Mennonite Weekly Review

Some still call newspapers a “daily miracle,” but these days it’s miraculous when they just stay in business. Publications of all kinds, daily newspapers most of all, are fighting for their lives. Blows economic and cultural have knocked some out and left the rest reeling.

In a sour economy, advertising revenue has tanked, down 30 percent in the first quarter of this year at some major papers. In the electronic revolution, print circulation is sinking as readers migrate to free online content rather than paying for ink on paper.

From big-city dailies to small-church magazines, the print media crisis has claimed casualties and forced drastic measures. Denver’s Rocky Mountain News closed this year. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped printing but stayed alive with a skeleton crew on the Web. The Chicago Tribune and Philadelphia Inquirer are owned by bankrupt companies. The Christian Science Monitor ended its century-old daily newspaper, switching to weekly on paper and daily online. National Catholic Reporter cut its print frequency from 42 issues a year to 24. Across the country, newsroom staffs and the papers they produce are shrinking.

On the Mennonite scene, this week we write the obituaries of two magazines, With and OurFaith Digest. Both primarily served Mennonite Church USA. With had a 41-year run as a faith-building resource for high school youth. OurFaith was published for eight years, first as an independent quarterly and then owned by The Mennonite, MC USA’s denominational magazine. OurFaith sought to reach “every home” through distribution in bulk to churches. It briefly clung to life on the Web after ceasing to print earlier this year.

Last year Mennonite Life, a quarterly journal of history and culture produced by Bethel College, ended after 62 years, the last several of which were online only.

The church is poorer without each of these publications’ unique and valuable voices.

Mennonite Weekly Review is hurting too, especially due to a decline in advertising. Subscription income is down so far this year, but readers’ loyalty continues to impress: Average paid circulation last year was 10,085, virtually the same as 15 years ago. We’ve cut costs where possible, switching to cheaper paper and adopting a 48-issue schedule (we think that’s close enough to “weekly” to be worthy of the name). Unfortunately, another postal rate hike in May — more than the 2-cent increase in the first-class stamp — is taking away about two-thirds of the savings from using cheaper paper.

We regretted having to raise the subscription price by $2 this spring. But with the drop in advertising, it was necessary to make up part of the difference. While some dailies get 80 percent of their revenue from ads, MWR historically has gotten about 75 percent from subscriptions. Subscribers are the paper’s lifeblood, and we are grateful for each one. Building circulation remains the key to keeping an independent, nonprofit newspaper financially sustainable.

On this Web site we ask readers to consider contributing to the expense of maintaining and improving MWR’s online presence. It’s like public television or National Public Radio — you can get it for free, but we ask those who use it to help cover the cost.

We’ve improved the Web site in the past year, expanding the content and adding new features such as the opportunity to comment on articles — an addition that’s worth checking out even if you mainly read the print edition.

Serving the needs of all readers — those who prefer print, those who read only online, and those who like some of both — will remain essential for years to come.

It won’t take a miracle to keep this 87-year-old media ministry strong. All it needs is a lot of people who love the church and appreciate independent journalism, whether on paper or in pixels.