Kalmbach rail magazines, Trains.com sold to Firecrown Media

[ezdays]

It was somewhat surprising when it was mentioned here in the Hobo Camp thread that Kalmbach Media Co and all it's magazines had been sold to another magazine company. I could not find anything on their website until I googled it, and then I found a link to their announcement. Google also lead me to several discussions on other forums and I could not find one comment that showed anyone was disappointed. A few folks were surprised that there was anyone willing to pick up these assets, and many voiced their opinions and stories about how bad things had gotten both on their forums and magazines. I tried to view the MRR forums but couldn't log on since they made those changes a while back and it was rare that I ever went there anyway. I did go to Firecrown's website and they show ownership of all those Kalmbach magazines with links to the Trains.com sites.

I'm still waiting for my June issue of Model Railroader, as are a few others. I'm also waiting for them to bill me to extend my subscription but I really don't have any interest in renewing. I realize that it's expensive to print a full-color magazine, but I have my limits on what I'll pay for an ever-smaller issue that seem to be dedicated to just a few well-known modelers and it appears that a few advertisers feel the same way.

What's your thoughts on this? Will it improve what these magazines offer? Will it enhance and possibly attract new people to the hobby? Or perhaps, is it a bad move and we can look for further lack of interest by folks who have never been in the hobby?

My only other comment is that it had to be a real shock to the Kalmbach staff to find this out on the day the change took place when you can be sure that management knew this long before then.