Impossible publishing formula?

When WORLD magazine was still a tender four-year-old, and not the mature 10-year-old journal we have just become, a veteran Christian publisher told me it would take a miracle for our fledgling effort to succeed. After running our business plan through their computers, he and his chief financial officer told me-with sincere regrets-that ours was an "Impossible Publishing Formula." Those scary words were scrawled across the manila folder he handed back to me.

I tell you that now, as WORLD starts its second decade, not to prove myself right and my friend wrong. For the fact is that he was right, except for one detail: WORLD has survived. Against the odds, we've managed to publish 373 editions, all but one of them on schedule. The great blizzard of 1993 collapsed the roof of our office building and forced us to skip that week's issue with its special cover story on spring training in baseball. We did a double issue the next week.

But apart from that one detail, my friend was right-and especially so when he told me back in 1990 that the key to WORLD's survival, in the unlikely event it happened, would be the loyalty of its subscribers along the way.

He was right on target. For the ugly secret of magazine publishing is that most people who first subscribe to a magazine don't renew their subscriptions. Just as people are job-hoppers, church-hoppers, school-hoppers, home-hoppers, and mate-hoppers, they are also magazine-hoppers. The key to survival in magazine publishing is to locate up front those people whose identity with your editorial purpose is not just superficial and transient, but deep, abiding, and maybe even passionate. WORLD has been blessed with subscribers who fit that description-and we are thankful.

"Find them, and they'll stick with you," my friend told me. "But it's expensive to find them. You're looking for the needle in the haystack."

As a World reader, it's likely that you're a Christian who takes your faith seriously. You want to apply it to more than your church life and your Sunday activities. You're terribly concerned about the direction of our culture and society. You put great value on God's design for the family. You delight in the glories of God's creation, but get frustrated at the way secular educators, publishers, and entertainers put man at the center of the universe rather than the God who made it. You are a reader, and you pay attention to world affairs, but you get disturbed fairly often-and maybe even angry-at the way the media typically distort their reports.

Meanwhile, WORLD's editorial purpose is to help you respond to all those issues in a thoughtful, intelligent, and knowledgeable way. You don't want to interact with an increasingly secular and even pagan world on the basis of ignorance. You want instead to know accurately what's really going on, what leading Christians are saying about such developments, and what you can do practically to raise the banner of Christ in the midst of his enemies. That's why WORLD magazine was founded in 1986, and that's why we're still here.

But now, in 1996, there are two big reasons WORLD also needs to extend its search and find another 50,000 people who are quite a bit like you.

First, we need to do that because our society and our world desperately need a growing number of Christians who are well- informed, thoughtful, action-oriented, and in touch with each other. Every single week, I meet another handful of people who tell me personally, "Where have you folks been? Why didn't I know about WORLD before? All these years I've needed you, and didn't even know you were there!" If you've had that same experience, you won't find it hard to share my confidence that there must be another 50,000 Christians (or perhaps even 250,000) who would be more effective in their regular witness and action if they were reading WORLD every week.

The second reason we need to double our reader base is financial. If we were content to stay small and were willing to sit quietly in our corner until the end of time, we could probably balance our budget right now without gifts. But we must grow-and we simply lack the capital to do that. Our board believes we need about $1 million to grow over the next year to the point where we can have a serious national impact, and where we could also engage in regular extensive marketing without additional cash infusion.

Three of our board members have given $130,000 of their own money to launch this million-dollar effort. Now they join me in asking you to send us your own gift to extend the search for 50,000 more readers like you. A return envelope is bound into this issue of WORLD for your convenience.

We need a few people to give with the same enthusiasm as our three board members. We need 25 people who will give in the $5,000-25,000 range. We need 100 people to give $1,000 each. And we need 1,000 of you people to give $100 each.

But I will be grateful for every single gift, no matter what the size- for it will be a reminder to me that God has indeed brought you and us together in an unusual relationship that not many magazines enjoy with their readers. With your gift, would you mind telling me personally something of your special interest?