Subscription Renewal Just Isn't Worth It, IMHO

murph

Kalmbach has been trying to get me to renew my subsription to FSM for about six months now.  In my opinion, the quality and content of the magazine has been steadily going downhill for some time.  I didn't mind paying for 11 printed issues per year but when they went down to six issues per year, with no change in price...um, no.  I used to look forward to getting the latest edition in the mail.  Now...yeah, not so much.

Add to that, in the most recent issue, there was only ONE article that piqued my curiousity.  I had no interest in any of the rest of the builds.

Next, the editors announce that the four digital issues they provided to subscribers are now being discontinued.  Nice.

Page 8 of the magazine is the New Products page.  All text.  No graphics to give any indication as to what these releases might look like.

The Reader Gallery is two pages with four entries and photos.  Brutal.

As a Canadian subscriber (I've been so for a LONG time), I can't justify spending close to $235 CDN for a three year subscription (~$16 per issue X 15 issues) to a magazine that has been dying a slow death for a while.  It just isn't worth it.  I'll keep an eye on at the newsstand and if a particular issues strikes my fancy, I might pick it up.

I'll stick around on the forums but I hate to say that I think that the print editon of FSM is becoming more irrelevant by the day.

 

I share your opinion. I haven't renewed in years and with the reduction of issues is just another negative in my book. 

As an addendum, I got an e-mail from FSM customer service the other day informing me that 'Time is running out' and that 'There's still time to renew at our Low Rate...'.  I replied to that e-mail with the text from my post here and received a canned reply informing me that "Thank you for contacting the Fine Scale Modeler customer service team. We have received your e-mail message and have assigned it to one of our team members for follow-up. You will receive a follow-up reply as soon as possible."  Haven't heard from anyone (Mr. Kidwell, Mr. Skinner, Customer Service, etc) yet to that e-mail or my post in this forum.

Kinda makes me wonder how much of a valued customer I really am?

Amazing!

I got an e-mail from FSM Costomer Service that included the following text:

"...FineScale Modeler appreciates your business and is committed to your satisfaction with our services.

Our records indicate that FineScale Modeler Customer Service responded to a question or request on your behalf. We would like to invite you to use our Customer Service Survey to provide feedback on your experience and quality of service. Your evaluation of our performance is extremely valuable and will help us be more responsive to your future needs."  The only problem is, they never sent any e-mail other than the one attempting to have me renew my subscription and the one noted above.  There has been no response to my corresondence about why I won't be renewing.  Does the left hand talk to the right hand at Kalmbach or FSM?  Just curious.

I responded to the survey like they asked and included this in my reply:

'I received this survey in an e-mail which stated "Our records indicate that FineScale Modeler Customer Service responded to a question or request on your behalf."  Only mail I got from FSM was to advise my subscription about to expire, encouraging me to renew.  I sent e-mail to say why I wouldn't renew and I got no reply except an invitation to complete this survey.  There have been no messages addressing my concerns about me non-renewal.  Don't ask me to rate customer service when I haven't received any.'  Like I asked above does the left hand talk to the right?  Apparently not.  No wonder they appear to be in trouble.

I'd be curious to see the survey questions sent to you.

stikpusher

I'd be curious to see the survey questions sent to you.

Stik...it was a very short survey.  Kinda kicking myself in the pants for not doing a screenshot before submitting it.  Going from memory, it was something like this:

From a drop down menu, why did you contact FSM Customer Service?  I chose 'Other' and wrote reasons for not renewing my subscription in the blank area provided.

On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend a subscription to FSM? I gave them a three.

Rate your level of satisfaction with FSM Customer Service.  I gave them a zero.

Please provide a reason for this rating.  In the box provided, I wrote:

Only mail I got from FSM was to advise my subscription about to expire, encouraging me to renew.  I sent e-mail to say why I wouldn't renew and I got no reply except an invitation to complete this survey.  There have been no messages addressing my concerns about my non-renewal.  Don't ask me to rate customer service when I haven't received any.

This isn't exact but you get the gist of it.

Still nothing from Customer Service, Mr. Kidwell or the editorial Staff.  Kind of shows me how much of a "valued customer" I really am, or was, in their eyes.

murph

As a Canadian subscriber (I've been so for a LONG time), I can't justify spending close to $235 CDN for a three year subscription (~$16 per issue X 15 issues) to a magazine that has been dying a slow death for a while.  It just isn't worth it.  I'll keep an eye on at the newsstand and if a particular issues strikes my fancy, I might pick it up.

