The Summary by A. J. S. B.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 23, 1910

The Summary

By A. J. S. B.

The Columbia Union and the South-eastern union conferences show a substantial increase in their May sales.

Now that our schools are all closed, many of the students will be selling our magazines to earn their scholarships. Their efforts will doubtless mean a large increase in the next summary of magazine sales.

The Kansas City branch of the Pacific Press Publishing Association handles 2,500 copies of the Signs Monthly on consignment each month. This enables the tract societies in that territory to be served very promptly.

We regret to report 16,131 fewer magazines sold during May than during the previous month. This is accounted for by a heavy fluctuation in our “miscellaneous” column; also by the losses reported in ten of the twelve union conferences.

This summary completes our report for twelve months. The sale of 1,688,827 magazines during that time means an average of 140,136 copies a month, — a high average indeed for the year. It should be remembered that this does not by any means represent the total sale of periodicals by the denomination. Thousands of unreported sales are made each month, both at home and abroad.

The apparent drop in the sale of the Watchman is explained by the fact that through a misunderstanding the publishers reported the total number of copies sold during the month of April, instead of the total sale of the April edition, which would have been about nineteen thousand instead of 26,325 copies. That is to say, practically 7,000 of the May number were ordered and sold during the month of April.

The development of our magazine work outside of America is again demonstrated by the report from our West Caribbean Conference, located in the Canal Zone. In a letter dated June 2, Brother C. F. Innis, the field missionary agent, says: “At present every town and camp on the Isthmus of Panama is being reached by our canvassers. Last month this conference used 2,600 copies of the Caribbean Watchman and 860 of El Centinela de la Verdad. We expect to increase these amounts each month.” He states that their list of canvassers is now twenty-four, as against sixteen during the month of April.

A. J. S. B.