Review Future
Posted by John Clutterbuck on
As readers of Review 139 will know, we plan to close the Review at the end of the current volume 18 - issue 144 unless someone comes forward to take it over. This has prompted a lot of emails and discussions on internet forums, etc.
Firstly I would like to thank everyone for the kind compliments about my efforts in keeping the Review alive. I only got involved by helping Roy after Bob Barlow passed away as I didn't want it to die, and of course none of us expected Roy to leave us so soon, leaving me with both publishing and editing.
Given the inevitable speculation I would like to clarify a few things:
There is still a significant readership maintained largely through word of mouth, forums, etc. Promotion at exhibitions and the wider model press may well attract more.
Unlike the big monthlies, there is a very little income from advertising.
The business returns a modest profit although our time/wages are not really factored in.
Storage and pack & despatch are done by Lavenham Press, but obviously at a cost to us.
We own the Title and IP for the Review but not RCL Publications which remains with Angela, Roy's widow. As you may know we decided to not publish any more books ourselves.
We have a full archive so digital or print on demand is a potential future revenue stream.
I maintain the website (hosted on Shopify) and have developed a lot of automation which significantly eases order processing - day to day admin can be largely managed on a smartphone from anywhere.
I would provide a lot of support to anyone who wanted to take over the baton as clearly I would like it to continue too, but we would need to be certain they would maintain the same quality level. Serious enquiries only please - we've already wasted well over a year with one party which came to naught.
John