Tail End Charlie
Two Hundred Issues and There’s Still More to Tell
Text: Kateřina Borecká
When I joined the Eduard company in 2010, INFO was more of a simple “school newsletter” consisting of a few pages of news, a couple of pictures, and an editorial by Mr. Šulc. We wanted to transform it into a digital magazine. So we set about making changes, and INFO EDUARD was born.
My job was to put each issue together. I received information, texts, photographs, and background material for the news stories, from which I gradually pieced together each issue, which always had to be ready by the first day of the month. At first, INFO was about 25 pages. I designed the covers and tried to make each one different, ideally featuring a different model. Back then, we still wrote the table of contents directly on the front page.
Over time, historical articles began to appear among the news items. First one, then another. We also added step-by-step guides for modelers and galleries of completed models. We wrote about what was happening at our company, what machines we’d acquired, and what our colleagues were capable of. We wanted to showcase not only the products, but also the people and the work behind them.
Jan Bobek regularly drew rabbits for each issue. Sometimes as a joke, other times as an illustration for an article. I’d like to remind you of the best ones. And every now and then, I’d sneak my own idea into INFO to lighten the mood a bit. On one summer cover, for example, my swimsuit is lying next to the postcards. I figured it would fit well with the summer issue. And it actually got approved!
In March 2011, I embarked on a major layout change. I started typesetting the articles—which we’d previously laid out in two columns—in three columns instead. I also created a separate table of contents page. I wanted INFO to feel more modern and for each article to have its own distinct look. I got bored just putting text on blank pages. So sometimes I took photos of models or products myself so that the photos, colors, and the whole article would all come together.
Then I got the itch to tinker, so I started building models too. I wanted to showcase our photo-etched parts as more than just flat sheets of metal. I’m sure you remember the photo-etched flora and fauna from back then. I created dioramas featuring palm trees, vineyards, or deserts with snakes and scorpions. There was even a forest with ferns and ivy on an shed. I enjoyed coming up with scenes, playing around with tiny details, and then editing the results on the computer.
Before I started writing this article, I went through the old issues I was in charge of until 2015. Some of the pages made me smile—they look a bit retro now. But with others, I thought to myself, “Hey, I really nailed this fifteen years ago!” It was nice to see so much of my own work all in one place.
And along with that, it was clear to see how INFO had grown. By around 2013, it already had about 40 pages; a year later, around 60. Both the number of authors and the range of topics were expanding. We searched for source material ourselves and visited museums. We wanted to bring you history that you might not have come across elsewhere.
My last issue—at least under my supervision—was published in October 2015. Then I went on maternity leave and handed the work over to my colleague Petr Štěpánek, who is still in charge of INFO today. The magazine has undergone further changes and, most notably, has really expanded. Today, we sometimes reach as many as 145 pages. When I think back to those original 25 pages, I can’t help but smile.
As the content grew, so did our readership. Modelers downloaded INFO frequently, and we were delighted that for many, it became a regular read. At the same time, however, we knew that a large magazine in PDF format isn’t comfortable for everyone to read, especially on a phone. You also often asked us if INFO would ever be published in print. Some of you even printed individual issues yourselves.
At the turn of 2022 and 2023, we therefore began changing the way we publish INFO. Thanks to our colleague Richard Plos, we switched to Triobo, an online platform for digital magazines. INFO now has its own digital library there, where you can open individual issues directly on the website. In addition, the articles offer an easy-reading mode: the text adapts to computers, tablets, and phones. We wanted to make sure that even lengthy articles are comfortable to read without having to scroll through PDF pages.
The idea of a printed INFO is appealing, and I understand why you might want to hold it in your hands. However, printing and distributing the magazine on the current scale would be costly. Personally, I think that INFO would lose some of its accessibility as a result and might reach fewer readers. That’s why we continue to focus on the digital format, which you can access whether you’re sitting at home on your computer or just have your phone handy.
For me, “200 issues” isn’t just a number on the cover. Behind it lie years of work by many people, plenty of ideas, and a desire to be closer to you, the modelers. I hope you can still feel that in every issue. And that you don’t just browse through INFO, but also find stories in it that make it worth coming back to.
Thank you for being with us.