new design train model: Railfan and Railroad

Showing posts with label Railfan and Railroad. Show all posts

Friday, 29 August 2014

The Demise of Carstens Publications: The inside story

Will this be the last issue of RMC?

The following is a post written by Chris Lane, editor of Carstens Publication's On3 Annual:

Any business owner will tell you, it is all about cash flow. You may have all the sales you can handle, but if you don't get the money in the door in a timely and steady manner, you are going to have issues. And that has been the case at Carstens for some time. We have been on a "pay to play" deal with our printer for years�We'd send the mag and the money to print it�then we'd send the money for postage and they'd mail it. And these were not insignificant dollar amounts.

From 2008 on, as the recession kept going, people kept losing their jobs or taking work that paid less, our sales diminished also. We had increases in the book line, primarily due to the On30 and then the HOn3 Annuals, and our ad revenue stayed pretty steady. But over time, the cash coming in, and the frequency of it inched downward. Our costs (payroll, taxes, printing costs, mailing costs etc.) kept going up, and in the case of mailing, significantly so.

When Super Storm Sandy hit, we were out of power for 10 days (no phones, no computers) and we counted ourselves lucky compared to some on the east coast. But there was basically a half month that we could not generate any revenue, and of course many folks on the east coast couldn't buy from us if they wanted to because they didn't have power or were dealing with flooding issues. Then we had the polar vortex and the winter that would not end, and had many of the same issues. Those hurt our cash to the point where we were missing print windows because we didn't have enough cash to print, and we had to delay. That delay hurt subscriber confidence and you can see the death spiral picking up steam. There were any number of things that you could point to, but Quad Graphics (our printer in St. Cloud for the last 15-16 years) making the decision to shut the St. Cloud plant down and move us (and they let all the people we'd worked with go) and put us with a new plant and new people, that was basically the end. We had very little money coming in, and with the delay, small prospects of any coming in. We scrapped enough up to do the June and get it out, but the July will never see the light of day as a Carstens product.

Now two companies are bidding to buy RMC & Railfan, and so they will continue in the future in some form. What that looks like I don't know. The Annuals future is somewhat more vague. It is my hope and certainly my intent to continue to serve as the editor and bring those out, but that decision is mostly out of my hands at this point.

I don't want anyone to feel bad for me, I will be just fine and it was my pleasure to serve the model railroad community and especially the narrow gauge community as a member of Carstens. God willing, I will be able to continue to do so in some other form, but I likely won't know what that might look like for at least another week or so, and likely longer.

Another factor worth mentioning is that Carstens was very late in keeping up with the digital era. They had just recently started publishing their on-line edition. Their main competitor, Kalmbach Publications, has had on-line editions for some time, plus a whole slew of features on their website for subscribers only.

Carstens was a very small publisher, with few resources to keep up with all of the recent changes in printing and publishing. Their main sales venue, the local hobby shop, has been vanishing at a rapid pace. Compare the hobby magazines of today with those of a decade ago. They're a lot thinner. Their advertising base has all but dried up.

Perhaps Carstens magazines will survive in the hands of others, but they'll be facing a tough uphill climb.

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Carstens Publications has gone out of business

It is with great sadness that we announce the closing of Carstens Publications. Carstens, publishers of Railroad Model Craftsman and Railfan and Railroad magazines, closed down on August 22, 2014.

The roots of the company go back to 1933 with the initial publication of Model Craftsman magazine. Harold "Hal" Carstens joined the company in 1952 and purchased the company in 1969. Hal started Flying Models magazine that year, and in 1974 started Railfan magazine, In 1979 he purchased Freeman Hubbard's Railroad magazine and combined it with Rainfan magazine to create Railfan and Railroad. Hal passed away in 2006, and his son Henry took over operations.

Besides their two rail oriented publications, the firm also published several annuals, such as the On3 Annual, the HOn3 Annual and Great Railroad Photography.

On their website, the following notice from Henry Carstens was posted:

"It is with regret that Carstens Publicatons, Inc. will be closing permanently at close of business on Friday, August 22, 2014. Carstens Publications, Inc. has been a leading publisher of leading hobby magazines for over 50 years. Unfortunately the current economic climate has placed us in this position. Discussion is continuing with several parties who expressed desire to take on the continuance of the magazines. At this point there is still hope that all three titles will remain in existence. But I can offer no guarantees. We thank you for your patronage over the years, and wish you the best of luck in your endeavors."

Carstens publications has always been a strong supporter of model railroaders everywhere, especially in Manitoba. Who could ever forget the publicity they gave Railway Jamboree, 1983 NMRA national convention held in Winnipeg, by publishing all those articles of Winnipeg's great model railroads? Hal Carstens was there himself, sitting at a table with a big box of his magazines that he was giving out.

They did the same for us for the CARM's 2005 Golden Rails convention held in Winnipeg, and for the TLR's 2010 Steam on the Prairie convention, they sent over Associate Editor Ken Goslett to do a special presentation. Ken was best remembered for chasing the Prairie Dog Central through a terrific rainstorm during that convention.

According to a post by Chris Lane, former editor of Carsten's On3 Annual, negotiations are under way between Carstens and two interested buyers to purchase RMC and Railfan, but no deal has been reached yet.

Going to the hobby shop isn't going to be the same without those Carstens publications on the rack.