be repeated with the month.

Lose the website address, anyone likely to use it will already have the mag in their hands.

The "Shows are back" headline is enough by itself.

Similarly, "Win an English wheel"

The list at the bottom should be more concise; "Laurie's lockdown project", "Stan Bray's classic optical punch", "Converting a CNC mill to manual???"

The photo is an excellent example of what not to use as it's hugely cluttered but also has loads of wasted space and it's hard to see what the central machine is with all the overlapping items.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Nicholas Wheeler 1 on 08/07/2022 12:36:38:

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/07/2022 11:16:50:

Posted by Vic on 07/07/2022 19:44:08:

Get rid of the chainsaw rubbish at the top would be my suggestion.

Serious question – why?

 

Serious answer – because it is just more clutter for the eye to not focus on.

 

Replace it with the "The magazine for….." strapline.

On the other hand, the scientific research shows readers invariably enter a page through a photo and almost never through printed words. So having a pointer at the top of the page with even a small photo will draw readers in when the main photo is hidden behind another magazine below it on the news-stand. A written strap line or even the large masthead does not provide a point of entry for readers. They will scan straight past it to the next interesting image, the science shows.

A lot of research has been done on this stuff, measured by laser beams bounced off eyeballs of surveyed readers to measure precisely what they look at and when they look at it when reading newspapers and magazines. A lot of the results are quite surprising. Another big one is that invariably pages work best with one large "Dominant Visual Element" (either a photo or graphic) and one or several smaller visual elements (either pics or graphics) on the page for readers to move back and forth between. Only they do most readers move on to actually reading a headline. Next best read after the headline is photo captions.

So that's why many newspapers and magazines these days have pictorial pointers above the masthead. It's science. (And it sells newspapers/magazines.)

Edited By Hopper on 08/07/2022 13:16:47

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