When I first heard of the new Watchtower arrangement, I immediately thought it was another in a long line of cost-cutting moves. I thought they were interested in cutting the overall number of magazines they print every month. So if they printed 20 million copies every 15 days, they could now print seven or eight million out of one of the monthly editions and cut over 10 million of magazines a month. However, I’ve been giving this some thought, and I’m not so sure that this is going to be the case. I’d like your input on this.
I stopped going to the meetings back when there were still two monthly issues of the Awake and the Watchtower. It was pretty standard for a pioneer to have a subscription of 15 of each. Therefore, they’d take out 60 magazines a month. When they changed over to the monthly Awake, did the pioneers simply keep their Awake subscription at 15, or did they double it to 30? I wasn’t around for the change. I would think that the pioneers would not want their statistics to drop. They would want to keep placing as close to 60 magazines a month as possible.
If the pioneers simply doubled their Awake subscriptions, wouldn’t they double their subscriptions to the public Watchtower as well? Keeping with the example of the old 15 Watchtower 15 Awake pioneers that I was familiar with, I’m thinking that they will simply have a subscription of 60 Awakes, 60 public Watchtowers, and how ever many versions of the kool-aid edition they might need for the family. If this is the case, the overall drop in the total number of magazines printed every month won’t be greatly reduced as I initially thought.
For those of you that are still on the inside, do you know what the “recommendation” is from the society on this? Are the pioneers and publishers going to be “encouraged” to decrease the overall number of magazines they get from the hall every month or are the majority of the publishers just going to adjust the subscription amounts to keep the overall amount of magazines they get every month about the same?
Is the 2008 version of the Watchtower really about saving money?
by neverendingjourney 16 Replies latest jw friends
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neverendingjourney
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steve2
I must be behind with the news, but could someone briefly recap the source of the information on the 2008 Watchtower magazine. If it comes to pass , it will be a significant change. For decades it's been okay for witnesses to inflict on the public the very same edition of the magazine the witnesses themselves have. Now, it's not. I'd be interested in the actual wording of the rationale for the change.
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neverendingjourney
Here's a link to the letter that was sent to the congregations about this:
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choosing life
The reason they give is so they can print the members only Watchtower with all the jw buzz words and not have to explain what they mean. I don't think they said anything about saving money.
It should be interesting to get ahold of the first one. I just feel they are going to crack down on the dubs in a major way. It will be mind control at its finest. I think they want to keep the info from apostates too, but that just won't happen.
It really kinda worries me, as much of my family is still in. It has been dubbed here as the koolaid edition. I just hope that maybe the harsher tone will turn some of them off to the whole set-up.
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steve2
The reason they give is so they can print the members only Watchtower with all the jw buzz words and not have to explain what they mean.
Thanks for the info. I'll also look up the associated thread provided by another poster.
BTW, do they actually believe (1) non-Witnesses who buy (sorry, make a donation for) the magazine actually bother to read it and (2) later ask the JW to explain the language?! Gosh, I think there's even a huge question mark over how many of the JWs themselves read the magazines.
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neverendingjourney
I know that saving money was not listed as an official reason for making the change, but I certainly thought that was their motive. More than a few people on this forum have suggested that as the primary motivation as well. I mean, they've been cheapening the quality of their literature for years (soft bound books and Bibles). They cut back on the Awake issues already. Their numbers are not increasing in the industrialized world (where people have $), but they are climbing in the third world (where people don't have $). Therefore, it's my belief that they have to cut back on costs because the money coming in from the wealthy lands is not covering the growth in the poor parts of the world.
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James Free
It's a good point raised about the Pioneers. But the rank and file will not order more, in general. A very large number of mags are thrown away already. Most JW's I knew had a box full of the things in their homes and when they got too old, or the box too full, they would dump them.
Their numbers are not increasing in the industrialized world (where people have $), but they are climbing in the third world (where people don't have $). Therefore, it's my belief that they have to cut back on costs because the money coming in from the wealthy lands is not covering the growth in the poor parts of the world.
This is an interesting point, but missing an important point. I lived in the UK where JW's are not allowed to ever ask for money, only answer if it is mentioned by the householder. The only time 'they' ever did was during the platform demonstration. In countries like Italy, they are encouraged to mention donations, but not push it. It all depends on the local charity tax laws - nothing at all to do with 'received free, give free". Now I am in a third world country in Asia. Here the JW's actively ask for cash - mentioning how it all gets printed in Japan etc. There is no money here, yet there is a tradition of giving to religious causes, and the JW's are not shy to push the matter, even holding on to the literature until something is given.
The local JW's do not waste the literature like those in the UK. They respect material costs more - after all, they work all day to earn a dollar.
I do think this change is about saving money. It is also as they say, to avoid having to explain JW vocabulary. Public talks ceased being for the public a long time ago. They are just longer instruction talks now. The WT study will be the same. I hope so anyway - then even less new ones will bother to go to the meetings.
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blondie
Yes and no.
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fullofdoubtnow
They might have saving money in mind, although they didn't mention it.
I can see the study articles being much more extreme and controlling that they are now once the "members only" watchtowers come out.
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SirNose586
My guess is that the Koolaid WT will allow them to bring down the hammer on everyone and enact tighter control on everyone. They've been "priming the pump" with a bunch of "Follow the Slave or else" type articles recently.
They could even be in black and white to save more money. Who needs pictures?