Announced at Service Meetings this week:
There has been clarification about how the Awake! monthly circulation will be handled. After 2006, the Awake! will be published 1 time monthly, from current semi-monthly production. The magazine will still contain articles "of general interest" but also focus on "Bible topics."
(The latest Awake! September 22 contains articles on the cattle egret, Bolivian cyrstals, garlic and gold mining with only two token scriptures cited for these 11 pages.)
JWs are instructed to place the one Awake! all month long with the semi-monthly Watchtower.
The announcment emphasizes that this does not diminish the need for magazine routes, however JWs are encouraged to start studies from their mag routes.
JWs are instructed to evaluate their magazine order by September 26, 2005 to make sure it is a "realistic order", and make sure they have enough copies of Awake! for each month.
There is a specific note that it is still permissible to use old Awake! magazines in field service.