May 12, 2003
Standard will reduce print issues
this summer, beef up web presence
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___This summer, the Baptist Standard will begin publishing both more frequently and less frequently.
___The newspaper's board of directors has approved a summer trial that will upgrade the Standard's website to a daily news service while moving the print edition toward a biweekly format.
___The changes will run from Memorial Day through Labor Day and then will be evaluated by the board in mid-September.
___The Standard already skips one issue around the Fourth of July each year. This year, from late May through early September, the Standard will not publish six additional issues.
___The issues that are printed, however, will contain additional pages, so that the total content of the paper will not be diminished, said Editor Marv Knox.
___"Postage is our single largest expense in producing the Baptist Standard," he told the board. "That makes reducing the number of issues the most reasonable means of curbing expenditures."
___The summer changes are fueled by two factors, Knox said. The first is the growing success of the Standard's website, www.baptiststandard.com, which currently attracts about 22,000 visitors weekly. The second is the loss of earning power from the newspaper's endowment funds.
"In a sense, we are not moving from a weekly publication to a biweekly but from a weekly to a daily."
___ --Marv Knox
___"The Baptist Standard is the only state Baptist newspaper that receives no Cooperative Program funding from a state Baptist convention," Knox explained. "Other Baptist papers receive as much as $500,000 in annual Cooperative Program funding that we never have had."
___Instead, subscriptions to the Standard have been subsidized through advertising sales and endowment income. The bulk of the endowment originated with the sale of the Standard's property in downtown Dallas in 1975.
___Although the Standard has lost circulation over the last three decades--as have all state Baptist newspapers that are sold on a subscription basis--that is not a contributing factor to the income shortfall, Knox said. "The actual cost of producing and delivering a single newspaper is double what subscribers pay. We lose money on every paper we sell. That is why endowment income is vital."
___"The Standard is not alone in struggling to compensate for lost endowment income," he added. "With the weakened national economy, this is a problem affecting all non-profits. We are fortunate to have fared as well as we have, due in large measure to the prudent policies of the Baptist Foundation of Texas."
___During their recent spring meeting, Standard trustees spent two days discussing ways to trim up to $300,000 from the paper's $3 million annual budget. The bulk of current savings will be realized by the revised summer schedule, Knox reported.
___"While reducing the number of printed issues, the Standard has made a renewed commitment to providing timely news online," he added. "In a sense, we are not moving from a weekly publication to a biweekly but from a weekly to a daily."
___The enhanced Baptist Standard website will provide daily updates of news and features as well as links to a wide variety of religion news on the Internet. The Standard was the first state Baptist newspaper to place all its printed content online with bonus content.
___"We want the Baptist Standard website to become the foremost destination on the web for anyone seeking news and information about Baptist churches, missions and ministries," Knox said.
___The changes in print issues will not impact church newsletters published by the Standard, Knox said. The Standard will continue to publish and mail church newsletters each week.
___Dates of the print issues to be skipped this summer are May 26, June 16, July 7, July 21, Aug. 4, Aug. 18 and Sept. 1.
___
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