I just went back and re read this whole thread. Just curious, but what is the cover price for a copy of the print magazine in your locale? $16 seems quite steep for a single magazine cover price. Is that what retailers currently charge per issue? 

I have no idea what an issue would cost at the news stand.  I haven't bought one since I've been a subscriber, well over 15 years.  Also take into the consideration that the Canadian dollar is taking a real beating against the U.S dollar.  35% on the dollar is not an unreasonable exchange rate.  Further, shipping / handling fees are obnoxious too.

For example in Poland you would have to pay an equivalent of over 22$ to get the September/October issue...

I didn't think of prices outside the USA. But for those prices, that's about what you'd pay for an Osprey book from the Duel, Campaign, or Vanguard series.

Hi everyone, I do not post much here. I am 71 years old and have been building most of my life. I am retired now after 45 years in customer service. I recently subscribed for 1 year and glad it was for that long. when I got my Nov./Dec 23 issue, I was very disappointed. I look forward to the new products section, and it was 1 page with no pics. FSM seems more wanting to sell ads than put in articles and tips for us to build better models.

I will not be renewing !!!

Same, I may look at some of the pictures, but I probably read less than the captions and maybe an article every so often.

But, this goes for many of my magazines that often come in the mail. Sports Illustrated, yeah, that often does not even get opened. An AARP magazine usually goes straight to the recycle bin. VFW magazine gets looked at for some veteran war story, usually a Vietnam era vet. AAA magazine I might open it if I plan on traveling somewhere soon.

I get a Springfield Armory magazine, I give it to my brother-in-law without opening it. Countless other magzine type items never get looked at.

I know I also get Yankee magazine and a New England magazine that I'll give to my mother-in-law. Once upon a time I had subscriptions to those magazines as gifts and every so often they will send me a magazine in hopes I resubscribe.

stikpusher

I just went back and re read this whole thread. Just curious, but what is the cover price for a copy of the print magazine in your locale? $16 seems quite steep for a single magazine cover price. Is that what retailers currently charge per issue? 

the Baron

 

 

stikpusher

I just went back and re read this whole thread. Just curious, but what is the cover price for a copy of the print magazine in your locale? $16 seems quite steep for a single magazine cover price. Is that what retailers currently charge per issue? 

 

 

 

 

That's an excellent question, Stik!  The cover shows $8.99, but I'll have to look at the supermarket the next time I go, and see if they're charging the same, more, or discounting it.

 

We need to remember, too, that the subscription price includes postage, taxes, and fees, as applicable.

 

When I used to subscribe, the subscription price was a good discount off of the cover price. Lets say it was something like 20% off, give or take a few percentage points. Longer subscriptions gave a higher discount, thus the advantage of not having to pay cover price, plus waiting for the LHS or seller to have the magazine in stock. But if the cost now is what Murph here was saying... yikes!

Dropped my sub awhile back.  Kept getting thinner & thinner.  Dont hold your breath on C/S in my opinion.  Glad i save a bunch of back issues & all the issues i bought on a CD - 2008 to 2017 issues

Yeah, mine's up for renewal, too, and every time it comes up, I do think it over.  This time around, I'm leaning toward not renewing, either.

I don't mind content on subjects I don't build.  I have always approached modeling publications, and clubs, with the viewpoint that I might not build a given subject, but I can still appreciate the skill that went in to building a particular model.  Same goes for the magazine.

But as others have pointed out, the content sure seems to have gotten thinner over the years, accelerating particularly since COVID and the lockdowns.

That the "downloadable content" is being discontinued made me ask, is that content going to show up in the hardcopy?  If it is, then we haven't lost anything, in this case.  If it's not, though, then we're getting that much less for our money.

I have meant to buy the CDs, too, to have as an archive.  Maybe it's time not to renew, and put the money towards that.

    Hi all, Armornut is making a command decsion that unfortunatly I won't be re upping either. 

     I know that there are apps that will stop the pop up adds, but I am tired of " working" and finding a " solution" to simply pist a pic or even a response to threads...3 pop ups so far just typing this.

     I really enjoyed the interactions with the people here and feel I have been a real help to some however, the adds, log in issues, pic posting and cost for content has made the FSM site less enjoyable.

     I hope thaf the powers that be can pivot, rebuild, and return as a site worthy of my time and subsription money. I also hope they continue to pist You Tube content as it is fun and informative....and free.

