January 2012 WT Study edition on PDF pulled from JW.org website

by bnybyt 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cameo-d

  If true, this should give you a clue as to who their target market is now. Maybe too many intelligent people have left. Perhaps it is their intent to market to the illiterate and foreigners who do not comprehend a lot of English.

  Hasn't WT always used the social aspect to engage people---the "love bombing" techniques? And who feels more lost and alone than a stranger in a country where he has few friends or family---maybe none---and does not speak the language proficiently? And those within poverty levels may not even have a computer or know how to operate one.

  Those very reasons are also why they are expanding their markets in third world countries that are undeveloped.

  I think the simplified wording is showing you the new marketing tactics and who they are going for.
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  breakfast of champions

  CAMINANTE - yes, I am sure they would like the least disturbing typeface to lull their readers into a hypnotic state under which they spring newer and more ridiculous new light! Just speculation.
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  wannabefree

  If you really want to read it before it is posted in jw.org again, Google did an HTML version before the PDF was removed.

  http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:a78rPcfrCDAJ:download.jw.org/files/media_magazines/w_E_20120115.pdf
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  wannabefree

  I don't see anything in the magazine stating that it has been simplified, I think they are just following the new cover format that the simplified uses.
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  Mad Sweeney

  It is just the layout and cover art that has been adapted, now with PICs. Probably so that people who read the regular version and those who read the simplified version won't be able to tell one another apart with just a glance anymore. I'm sure there have been some in the congregations who felt superior because they used the regular version and those who felt inferior for using the simplified one. Now everyone looks the same as the conductor looks at them from the front of the room. Conformity above all. That's the Borg motto.
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  sir82

  Those very reasons are also why they are expanding their markets in third world countries that are undeveloped.

  Seems to make sense, but now they've pulled the plug on Gilead school - no more new missionaries.

  If their target really was 3rd world countries, wouldn't they perhaps revamp Gilead and make it more practical & useful, instead of killing it?

  Oh wait - we're talking about the WTS. Modernizing Gilead and making it practical would require intelligence and creativity, qualities which are scorned the higher up you go in the organization.

  Being really good at "obedience" and nothing else doesn't make for dynamic, exciting, progressive leadership.
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  ScenicViewer

  Modernizing Gilead and making it practical would require intelligence and creativity, qualities which are scorned the higher up you go in the organization.

  Also, modernizing Gilead wouldn't pay. It's expensive to operate the school and support the missionaries in their assignments. If the majority of the increase these days is coming from 3rd world, underdevloped countries, that means no money is coming in from those lands; the people are too poor to contribute. The society may even be pumping money in to those countries to build KHs and such. Like any business, if it doesn't pay, it gets cut.

  So why bother at all with poor countries? Maybe because if it wasn't for them the organizational increase would be precious little. In most developed lands there isn't much increase from the field at all. What increase there is, is internal, children being baptised. The organization must have it's increase in numbers, new peaks, etc.
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  PaintedToeNail

  It seems in general that the human attention span is getting shorter. Look at virtually any printed periodical and all the articles are short, skimming only the surface of the subject, no depth of knowledge, no real research. I used to get a great magazine called 'Colonial Homes', it had wonderful article about architecture and furniture design, history of ancient families who had the priveledge of living in that ancestral home, passed down for centuries. Anyway, it was discontinued. The publisher offered to send me another magazine, either Country Living or Country Home, if forget which it was now. Both have really short articles with almost no background history. I've noticed this with many other magazines.

  CJ
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  AnnOMaly

  And changing from a layout based on Stone Serif/Sans to Palatino (URW Palladio)/Franklin Gothic is also a good move, since Palladio is a bit lighter than Stone Serif, thus even though there is a bit less space on the page for text, a lighter typeface compensates without disturbing the reader's eyes.

  Wouldn't Comic Sans be a more suitable option?
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  NomadSoul

  Blondie! What the heck? LOL