New-style cover finish

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

The decreasing paper quality of MEW has been a bugbear for years and the new publishers want to address this. It may be that a super glossy finish is a step too far, but I've just done a comparison and I can't find a significant difference between the angle a pair of glossy issues slip at to a pair of the old style ones.

Also, the glossy finish repels oil etc. better.

But do please raise any thoughts in the 'New Cover' thread. They are being read by the publishers.

Neil

[David-Clark 1Participant @david-clark1]

When I was editor of ME and MEW the biggest complain I got was shiny covers.

I investigated the cost of shiny covers and found if I dropped shiny covers I would save the company several hundreds of pounds a month. I also found that it cost more to print a 60 page Model Engineer than it would cost to print a 68 page Model Engineer because they’d Page used two different pesos while the 68 page could be done on one press. While the savings on the 68 page were considerable, they did not outweigh the increased cost of paying contributors for 8 extra pages hence I published old content from English Mechanics which most readers would not have read.

Another thing I did as to increase subscriptions by using free gifts to subscribers to encourage subscription sales. One offer I did increased subscriptions by about 220 and they signed up for two years.

Is this still happening?

If the publishers do read this I hope they will do the same exercise I did to increase profits ad so ensure the ongoing success of the two magazines.

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

I don't think free gifts are often much of a carrot to dangle; model engineering is such a broad church a gift is likely to appeal to a very small demographic at any one time, and most model engineers tend to seek quality items rather than the sort of thing likely to be economically viable to attach to a magazine. No offence intended, merely airing my personal opinion.

[Author]

Posts