Scale Auto Magazine's Gallery

[Bugatti Fan]

When Kalmbach pulled the plug on Scale Auto Magazine and deleted their forum, did they trash the picture gallery as we!l or was it saved on another picture hosting site somewhere?

Just seems a pity that all those contributors pictures may have been lost forever if they simply deleted the gallery.

I have a quick look at FSM occasionally in a bookstore, and see that just as I thought it would, the 'absorption' of Scale Auto into FSM has resulted in negligible auto content within that magazine. When SA was pulled, a point was made that former SA readers would find regular auto content in FSM. Not really convinced that it actually happened having glanced at some recent copies, that by the way seem to be getting thinner. Or is it my imagination?

[Mark]

Kalmbach just sold all of their remaining titles to another publisher; one known mainly for model railroad magazines.  If you thought the automotive content took a dive when SA was shut down, it's probably headed straight off the cliff now...

[Bugatti Fan]

So what is Kalmbach doing now?    Anything or nothing?

What publisher did their remaining titles go to?       Was Fine Scale Modeler amongst them?

[Mark]

Kalmbach sold off all of their assets except a couple, to Firecrown Media.  They already have a couple of railroad magazines but supposedly plan to keep everything going and hire all of the Kalmbach staff that want to stay.  I'm guessing that they'll let things keep going for awhile before axing any magazines.

The article I saw (many are hidden by paywalls) said that, after the remaining assets are sold, Kalmbach will be dissolved.

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 hours ago, Mark said:

Kalmbach sold off all of their assets except a couple, to Firecrown Media...

...The article I saw (many are hidden by paywalls) said that, after the remaining assets are sold, Kalmbach will be dissolved.

Well that sure bites a big one.

Kalmbach started in 1934 with a very few pages stapled together into what would become Model Railroader Magazine, a major resource for that hobby for several generations that could read and liked and understood mechanical things.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[peteski]

We have been discussing this on a model RR forum I frequent.  I can't link to that topic becuase it is in a members-only section, but here are some external links:
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/firecrown-media-grows-again-with-addition-of-trains-astronomy
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NwhJgYUkKchceELvfckU32qAvA-bnxGEDNuI6RPEa60/edit?usp=sharing
https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/kalmbach-publishing-sold-to-firecrown-media-13364332?trail=100
and  https://firecrown.com/about/

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

The simple fact is that print media, and professional journalists in hobby fields, simply cannot compete with the somewhat unfortunate "democratization" of information distribution on the internet.

Never mind that most of it's repetitive me-too-me-too drivel, and that a lot of those presenting themselves as experts just flat aren't.

The lowest common denominator always seems to win out eventually in just about any human endeavor.

I personally won't miss Model Railroader if it's gone forever though...much as I hate to say it. Last time I picked up a current issue, it was just a shadow of what it was in the glory days, like all the hard-core hot-rod mags that got de-contented and dumbed-down to the point of being useless to a serious participant in the field.

The world is locked in a TLDR short-attention-span death spiral of intellectual laziness and incessant rebleating by the ignorant.

And most of 'em don't know anything better ever existed...or care.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy
This site dumped the edit. Thanks.

[Bugatti Fan]

Cannot argue with any of your comments about dumbing down generally Bill.

I read somewhere that someone went onto a US question and answer website and ask this question,   'Why do British people speak English, an American language?'

I mean, you just couldn't make it up could you?

Getting back to Kalmbach, I had no idea about their titles being being sold off until the responses came in to this thread.

Edited May 13, 2024 by Bugatti Fan