RE: Are the Magazines history?
A lot of good points made here, but, maybe I'm an oddity ... I like magazines, and would miss them terribly if they faded. I also like to explore many different areas of the model airplane hobby. Flying Models is my favorite mag, followed by Model Aviation. I like to build. I like to build the occasional rubber powered stick and tissue model. I like to build the occasional control line model. I like to build my R/C models, in fact I've never bought an R/C ARF. So the MANs and Fly R/Cs are almost meaningless to me, so I completely agree with the assessment of those types of magazines ... boring catalogs.
But I like to read about Large scale R/C, which I'll probably never do because of the indoor-space and money issues, I like to read about powered FF which I'll never do because of outdoor-space issues. I like to read about C/L combat and stunt which I may never actually do to compete. I like to read about all kinds of model airplanes, but only with a cursory interest that would never allow me to sift through the tons of information and mis-information on the web to find the stuff I want. The editor at the magazine does all that for me, and I can enjoy it anytime, even in the bathroom.
Phil