Beginning at the start of the new year, the Religious Herald will publish on a bi-weekly schedule. Joining such other old-line Baptist state papers as North Carolina's Biblical Recorder, South Carolina's Baptist Courier, Georgia's Christian Index, Arkansas' Baptist News, Missouri's Word and Way and Texas' Baptist Standard in publishing biweekly will enable the staff to devote more time and attention to the web site, www.religiousherald.org.
“Across the media industry, newspapers are having to redefine their purpose. Those who see their purpose as delivering a newspaper to subscribers are in for hard times as subscriptions across the nation drop,” said Religious Herald editor and business manager Jim White. “We define our purpose as telling to Virginia Baptists the story of what God is doing in and through his people in the Commonwealth and around the world,” he stated. “It has become apparent that a growing number of Virginians, like other Americans, are relying on the internet to supply news information.
“The revised schedule will also allow us to print a larger issue so the amount of news we cover will actually expand,” White explained. The paper currently publishes a 12-page tabloid three times per month but will expand to 16 or 20 pages every other week with a special issue printed during the annual BGAV meeting timeframe. Two 20-page issues would provide 40 pages of news coverage compared to the 36 currently published.
With a four-person staff and a limited budget, the Religious Herald trustee board considered its options in a Nov. 30 meeting in Richmond before approving the change of publication schedule. The move will also free monies devoted to postage to be applied to expenses. The Religious Herald Publishing Association Inc. will end the fiscal year with a $40,000 deficit.
The board of trustees also approved a price increase for the Religious Herald to become effective Jan. 1. The church budget plan, for those churches sending the Religious Herald to every church household, will increase from $10 to $11 and the group plan will increase from $12 to $13.50. Individual subscription rates will remain unchanged at $18.