The Internet with its websites, instant messaging, forums and e-mail, along with print-on-demand online publishing, has changed the possibilities in how written material is produced and circulated within the community. There is now no need (and this has been the case since the 90s) to incur costs for the following types of written material: ecclesial news, announcements, editorials, and articles. The annual subscription costs for magazines (which are not small, especially for those on a low wage or the unemployed and retired) can be avoided through the simple expedient of publishing online.
Ecclesial news could be posted online in a central place and copied to the news pages of forums (with suitable registration and password access). Archives can be kept online for reference. The same point goes for announcements and adverts of all kinds. In the same way that the ecclesial magazine was a structure of ecclesial life, changing times require a new structure in which the “ecclesial magazine” for whatever fellowship or part of the world is transferred to the Internet and made available on a free basis. For those who are without access to the Internet, local printing on desktop laser printers and circulation of material amongst ecclesial members can meet this need. And, for those who like to retain a traditional format for the magazine, this is also still possible.
The above proposal is a Western perspective and the traditional print magazine is needed in countries where the Internet is not widely available. It is a question of meeting need in the most appropriate way. For those who can and wish to access printed magazines through the Internet, there is no reason why the material should not be freely available online to individuals.
The distribution of traditional magazine content through wireless devices and mobile broadband devices such as e-book readers like the Kindle is the way forward in the next few years (should such years come along). In the same way that a person might have gone to a library or a newsstand, s/he will download the required content to an e-reader. This development is a further reason why the mode of circulation for ecclesial magazines needs to migrate from the printing press to include the Internet.
It is a fact that some, maybe many, like to hold a traditional magazine in their hands (e.g. me; I am blessed to be able to borrow and save the cost). The problem for our point of view is that only an economy of scale makes magazine printing viable; if ecclesial magazines migrate all their content to the Internet, the economic basis for a print equivalent produced and circulated on a monthly basis will be undermined. The way to meet this problem is to reduce the quality of the paper used, the print process, and the type of cover. Another way to meet the problem is to support magazines through the ecclesial donation bag. Another way is to consider the Internet as a revenue stream.
The Internet Portal could be subscription-based. There might be free areas and subscriptions areas. Ecclesias could hold a subscription pass to all areas; individuals could have access to free areas or use their ecclesial subscription pass. Some material could carry a charge, for example, PDFs, presentations, Sunday School material. Classified adverts could carry a fee, and so on.
The decline of one media in favour of another is unavoidable. The management of the decline does not lie in a refusal to embrace the new media. All ecclesial news, announcements and adverts should have a central location on the Internet. This Portal should also contain the content of the other print magazines produced around the world. The decline of print as a medium for magazines should be managed and several management strategies are possible.
First, there may be sufficient demand for a print magazine to justify the exercise of printing. In widening the availability of all magazine content by placing it online, there is no necessary rule which states that print magazines become unviable; it depends on the laws of demand. Secondly, magazine issues can be aggregated and printed to reduce costs. It is a simple fact that aggregating monthly issues into quarterly, half-yearly or annual print copies is cheap using print-on-demand publishing.
This strategy requires a new model in our thinking about the circulation of writing. Ephemeral content like editorials, news, announcements, and adverts do not warrant preservation in print if they are archived online. Collating the more valuable spiritual material into a quarterly, half-yearly or annual book, with proper indexing and a logical structure, satisfies the need for printed reading matter in the community in this area.
The change envisioned is not small; instead of the “ecclesial magazine” people would think of the “ecclesial internet presence”. As a matter of course, most would reference the site for news, announcements, adverts, editorials and articles. From the site it would be possible to link to all ecclesial magazines that are published worldwide and participate in forums; reference individual ecclesial websites, preaching sites, and so on. The site would have archived magazines and e-commerce facilities to facilitate the purchase of print copies of collated collections of issues of magazines.
The mindset and role of an editor change in this scenario. S/he is no longer a writer and editor with an eye on the next book for printing or the next issue for printing. Rather, s/he is an editor of a web presence where only a small part of the job description involves handling the work of supplying copy for printing. The management of a web presence involves work with e-mail, forum management, web design, document preparation and upload, news updates, instant messaging and video conferencing—and, of course, there is the research and writing to be done.
