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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER 23, 1983
FROM MINISTERIAL SERVICES
International News
Update From the British Isles The current U.K. advertising campaign is off
to a fine start with 23,315 new subscribers added to the subscription list.
The December READER'S DIGEST carried an impressive double-page advertise
ment written by Mr. Armstrong, designed especially with the British public
in mind. This ad features a return card in the form of a perforated flap on
the back cover. As of December 15th, 8,861 replies have been received,
representing 0.6% of the circulation. Replies are expected to continue to
come in over several weeks.
On December 4th, a similar full-page advertisement appeared in the SUNDAY
TIMES colour supplement. The SUNDAY TIMES is a prestigious weekend pub
lication with a circulation of 1.3 million and an estimated readership of
over four million. The ad featured a special touch-glued response card,
and already 10,675 cards have been returned.
This represents a O.8%
response rate and cards are still pouring in.
The same ad appeared in the Sunday OBSERVER colour supplement the previous
week, but due to industrial action by printers not all the magazines were
distributed. The good news is that we will be required to pay only a frac
tion of the full price of the advertisement, although we have already
received a 0.5% response. We now have the opportunity to run the same
advertisement in the OBSERVER again in a few weeks!
Present plans call for newsstand distribution in the United Kingdom and
Eire to be increased from the current total of 75,000 to 80,000 with the
January issue, and then to 100,000 in March.
Outlets are now open in
London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. Bristol and Liverpool
outlets will be opened in January, and plans are being laid to extend to
Newcastle and Dublin in the near future. The subscription request card in
the newsstand copies is drawing close to a three percent response,
currently adding around 2,250 new subscribers to the list every month.
The newsstand program is also increasing public awareness of the magazine.
It is displayed in areas of high traffic (e.g. London Underground train
system) with the result that thousands of people are exposed to the name
even if they do not stop to read it. Ministers have commented that once a
newsstand program is set up in a city, visit requests increase signifi
cantly, even though the requesters are not necessarily newsstand readers.
It is encouraging to find that people are becoming less skeptical of the
Church as the magazine becomes more familiar.
Income in the U.K. is up 17% over 1982 for the year to date, which is a very
encouraging figure, especially in a time of economic recession.
Tapes on Marriage Roles Appreciated
Many members have written thank you letters for the recent sermon tapes on
the roles of husbands and wives by Messrs. Kelly and Albert. They found the
teaching eye-opening, inspiring and personally helpful and expressed the
desire for more information of this type.
Following are some of their
comments.