Anyone heard this? News! (page 5)

singsongboi

can anyone do a rough calc. of the value of brooklyn real estate (land & buildings)????

Well I was purchasing officer for a printing plant for 5 years.
Printing across the board has been bitten hard over the past 10 years.
Not just printing, but all business.
Gotta get more and more out of less and less people all the time.
Presses must now run 24/7 to be viable,as someone already said.The technology has moved so fast over the past 5 years that I would be VERY surprised if the WT has anywhere NEAR enough qualified people experienced in the new technology.
Those presses have got to pump 60,000 an hour copies,to meet budget.Old presses that print 30,000 an hour are all scrapped now,gone in the past 5 years, been sent to Africa.
In the past, oh, 7 years, press speeds have been forced to double, and labour to execute the job, halved.
I wonder if the WT has enough skilled printers that can execute performance like modern business dollar management demands.
Out sourcing, I would think, is very much on the cards.
The world financial situation is tightening day by day.
Why should the WT be exempt?
They are not.

Simon

it depends on who the commercial printers were ... if the people sending the contracts to them had shares in them then that would be a great way of syphoning off money from the WTS. Lind of like the building works that some brothers get from regional building committees that they are on ...

Another explanation is that they are finding it difficult to get people to go to bethel that have any skills. If new recruits are not being made, all that will be left are the 'I followed the rules and didn't get educated' zealots who don't provide what they are after.

joelbear

Could be another piece of a shift towards electronic media. The key to the organization is the contribution, not the printed material. As we know, the magazines do not contain much new information and most free materials contain more depth of information than the Awake does. Plus, news in the Awake is 6 to 8 weeks behind what people can see on their TVs or read on the net.

Joel

mustang

When will WT & Awake be on the news stands or magazine racks like
at B & N, Borders & so forth. That might be next.

Mustang

QUEENIE

Randy and all___com on everything boils down to the god all mighty dollar any way...everyone takes a chance when they go to Bethel much ess hires on to any job or even gets horrors of it all married..NOTHING SURPRISES ME---but what is going to happen to all the perverts where will they go--I AM SURE THEY HAVE A FEW ON STAFF OR RUNNIN A PRESS OR TWO--huhhhhh

ozziepost

Randy,

Most interesting news! If true, it could be a watershed event. But is it true?

Please let us know if you hear anything further.

Cheers,
Ozzie

"If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

- Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress

Mindchild

Interesting speculation abounds and I thought I would throw my two cents worth into the ring. In the college textbook business there are big changes being made that will transform the industry in this decade. There is already an effort being made nationwide to introduce electronic textbooks. An electronic textbook looks a lot like an ordinary book on the outside but when you open it up, it has two very thin flat computer screens that display the text. There is no keyboard, but there are a few buttons you press that moves the pages forward or back. Each electronic textbook can hold additional 50 or so other textbooks. This makes it very useful and lightweight for the student (each ETB weighs about the same as an ordinary textbook) as they don’t have to lug around a whole backpack full of books, but the whole thing is about saving money.

Each semester, the student recharges his ETB with other textbooks. He or she gets to purchase the new books for one half the cost the ordinary printed version of the book will cost. So, it pays for itself in the long run and the publishers don’t have to print any books at all this way, and still make a small fortune!

Encouraged by the success of this project and the upcoming new electronic ink that will allow books to look much more like ordinary books but as you turn the pages the text will magically appear in front of your eyes, other publishers are looking at this as being a strong contender to the printed page. Right now, electronic books are still too pricey (the electronic textbooks are about $600 each and other electronic books are about $150 or so each) but in a few years we should see them drop in price to well under $100 each, and later this decade they will potentially be cheaper than a single printed book.

If the Witness publishing industry were to jump on this bandwagon, it would suit their needs ideally. They would only need to sell the initial electronic book to the householder and then instantly, while at the door, fill it with JW books the householder might want. Later they could come back and fill it again with more JW books. The total cost would be only the publisher’s shoe leather and gasoline expenses for making return visits.

It wouldn’t surprise me really if the major electronic book producers have already talked to the WTS about this and showed them the millions of dollars they could save by using electronic books. They could use the same book for getting the latest copies of the Watchtower and Awake right at the meetings, even customizing the contents for different publishers, elders, etc. They could bypass the millions of dollars they spend on UPS or mail shipping of their printed material and of course the millions of dollars in printing the books. The electronic book manufacturers would bend over backwards and fry and eat their own grandma to make a huge sale to the WTS to get their products distributed worldwide. In fact, I bet you they would do it at cost because the same electronic books could be used by other publishers and groups to hold their material as well.

When is this feasible to do? I would say in two years or less.

Look for Watchtower stock purchases into the electronic book industry for a clue as to when.

Kind Regards,

Skipper

MadApostate

Maybe the WTS is finally getting around to implementing the suggestions I sent to them back in the early '90s re the tremendous waste occurring with WTS Pubs, especially the 2 Magazines.

Here are some of the main points that I recall (updated to reflect "current numbers"):

First, the WT and AW should be combined into a single 64 page monthly magazine. The target audience would ONLY be the roughly 9,000,000+ active JWs, associates attending meetings, etc. Each monthly issue would contain all 4-5 "study articles" (21-27 pages), as well as a "KM section" (4-8 pages). This measure would reduce the current "magazine page count" from roughly 3,000,000,000 per month down to roughly 600,000,000 per month (approximately 20% of current monthly production.) Since most waste occurs with secondary "filler" articles which go unread, such articles would be cut down to the point where JWs would actually have the time to read and discuss such, thereby eliminating any possible negative "spiritual loss".

Second, the WTs and AWs that were being distributed to the general public in FS would be replaced by a single 32 page "quarterly" FS Magazine, whose articles would target potential converts. (The current single topic 32p Brochures would be used for RVs.) There would be numerous advantages and savings resulting from the "economic aspects" on the publishing side to the "preaching/conversion aspects" on the distribution side from such a single "quarterly" FS Magazine over 2 magazines that are changing every 2 weeks.

At this point, the "numbers" for such a quarterly FS Magazine and any possible increase in Brochure placements become somewhat speculative, but these changes could undoubtedly reduce "magazine page production" by multiple BILLIONS over an annual period, without any likely "spiritual loss". (Actually, there are several arguments that these changes would likely be "spiritual positives".) Current Magazine Page production could possibly be reduced by as much as 50%, if not more, thus reducing much expense for the WTS, not only with little or no "spiritual loss', but possibly with both economic and "spiritual" gains.

Drastic changes rarely happen quickly in bureaucracies the size of the WTS, but maybe the recent managerial changes may surprise us?

Seeker4

MadApostate, Mindchild, Seven0006, etc.

You guys are all right - this is exactly the type of visionary thinking and leadership that I started a post about last week that I see the WTS as missing. BIG changes and NEW ideas in Watchtowerland, as I was pointing out to my wife the other day, are things like ever so slightly revamping the TMS format. THAT was presented as a MAJOR change and announced at the DC a year in advance!

And the description of Bethel department heads as "spiritually strong total fuck ups" was classic.

But I do remember that about 6-7 years ago we had friends who had spent five years in the building program at Patterson. Bethel had just had a big meeting with the "temporary workers" and encouraged them to make Bethel their lifelong career. This couple - in their 40's a the time - thought it over and decided that they would do just that. Very suddenly, within a matter of weeks, nearly all the temporary workers were told the work had ended and they were sent away.

This couple was totally shocked. Anyone else remember this? It was when the Society decided to cut back on the extent of the building work. Will be interesting to see what happens now. Thanks for the heads-up, Randy. I'll check out a few sources.

S4

Anyone heard this? News!