CP — Vital to The Alabama Baptist

CP — Vital to The Alabama Baptist

When you pick up your weekly copy of The Alabama Baptist, do you ever think about the cost of getting the state Baptist paper into your hands? Most people do not. For most, the state Baptist paper kind of magically appears.

But publishing 110,000 copies of the state Baptist paper 50 weeks each year costs money, a lot of money. Recent years have seen spiraling increases in paper costs. Everyone knows the dramatic increases in postage during the past decade. And employees of The Alabama Baptist face the same costs for medical insurance and other such items as everyone else.

When all of that is added together for 2004 it costs about 40.5 cents per copy to publish The Ala­bama Baptist. Where does the money come from to pay all of these expenses?

The lion’s share comes from subscriptions, which pay almost half that cost. The $10 per year subscription charge through the church budget plan furnishes 20 cents a week toward the total cost of production.

That 20 cents a week almost pays the weekly costs of printing and mailing the state Baptist paper. For the first nine months of this year, printing and mailing costs averaged $23,000 a week. Subscriptions provided $22,000 a week.

Regular readers of The Alabama Baptist know that advertising has increased during the last two years. In fact, advertising has grown by 30 percent during that time. To keep from losing editorial space to advertising, the number of pages per issue was increased from 16 to 20. That produced more space for articles even though the percentage of the paper devoted to advertising increased.

Economically, the growth in advertising paid for the extra four pages and contributed an increased amount to pay for publishing each issue. Advertising now pays about seven cents of the 40.5 cents it costs to publish a single copy of The Alabama Baptist.

Local church editions are a popular service provided by the state Baptist paper. Local church editions allow the news of a church to be printed on the outside page of the state Baptist paper and mailed to the families of that congregation. Some churches use two pages for their local information. A few publish four pages, which are wrapped around the state Baptist paper.

A local church edition is the most economical way for a church to share its news and information in written form with its members. By combining local information with state, national and world news, higher readership is also achieved.

This service was designed to break even financially, which it continues to do. The local church edition service provides about 3 cents toward each issue, which just about offsets its cost.

During its more than 160-year history, The Alabama Baptist has acquired a small operating reserve. Most of these funds are earmarked to cover emergency operating expenses and depreciation of the paper’s building and equipment. These reserves earn interest, and the board of directors has specified that a certain amount go back into the operation of the state Baptist paper in order to keep costs down.
Interest income provides about 2 cents a copy.

All the income The Alabama Baptist can produce fails to cover the 40.5 cents per copy it costs to publish the state Baptist paper. That is where the Cooperative Program comes in. Each year The Alabama Baptist receives an appropriation from the budget of the Alabama Baptist State Convention. This year that amount is $557,753 from the state Cooperative Program budget.

The Cooperative Program provides almost 10 cents toward the cost of publishing a single copy of The Alabama Baptist. That means the Cooperative Program provides nearly 25 percent of the state Baptist paper’s total budget. No other Alabama Baptist State Convention entity is more dependent on the Cooperative Program than the state Baptist paper.

Alabama Baptists see their Cooperative Program allocation to the state Baptist paper as an investment in the general welfare of the state convention. The Alabama Baptist provides news and information about what God is doing in and through Alabama Baptists in the state and around the world. The state Baptist paper is a reliable source of trusted information. It provides God-honoring, award-winning journalism. Each week more than 70 percent of its editorial space is devoted to Alabama-related stories.

The state Baptist paper provides a common base of trusted information that allows Alabama Baptists to work together in evangelism, missions, ministry, education and discipleship.

The Cooperative Program plays a vital role in keeping the ministries of The Alabama Baptist — information, inspiration, interpretation and involvement — available to all Alabama Baptists at an affordable cost.

All of us associated with the state Baptist paper say, “Thank you, Alabama Baptists,” for your support through the Cooperative Program. Because of this vital financial support through the Cooperative Program, we are pleased to announce that there will be no increase in the subscription costs of the state Baptist paper in 2005.