Thursday, August 19, 2010

Airfix Model World Magazine

It was announced yesterday that Key Publishing and Airfix have teamed up to start a new modeling magazine called Airfix Model World. It will be a 100 page monthly magazine that covers all genres of modeling, but with an aviation focus. The editor will be Glenn Sands and the first issue is set to debut in November 2010.

I find this a very interesting announcement. First off I can't believe the UK can subsidize the number of modeling magazines currently on the market, let alone a new title. That being said, I'm really excited to see what Airfix and Key can do and I do think there is room in the market for a good (professionally proofread) magazine that deals with all areas of modeling, and with Key's experience, production values, and distribution, along with the Airfix name, it might quickly become a major player in the market.

4 comments:

David M. Knights said...

Jim,
I, too, am amazed that someone would enter the model magazine market at this time. The only thing I can conclude is that digital layout software and digital press technology have so lowered the cost of producing a magainze that you can do one expecting a much smaller customer base than use to be required to support such a venture.

Matt Tauber said...

Did you mean "professionally proofread"?

AScaleCanadian said...

Matt...all these years later and you are still correcting my spelling and grammar...

Andrew R said...

Well the UK does have a large concentration of modellers in a small geographic region, so advertising is quite effective. I'm pretty sure they will have done market research on the amount of advertising revenue they can generate. Also for with modellers like me, they have a huge nostalgia factior in the UK because of the old Airfix Magazine, which we all used to read when we were kids. I will certainly be getting the first few issues out of interest. The trick will be to sustain the sales when the nostalgia factor wears off. It will be interesting to see what skill levels they aim to cater for. Roll on November!