Billygoat,
Well, you remember the old method:
Sister Publisher goes to the magazine counter to pick up her 2 magazines. She pays the set amount to the Magazine Servant. She then goes in service, makes her spiel, and at the end she says, "...and you can have them for the suggested contribution of .50" Householder gives her the money. She keeps the money, since she already paid for the magazines in the first place. If householder wants the mags, but doesn't want to give any money, Sister Publisher may hesitate and give the magazines away (swallowing the loss), or she may say, "OK, how about I give you these older magazines instead?"
Fast-foward to, I think, early 1991. The Swaggert case was in the courts, and a letter went out to the congregations instituting the new donation arrangement, which goes like this:
Sister Publisher goes to the magazine counter to pick up her 2 magazines. Magazine Servant hands them over, no money changing hands. A conspicuous contribution box lurks nearby. Sister Publisher puts a donation in the box to "cover the costs of printing and shipping." She then goes out in service, makes her spield, and at the end she says, "...and you can have these magazines without charge. However, if you would like to make a donation to the worldwide publishing work that we do, it would be appreciated." Householder gives her $1.00 (or $5.00). She does NOT keep the money, but puts it in a special envelope marked "Kingdom Contributions." She gets to the Hall, she puts that money in the special contribution box. Society thereby gets twice the contribution as before.
Now, that is the ideal world. Here's how it works in actual practice more often than not:
Sister Publisher goes to the magazine counter to pick up her 20 magazines. Magazines Servant hands them over, with no money changing hands. While she's standing there, she zooms over to the Literature Servant and picks up some videos, CDs, Insight volumes, deluxe Bibles, and the rest of her library of WTS books. She slides right past the contribution box, because she is a little short that day. She goes out in service, makes her spiel, and feels funny about asking for money so she says, "...and you have have these magazines for free." Householder thinks, What the hell, why not? Society doesn't see a penny throughout the whole operation. Soon a new article appears in the KM saying how important it is to ask for contributions.
