The news sounds frightening. Since the first of the year, Christianity Today Incorporated has shuttered six of its magazines and sold a seventh.
They’ve laid off 31 staff members. As President and Publisher Harold Smith says, “We find ourselves – as does our industry – in the midst of a perfect publishing storm.” (see p. 18) The Episcopalians’ Church Publishing, Inc., has suspended publication of books for the general audience and let go of nine staff members. I called their president and publisher, our friend Davis Perkins, the former publisher of Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, to ask what’s really happening. His response was blunt. “Jack,” he said, “the religious publishing industry is facing a situation that is apocalyptic.” Here at the Outlook we are living in that apocalyptic, perfect publishing storm. The migration of readers from paid magazines to free online Web sites, plus the recession’s assault on advertising dollars has turned the postal carrier into our best friend: we can’t wait for him to deliver each day’s mail so we can cut the envelopes in search of checks to cover the week’s bills. And I left the pastorate of a thriving church to become the editor here? What was I thinking? Actually, I KNOW what I was thinking. I was thinking that God is reforming the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and that the Outlook is the most important vehicle for the promotion of such reform. Oh, I know that many folks think of this as just a news magazine – one that tells the truth about what’s going on – the bad news and the good. But the Outlook is so much more than that. In fact, news usually fills less than 20 percent of our pages. On the other pages the Outlook … • unveils ways that God is working in congregations that can be replicated in others; • presents emerging ideas from the world of theological academia; • publishes readers’ counterpoint letters; • points the missional telescope in multiple directions so we all can glimpse the visions of the greatest reformers in our day. We are not smart enough to say for certain where God is going, but we know people who do, at least, in part: the greatest leaders, most brilliant minds, and most gifted innovators in the church. And, we publish those visionaries’ viewpoints for you to be confident that the first place you’ll see God’s future will be right in our pages. So how shall we respond to this apocalyptic storm? One thing we refuse to do is to retreat, to retrench, to slow down our pace. Yes, we’ve trimmed the budget as have others. But we also have increased the average page count – delivering more studies and resources to you. We have diversified the mechanisms for exchanging ideas on our Web site. We have begun planning to deliver the magazine via digital-electronic media – going green – for those readers who would prefer to read it that way. And we’ve begun a complete magazine redesign process. How can we do all that in such times as these? Simply! By asking you to help us. In a letter going out today, we invite you to step forward with us into God’s future by becoming a charter member of the Outlook Publishing Fellowship. If you’ve never contributed to the Outlook consider this: the price you pay for the magazine covers just 45 percent of the actual cost of information gathering, editing, publication, production and postage. Ad sales have covered most of the rest in the past, but a 35 percent slump in advertising means we need your help to cover that shortfall. Moreover, we need your ongoing partnership to expand and enlarge both the quality of our work and the range of its reach. As we see it, we ought not let this apocalyptic, perfect publishing storm go to waste. While the news reminds us that even revered Christian publications may not always survive, we know that you value this insightful, independent and fair-minded voice. Please watch your mail, or check out the special web site page (pres-outlook.org/opf.html) so you can help us realize together God’s great future. JHH
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