     If anybody wants to find me I will be found stumbling around at MSC under the name Armornutii. Good luck y'all and happy modelling.

I loved FSM as a kid and have also noticed the decline. As far as content goes, not a biggy for me as I would buy some of the issues just for the cover art .

Let's face it folks, it's a changed world. Producing a paper magaize in a digital based, inter-web landscape, is very challenging. I am sure there is a marked reduction, 80 % or so I would guess, in people contributing articles, tips, gallery items and the like as well. I might just re-subscribe to help em out and send in a few tips. 

Happy  Modeling.

armornut

    Hi all, Armornut is making a command decsion that unfortunatly I won't be re upping either. 

     I know that there are apps that will stop the pop up adds, but I am tired of " working" and finding a " solution" to simply pist a pic or even a response to threads...3 pop ups so far just typing this.

     I really enjoyed the interactions with the people here and feel I have been a real help to some however, the adds, log in issues, pic posting and cost for content has made the FSM site less enjoyable.

     I hope thaf the powers that be can pivot, rebuild, and return as a site worthy of my time and subsription money. I also hope they continue to pist You Tube content as it is fun and informative....and free.

     If anybody wants to find me I will be found stumbling around at MSC under the name Armornutii. Good luck y'all and happy modelling.

I think you're conflating renewing our subscriptions to the magazine with participating in the forum.  The two things aren't related in any way; you don't need to subscribe to FSM to access the forum.  I don't think any of us are planning to stop participating in the forum.

My sub recently autorenewed without any warning or emails. Kinda shady if you ask me to do it that way. I like having the mag, but I am worried they will up and pull another Scale Auto on us here and POOF, its gone. The fact that they dropped the digital portion of the sub is also quite concerning. I guess I'll see how this year goes and decide from there. But ya, not overly thrilled with the way it's all being done ATM.

BK

I'm not renewing.  I think March is my last issue.  Love the magazine, don't trust the organization any longer since they did a bait and switch with cutting the number of issues and promising digital issues, which I was okay with and appreciated the content and production - and then they revoked that.

cbaltrin

I loved FSM as a kid and have also noticed the decline. As far as content goes, not a biggy for me as I would buy some of the issues just for the cover art .

Let's face it folks, it's a changed world. Producing a paper magaize in a digital based, inter-web landscape, is very challenging. I am sure there is a marked reduction, 80 % or so I would guess, in people contributing articles, tips, gallery items and the like as well. I might just re-subscribe to help em out and send in a few tips. 

Happy  Modeling.

 

The mag itself isn't all that bad. A bit too many subjects, but they are trying to cover all the bases with members. I'm just not pleased with how they keep reducing what we get. I would like to see some sort of special perks for being a subbed reader here on the forums. We should get some sort of special ability or frills on the site to help make us "readers" feel more special when we log in. Just a thought.

BK

murph

Kalmbach has been trying to get me to renew my subsription to FSM for about six months now.  In my opinion, the quality and content of the magazine has been steadily going downhill for some time.  I didn't mind paying for 11 printed issues per year but when they went down to six issues per year, with no change in price...um, no.  I used to look forward to getting the latest edition in the mail.  Now...yeah, not so much.

Add to that, in the most recent issue, there was only ONE article that piqued my curiousity.  I had no interest in any of the rest of the builds.

Next, the editors announce that the four digital issues they provided to subscribers are now being discontinued.  Nice.

Page 8 of the magazine is the New Products page.  All text.  No graphics to give any indication as to what these releases might look like.

The Reader Gallery is two pages with four entries and photos.  Brutal.

As a Canadian subscriber (I've been so for a LONG time), I can't justify spending close to $235 CDN for a three year subscription (~$16 per issue X 15 issues) to a magazine that has been dying a slow death for a while.  It just isn't worth it.  I'll keep an eye on at the newsstand and if a particular issues strikes my fancy, I might pick it up.

I'll stick around on the forums but I hate to say that I think that the print editon of FSM is becoming more irrelevant by the day.

 

Scale Auto was my 'go to' magazine at one time and it was a pity it got axed and  'absorbed' into FSM. The online gallery that so many contributed to on it gone in a flash when the magazine finished.

Seen a number of one subject modelling magazines get 'absorbed' into another general modelling  magazine title and the content quickly dwindle to almost nothing having to jostle for position with all the other unrelated content.

