In early December I sent the Editor of the Recorder a letter outlining some of the anxieties that many Methodists have about our denominational newspaper's future. Normally a commercial organisation would be anxious to assure staff and customers of their solvency. My letter would have offered such an opportunity. But I forgot. In British Methodism our betters always know better. I had absolutely no right to dare to ask such questions.
My letter remains unpublished in the Recorder. Just a few years ago that would have been the end of the matter. Internal Methodist debate could so easily be stifled. Not any more. Here is my letter, now easy to find on the web but unchallenged by the Methodist Recorder management:
18 November 2011
Dear Editor,
This week’s edition of the Methodist Recorder saw a short article about the closure of The Baptist Times opposite a display advertisement inviting readers to celebrate the Recorder’s 150 year anniversary.
Methodists reading the story about the demise of the The Baptist Times will doubtless ask whether our own denomination newspaper will soon face the same fate. This will be a heavy blow. The Recorder plays an important part in the life and witness of the denomination, even if there are quibbles about content and speed. Whilst the Recorder is run by an entirely independent company, every Methodist is a stakeholder.
According to the Recorder’s website it enjoys a circulation of 22,000 and a readership of 100,000. Those figures were posted at least six years ago. As the newspaper withdrew from the independent Audit Bureau of Circulation in 1991 we have to accept that the Recorder has – unlike the rest of the printed media - maintained its circulation. However, every Methodist knows that the claimed readership of 100,000 is just plain daft.
Like the Baptist Times the Recorder has seen advertising revenues fall. Major advertisers such as Action for Children (previously the National Children’s Home) withdrew long ago. Where there used to be two of three pages of “situations vacant” there is now barely one. Even the number of churches advertising Sunday services has steadily declined. In fact the biggest advertiser in the Methodist Recorder is the Methodist Recorder itself!
Meanwhile there are legitimate questions about the long term financial stability of the Methodist Recorder and its pension fund. Much has been made in the past of the fact that the Recorder owns its own freehold premises in central London. This ceased to be the case in January of this year when the building was mortgaged to the staff’s pension fund. Even the most benign pension fund managers will be obliged, at some point, to insist that its property is used to its full potential, I gather they have a legal obligation to do so. How long before the Recorder is homeless? With respect I don’t recall the Recorder even covering this significant story about its own future.
The way in which each of us receives news is changing rapidly. There is now a far greater reliance on the internet. Sadly the Recorder just hasn’t been able to reflect these changes. Worse still – let me say this as gently as possible – the paper’s website is an embarrassment. There are out of date telephone numbers on every page, dead pages, many broken links, and an entry for Action for Children sends readers to a commercial dentist in Nottingham! The whole thing is a shambles and does no justice to the newspaper or the wider denomination.
However there are things happening both in the wider Christian church and our own denomination that can point to a new future. The connexional team has embraced new technology and social media. They are now providing up to date news as it becomes available. These stories are then repeated on blogs, facebook pages, twitter and other social media.
We no longer have to wait two or three weeks for the Recorder to get round to carrying the story and then another fortnight to read comments on the letter’s page.
My estimate is that at least 2,000 Methodists, many of them in the “lost generation” are active on the various Methodist social media channels. The big communications story of the 2010 Methodist Conference was the success of the twitter feed. But it wasn’t led or sponsored by our own newspaper!
The websites of other denominations manage to provide a news service, sometimes on a subscription basis, and still maintain a printed edition. It can be certain that they are struggling and the closure of The Baptist Times shows that they are not always successful. But at least they are trying to come to grips with a new age.
By all means celebrate 150 years of publication. However it is all about looking back to a cosy and predictable past. Now tell us honestly and hopefully with enthusiasm about the independent Methodist news service that will be available in the years ahead.
Yours,
