Magazine Summary by A. J. S. B.

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

Magazine Summary

By A. J. S. B.

THIS summary shows the largest January sale of our ten-cent magazines on record—122,202 copies. This is 21,308 copies in excess of last month, a gain of 32,740 copies over January, 1910, and 51,108 copies over January, 1909.

THE statistics presented herewith represent only the sale of our ten-cent magazines, and by agents only, in the union and local conferences. Thousands of our missionary and smaller periodicals are handled by our conferences each month, no record of which appears. The ten-cent magazines going to subscribers within these conferences, are listed in a lump sum at the end of this report.

By subtracting the subscription and foreign sales from the total amount, it will be seen that 75,263 of the 122,202 magazines were actually sold by our agents,—a gain of 953 copies over the 74,310 copies sold by agents during December, 1910. Nearly every publishing-house reports an unprecedented increase in the number of subscriptions received for the various magazines. Many of these subscriptions, of course, were taken by our agents.

FOLLOWING is a list of the union conferences showing gains over last month: (1) Pacific Union, 2,368; (2) Lake Union, 2,345; (3) North Pacific Union, 2,308; (4) Southeastern Union, 1,502; (5) Atlantic Union, 1,165; (6) Southwestern Union, 457. The following show losses: (7) Western Canadian Union, 199; (8) Northern Union, 332; (9) Southern Union, 879; (10) Canadian Union, 1,771; (11) Central Union, 2,240; (12) Columbia Union, 3,791.

SIX of the union conferences also show a gain when compared with the sales record of January, 1910, in the order named: (1) Atlantic Union, 3,272; (2) Southeastern Union, 1,809; (3) Northern Union, 1,466; (4) Western Canadian Union, 1,449; (5) Southwestern Union, 448; (6) Canadian Union, 9. The following show losses: (7) Lake Union, 15; (8) Central Union, 246; (9) Southern Union, 706; (10) North Pacific Union, 1,794; (11) Pacific Union, 2,257; (12) Columbia Union, 2,798. The Atlantic, Southeastern, and Southwestern union conferences show gains in comparison with both last month's and last January's records.

ALL will watch with interest the growth of the 1911 record in our “Comparative Summary” at the end of each month's report. To harmonize with the records of the two years past, the February report should show a distinct gain over the splendid January record, and a steady increase should appear in the figures up to and including July. To make this desirable result possible will require a keen sense of personal responsibility on the part of all for the record that shall be made by each local and union conference during the next few months. During 1910, the Northern California Conference (only one of our sixty-nine local conferences and missions in the twelve union conferences) sold 152,150 ten-cent magazines, or over one twelfth of the 1,703,187 copies sold in America. Among the causes that will contribute to the still greater success of the magazine work are, the opening of city missions and the consequent call for magazine workers and Bible workers; an increasing number of REVIEW readers; the appointment of live librarians in the churches, and of field missionary secretaries in the conferences, to foster, develop, and train agents; and a general revival of the home missionary spirit in the churches.

A. J. S. B.