I don't understand Theoldhippie, it's my understanding if in the year 1980 they have 100,000 publishers and then in 1981 30,000 decided to get baptized then they would state in the next years book they have 130,000 publishers, am I wrong on this?
Publishers are counted based on the number of reports turned in during a month. People can be baptised and report, unbaptised and report (as an unbaptised publisher) or baptised and not report. Do the latter once or twice and you are irregular. Do it for 6 months consistently and you are inactive, even if you attend meetings. That's just a side point however.
Before one can be baptised then they have to be a regular publisher. So the publisher numbers always include a proportion of unbaptised ones.