Scale model magazine production has always been a bit of a fickle world and I have seen quite a number come and go over the years. The internet now being the main challenge with so many dedicated forums to access.

thanks for this letter. I'm also canadian. I can buy issues that look interesting for $12 (Canadian $) at the store. I usually don't buy every issue. I started to look into subscribing, but it never indicates whether it's US or CDN $. I'm guessing US. Which, even if I wanted every issue - it's less at the grocery store.

$12 an issue,that's why paper magazines are going the way of the dinosaur,I just won't do it,not for any magazine.

I was very much on the fence about renewing, but after hemming and hawing and generally procrastinating, I decided to renew for another three years.  Come 2027, who knows?

murph

Kalmbach has been trying to get me to renew my subsription to FSM for about six months now.  In my opinion, the quality and content of the magazine has been steadily going downhill for some time.  I didn't mind paying for 11 printed issues per year but when they went down to six issues per year, with no change in price...um, no.  I used to look forward to getting the latest edition in the mail.  Now...yeah, not so much.

Hi Murph,

I'm not sure what you would like me to say. People subscribe and let subscriptions lapse on magazines, it's the nature of the beast. Would I like us to be able to just add, add, add subscribers without anyone every leaving? Sure. But that's not how it works.

So, I guess we can go through your list:

... only ONE article that picqued my curiousity [sic]: Everyone wants more of what they want. We get emails everyday from aircraft modelers who want more aircraft, tank guys who want more tanks, car guys wondering why 50% of the magazine isn't devoted to cars, and ship guys demanding that they get more than one ship story a year. Yep, content mix is hard business, and we can't make everyone happy all of the time. But we do endeavor to make most people happy most of the time. 

... digital issues ... now being discontinued: I think Brad brings this up in a separate post. The DLC issues were my idea, whole cloth. My hope was to continue to bring the four print issues we had to ice to the digital realm. I was excited at the prospect and thought we'd be able to get enough subscribers to jump on board because they really wanted those extra four issues. Subscribers wouldn't want to miss those, right? Turns out, my thinking was naive. We never cracked more than 1,500 downloads for any single DLC issue. Every subscriber who has an email in our database was sent a reminder to download those issues whenever they were released. We reminded subscribers four times a month in our email newsletter, which has a huge open rate. It wasn't that people didn't know they were there. And no, it would not have been any more feasible to drop the PDF in recipient's inboxes because those issues were huge. With no ROI to speak of, we had to discontinue them to allow us to work on other aspects of the brand. 

New Products page ... all text ... no graphics:  This is a concession to the internet. Basically, the New Products section is now a reminder that some new kits have come out. Companies are pushing kit announcements on their websites, social media, and everywhere else. By the time you see it in the magazine, that kit has been out for a while--and if it hasn't, something has gone wrong in the pipeline. We made the decision to make sure we fit more kit announcements on the New Products section and did away with the images because they were eating up space that could be used for information. You're going to Google the kit anyway or search it at Sprue Brothers or Squadron, so, we provide you with enough information for you to do that. If you head down to your local store, there's still enough info for you to find what you're looking for. So, either we get more info in New Products or we put in more eye candy. We came down on the side of more info.

... Brutal: Reader Gallery is mostly handled online these days. It's a popular spot on the website. When we can, we will squeeze in a Reader Gallery, but if faced with including a Reader Gallery or using those pages to accomodate a how-to article, we'll choose to fit the how-to article. FYI: A how-to feature will always win when deciding how the pages of any individual issue are divvied up. 

... Canadian subscriber: Our U.S. subscription prices for 1 year are: $45.95 digital + print or $39.95 digital only. Our Canadian subscription prices for 1 year are: $54.95 digital + print or $39.95 digital only. Our international subscription prices for 1 year are $61.95 digital + print or $39.95 digital only. A year's subscription gets you 6 issues. (You can see them here.)   

... irrelevant: Huh. I hear this sometimes, and my response is to shrug. I could refute your statement and provide proof to the contrary. But it's not going to matter to you or anyone else who wants to say otherwise. That's fine. It may be irrelevant to you. And there's nothing wrong with that. You've graduated from FSM. Congratulations! You've learned all that FSM can provide you. Now, write an article for the magazine. Write an article that you think would be useful to other modelers who haven't achieved your skills and abilities. Write an article you would like to see in FSM. And submit it to us. That's how we keep FSM vibrant.

... stick around on the forums:  I'll be blunt--the FSM Forum exists because of FSM. As goes FSM, so goes the FSM Forum.

TK