Ever since the first Baptist periodical was published in Alabama, Baptists have known that trustworthy communications always has a price. Baptists also know that trustworthy communications are essential for them to work together beyond their local church.
Alabama history records several attempts to start a Baptist publication in the 1830s. One historian wrote, “During the early history of Alabama Baptists, each pastor and church worked alone with little sense of fellowship, cooperation and unity.” No common medium provided communication, identity, missions information, theological reflection, religious news and more.
But lack of financial support doomed the first three efforts to start a Baptist paper in the state. That is one reason messengers to the 1836 Alabama Baptist State Convention approved plans to establish a denominational paper and pledged “individual and collective influence in support of the paper.”
When The Alabama Baptist first appeared in 1843, state Baptists declared through a resolution, “It (The Alabama Baptist) is a channel through which the pastors and churches of our denomination communicate with each other; it is a welcome visitor to our families; and we are convinced that if universally introduced among us, it will be an instrument of great power in promotion of the best interest of the denomination and in advancing the cause of Christ at large.”
The convention approved a resolution saying, in part, “that we urgently recommend to the brethren general to make a strenuous effort to place the paper in every Baptist family in the state.”
Much has changed since 1843, but the need for Alabama Baptists to have a trusted source of information remains. And it is still true that trustworthy communications always has a price.
Today The Alabama Baptist has the largest circulation of the state Baptist papers cooperating with the Southern Baptist Convention. Three of the nation’s ecumenical religious communications associations — Associated Church Press, Evangelical Press Association and Religion Communicators Council — have each named The Alabama Baptist the best regional Christian newspaper in America. For the past 10 years, The Alabama Baptist has consistently been judged among the top three regional Christian newspapers in the nation.
Despite the many professional honors garnered by Alabama Baptists’ state paper, circulation of the printed piece has declined over the past 30 years. At its height, circulation neared 140,000. That was in the late 1970s. By 1995, circulation stood at 105,000. Circulation rose to 115,000 by the turn of the century but has steadily declined to its present 93,000 Alabama Baptist families who receive the state Baptist paper each week.
The current economic recession took circulation numbers below the 100,000 mark in 2009. But the changing role of print media in society has been eating away at circulation for a number of years.
Still the essential role of trustworthy communications has not changed. Members of cooperating Baptist churches still need the news and information about what God is doing through Baptists at home and around the world. Otherwise Alabama Baptists end up back in the 1830s, when “each pastor and church worked alone with little sense of fellowship, cooperation and unity.”
That is why the delivery system for the news and information of The Alabama Baptist is expanding. In addition to the weekly print edition, an e-edition is now available, and breaking news stories are immediately posted on our website (www.thealabamabaptist.org). Thousands of readers receive daily updates through Facebook and Twitter.
And like those early days, these new outlets for trustworthy communications still have a price.
In late November 2010, the state Baptist paper premiered its e-edition. The e-edition is an enhanced version of the weekly print edition. Enhancements include videos, slideshows rather than the single photo on the printed page, audio files and links to related stories and ads.
Feedback from the more than 4,500 people who receive the e-edition has been beyond expectation. People like the graphics, the color, the enhancements, and many people prefer receiving the paper digitally rather than in print form.
The Alabama Baptist is still on a learning curve related to the e-edition. Posting it required faster computers to run the new software needed to support the e-edition. Staff members had to learn new programs and add to their workload. But progress is evident from week to week.
During this roll out of the e-edition, it has been made available free to any Baptist who would like to see it. All we need is an e-mail address to notify readers when the new edition is available. Publicity has invited readers to try the “free trial subscription.”
Some people are asking why the e-edition can’t always be free, but just as with the print edition, trustworthy communications always has a price. It costs to collect the news and information. It costs to write and edit the articles. It costs to process all of the information, produce trustworthy news and distribute it to Baptists across the state.
Alabama Baptists recognize the importance of trustworthy communications through Cooperative Program support of the state Baptist paper. But the paper has to earn almost 80 percent of its annual budget through subscriptions, advertising and other revenue sources.
By this summer, when the new delivery system is fully developed, a subscription fee will be applied to the e-edition of The Alabama Baptist. Individual subscriptions will be available as well as church subscriptions similar to the plans used for the print edition. Alabama Baptists can then get their news and information about what God is doing in His world in the traditional print format, the digital format or both formats.
The commitment of the state Baptist paper is to continue being the trusted source of information, inspiration and interpretation it has been for almost 170 years. Whether in print or digital form, we want the paper to continue to be “a welcome visitor” in Baptist homes.
It is hard to improve on what messengers said in 1843. When The Alabama Baptist is placed in the home of every Baptist family in the state, the trustworthy communication it provides will be “an instrument of great power in promotion of the best interest of the denomination and in advancing the cause of Christ at large.”
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