Farewell EiM

 

So, Engineering in Miniature magazine has reached the end of the line. This is a shame, but not a great surprise. 

I have an affection for the publication, because I edited it for six months, back in 2017. At the time I did my best, but knew I wasn't the right person for the job, Andrew Charman, who took over the editors' desk was a far better fit. 

During my time, the biggest struggle was to find people willing to write for the magazine. Repeated enquiries at shows were met with very little success, and not a few rude responses as though it was wrong of me to even ask. Andrew enjoyed more success, but the regular appeals for new content in the editorials, suggests it was hard work. 

One problem is that this isn't a big market, and it's not growing, but is served by three magazines. EiM, Model Engineer and Model Engineer's Workshop. I suspect that very few people subscribed to all threee, yet there were a trio of outlets looking for content every month. Content that is highly technical and often needs to include working drawings. 

So, while I'm not privy to all the details, my understanding is that the magazine was losing a little money, and no one could work out how to reverse the decline, not helped by the readership (judging by the attendees at the Midlands show) being on the old side, so it was time to close. At least there was suficient notice for Andrew to wrap things up properly, something that the publishers didn't have to do, but care enough to do so. 

Hopefully, the readers will transfer to one of the remaining publications. Perhaps it might even remind the market that if you don't use it, you lose it!