From Mr. Frank Brown: November mail income from areas served by the Borehamwood office is up 5.3% over November 1983, bringing the year-to-date increase to 8.8%. PLAIN TRUTH circulation is currently 72% higher than November 1983, although it has dropped slightly since October 1984, due to nonrenewals. U.K./Eire circulation now stands at almost 148,000. GOOD NEWS circulation is 8,200 and growing steadily, and is expected to double during 1985, following the direct mail promotion. Growth in the Church is continuing, with a 6.5% increase in members over this time last year.
The visit of Mr. Leon Walker, Spanish Regional Director, Mr. Keith Speaks, Circulation Manager for La PURA VERDAD, and Mr. Roger Lippross, PLAIN TRUTH Production Director, has marked a milestone in the printing of The PLAIN TRUTH in England. With the commencement of the printing of the Spanish edition in Britain, along with the addition of the Caribbean English and Asian English editions, the total print run for January was just over 1.2 million magazines. This run was comprised of the French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Norwegian editions plus four different English editions. To mark the occasion, our printer, Alabaster Passmore, hosted a celebratory lunch, and a toast was made to "the first million" followed by a second toast to "the second million!"
Ambassador Press, originally owned by the Church, was designed and built to our requirements for the specific purpose of printing international editions of The PLAIN TRUTH. The printing presses at Ambassador Press are (unusual for such facilities in Europe) designed to print American size quarto magazines, rather than the European size A4 magazines.
Since its purchase of the plant at the end of 1981, the Passmore Print Group has been investing in the facility, installing new plastic wrap equipment, new pre-press equipment, new high-speed binding equipment and a two-colour web press. Additionally, both four-colour presses have been refurbished. This investment has allowed them to match the very large increase in our print run, which has risen more than four-fold during the last three years. In addition, they are producing the much-increased quantities within the same time period as they did three years ago, which is quite an achievement! All editions are out of the plant within ten working days of the arrival of film from Pasadena. Future plans call for the installation of a much larger press to cope more efficiently and cost effectively with our job.
The reason so much printing is now centralised in the U.K. is three-fold. Firstly, as mentioned, Ambassador Press is ideally equipped to cost effectively produce multiple language editions of The PLAIN TRUTH. Secondly, the British Post Office offers an extremely large variety of different delivery services at reasonable prices, allowing us the option of sending magazines by surface, by an air speeded publisher's service, or by air mail. In addition, the U.K. has excellent air freight and sea freight services all over the world. Finally, in the U.K. over the last 15 years, a great deal of "know how" in managing and controlling publishing operations has been developed, which benefits the non-English editions serviced from the U.K.
Scandinavia: Response rates to recent advertisements in the Norwegian and Danish editions of READER'S DIGEST are very good. The Norwegian edition has pulled 1.26%, while the Danish achieved a noteworthy .80%.
We now have an inventory of 11 Norwegian booklets, with six more due for delivery very soon. We also have the first six lessons of the Bible correspondence course actually being printed at the time of this writing. In 1985, we plan to finish production of the first 12 CC lessons and four more key booklets in Norwegian and then concentrate resources on building circulation.
While in England Mr. Lippross has been finalising plans for the installation of the Bedford system, one of the most advanced electronic typesetting systems in the world. It will link the offices in the U.K., Germany and Holland with Pasadena, revolutionising PLAIN TRUTH typesetting procedures. Everyone here is very excited about this great step forward.
Continent of Europe and Middle East: The growth of the English-language PLAIN TRUTH circulation on the Continent and in the Middle East has seen a lull due to the effects of the renewal programme, but growth is still evident, particularly in the GOOD NEWS and co-worker lists. On the Continent, GOOD NEWS circulation is 2,063, up 13.6% over October 1984, and the number of co-workers is 109, an increase of 0.9%. In the Middle East, GN circulation is 804, up 10.9% over October 1984, while the co-worker list is 40, an increase of 2.6%.
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