Joblessness Hits the Pulpit

A current article in the Wall Street Journal details the wave of layoffs as many churches react to the current economy. This is a short excerpt--to read the entire article click here.

Joblessness Hits the Pulpit

When Tim Ryan was called to an urgent meeting last year to discuss his duties as children's minister at West Shore Evangelical Free Church, he knew something was amiss.

"This is really hard. I don't know how I can do this," said executive pastor John Nesbitt, who helps lead the 2,500 attendee megachurch in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

The church, part of the Evangelical Free Church of America, had been growing rapidly but giving was down and well below projections as the recession weighed on members. So Mr. Ryan was losing his job, as was another pastor.

While the economy appears to be recovering from the worst downturn in generations, more clergy are facing unemployment as churches continue to struggle with drops in donations. In 2009, the government counted about 5,000 clergy looking for jobs, up from 3,000 in 2007 and 2,000 in 2005.

Church staff are feeling the pinch, too. In an October survey, about one in five members of the interdenominational 3,000-member National Association of Church Business Administration said they had laid off staff amid the recession.

Read It If You Can!

I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Azanmig huh?

One Newspaper That's Making It

Here's a really interesting look at a newspaper that is "making it." Note--the paper has no website! Enjoy.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/05/17/foreman.newspaper.thrives.cnn?hpt=Mid

Good News for Magazine Publishers

From MediaWeek:

Magazine Subscribers Still Attracted to Print, Poll
May 11, 2010

-By Mark Doliver, Adweek

Amid print media's many struggles, polling by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council finds people who subscribe to magazines are loyal to the medium, and in no hurry to ditch print magazines in favor of online versions.

And these people are scarcely technophobes, though, as many of them say magazine ads lead them to advertisers' Web sites.

Conducted in March and April among adults who subscribe to at least one magazine, the poll found 92 percent of respondents saying they receive print editions of magazines to which they subscribe. Nearly as many, 90 percent, said print is the format they prefer. Just 24 percent said they expect eventually to switch to an e-reader for their magazine consumption.

Indicating the role print publications now play in steering people to the Internet, though, 48 percent of respondents answered affirmatively when asked whether they "go online to find more information about the advertisements in your printed magazines." A somewhat larger number of them, 63 percent, said they'd do so "if the advertising in your printed subscription magazines was customized."

For all their engagement with magazines, subscribers don't necessarily feel magazines requite their interest. One question in the survey asked respondents for an indication of whether their favorite magazine "knows you well as a subscriber." While 43 percent agreed that they "receive a steady relevant contact and information from the publisher, via multiple channels," 57 percent chose the contrary statement, "No, the only personalized information my subscription publication uses is my address."

And while some publishers may feel they spend an ungodly amount of money on researching their readers, 70 percent of respondents said they have never "been surveyed about the content you want to read in your favorite magazine." That's a pity, as 78 percent said they'd "be more inclined to resubscribe to a publication that has tailored its content and information to your personal preferences."

Oh the Irony!

Another Article Accepted

Congratulations to Sarah Kraus, who sent along this note:

Hello Professor White!
I just heard from another magazine (G4T Ink) that I had queried when in the Writing for Publication class and they said that they would like to publish my article. I thought that was exciting and wanted to let you know.
Sarah Kraus

Chronicle Wins Top Newspaper Award

A tweet from the EPA convention, just now concluded. What a thrill!

Lamar Keener: Our Minnesota Christian Chronicle won the highest award for Newspaper of the Year in both the Evangelical Press Association and Fellowship of Christian Newspapers.

Our christianexaminer.com website won second place for best Web site, losing by a mere one point to Plugged In Online (Focus on the Family). Christianity Today Online was third.I am very proud of my wife for her award-winning effort.

Want to Buy a Newspaper?

Unification Church will put Washington Times up for sale

By Ian Shapira
Washington Post Staff Writer

Washington Times executives are negotiating to sell the newspaper, after the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's family cut off most of the annual subsidy of about $35 million that has kept the Unification Church-backed paper afloat, company officials said.

Nicholas Chiaia, a member of the paper's two-man board of directors and president of the church-supported United Press International wire service, confirmed that the paper is actively on the market: "We recently entered into discussions with a number of parties interested in either purchasing or partnering with the Washington Times," he said in a statement to The Washington Post.

Current and former Times officials said one suitor has been the paper's former executive editor, John Solomon, who resigned in November 2009. Soon thereafter, they said, Solomon organized a group of investors to purchase the Times or launch a new multimedia outlet called The Washington Guardian. Times company officials said they are also in discussions with other potential investors.

Solomon, a former Washington Post reporter, declined to comment.

The negotiations follow months of turmoil at both the 28-year-old conservative daily and the business empire founded by Moon, 90, whose children are jostling for control over the church's myriad enterprises, which range from fisheries to arms manufacturing.

One of Moon's children, Justin Moon, who was chosen by his father to run many of the church's Asian businesses, has slashed the newspaper's annual subsidy, forcing the paper's executives, led by Moon's eldest son, Preston Moon, to search for deep pockets elsewhere. Meanwhile, the newspaper has hacked its newsroom staff by more than half, from 225 in 2002 down to about 70 people, raised the paper's price and deliberately shrunk its circulation to cut costs, shed its metro and sports sections, and fired or pushed out several top executives, including its publisher earlier this week. Several reporters said most of the staffers are seeking to leave.

The finances are so tight that the newspaper hasn't paid some of its bills or tended to basic maintenance issues -- such as hiring an exterminator to deal with mice and snakes sneaking into the building on New York Avenue in Northeast.

"The feeling everyone feels is that it's a totally rudderless ship," said Julia Duin, the paper's longtime religion reporter. "Nobody knows who's running it. Is it the board of directors? We don't know. There was a three-foot-long black snake in the main conference room the other day. We have snakes in the newsroom -- the real live variety, at least. One of the security people gallantly removed it."