Moving to a free model for the distribution of all magazine content has the obvious benefit of reaching greater numbers and arrests the decline in the circulation of print magazines because it circumvents this problem; it also reaches a new demographic which does not purchase a print magazine but which is active online.
Moving to an online model of distribution also requires a different attitude towards what is written. It is no longer the case that a book is written and it remains unchanged until the print run has been exhausted. Rather, with print-on-demand, a book is a work in progress. It has to be written to a certain standard for initial publication, but once in print, there is no need to regard the text as sacrosanct. It can be changed easily and uploaded as a “new impression” or, if the changes are substantial, a new edition. The quick and easy exchange of peer review of written material that the internet affords allows such change to be made in a timely manner. The same principle applies to articles published online.
There is nothing sacred about the word “monthly”. News, the need for announcements, the urgent requests for prayer, the requirement to advertise—these things happen in real time and not in monthly intervals. The opportunity and the urge to share writing happen in real time and not on the first of the month before the month of publication. Moving to an online basis of publication allows sharing to happen in real time or perhaps weekly. As it is, there is news, adverts and announcements made monthly to some; to others such things happen more immediately through forums such as Facebook, e-mail, blogs and Twitter. Certainly, there is enough foreign news in the Middle East to justify a regular news comment in the appropriate area of the Portal.
Traditional Christadelphian magazine publishing needs to develop in the direction of the internet so that there is holistic approach to the circulation of written material, one where forums, blogs, websites and print-on-demand media are handled together as part of the same editorial enterprise.
The Internet is a medium of equality. Anyone can set up a web presence in the name “Christadelphian”. Anything can be said when there is an arbiter of one. Discussion forums allow the exchange of any opinion around the world. The consequences of speaking out online are usually hidden. As matters stand today, there is no authority in any of the Christadelphian websites. As a result there is (as ever) the presence of false teaching. The way in which the presence of Christadelphians on the web has grown—unstructured, uncontrolled—exacerbates problems of doctrine.
The piecemeal upload of some magazine content to a website that has a domain name matching the name of a magazine does not address the needs of the situation. The ethos that has driven the magazines of the community needs to shift wholesale from the concept of “the next issue of the magazine” to the “day-to-day management of the website content”. The magazine needs to be seen as an adjunct to the Internet presence from the website to the downloaded e-magazine on an e-reader.
Such a shift can only come from the editors and the committees that control the ecclesial magazines. It requires editors to assume an active online presence; it requires agreement by the main magazines to move all their content to the web and make this accessible through a central Portal; it requires good and changing web design; it requires co-operative editing and administration of the various web presences – editors/administrators both young and old.
There are some points to make by way of conclusion. In this new world the concept of what a magazine is and what an editor is changes. One way in which a magazine changes is that limits on content can be lifted. Thus the policy of including only generalist and introductory material with pictures and illustrations can be lifted so that the internet Portal includes material of a more advanced type. The concept of the “single editor” changes since web site management allows and requires cooperative editors for the various types of content. These are major changes, albeit evolutionary if they are strategically managed.
What might be the vision in such a development? The goal is a unity expressed in Eph 4:13-16,
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
As things currently exist the Internet is not being used in a way that fulfils the goals of this passage. Discussion forums toss people around by every wind of doctrine instantly and worldwide; websites can be set up under the name “Christadelphian” and promote contrary views, often derived from church writings, with the aim to promote a “movement” or a cause. Of course, the interplay between the Man, the Woman and the Serpent is not going to go away. But the Man has a responsibility here for teaching, and one way to facilitate and foster the unity required by Eph 4:13-16 in the context of the Internet is to bring the mainstream Christadelphian magazines and discussion forums under one Portal and to migrate all content to that Portal, supported with a shift in the mindset of the editors towards web site management and co-operative editing. This kind of strategy has a unifying effect and it acts as a counterweight to the disunity engendered by the current state of affairs.[1]
[1] [Ironical Footnote: It may appear as if this opinion piece is trying to do the EJournal “out of business”.]
Fellowship with the Maker and Brethren