at the meeting tonight was read a letter to all congregations in Canada. it explained that since most publishers end up with left-over public edition magazines that didn't get placed at the end of each month, they will now no longer continue to have an individual magazine order per publisher. instead, the entire congregation's supply of service edition magazines will be in a stack at the back of the KH, and they are to be taken according to need, with whatever is left over after service to be put back in the stack. all same-language congregations sharing the KH will also be sharing a single supply pile.
magazine supply reduction
by agent zero 40 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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unshackled
Hey agent...think I recall seeing something like that on a thread here months ago. Perhaps it started in the US first, and now happening in Canada?
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steve2
since most publishers end up with left-over public edition magazines that didn't get placed at the end of each month
At long, long last, an admission about the problem of unplaced magazines. This has happened for decades. I can remember seeing "rolls" of unopened Awakes! and Watchtowers at the kingdom hall that mysteriously disappeared. (From memory, each roll contained 25 magazines?)
I've reported here that, in the 1970s, a group of us brothers helped an elderly brother clear up his property. There were lots of awkward moments when we discovered scores of unopened rolls of magazines he'd stashed in his garage. Poor man probably didn't know how to say, "I don't need them anymore". I'm sure some of that awkwardness we experienced was due to it being a fairly common occurrence.... red faces all around, I'd say. In a rare act of compassion, those of us who say the rolls didn't 'report' it to the elders after taking them to the landfill in a pickup truck!
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AGuest
They're recycling, dear AZ (peace to you!). Times are tough and paper isn't cheap. Why let a buttload of unused magazines sit in closets, car trunks, garages, storage facilities, and all other manner of places... or go to the dump... when the WTBTS can recycle them? Saving, what, probably 10-15% of their paper costs? For some reason, I recall that they make their own paper (?); if so, recycling should be a snap!
But folks were/are ordering magazines they're not placing. Buttloads. And they know this because the number of magazines placed... ain't adding up to the number ordered. So... given 'em back and we'll use 'em... to make more! Besides, we're "going green" like everyone else (because there's a buttload of tax/fee incentives/breaks in that! Not income tax, no, but a lot of the other taxes, including a reduction in waste fees, etc...). So, why buy recycled paper when we can make our own? Out of our own paper? Or at least, have someone do it for us, rather than buying/using "virgin" paper?
You're not dealing with you average publishing company, dear one. The WTBTS is the savviest of the savvy in the industry.
Peace!
A slave of Christ,
SA
P.S. Besides, think what would happen if the "publisher" versions got out. No point in the "public" version... and there is a point. Nope, they need 'em back...
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Anony Mous
Yes, it's slowly making it's way into other areas now. We've been doing it in our areas for over a year I think. It's a cost savings measure by encouraging them to take only 1 week supply and only coming back when necessary and bringing back all leftover and presentable old magazines so they can be used by the time they run out (which is usually 2 weeks).
Behind the scenes (that's not in the public letter) the amount of magazines ordered is now based on publisher/pioneer numbers similar to the invitations instead of at the discretion of the secretary or individuals.
The WT does not produce it's own paper however it does recycle mistakes and leftovers at the printing factories. They have been consolidating their efforts too by buying bigger machines that fewer people have to operate and using contractors for maintenance instead of training and paying unskilled volunteers with 'free' room-and-board.
They are a paper magazine producer and as the rest of the industry shows, they're going the way of the horsewhip manufacturers.
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Farkel
I have tossed enough brand-new unplaced magazines and books and tracts and pamphlets and other WT trash in my lifetime to provide enough cellulose to re-forest 100,000 acres of forest.
But the Watchtower always got to keep the money I paid for them. I couldn't sell them or even give them away, but the Watchtower always got to keep the money I paid for them.
Farkel
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freedomisntfree
If they really wanted to be cost effective theyd recycle the mags to make more mags. Garbage making garbage
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hoser
They're going broke.....
very slowly and painfully
but they're still going broke
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Open mind
I pick up a stack of magazines whenever I go to the KH (about once a month). I make sure they hit the recycling bin and not the garbage.
om
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dozy
The whole business model has changed from the days when the publishers paid for the magazines when picking them up , so it didn't matter whether there were mags left at the end of the month. Now they want to print as little as they can get away with , as any wastage hits the bottom line.
It is also so much more difficult to place mags - when I was young , you could easily place / sell 20 or 30 in a morning - latterly you could go a whole saturday morning and be lucky if you placed a pair (and that was giving them away for free.)