Awake Moving To Monthly Publishing

by Valis 98 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  RunningMan

  As for distribution and printing quantities.... total magazine sales will be impacted slightly. Watchtowers will still be paired with Awakes, so for cold sales, the quantities will remain unchanged. For return visits and magazine routes (repeat customers), the quantity will drop by 25%. For JWs personal consumption, the quantity will drop by 25%. Internal consumption would be their largest market. Cold sales and repeat sales are probably about equal.

  So, I'm thinking that net magazine sales will drop by 10-15%.

  But, the only important thing to those bastards is the money. How will this affect donations?. Well, cold sales will be unaffected. Repeat customers probably donate a flat buck or two for each visit. My experience was always that householder donations varied with the frequency of visits, not with the size of the stack of mags, so as long as the number of visits remains constant, this should be about the same. How will this affect JWs donations? Knowing how cheap they are, it will probably drop their magazine contributions considerably. However, donations that are not dependant on literature (assemblies, wills, and other donations) will be unaffected.

  So, I'm thinking that net revenues will drop by less than 5%.

  And, as for the number of conversions, I doubt if there will be any change at all, since the magazines do piss-all anyway, other than raise money.

  It looks like they have found yet another way to skin the flock.
• 

  LittleToe

  Are you sure this is for the English version, and not just some obscure language?
  Also, could it be that more emphasis is being placed on the up and coming Spanish contingent?

  I just know this will impact sales. More often than not I would lead with the "Awake!", rather than the "Watchtower", anytime of the month, and I wasn't alone in that
• 

  acsot

  I will keep my ears open as to what my dub "friend" here at work says.
• 

  Nosferatu

  They should change the name "Awake!" to "Getting Tired!"

  Also, it seems that the WTS is either clipping corners, or they're just getting too fvvving lazy over in Brooklyn. Changing it to once a month will save them about 6,000,000 magazines a month. If they cost 1 cent to print, they'll be saving $60,000 per month, $720,000 per year on printing.

  It's hard to say if they'll be saving money or making less. If they're getting less than 1 cent per magazine out in FS, it'll save them money. If the publishers are making up for the householders lack of donations, they'll be losing money.
• 

  LittleToe

  ...or their sense of guilt will make them keep on paying the same...
• 

  Nosferatu

  Another thought that came to mind is if the R&F drop a flat rate into the contribution box when they pick up their magazines, say $5. The R&F may keep dropping that flat rate into the box out of habit when they pick up their magazines even if the Awake! is printed monthly.
• 

  metatron

  If you look at the recent history of the Watchtower Society, it just screams "death spiral", as far as cuts go.

  They keep trimming..... time pases..... and they need to trim again.

  The word in Bethel was that dumping subscriptions was enough to balance them financially. So, they dumped

  a 120 year tradition to save money. And now guess what? They need to cut again!

  As it is, the Awake is a marginal product - it barely offers any 'hook' to get people in the "truth", while offering an

  increasingly tired dose of formulaic doom n' gloom. We'll see...

  metatron
• 

  Doubtfully Yours

  The best news I've heard today!!!!!!!!!

  GREAT!!!

  Next, please let it be the WT to be published once per month. Please, pretty please good god!!!!!!!!!!!

  DY
• 

  what_Truth?

  Call me cynical, but the way people are talking about this recent development reminds me a lot of how the JW's talk about the current state of "the system of things". They all want to see signs that their version of "Babylon the Great" is falling so they do their best to find them. Most of use want to see signs that the WTS is falling so we do our best to find them. Do you think that we could be reading WAY too much into this? To me there are two things that stick out the most about this move. 1) Most JW's usually feature the Awake more often than the Watchtower when they go door to door. and 2) The WTS has admitted that they are shifting more of their focus internationaly. The more cultures that accept their doctrines the harder it's going to be to come up with articles that are universally relevant; too hard to justify 24 issues a year.
• 

  Makena1

  Great news - less clutter at the local laundry mats.