On their website, the Soc explains why they are halving the size of the public WT and Awake! magazines:
Beginning in January 2013, Awake! and the public edition of The Watchtower will be reduced from 32 to 16 pages per issue.
Because the magazines will contain less material, translation teams will be able to make them available in more languages. For example, the December 2012 issue of Awake! was translated into 84 languages, and the December 2012 issue of The Watchtower into 195. However, as of January 2013, Awake! is being translated into 98 languages, and The Watchtower into 204.
Month Printing Each Issue Languages
JANUARY 1, 2012 42,182,000 194
DECEMBER 1, 2012 42,182,000 195
JANUARY 1, 2013 44,978,000 204
FEBRUARY 1, 2013 44,978,000 204
MARCH 1, 2013 44,978,000 205
So from Jan to Dec 2012 the printed numbers stayed the same each month, but one more language was added during the year. These magazines had 32 pages.
This means each month during 2012 there were 1,349,824,000 (1.35 billion) WT pages printed for the public to read.
For the first three months of 2013 the monthly printed number has increased, and the number of languages has increased by 10, but the magazines themselves have shrunk to 16 pages.
This means that for 2013, at this rate, there will be 719,648,000 (720 million) WT pages printed for the public to read each month.
This is a monthly reduction of 630,176,000 (630 million) WT pages printed for the public to read every month.
Two questions come to mind:
1. If you can already print 42 million magazines in 195 languages every month, all with 32 pages, why is such a drastic change to 16 pages needed, to increase this by just 2.8 million magazines per month and 10 more languages?
2. How much money is saved by reducing your yearly printing by 7.6 billion pages?
And this is the WT only, not the Awake!
Splash