Here's a letter that has circulated among many EX-Watchtowerites!
Just thought you'd want to know!
Awake! More Than a Magazine, It's a GREAT Idea!
~TheSnarkyApologist
Christian Congregation
of Jehovah’s Witnesses
2821 Route 22, Patterson, NY 12563-2237 Phone: (845) 306-1100
4/2/12-E
April 2, 2012
TO ALL CONGREGATIONS
Re: Announcement to be read following Watchtower Study during week of April 2, 2012
Dear Brothers:
The Internet is a technology that Jehovah’s organization is using to good advantage to spread the good news to all corners of the earth. Consider the impact our Web sites are having. On a typical day, 400,000 people, both Witnesses and non-Witnesses, visit watchtower.org, jw.org, or jw-media.org.
They read our publications online in over 430 languages. Each day they download close to half a million audio, text, or sign-language-video files. Every day a hundred requests for Bible studies are sent in. To enhance the effectiveness of our use of the Internet, the Governing Body has decided to consolidate the three sites into one site called jw.org. The Web site will be completely redesigned. It will be appealing and easy to navigate using either a computer or a mobile device.
The redesigned jw.org Web site is planned for release around the beginning of June 2012. It will paint an appealing picture of our preaching work, branch offices, Kingdom Halls, and conventions.
A newsroom section will provide up-to-date reporting on events affecting God’s people
worldwide. Selected features from our magazines that can be presented more effectively on the Web site will now be published only on jw.org. These include the following: “For Young People,” “My Bible Lessons,” and the Gilead graduation report from the public edition of The Watchtower and “For Family Review” and “Young People Ask” from Awake! In addition, a series of online articles available only on the Web site will provide concise, clear answers to questions about the Bible and about Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Governing Body has noted the growing tendency for people to obtain reading material
from the Internet and has carefully weighed the effect this trend is having on the printing industry and on our ability to obtain paper and equipment for printing. Based on these changing conditions, effective with the issues of January 2013, Awake! and the public edition of The Watchtower will be reduced from 32 pages to 16 pages. These magazines that we distribute to the public will continue to provide a rich supply of enlightening material to attract people to the truth of God’s Word. Since each issue will contain less material, it may be possible for more translation teams to be able to translate every issue of Awake! and the public edition of The Watchtower, thus increasing the number of languages in which they are available. The study edition of The Watchtower will continue to be a 32-page magazine.
The Governing Body is confident that these adjustments will enable us to reach even more
people with the Bible’s life-saving message while continuing to provide a rich supply of nourishing spiritual food for the worldwide brotherhood.
Your brothers,
cc: Traveling overseers
April 2, 2012
Page 2
PS to coordinator of the body of elders:
This matter should be kept strictly confidential among the elders until the letter is read in your congregation. Please arrange for this letter to be read to the congregation following the Watchtower Study during the week of April 2, 2012. This will be the same day as the special talk. In most congregations this will be Sunday, April 8, 2012. The brother who delivered the special talk should be invited to read this letter to the audience, if he is available to do so. Thereafter, this letter should be posted on the information board for four weeks.
The reading of this letter is in addition to the shorter announcement to be read by the chairman immediately following the special talk as outlined in the letter dated February 1, 2012, to all bodies of elders. Therefore, the chairman will read the shorter announcement following the special talk and before the Watchtower Study. Following the Watchtower Study, the brother who delivered the special talk will read this letter and thereafter introduce the concluding song