by dreamgolfer 19 Replies latest watchtower bible
If I remember correctly this change was announced not long after they ran an edition of the WT with an article called "What to do when your child leaves Jehovah." I think any nonJW reading that would have running screaming in the other direction.
Having two versions makes it easier to control information to both insiders and outsiders.
Thanks All, I appreciate the "boning up" of the old articles that help show the craziness of it all.
thanks for your time and patience, all notes posted are Equally appreciated. I agree, Russell was let go along time ago...duh what was I thinking about. A Publishing company, bottom line $$$$$ it's all about the Benjamins ain't it?
you got that right. I was just talking to an older ex-elder the other day, one who is pretty bitter with how he saw things go down. He still clings to the belief that ultimately this is God's organization. Okay, I don't agree, but I'll respect his belief. But he made the comment that the WTBS has become one of the things that it loves to attack - it has become a corporate mega-church.
So despite Russell's wacky beliefs, even if we play devil's advocate here and say that CT Russell & Co. were seeking to distance themselves from what they saw as religious hypocrisy, in the end, the religion they founded became that very thing, more or less.
It is coming to the realization of many who have been in for decades that this is just as it was when it started; a manmade religion. It does not now nor ever had holy spirit, insight or love of the flock.
In only one word.......non-transparency.
Rocky220
I just wanted to comment on the circulation figure for the w. The Public edition states:
" Printing Each Issue: 42,162,000 in 188 Languages.'
No statistics are given for the Study Edition.
However, 42,162,000 is the MONTHLY printing for the w. Yet it is published semi-monthly. Thus the statement in the Public Edition is misleading. During the 2010 SY about 985 million magazines were printed which averages 82 million per month. But g has 39.9 million copies per month. This leaves the 42.1 million for the w.
While a break down is not provided I think it would be fair to say that since there were 7.5 million publishers, and each one of them would get the study edition, and there were 8 million Bible Studies- most if not all of the BS would be given a copy of each magazine- perhaps 15 million are produced of the study edition, leaving 27 million for the public edition. Interestingly the average printing of the w was 28 million per issue before the change to two editions.
So there is a cost savings in printing only 1 g each month and 1 public w for fs, and the study w for jws and studies. rather than 56 million of the w monthly it is now 42 million monthly (and climbing).
So saving money was definatly a reason for publishing 2 seperate editions, as well as already has been posted- controlling the information the public gets about the jws, and being more hardlined in the study edition.
Does anyone else find the way the w gives the circulation figure to be misleading?
Kind of funny how they really seem to believe that they can control the thinking of their members and especially the public by restricting reading materials.
I think it was a $$$-saving decision. Instead of publishing 15-18 millions copies FOUR TIMES per month (2 WT + 2 Awake issues), it has been streamlined to 2 public issues (WT + Awake) with that high volume printing, and 1 issue (WT Study Edition) that only requires 7-8 million copies. That means production was cut from 60 million copies each month to 37 million -- 40% reduction without anyone batting an eye that this was a major scale back in the publishing operation.
Plus the recent change in eliminating the individual publisher order for every issue of the Mags, and using instead the one big order per congregation will dramatically cut back on the quantity of magazines required for each cong. Think how many irregular, inactive, fading pubs there were that felt obligated to have their own personal magazine order for each issue (be it only 3 or 5 or 10) just so look like they were intending to have an active share in the magazine work. No more! They can pick up 1 or 2 copies IF & WHEN they attend a meeting or IF & WHEN they meet for FS. OR, they don't have to EVER pick up any mags for public FS and no one knows if they do or not. No more pressure to "look" like they're placing mags. A CO said many years ago that placements in typical cong only equalled 1/2 of the mags that were delivered to the cong. Where did all those other mags go? I hear they do real well in a wood stove. Or, isn't there a video here about using them to wrap and freeze nightcrawlers??
Paper back books and bibles. Mag production cuts. Real estate sell off. Combining smaller congs together. Merging congs into one KHall. Raising per publisher $$-rate at Assm Halls. Debit/credit card machines for contributions.
There must be some BIG $$$ issues at WTBT$.
Kind of funny how they really seem to believe that they can control the thinking of their members and especially the public by restricting reading materials.
They DO control the thinking of their members. They have absolutely no effect on the public at all, though.
@Desirous OfChange- I agree with you- the wts must be having money problems. And remember, they stopped magazine subscriptions too.
During the 2004 or 2005 SY annual magazine production reached an all time high of 1.2 billion copies. Then, they changed g to monthly, cutting out over 300 million magazines that year. Later, they reduced monthly w production with the study edition. But I believe the figures are closer to the ones I mentioned because each publisher gets all 3 mags, plus, most, if not all , Bible studies get all 3 mags- so 15 million for the study edition leaves 27 million for the public edition each month. It will be interesting to see when the January issues come out with the new circulation figures if the new magazine arrangement was successful in cutting back the demand for magazines. I estimate it will be back up to 1 billion for the 2011 service year which ends August 31.
