Model Railroading > Model Railroad Blogs?

With fewer and fewer model railroad related magazines out there for authors to write for, have any rail blogs come to the forefront like other hobby and special interest blogs?

I.E., is it possible for a rail author or blog owner to make a living at this?

There is the online only Model Railroad Hobbyist mag

It's a freebie...

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/

No blogs that lead the pack that I'm aware of, but that day may not be far off. I think it would be great for the hobby.

I do think Lance Mindheim's blog is well worth a visit though. See http://shelflayouts.com/blog.htm.

As for MRH, it would be worth paying a bit for (but I like things as they are)! It's got pizzazz, variety and most importantly consistent depth of content that its mainstream U.S. print competitors seem to be lacking these days.

The major print competitors are probably biding their time to see how MRH fares before going on-line whole hog (of course -- let someone newer, smaller, and with fewer resources and experience take the risk). But I'm more inclined to think 1) they're stuck in a mindset that the Internet is a curious novelty; and/or 2) still labor under the idea that they're primarily print magazine makers, rather than information purveyors. They see their Internet content as tools to drive magazine sales. That's like a buggy company 80 years ago building a few new-fangled automobiles in hopes that customers will buy more buggies.

How's it working for them? Well, one major competitor's page count (won't say who, but they're located not far from Miller Park in Milwaukee) was below 100 in a recent issue. That was a shocker.

The other U.S. mags I don't even bother to thumb through anymore. To tell you the truth, the web sites, blogs and other online material I've found in the past several years are at least as interesting and helpful than the U.S. mags these days.

Perhaps energetic, timely blogs are what the mags need to dive into to stay alive as going concerns.