By John Halford
By John Halford
VERSAILLES, Indiana—A decade or so ago, our church had a major international publishing operation. Our magazine was published in several editions and languages, with a circulation at its height, of more than eight million. We also had the monthly Good News, The Worldwide News and hundreds of booklets and articles.
The heart of the operation was two large buildings in Pasadena. In the editorial offices, several dozen employees wrote, researched, checked, proofread and designed the various publications. Across the road in an even bigger building, even more employees carried out the many operations necessary to prepare the magazines for printing. Supplementary staff in Texas and around the world worked on foreign language publications. The sun never set on our publishing operation.
Where we are now
The editorial building was sold, and the old publishing premises sits empty. The U.S. edition of The PIain Truth became a part of the independent PIain Truth Ministries. The Worldwide News remains, and several of the international offices produce regional editions.
One by one the foreign editions closed down as not only the finances, but also the priorities of our church changed. It might have seemed that the sun had set on publishing.
But our international publishing activities are not dead. Far from it. A minister from another denomination once observed, “Publishing seems to be in your denominational DNA.” It certainly seems like it. Today, the centrally produced publications have been replaced by a host of smaller ones. Some are quite elaborate, others are humble indeed. But they have one thing in common—a desire to reach out through the printed word with the good news of the gospel of salvation.
Several things have come together to make this possible. The intentional downsizing of headquarters has allowed for decentralization of many activities once concentrated in Pasadena. Diminished finances have forced us to look at low-cost alternatives to mass circulation magazines. And perhaps most significantly, the dramatic developments in desktop publishing have transformed what once needed a massive investment and sophisticated equipment into a cottage industry.
We thought you would be interested to know what is happening. Over the next few issues we will survey some of the publications that the church publishes around the world.
Northern Light
Typical of these is Northern Light, the house magazine for the WCG congregations in Canada.
Northern Light (NL) is published every two months, and has a circulation of about 4,500. Most readers are members of the WCG, although some nonmembers have also asked to subscribe. NL has 32 pages, printed in black and white on good quality newsprint, with a full color cover.
The magazine is edited by Bill Hall, who is also pastor of
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the Battleford and Kindersley, Saskatchewan, and Lloydminster, Alberta, congregations. NL is a 100 percent desktop publication. Bill does the editing and designing on his home computer system. He sends the edited copy electronically to be proofread by a church member, David Bacon, in Burnaby, British Columbia. When the issue is complete, Bill sends a CD with all the information to a printer in Vancouver. “The first time I actually see the magazine on paper is when it arrives at my home,” he said.
NL is cheerful, informative, down-to-earth and encouraging. Bill tries to plan each issue around a theme. Some articles are reprinted from the U.S. edition of The Worldwide News, including the Pastor General’s column, “Window on the World” and the Bible study. Gary Moore, Canadian director, also writes a regular feature. The other writers include some of the Canadian ministers and many church members. “That is one of NL’s strengths,” said Bill. “Ordinary people writing to ordinary people. One of our most popular writers was the late Gail Millman. She had a simple formula: ‘People like to read about other people.’ ”
Canada is a bilingual country, and four pages of each issue are in French. The articles are translated by a professional translator in Montreal, at a reasonable rate of 10 cents a word. “A bilingual magazine is sometimes a challenge, but it is worth it, as it keeps our French-speaking members in touch,” explained Bill.
If you would like to see Northern Light for yourself, check their web site: www.wcg.ca/news
Next time we will look at the challenges some of the non-English publications face as they continue the tradition of publishing the gospel.
Copyright © Grace Communion International, 2003
