Apart from ONE publication (one of the sponsors), the rest of the modeling press were (apparently) banned from carrying out their journalistic duties at the show...

What interesting times we live in....

Well that sucks. Me thinks a few backhanders were involved.
Hopefully some of our members managed to take some pics.

Andy

What Euromilitaire behave like Supers star they are selling the right only to one press agency like the Twins of Angela and Brad??

So no news here in Big A

I don't think it a case of back handers at all, if true more a case of vested interest, misguided as it maybe.

The Magicalia Digital Publishing group has Military Modelling magazine in its portfolio and is organisers of Euro Militaire as I understand it. It's not difficult to see the connection and interest.

What does surprise me about this ban, if it is indeed true, on the modelling press is in my experience, (I went last year but not this year), is that I believe AFV Modeller and Model Military International publications both take exhibitor space at the show.

If by banning the coverage by other modelling journalists they think they are somehow going to boast sales of any forthcoming Military Modelling publication reporting on this event that may be true, but what also happens is the potential of bad feeling amongst the modelling world at such behaviour and ultimately the reduced exposure of this event to a potentially wider audience who read other publications etc. that don't include Military Modelling magazine.

With all the general public coming to the show are armed to the teeth with cameras and taking vast numbers of pictures I can't really see how you enforce such a ban unless certain "known" people are targeted and stopped from taking pictures. All they have to do then is find a willing member of the public to offer theirs, or will they ban all photography in future.

I can't see it being true, no doubt in time the truth will out, if it is true then it's pretty much unworkable and would certainly be awful PR.

Alan

just like last year, I was armed and ready when arriving at euro

here's a topic i made with download link to 300+ pics of some of the best models (at least that's what i thought) in the competition.

link

How can they stop other magazines from publishing pictures? They have no rights to the models the people who created them do.

I completely agree. I was also careful to use the word APPARENTLY as, so far, i'm waiting for a couple of my contacts to get back to me with more details.

If it IS correct then it does raise some curious issues about just how far corporate sponsors are prepared to go to protect their 'exclusivity'. Everyone has the right to protect what they perceive as their interests - doing it in a public show (if, indeed that WAS the situation) seems a little 'clumsy'...

Another twist to the story:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47211/message/1222154441/Euro+magazine+photos+and+judging

Now, everyone has to run to a deadline, but if THIS is correct, then the other print magazines will be publishing their images of Euro-Militaire some time in spring 2009.

Hopefully, (for those who subscribe to OTHER magazines) this can be amicably resolved - if not it sets a VERY alarming precedent...

...and another.

The editor of AFV Modeller magazine has also posted in the ML thread:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47211/message/1222165105/Euro+Photo+Ban+-+the+beginning+of+the+end

This DOES seem to confirm it....

From another magazine editor:




Where did the organizers of EM go to PR school? North Korea?

From the ML threads its seems the movement of selected models to allow decent photography seems to be beyond their limited organisational powers. It can't be that difficult surely. Particularly when MM has currently has a lower standard of image reproduction (and annoying captioning - what is wrong with italic?) than competing magazines.

David

That was my initial thought, they're losing a lot of free pub for the show, and at the same time engendering some bad pub. Someone isn't thinking this thing through, or they aren't thinking at all.

Mike

Don't know if its relevant to this thread or not, but I bought a copy of of MilMod's Euromilitaire Special for last year's Euro. This inspite of having already seen a fair bit of good photos on the internet about the show. I guess I just wanted to have a hard copy at hand.
Unfortunately, when I opened the magazine I was greeted with very mediocre if not downright bad images. Some photos had poor contrast, some bad focus and some even seemed to be too low resolution. A lot of the photos I saw online were much better (except for resolution being on the web and all that).
I was sadly disappointed and made a note to myself to think twice before getting the one for this year.

Boo

Seems like a money grab by the show organizers that does a disservice to the exhibitors who want the maximum amount of publicity about their wares ASAP. Letting only a paying exhibitor have such a long window of exclusivity seems out-of-date these days in the world of instant online availability of information.

But it's their show to do as they please. Other modeling pubs might want to reconsider attending (and publicizing) the show as a form of protest.

Mike Rinaldi has added some very interesting thoughts on the ML thread:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/47211/message/1222191270/The+photography+ban+-

Thanks Jim, I was just going to add the link.

I simpy don't see any good coming out of this, especially for the show itself.

Best,

Mike

I know of one modeler who was told by a magazine editor that he'd like photos of his work but wasn't allowed to take them. The modeler went down to the competition room, took his model up to the editor and let him take as many pics as he liked. Then he brought his model back down and replaced it on the stand.

Ethically the photo ban for magazines is wrong. Commercially I think it's also wrong. Maybe Mil Mod sold less of their Euro Special last year and blame that on other mags coverage, but it isn't all about the Magazine, as Michael says it's about cultivating the hobby and I'm sure many modelers who didn't know about the ban when they entered -it should have been part of the terms and conditions- would have been very displeased and may have taken the same spontaneous action my friend did.

On the show as a whole: well I was there for most of saturday and Sunday and I think it'll be a few years before I go again. The competition room is small, crowded and badly lit. I enjoyed seeing models that I've watched develop on the web and putting faces to names I've talked to online and I bought too much, but there were no bargains from the vendors especially if like me you are accustomed to using the €uro.

I hope this is not the thin end of the wedge -how long before other shows start making exclusive deals with magazines?

to be honest I have never been impressed by Mil Mod's coverage of Euro-Militaire. Their pictures are grainy and the descriptions very poor. And yes I have bought their Euro-Militaire specials for a number of years, but will not this coming year.

