Is the Watchtower hurting financially?

by truthseeker 58 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Jourles

  $1.00 for a set of magazines, $20 for a DVD, $75 for a CD-ROM

  Wasn't the price of the magazines(when we were asking) $0.25 a piece? Have industrial supplies and paper actually gone up that much in the last 10 years? Surely $1 is waaay enough(a little high actually) to cover the actual cost of printing/shipping.

  And $20 for a DVD? It costs less to buy a blockbuster hit on DVD from Best Buy. And you still have to figure in how much of a cut the film studios are getting, actor's cuts, producers, etc. Retailers are still making a profit after everything is paid out. But the Society is asking for the same amount?? Let's see here.....unpaid "actors"; very little cost in making the production; directors, producers, editors, sound, etc. are all free as well as no one asking for royalties from future profits. And of course, there is to be NO COPYING of the DVD and sharing it. Afterall, the Society needs a cut of the profits contributions to keep this fine spiritual food flowing.

  The CDROM is even a bigger joke. They have suggested in the past that pubs pay roughly the same amount that you would fork out for an encyclopedia on CDROM. The CDROM is the big money maker and they know it. Even if some pubs feel that $75 is a little too high for them, they might be willing to drop down and pay $40-50 for it. And this is beginning to be a recurring expense every year! Again, no copies are to be made and given to other pubs. Why not? Easy Money, of course. Gotta milk them for everything they can. The Society has in-house programmers that created the CDROM functionality. Do they get paid for their work? Heh heh, you figure it out.
• 

  blondie

  
  I do believe that the WTS is property rich and cash poor. Just like MJ has been spending more than he has been bringing in, the WTS committed itself to many expensive building projects betting that the cash flow from the congregations that is now drying up.

  1) fewer people going to the meetings

  2) those who go are donating less money

  3) those who are donating tend to give it to the local congregation fund

  4) some congregations are robbing the worldwide fund to pay their mortgage and utilities because

  5) those who are going are donating less money

  6) people dissatisfied with the running of the congregation vote with their pocketbook

  and so on

  I anticipate the WTS will start consolidating Bethelites into fewer buildings and selling property; selling off farm property now that they buy most of the food they use. Patterson is one expensive project with little use; the Gilead classes are not that much bigger and the CDs/DVDs are farmed out to outside companies. It is just one big retirement community, expensive one.

  Blondie
• 

  Sunspot

  
  In my 30 year stint in the WTS army, not ONCE did I ever hear"Bros & Sis---Jehovah is surely blessing us with his gifts and bounty! What a privilege to serve him!"

  Nahh, no matter what the year, all we ever heard is the deficit the WTS has, and how if we love Jehovah---we will honor him with our material things! We must keep OUR eye simple, and be content with sustenance, shelter and clothing. The WTS has always complained and whined about their lack of funds, but their very actions have proven otherwise.

  Always. Without fail!

  Then comes the articles about ALL the blessings (involving scads of $$$$$$$$$$$) that was spent on prime real estate and building projects that would only benefit the GB or Bethelites' housing while they also worked as slaves for the WTS.

  The prices on the CDs, cassette tapes, etc is laughable, considering that each of these items are made from a master and cost them mere pennies to duplicate. They will fall back on the old crap saying that you would pay X amount of $$$ if you bought it at a store----never making mention of the fact that a "business" is IN business to make a profit! Of course you'd expect to pay more!!! Now, the WTS is trying extremely hard NOT to look like a business........and a very profitable business at that! THEY want to appear is though they are struggling to do God's will in imparting this lifesaving information (TM) to its followers at minimal cost. WE all know that the WTS is most definetly a businees that is pocketing and re-spending the sheep's money at a greedy pace. All they care about is making MORE money at the hands of the members and it ain't pretty.

  The WTS is churning these items out so that the JWs will have the information that they need---all covered by them for the cost of printing!! (HAH!) Appearing to be ever so noble while greedily rubbing their hands together, all while running to the bank........is not heartwarming. to me.

  Whichever way they choose to present themselves-----they turn out to be liars and deceivers of the highest caliber. They make me sick.

  Ripping off the sheep is not admirable.

  Annie
• 

  DanTheMan

  Not that I know a lot about these things, but in my amateur analysis they seem to be behaving like an organization that is asset rich but cash poor:

  They stopped subscriptions, switched to paperback for most publications, started using cheaper almost newspaper-like paper for the mags, cut the Awake down to 1x month, sold property, are trying to get permission to build apartments on still-owned property in Brooklyn which likely would result in a financial windfall if they were able to build them using free labor and then a few years later pack Brooklyn B up and move it all upstate, divided up the WTS into a million different corporations so nobody can figure out who to sue, etc.
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  johnny cip

  jourles ; nice to see you back. in 1990 it cost the wt 3-4 cents for each copy of the wt. so let's double the cost for 2005. 6-8 cents a copy. that's paper ink, electric, slave labor and shipping. i get the chinese guy offering me cd for $5 . dvd's for $5 so it costed less than $1 to produce. such items. and every one makes a little. and the wt wants BIG $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ FOR SOME THING THEY PRODUCE FOR LESS THAN ONE DOLLAR. DUH. CAN ANYONE SAY SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JOHN
• 

  GermanXJW

  Maybe we can live to see them publish the Kingdom Ministry only because they cannot afford any further publications...
• 

  RandomTask

  in 1990 it cost the wt 3-4 cents for each copy of the wt

  Wow, and we used to charge $.25 per mag at the door "to cover the cost of printing". Insane.
• 

  Jourles

  Howdy Johnny. I've been here, just hiding is all.

  A couple of months ago I thought this might happen in the future:

  Kingdom Hall for Sale - In larger cities, if the KH is not already being used by 3 or more congregations, think about consolidating the region/area to do so. Dedicated publishers will drive a little extra to be at the meetings. Real estate is where the money is at. KH's, with property, can be sold for $200-300k in most areas. If the money crunch really comes, then do as other religions do - meet in people's homes. Book study groups could remain the same for all meetings. A new meeting format would need to be created if this were to happen. If congregations are instructed to sell off their KH's, then that will be the sign of the end for the WTS.

  Real estate is the last 'saving grace' for the WTS. Once we begin to see KH's start to be sold left and right, it will only be a matter of time. Consolidation of congregations will just be the start. 75 publisher congs will swell to 200+ just to save money.

  With any business, what do you do if you have multiple sales offices that are not producing? You shut them down and make the sales reps travel to a more centralized office. Before long, the sales reps will be working from home telecommuting!
• 

  Sunspot

  Real estate is the last 'saving grace' for the WTS.

  Jourles,

  I agree. Not only "real estate", but the REALLY costly real estate to boot! Not just a couple of acres here and there out in the boondocks somewhere.

  Once we begin to see KH's start to be sold left and right, it will only be a matter of time.

  It certainly seems to be heading that way.

  Consolidation of congregations will just be the start. 75 publisher congs will swell to 200+ just to save money.

  Continuing on with that thought---------can't you just hear the WTS spin doctors boasting that such-and-such a KH used to have 75 members, but NOW LOOK----it has 200!!!!! Jehovah is blessing them!!!

  Annie
• 

  greendawn

  They seem to be making a lot of money selling mags, books, and CD's/DVD's given the data from Johnny, so what do they do with all those profits? They also get donations from the congos and God knows what other investments they have eg stocks and shares, so why are they moaning?