Keeping the Vision Afloat

Several years after we began publishing The Post-American (Sojourners' predecessor), I attended a magazine publishing conference and took a seminar on how to publish a magazine. Since none of us had ever taken a business or journalism course in our lives, it seemed like the right thing to do.

Early in the seminar the leader listed all the things that should be done to start a magazine, such as have lots of start-up capital, hire experienced business and editorial people, charge enough to establish a firm financial foundation, and thoroughly test the marketplace before finally launching the publication. Then he listed steps that should not be taken, which were essentially the opposite of the first list.

I almost laughed out loud. We had done everything wrong. We began with only $700 (pooled from seven of our next year's seminary tuitions); none of us knew anything about publishing; the subscription price on our first issue was: "$2 or whatever you can to help cover our expenses"; and we had no idea what a marketplace was, let alone how to test one.

And yet, having broken the rules, we made it through the first few years and have now managed to survive 20. It is something for which we are deeply thankful, both to God and to everyone who has at one time or another read the magazine and been part of the Sojourners family.

Of course, Sojourners was never intended as a business venture or an editorial enterprise. We had a vision about what it meant to take Jesus seriously in our lives and our world, and we wanted to communicate that vision to others. It was a thrill to know that many other Christians were thinking and feeling many of the same things, as evidenced by the subscription orders and letters of support that we began receiving almost immediately.

We've come a long way since we first published our quarterly tabloid on newsprint and kept our subscription list on 3-by-5 cards in a shoe box under one of our beds. Sometimes I long for the relative business simplicity of those days, but the demands of keeping a non-profit magazine afloat in the 1990s present creative and fulfilling, if sometimes stressful, challenges.

FROM THE BEGINNING our business operations have depended heavily on our readers' support. Advertising and foundation dollars have played only a small role. Sixty-five percent of our income derives from subscriptions (with 50 percent from renewals alone). Another 20 percent comes from individual contributions and pledges beyond the price of a subscription. The remaining 15 percent is split evenly among advertising, list rentals, and product sales. With fully 85 percent of our income coming from you, our readers, we are truly a reader-supported magazine, with subscriptions and donations being our lifeblood.

From 1971 through 1976, our readership grew to around 5,000, with most of our "promotion" coming from friends telling friends telling friends about the magazine. In late 1976 we began sending subscription information to people on many different mailing lists, and our readership skyrocketed to 15,000 in early 1977 and 25,000 by the end of that year. From 1978 to the mid-1980s, our subscriber base grew to just over 50,000.

As the economic situation tightened and the cost of reaching new people with the message of Sojourners increased higher and higher, it became more difficult to add people to the Sojourners family. While the core of our readership remained strong (as evidenced by renewal rates of 70 percent or more), not enough people became new subscribers to replace the numbers who did not renew. Consequently, the magazine began to see a slowly declining subscriber base beginning in the mid-1980s, which has slightly rebounded in 1991.

Recognizing that we face very difficult political and financial odds, we are enthusiastically facing the challenge. The addition of three new talented and experienced business staff people this summer has served to increase our optimism for reaching out again to new people and building a financially more solid future.

As our ecological consciousness has grown over the years, so has the number of steps we have taken to make Sojourners an earth-loving ministry in more than just words. We recycle everything we can in our office (including paper, glass, and metal). Toxic chemicals have been essentially eliminated from our work environment. And much of our lighting is with energy-efficient, long-lasting fluorescent bulbs.

All Sojourners mailings are sent on entirely recycled and recyclable paper. That includes all of our renewals, invoices, and financial appeals as well as all new-subscriber solicitations. In the near future, all of our office stationery and envelopes will be made from recycled, unbleached paper.

And we are now negotiating with our printer and various paper suppliers to print Sojourners magazine on recycled paper, using soy-based (as opposed to petroleum-based) ink. We expect to make that transition by the end of the year.

We rarely have enough money in the bank to cover more than three weeks' worth of expenses. But living on the edge has its rewards. We know upon whom we depend: our God and our readers. And while it would be nicer someday to have a little bit more financial security, we never want to lose that strong and real sense of dependency. We are deeply grateful to be partners with you in this ministry of faith.

Joe Roos was publisher of Sojourners when this article appeared.