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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 23, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 12.

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News and Notes

By A. J. S. B.

THE Internationale Traktatgesellschaft (International Tract Society), our publishing-house in Hamburg, Germany, issues seventeen papers and magazines in the following ten languages: German, Russian, Dutch, Hungarian, Bohemian, Rumanian, Lettonian, Esthonian, Servian, and Polish. Their combined circulation during the year 1910 was 2,545,675 copies.
BROTHER G. C. HOSKIN, formerly secretary of the Iowa Tract Society, recently connected with the Pacific Press periodical department. Speaking of the circulation of the March Signs Monthly, he writes, under date of March 1: “This number is beating them all. Of the regular twenty-five-thousand edition, we now have only five thousand left on the first day of the month, which means that under ordinary circumstances the edition will be gone inside of a week or ten days.”
OUR three missionary periodicals having the largest circulation are the following: Herold der Wahrheit, our eight-page, fortnightly German paper, with an annual circulation of 1,722,550 copies (an average edition of 70,000); Present Truth, our British sixteen-page weekly, with an annual circulation approximating 1,000,000 copies; the Signs of the Times weekly, our well-known sixteen-page pioneer missionary paper, with an annual circulation of 885,875 copies. The combined annual circulation of the three is 3,608,425 copies.
OUR denomination now publishes 126 periodicals and magazines. The latest to be added to the list is El Hogar (The Home), a twelve-page monthly published at Lima, Peru. The pages are of the same size as those of the REVIEW.
THE following incident, related by the father of a thirteen-year-old boy, is of more than ordinary interest: “My youngest boy, Clarence, sold six hundred copies of Life and Health last summer in forty hours. My last order for two hundred copies for him was half sold during the first day of his Christmas vacation.” This boy’s sale of six hundred copies thus averaged him a profit of ninety cents an hour. During his first day’s vacation, he sold one hundred copies, making a profit of six dollars. Many other thirteen-year-old boys could do as well. Write for sample copies, and instructions to agents. Then teach your boy or girl to engage in this helpful, self-supporting profitable missionary work with our magazines. Address your conference tract society secretary. Do so to-day.
BROTHER R. HOOK, JR., manager of the Southern Publishing Association, sends the following interesting item concerning the influence of the Watchman: “We have just received a special-delivery letter from a man in the eastern part of Kentucky, reading as follows: ‘In the February Watchman was an article on “The World’s Unrest,” signed c. p. b. I suppose it was written by your Mr. C. P. Bollman. As I have been studying along this line for some time myself, I should like to talk with him personally. Could I see him if I should come to your city Thursday, or any day after it this week? Telegraph me, upon receipt of this, what day to come.’ Surely the Watchman must have merit when people feel interested enough to make a four-hundred-mile trip in order to study more fully the truths which we believe. Truly the work with our periodicals is missionary work indeed.”
“ONE day last week,” writes an agent for the Signs Monthly, “I sold forty-five copies of the Signs in three hours in the following way: I went into one office about noon, where nearly a hundred clerks were working. In the rear of the office is a dining-room, where they all take lunch. I took my stand before the door of the dining-room and talked to the men as they came out, selling in this way eighteen copies in twenty-five minutes. I then went quickly across the street, into another office, and sold twelve copies in the same way. I ran over to a third place; but it was then one o’clock, and the men had already begun to work. Going to the foreman, I sold him one paper, and asked the privilege of talking to the men. He said, ‘Go on, and sell all you can.’ The first man I talked to was a visitor, watching the men at work. He took one copy, and gave me ten cents. I thanked him and went to the next man, but the first gentleman called me back, and, having paid me ten cents each for every copy I had, said: ‘Now, go through the factory, and give your magazines to the men.’ It took me about ten minutes to do this, after which I went home, rejoicing and praising the Lord for his goodness to me.”
A. J. S. B.

The Magazine Summary

THE sales reported in each local and union conference represent only the sales of our ten-cent magazines by agents.
THE Watchman sales during February show a gain of 3,536 copies over those for the previous month, 2,655 of which represent the gain in agents’ sales.
WE are pleased to report that the Signs Monthly sales during February were 4,043 in excess of those for the previous month, the agents’ sales showing an increase of 3,125 copies.
THE heavy drop this month is largely accounted for by the unprecedented January sale of 46,939 magazines through subscription lists and abroad, as compared with 30,404 during February.
THE comparative summary at the close of our report shows that during the past twenty-six months, 3,372,033 of these ten-cent magazines have been sold, an average of 129,694 copies for each of the twenty-six months.
DURING February our agents sold 68,830 magazines, as compared with 75,263 in January—a loss of 6,433. This, added to the 16,535 loss in foreign and subscription sales, accounts for the 22,068 loss, as compared with last month.
OUR next summary will contain the first report of the Temperance Instructor sales since those reported for August, 1910. Of the 1909 edition, 110,000 copies were sold; of the 1910 special, 210,000 copies. The improved appearance and superior contents of the 1911 edition, just out, demand that we shall give it a total circulation of not less than 500,000 copies.
THE Southeastern, Southern Canadian, and Western Canadian union conferences show gains in comparison with both last month’s and last February’s records. The following show gains over last month: (1) Southeastern Union, 1,353; (2) Central Union, 1,185; (3) Canadian Union, 1,061; (4) Southern Union, 791; (5) Western Canadian Union, 191; (6) North Pacific Union, 16. The following show losses: (7) Northern Union, 519; (8) Lake Union, 544; (9) Columbia Union, 685; (10) Southwestern Union, 1,123; (11) Atlantic Union, 2,963; (12) Pacific Union, 5,306.
FOLLOWING is a list of the union conferences, showing the sales by agents, also the average sale for each member: (1) Southeastern Union, 6,847, or 3 3-10 copies a member; (2) Southern Union, 4,065, or 2 3-10 a member; (3) Atlantic Union, 9,258, or 1 3-4 a member; (4) Western Canadian, 2,005, or 1 5-8 a member; (5) Canadian Union, 1,615, or 1 5-8 a member; (6) Columbia Union, 8,679, or 1 1-4 a member; (7) Northern Union, 6,900, or 1 1-10 a member; (8) North Pacific Union, 5,314, or 5-6 of a copy a member; (9) Central Union, 7,166, or 7-10 of a copy a member; (10) Southwestern Union, 3,388, or 2-3 of a copy a member; (11) Lake Union, 8,537, or 2-3 of a copy a member; (12) Pacific Union, 5,056, or 5-8 of a copy a member. These figures are based on the latest membership statistics of the denomination, and though expressed in fractions, are approximately correct. Speaking in round numbers, our 67,336 members in the United States and Canada circulated nearly one and one-half copies each during February. Last July,however, the month’s average was nearly 3 1-3 copies a member. What are you doing to increase the average sale of our ten-cent magazines in your conference?
A. J. S. B.