October, 2009
Dear Friends of Credenda,
I am writing with some exciting news, and a request for help. You do get these letters from us periodically, asking you to support our happy little magazine, and so you may file this letter with all the others. (You do file them, right?) At the same time, because our news is so different this time, this request for help will also be a bit different. In fact, it is so special that I may even take a cue from the fundraising letter techniques of other ministries, and underline some of my key words. That’s so that you might feel an important part of this ministry. Okay, never mind.
So, what’s the deal? We here at Credenda are coming up on the conclusion of our twentieth year of publication. We are extraordinarily grateful for the grace that God has shown to us, and for the support you all have given over the years. When we began publishing in 1989, the world was a different place. That year Emperor Hirohito died, as did Salvador Dali and Ted Bundy. Ronald Reagan left office, and George Bush the First succeeded him. The Iran-Contra trial staggered around drunkenly. The Exxon Valdez ran aground and made a mess. Seinfeld premiered. Barney Frank acknowledged that he had hired a male prostitute as a personal employee, and then fired him for running a sex-for-pay ring out of Frank’s apartment. Ah, those were the days!
The world of publishing—books and magazines both—was also completely different. The old media, as we now like to call it, was still going strong, and now it appears to be on its last legs. In 1989, there was no such thing as on-demand publishing. There was no such thing as a “web presence.” Google didn’t exist to help you search the Internet because, as of yet, as far as the general public was concerned, there was no Internet.
We started our magazine that year as a hard copy newsletter with magazine-like ambitions and shortly after, we became a recognizable magazine. Later, when it became feasible, we established a web presence. Through the years, we have published our magazine in a way that Ben Franklin would have recognized, but we then started to put our “content” on line in a way that would have flummoxed him. But we have now gotten to the point where the economics of this new world of publishing have caught up with us. And so this brings us to the news: we have decided to shift to web publication, with a hard copy presence. Same kind of content, only a lot faster, a lot more frequent, a lot more readers, and not as expensive (fewer dollars spent per reader). But more on this last item later.
Last year, we published three issues of our magazine. Our print runs were about 5,000 each time, and then the Post Office charged us an arm and a leg to get it to you. It costs us about $10,000 an issue to get it into your hands, not to mention a number of weeks consumed, with great fuss and bother. We could put it on line for (virtually) free, and a lot less hassle. But will people read it online?
Well, they most certainly will. Compare the numbers. This last month, 15,615 unique readers visited Blog and Mablog. And we have seen months when even more readers come to the old and crusty Credenda web site. This is just another way of saying that our readers have made the shift for us, and so we have decided to act like we did it on purpose. If they are running you out of town, get out front and make it look like a parade.
I said that we wanted to keep a hard copy presence. We don’t know yet the exact mechanism for doing this, but one idea that is currently floating around the office is to publish an annual “best of” issue. But when the time comes, and we are looking at a finite number of bucks and planning to achieve the maximum amount of bang, we may simply continue to invest where the readers are.
So here is the new line-up. I remain the editor, perched on top of a stack of magazines like Yertle the Turtle. Nate Wilson is now the senior editor, replacing Doug Jones. (And we cannot let this announcement pass by us without thanking Doug for his many years of dedicated service and leadership with the magazine.) Ben Merkle is coming on for this next year as the managing editor. (His job will include yipping at the various writers while nipping at their ankles so that they will produce copy for our new publishing pattern, and do so in a timely fashion.)
And speaking of that “new publishing pattern,” here it is. The web site has been completely redesigned and is almost ready for public viewing. The archival material at the old site will gradually make its way to the new site. The new site will have new content on (at least) a weekly basis, and you will find it on our front page. It should be really easy to navigate.
The only remaining catch is paying for it. As you might imagine, the costs will be significantly less, but we will still need your support. Many thanks to the hundreds of generous donors who have kept us floating (even in times quiet of magazine arrivals). You have prevented this announcement from being an Obituary. But (especially in this economy), things have gotten tighter, and writers, it turns out, have to eat, and they have adorable little children looking up at them with that “Daddy, when’s dinner?” expression. So we decided, new publishing economy notwithstanding, that we would pay our writers. That means we would like you to hunt around on our web site for some kind of cute little “Donate here” icon. Put the cursor on it, and click rapidly about six times. Just kidding. Click there once and do what it says. We remain profoundly grateful for all your generosity, both now and in the past. We are in the process of becoming far more efficient, but we will continue to be dependant on the support of our readers.
Our motto has been semper constans, numquam praedici – always consistent, never predictable. We hope and trust that this move is in that spirit.
Cordially in Christ,
Douglas Wilson, editor-for-life