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The Summary

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 20, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 42.

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The Summary

By A. J. S. B.

This report shows a gain of 1,623 in the September sales over the month of August.
During the first nine months of 1910, 301,745 more magazines were sold than during the same months of 1909.
In spite of the return of many student agents to school, 528 more magazines were sold by agents in September than during August.
Accompanying the Watchman report, are the following cheerful words: “You will notice that we have had a fairly good month, notwithstanding some of the student agents have dropped their work and returned to school. The Watchman is doing well, particularly in the matter of new club and subscription orders. We are now inaugurating a vigorous campaign for November and December.”
When all our conferences shall have secured efficient field missionary secretaries to search out, train, and develop magazine agents, the records will show a steady increase in sales each month, instead of the drop which heretofore has so often occurred immediately following each summer’s campaign. Shall we not, as leaders and lay members, unite in a determined effort to bring about this much-desired result?
The September sales by union conferences are shown in the following list: (1) Lake Union, 17,092; (2) Atlantic Union, 15,564; (3) Central Union, 8,822; (4) Pacific Union, 8,706; (5) Northern Union, 7,461; (6) Columbia Union, 6,804; (7) North Pacific Union, 5,672; (8) Southeastern Union, 4,952; (9) Southern Union, 4,758; (10) Southwestern Union, 4,304; (11) Canadian Union, 1,345; (12) Western Canadian Union, 407.
It is encouraging to note that our September sales this year represent 52,110 magazines more than those reported for September, 1909.
The new arrangement in the “Comparative Summary” will enable the reader to compare quickly the sales made during the first nine months of 1910 with those of the corresponding period of last year; also the September sales of this year and last; and again, the comparative sale of each individual magazine during the periods mentioned.
The agents’ sales in the Pacific and Canadian union conferences amounted to 654 more copies in September than August. The other union conferences, however, show losses in agents’ sales, as seen in the following list: (1) Southeastern Union, 521; (2) Southwestern Union, 1,010; (3) North Pacific Union, 1,606; (4) Northern Union, 2,689; (5) Western Canadian Union, 3,262; (6) Southern Union, 3,418; (7) Central Union, 4,367; (8) Atlantic Union, 4,870; (9) Lake Union, 6,297; (10) Columbia Union, 9,084.
The Pacific Union Conference, which reports a gain over last month, has a live union missionary secretary, who spends his entire time in the field, assisting the tract society and field missionary secretaries in the local conferences in the actual training of church-members to become magazine agents. He also helps these secretaries to increase their camp-meeting literature sales. Two of the local conferences in that union maintain an active field missionary secretary, one of them employing also, in addition, an experienced man to give his entire attention to the sale of our periodicals. As one result of the united efforts of these and other missionary leaders, the camp-meeting literature sales in one of the local conferences were increased five hundred per cent, while those in an adjoining conference were the largest ever made at any of our camp-meetings. Best of all, these laborers have succeeded in arousing the home missionary zeal of a large proportion of the church-members in that union conference.
Of our three foreign magazines, issued at College View, Neb., 9,968 more copies were sold in September than August. Each one shows a substantial gain, as follows: Tidens Tecken (Swedish), 4,730; Zeichen der Zeit (German), 3,957; Lys over Landet (Danish), 1,281. Writing of the circulation of these excellent magazines, Brother F. F. Byington, manager of the International Publishing Association, says: “We hope to see a greater circulation of these magazines in the cities. Of the last issue of Tidens Tecken, we sold 1,000 in Chicago and 600 in New York. The largest order for Lys over Landet was for 700 from New York. One order for Zeichen der Zeit, from New York, was for 325 copies. Nearly all of the work that has been done with these magazines up to the present time has been by our foreign people themselves.” Our church missionary secretaries and other English agents for magazines can, by a little effort, circulate these new and attractive magazines among the many foreigners who will be only too glad to purchase and read them. Order samples and a liberal supply of each from your conference tract society.
A. J. S. B.