Dear Reader,
One year ago, we asked you for your support to help us grow. The response from readers was amazing and generous. Once again, we are asking for your help.
The Presbyterian Record has a great future, and we have a long-term plan to ensure that future. But in the short-term, investing in that plan is coming at the same time that we are also experiencing a sharp drop in revenue. This means we face a large operating deficit this year.
Here’s the situation. As you know, church membership is declining. It’s not drastic, but it is steady. That means fewer subscribers. Besides that, many subscribers are on a fixed income. As costs go up, they have less money for things like magazine subscriptions. When subscriptions decline, our advertising revenue declines. So does our federal funding, because it is based on our circulation.
In order to ensure the future of the Presbyterian Record, we need to diversify by developing other publications. You may have already read about our interest in publishing a magazine for Korean Presbyterians in Canada. Discussions with the Korean Presbyterian community are already underway.
We also want to produce a magazine for those Canadians who identify themselves as Presbyterian in the census but have no connection with the denomination. We affectionately refer to them as unchurched. Although they are not regular attendees of our church, we feel strongly that reaching out to these believers through a magazine can make a powerful difference in supporting their faith journey. It may even nudge some of them into becoming active church attendees.
In order to fund these magazines, we are launching our major gifts program. This is the investment in the future I referred to earlier. It takes seed money to support the new position’s salary and expenses until the program takes off. The framework to launch the program is in place. We just need to find the right person for the job. An active search is underway now to find that special person.
Is all this ambitious? Yes it is. But I’m sure you wouldn’t want us to do anything less. Certainly the board of the Record thinks it’s the right thing to do. So do I. And I hope you do, too.
That is why I am asking you to support the Record’s ministry. We believe the Record and the Presbyterian Church in Canada have a great future. But we need your help to achieve it.
Now, I want to share some really encouraging statistics with you. You might be surprised (I know I was!) to learn that the ages of people who read the most magazines each month are between 18 and 24. They are followed closely by the age groups 25 to 34 and 35 to 49. Each of these age brackets reads almost six magazines every month!
Besides that really fantastic news, each year, on average, between 40 and 50 new consumer magazines enter the Canadian market. So readers are clearly interested in new publications.
We believe we can take advantage of all this by developing the magazines I mentioned earlier for both Korean and unchurched Presbyterians.
We also believe the Presbyterian Record still has a hugely important and continuing role to play in the church.
The Record engages readers with stories about what is happening across the country in our denomination. In the pages of the magazine we can share what’s happening in St. John’s, Newfoundland, with people in Victoria, B.C., and vice versa. And we are going to try to do an even better job at that by developing a network of regional editors, generously supported by donors.
The Record is also the voice of Presbyterians in the pew speaking to the different levels of church leaders, whether they are in presbyteries, synods or at the annual General Assembly. We are also the best means those courts have to communicate with people in the pews.
We are living in a time of great change in our church, in our country and in the world. Change can create anxiety or it can open up exciting possibilities. The message that Jesus brought to us is surely one of seeing the possibilities, because he has given us hope grounded in faith and love.
I hope you’ve caught some of the optimism the board of directors and I have for the Record and for our other planned publications. And I am confident you will join me in supporting the appeal. It’s for a great cause! With your help, we can make it happen.
Thank you so much!
With my warmest regards and many blessings,
David Harris,
Publisher & Editor
Convener’s Circle Member
P.S. I want to remind you that our ministry is financially completely separate from the Presbyterian Church in Canada. All our funding comes from subscribers, advertisers, federal funds—and you, our faithful, generous donors! Please help us today!
