GallopingGhostler

Bob, I think the key is the reduction in the number of pages. I've observed similar with computer magazines, one in particular, CoCo Rainbow. It was a publication for the RadioShack / Tandy Color Computer, hay day some 30 years ago. The last issues were thinner than in the peak of its popularity.

When subscriptions and advertisers are up, the magazine grows. The printing of additional pages are paid for by the increased income. When down, to keep in the black, they must reduce their printing costs.

I guess that the latest RCM management wasn't able to adapt to the changing model builder/flier market and interest conditions. Also, I think modern blogging has replaced reading professional modeler articles. The average person, who before had no voice, now has a face with the Internet, accessible to thousands of potential subscribers. It is these that have truly made known use of more modern materials in building airplanes, such as home improvement insulating foam.

That has helped to redefine airplane scratch building and has given birth to a plethora of plans, making subscribing to modeling magazines less attractive, in my opinion.

iron eagel

Bob, the amount of people who actually build or are interested in it has declined rapidly since the advent of arfs. Take a look at our club those who build are a minority in our club, take away the guys who build foam planes and there are half a dozen of us who build with wood or composites.
And the pages of a publication being reduced are a sure sign of revenue decline, what you don't see is the staff reductions that go along with it, you can see it mirrored in local publications such as newspapers today.
My two cents...

abelard

Pearson was not an heir; he was an employee of a corporation. He did not own the magazine, the advertisers' checks did not come to him, and he had no power to keep the magazine in business; only the heirs, who were the new owners, could do that.

The magazine was past its prime, getting thinner as the ad dollars faded, and without Dewey working full-time running his baby, it wouldn't have been an easy job to salvage it. The fact that nobody stepped up with an offer to buy speaks volumes. So, the heirs elected to just keep the plan service running - a minimum-effort way to cash in the residual value of the magazine's plan library. They didn't exactly go out gracefully: without any notice, the magazine simply stopped arriving at distributors. Not sure if the advertisers got their money back on ad contracts, but I doubt it. The better contributors quickly found work at other magazines.

Personally, I was always annoyed at the way RCM writers referred to the wives who were putting up with their husbands' expensive hobby: scarcely an issue went by without a gratuitous crack like "Swipe your wife's steam iron to stick this in place." And of course, the cover always featured a silly picture of a young woman holding an airplane while dressed (modestly) for swimming...likely on the assumption that the readers' wives wouldn't let them have Playboy.

One contemporaneous report on the closure: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NZMAA-News/message/2475

N1EDM

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GG and Paul, I am in agreement with your assesments..

Bob

GallopingGhostler

Usually in small businesses, once the motivating force (proprietor, owner) has moved on and relegated the authority to others, unless those others have the same vision and enthusiasm, the effort dies.

I'm thinking that is a humor of a bygone era with the baby boomers. People then were IMO more tolerant of such quips, did not take them to heart. Nowadays, it seems easy to offend anyone with simplest misunderstandings. (Remember when hugging children in school wasn't considered child predation?) People have lost the ability to lighten up.

jazzboy

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Man! The covers were the best part!!! The ones around 1970 were stellar.

Bax

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1975 was the best year for covers, IMHO.

GallopingGhostler

Even the late Ken Willard, prolific designer of half-A R/C models and others, in a building article one time quipped, "This is a family magazine in spite of some of the covers we've seen recently."

Here is a tasteful image of his R/C Showboat with I believe his granddaughter posing


RCM November 1988 article, plan
[link=https://www.rcmplans.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=1846&zenid=7jt7u3469gicdnu2djmocs3va98avst4lh54ahoumqva pgtnnao0]RCM Plans, Ken Willard Showboat flying boat[/link]

There is one thing to RCM's credit, overall I think RCM kept their magazine covers respectable.

Hemikiller

My Feedback: (125)

Keep in mind that many of the authors and readers were WWII, Korea and Vietnam vets. They had a slightly different perspective on life......

abelard

You bet they were. Those "quips" were expressions of a social hierarchy that was accepted then, just like the humor of Amos 'n' Andy. We've grown a little since then.

abelard

USAF, 1962-68, thank you very much. I thought it annoying then and offensive now.

N1EDM

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I always felt that the covers were professionally and very tastefully done,

Bob

Sport_Pilot

Covers with pretty women in swimsuits you see at any beach or pool offensive?  Says a lot about the person.

BTW wives still complain about the cost of an expensive hobby, and husbands still complain about expensive clothes and jewlery.  I see the same jokes here and most from people who were not WWII vets.

bruce88123

Unfortunately the number of WWII vets is constantly dwindling. Sad considering the sacrifices they, and all vets since, have made for all of us. Hooray for our brave military !!! Well done. I work with a retired Navy Seal and the stories he is allowed to talk about are scary, not to mention the ones he can not due to serurity classification.

Sport_Pilot

He should be able to discus the secret missions now. I believe all secret information from WWII has been released by now. Except maybe the Foo Fighters.

bruce88123

There were no "seals" in WWII. They had "frogmen" or "UDT". They drew from this group when the Seals were formed. My friend served much more recently and many of his missions are still classified, some are not.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Tell him, "Thanks" from me!

SBS_Pilot

Hello all

I have recently become a happy owner of a Honker Bipe kit, still in it's original box. The kit is complete, including the plan, but Iwould like to read the original build description from RCModeler, March 1974 (Ithink). I found an issue at eBay, but the price + postage to Sweden would be $27, which is a bit on the high side for me.

Is there anybody out there who got access to the correct issue and are willing to scan the article for me? If not, could anybody verify that the Honker Bipe article was published in March 1974?

Thanks in advance for any help

/Stefan

meanrc

My Feedback: (2)

Honker Bipe - #552 - 3/74 (30)

March 74 is correct. My RCM's are presently in storage and not readlly available. If someone doesn't come up with the article let me know and I'll try to get it to you but it will take a bit of time

Cheers John k

abelard

Nothing offensive about pretty women: it's the condescending social hierarchy behind the covers. How about a woman FLYING A MODEL for once? How about treating them as, y'know, PEOPLE instead of decorations?

jessiej

How about reading a RC magazine as, y,know, ENTERTAINMENT instead of social commentary?

Jess (one who takes himself or entertainment as being of world shaping importance)

SBS_Pilot

Hello John

I appreciate your kind offer of copying the article. Beside my curiosity I'm in no hurry, I have one plane to finish and a few to repair and/or modify before the Honker gets on the building board. So take your time and do it at any time convenient for you, I'm happy with the knowledge that there is at least one copy still out there.

May I also add that my quest for finding the construction article has made me aware of this publication, and I regret a bit I didn't notice it while it was still in print.

/Stefan

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

As luck would have it, I happened to have that issue in my collection. Here is the article... and of course, the cover photo - very nicely done.

Bob

SBS_Pilot

Wow, isn't this community fantastic! I ask for a copy of a thirtysix years old article, and within three days my plea is answered. And not only by one kind person, but two fantastic fellows volunteers to make the copy. You guys are awesome.

Thanks a ton

/Stefan

abelard

Those can be hard to separate...ask Stepin Fetchit.