BGCT and SBTC both launch new periodicals
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--Both the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention have launched new periodicals within the last two months.
___The BGCT unveiled a glossy magazine called Texas Baptists in early April. It is a successor publication to two previous BGCT magazines that were discontinued, Leadership and Texas Missions.
___The BGCT's new bimonthly magazine will tell the stories of ministries funded through the BGCT and help Texas Baptists "discover ideas and connect with one another in new mission endeavors," according to an introductory column.
___The inaugural issue includes articles on evangelism and prayer, as well as numerous promotions of BGCT-sponsored events. It was mailed to 40,000 church leaders.
___Texas Baptists is not primarily a subscription-based periodical but is mailed to pastors, associate pastors and mission pastors at churches affiliated with the BGCT without charge.
___The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, founded three years ago as a competitor to the BGCT, has launched a new newspaper called the Southern Baptist Texan. The SBTC already publishes a monthly magazine by the same name.
___According to an introductory column in the newspaper, the SBTC will publish both the newspaper and the magazine under the same name, with one mailed near the first of the month and the other mailed at mid-month.
___The SBTC's glossy magazine traditionally has focused on promoting convention events and providing limited news coverage. The newspaper now will carry more of the news content.
___The paper's inaugural issue featured a series of articles on Baptist journalism, including an editorial titled "In Defense of Advocacy Journalism." The series also highlighted the decline in circulation of most state Baptist newspapers over the past 20 years.
___While most of those established papers, including the Baptist Standard, are financed in part by subscriptions, neither of the SBTC's periodicals will be funded by subscriptions. Both are mailed free to about 24,000 people.
___Funding comes through the SBTC's Cooperative Program budget. According to the convention's Book of Reports, the SBTC devotes 12.5 percent of its in-state budget to communications.
___By comparison, the BGCT devotes 1.89 percent of its in-state Cooperative Program budget to communications. If the BGCT funded communications at the same level as the SBTC, the BGCT would spend $5.4 million. Instead, the BGCT allocates $821,077 for communications in its 2002 budget.
___The SBTC, with 1,000 churches and missions, budgets $562 per member church for communications. The BGCT, with 6,000 churches and missions, budgets $137 per member church for communications.
___The Baptist Standard receives no Cooperative Program funding from the BGCT or any other convention. Although a ministry partner with the BGCT, the Standard is financially self-supporting.
___The Standard is mailed to about 130,000 homes weekly.
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