How, exactly, does Watchtower's literature publishing bring them money?

by Island Man 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Island Man

  I've heard is said many times that Watchtower is a publishing company bringing in money from the proliferation of its literature. How exactly does this process work? I know that JWs are encouraged to tell the householders of the donation arrangement to support the worldwide work. And I know that JWs themselves are encouraged to donate. Is this all there is to it - the voluntary donations of individual JWs and members of the public?

  I have noticed literature servants counting literature periodically (stock taking?). What's the purpose of this? Why do they have to account for all the literature that comes in and goes out of the congregation? Are congregations required to give Watchtower a compulsory periodic donation for, and in proportion to, all the literature they receive from "Mother" during the period? Do the congregations effectively buy their literature from Watchtower?

  For those who have served in the congregation's accounts dept. or literature dept., can you please give some insight on how exactly the system works?
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  hoser

  It doesn't make them money. That is why they are pushing digital. Their problem is that it took them 25 years to figure it out.
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  ttte36

  its all part of a money making scam. Donations to the World Wide Work all go to producing literature, but also think what is the purpose of printing Literature? To distribute to the masses in the hope they become JW's, when that happens its another person to contribute.
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  William Penwell

  It is very inefficient as the number of magazines they print every year verses.the number of people converted into the organization.For every person baptized and not counting those that were raised in the religion, it must take a million magazines to bring in one convert.
  
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  neverendingjourney

  It's about economies of scale. Each edition of the WT has a distribution of something like 40 million copies. The fact that they operate at that scale and they use free labor means the cost to print one copy is very, very low.

  Even if the sheep donate 10 cents per magazine that's probably enough to cover costs. The exact amount needed to break even is obviously unknown to us, but we have every reason to believe it's very low.

  That being said, with the advent of the digital age it's clearly a dying model. They're going to have to find a new source of income and I suspect that'll be real estate development.
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  brandnew

  People out on field service are happy just to place a damn magazine....thus feeling the need to cover the cost.....at the contribution box.
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  joe134cd

  Realestate development will be Wt new source of income. Printing is a thing of the past now.
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  Hoffnung

  It is not the householders who pay fir the literature, it are the JW who pay for it all. Money is made by:

  - donations to the worldwide work in return for literature which is hardly read

  - monthly congregation contributions to the society as per resolution, e.g. car for circuit overseer, building loan,...

  - donations at the conventions, assemblies,...

  - buying land, building with free labor, then selling of kingdom halls, bethel homes,...

  - heritage going to the society (they made a special brochure for this)

  - last but not least: tax free status