Z friendly publication Model Railroad News has ceased publication. This is sad news. MRN has had a long tradition of supporting Z scale by running news and product reviews. As of today, the very first new item on their website is MTL's CSX SD40-2. Mike Lindsay, the publisher posted the following last night:
When I started Model Railroad News nearly 17 years ago, I had a vision of creating a one-stop resource that would provide quality news and content to help modelers of all scales and backgrounds make the most informed decisions they could prior to plopping their hard-earned hobby dollars on the hobby shelf. In the years that passed I was blessed to see the magazine grow in size, content, and staff. I have enjoyed reading the letters that come through the office each month sharing how Model Railroad has impacted our readers. I have relished shaking hands at shows and talking to you in person. And I cherish every relationship I’ve formed with readers, writers, and advertisers over the years.
As with many small businesses, we’ve been adversely affected by a down economy. While our advertiser base has remained steady, we’ve watched our subscriber circulation continue to whittle away, some as the result of passing from one life to the next, some because the reader just was no longer able to afford any extra expenses. At the same time we also watched our production prices increase rapidly, and tried to be as frugal as possible without passing too much of that added burden onto you, our readers.
One of the things we’ve always appreciated was being able to operate on our own. When the economy collapsed it became alarmingly clear that could not continue to be the case. Every financial advisor we sought out told us the same thing: Model Railroad News is a strong viable business and well worth the investment, however, we are not offering any business loans at the time.
We were given a glimmer of hope with a group of local investors this fall and had plans of not only being able to get caught back up to our normal production schedule, but looked forward to being able to invest in some new marketing and business tools that would allow us to continue to be competitive in the model railroad publishing market.
Sadly, those discussions came to an unhappy end this week just as we were preparing to go to press with our combined November/December edition, and we’ve been forced to make the most difficult decision we’ve ever been faced with — attempt to continue without any way of fully being able to meet all of our financial obligations, or close shop.
After much thought and discussion I regret to announce that effective immediately, Model Railroad News will no longer be published. It has been a pleasure and an honor serving you these past 16 years and if there was any way to continue on, we would do so without a second thought.
Thank you for welcoming us into your homes and allowing us to be a part of your lives.
Sincerely,
Michael W. Lindsay
Publisher
