It will not have escaped readers’ notice that we have been playing down the News-related sections of the magazine in the acceptance that with the best will in the World we cannot hope to compete in print with the Internet in this respect. Rather than trying to sell you dozens of pages of material that you probably read on a website three weeks ago we have been concentrating on including less time-sensitive material, and while we accept there are some readers who do not spend their lives on their computers we are satisied that this is a better use of page space. Of course we will continue to run items that we regard as relevant and of interest, but the days when it was appropriate to base an entire editorial policy around being ‘irst with the news’ are past…
In print at least. But SAM has been laying the ground for a comprehensive interaction with the Internet for years, and our Facebook page is currently one of the most active and wellrespected in the industry. Moving forward we aim to continue keeping the greater part of our readership informed on new releases through the Facebook medium and with this in mind we have asked our Newsman Richard Sorge to take responsibility for reposting press releases and bulletins, as well as scouring the Web for news of products and kits.
Sorge reports will be posted frequently and regularly and shared with our Facebook readership – this weeks statistics show over 77,000 posts reached. In the meantime, to ensure your item gets the maximum coverage it deserves email news updates and images of anything – from a new resin NACA duct in 1/144 to a 1/32 Fairey Gannet - to my colleague Mr Colin ‘Flying’ Pickett, who hasn’t nearly enough to do and will pass the material on to Sorge for wider usage. Send all material to: colinpickett1@yahoo.co.uk