Darryl

Hi Pat,

Sorry I didn't make it down it would have been good to meet you and Graham also.

Never been to Euro and honestly didn't realise it was hosted by Mil Mod. Knowing that it is, the ban doesn't surprise me, and I'm actually glad now having read the ML thread and the posts above I didn't spend the money on fuel and entry fees, much as there were folks I would really have liked to have met in person.

I bought a copy of last years Euro special and like the others I thought it was very poor quality, so won't be buying one again this year.

I subcribed to Mil Mod for a year, but let my subscription lasp as I didn't think it was worth it.

On the topic of banning the other Magazines from taking pictures, well how sad and pathetic is that!! Reading the posts on ML they must be furious that having paid to take out a stand and travel, in many cases considerable distance, to report the event that they were then told at the 11 hour of this ban.

If Mil Mod are looking for an 'exclusive' then what they might end up with is an empty hall, and I would have no sympathy for them at all.

Not exactly in keeping with the British sense of fair play and it won't do anything for them (MilMod) other than produce a large amount of BAD PR !!!!!! More importantly it won't do the reputation of the show the slightest good either.

I wonder what idiot dreamed that one up??????

Al

it is a shame....
to have MM present its poor photos, in poor quality paper,

Ok, I just got home and read the thread over on ML (I'm blocked at work) and I have to say I think Michael summed it up very nicely with his post, I especially liked this statement:


It's all about control, and I'm sorry but this has a very familiar ring to it.


Yeah, I wonder too Al??

Mike

I find it amazing that anyone could dream up something as effective as this to alienate the modeling fraternity from their publications and show.
Didn't they think of the backlash and negative press such a stupid act would bring? I really can't foresee too many positive remarks in any of the other publications toward Euro from this point on, and I can predict the demise of the prestige of the show. Perhaps next years' show should be called Euro Derrière.

When I did buy Military Modelling regularly, the magazine I liked least was the Euromilitaire edition. A mag full of glossy (and mediocre quality and limited size) images that I had already seen online. I still pick up the occasional MM mag, when there is a subject that interests me, but under no circumstances, would I buy the "special".
Now I know that no other mag is going to full half a magazine with similar images, and I’ll get the content (articles/features) that I’m paying for ... not a rehash of images, I’ve already seen online.
I know some may regard this as not seeing the "bigger picture", but I for one .... have no problems with this whole issue. MM might have seen their special edition sales go down previously because other mags also featured images from the show .... but there must be more than myself that doesn’t buy the Euromag, solely because the images are already made available by modellers themselves??
Thanks to all the guys who have taken the time to share their images online! Much appreciated.

Funny thing is, that I had been thinking if not going to this year's Euro, to at least going to next year's. Not any more. Not that it ISN'T one of the best concentration of quality models on the planet (it is) but I rather think that i'd sooner give my money to the organizers of Torrent (Spain) or even moving my butt and going to AMPS...

Oh yes, these two (like the rest of the shows) are STILL run by modelers (for modelers) - what a CURIOUS concept

I really liked this comment by AlanL:




That seems to sum it up in a very few words. We live in a world surrounded by imbecilic 'mission statements' a world where everything is apparently controlled by incompetent corporate clowns - for many of us, modeling is a good way of (temporarily at least) escaping from what has become a pretty colorless and boring world.

So, now, a handful of suits have decided that in one of the Premier Model Shows, access and reporting will be limited to those 'in-house' . I'm not advocating some kind of return to the 'Old' way of doing things, but shows like Telford, Torrent and the AMPS shows seem to be run in a HIGHLY professional manner - without the need for the corporate blazers...

Inevitably, this will be the thin end of the wedge. By next year (if Euro is still there) perhaps there will be a no-photography rule in place and perhaps (and this WOULDN'T surprise me) the 'On-Line Media' will be prohibited access - with the exception of it's own in-house wesite.

It can only help IPMS, AMPS and all the rest who still do things for (GULP!) the love of the hobby...

Jim,

First off, I will say that I do still enjoy EuroMil immensely, but your comments above pretty much echo what one of the traders said to me on Sunday when I was chatting to him.

He was bemoaning the fact that what used to be a showcase for modelling excellence has in recent years turned into little more than a money-making exercise for the organisers. He then went on to complain bitterly about the high price of a 'pitch' - something that other traders I talked to also mentioned.

Traders have to fork out 250 quid PER TABLE (in some cases more, depending on where they are in the hall). So a trader with 4 tables is going to have to shift a lot of gear before he even breaks even (especially when you factor in travel costs, hotel costs and other sundry expenses).

Hardly surprising then that the number of traders (and thus the size and relative importance of the event) has declined.

It's a real shame that such a grasping, greedy and above all SHORT-SIGHTED mentality apparently prevails on the part of the organisers.

Because if the pitch rates were more reasonable, more traders would want to attend, it would make those traders more agreeable to cutting special deals with punters, which would in turn attract MORE punters on the door, which would in turn probably even increase the money made not just by the traders but by the organisers as well.

So everyone would be a winner.

It's simple schoolboy economics - but sadly the clowns in charge just can't seem to grasp it. Either that or their main goal now is just to make a fast buck and say "sod the quality".

I don't know how much traders' rates have increased over the years, but what I do know is that when I started going to EuroMil in '98, it was a far bigger event with an overspill traders' marquee outside, and you sometimes had to be prepared to use your elbows to get to the traders' stands.

Not any more - and I really hope that EuroMil doesn't end up becoming "the Verlinden of the show circuit" (for want of a better analogy).

- Steve