Items of Interest

Last Wednesday, January 3, The Christian Science Publishing Society issued the first Weekly Magazine Section of The Christian Science Monitor. This section, an integral part of the paper, is devoted to a broad and comprehensive review of world affairs. Thus it gives the Monitor additional facilities and keeps it abreast of today's journalistic times.

An inquirer may ask, "Why is the new section included in the Wednesday issues?" The answer is that by the end of the week it will have reached the greater number of the Monitor's subscribers. Also, it is arranged to catch the fastest steamers abroad.

"Is not the Monitor now smaller in the number of pages it includes than was formerly the case?" a questioner in quires. The answer is: Yes, during the past two years or more. By way of explanation it may be said that the size of a newspaper depends largely upon the amount of its advertising. Each newspaper works out for itself a ratio of news space to advertising. The past few years have witnessed a lessened volume of business and a lessened quantity of advertising. While The Christian Science Monitor has not experienced such a recession in advertising as have some other periodicals, yet the lesser volume of advertising has necessitated fewer pages. It is perhaps not well known that the subscription price of a newspaper does not nearly pay the cost of the paper the subscriber receives. Indeed, three or four fifths of the cost is borne by the payments from advertising. Thus, as advertising increases, pages increase, with corresponding increase in reading text.

Our questioner then asks: "If this is the case, why get out a separate section? Why not add pages, instead, since you are carrying advertising in the new section?" The answer is, first, that advertisers who use the weekly section have a noticeably different medium through which to promote their service. The section will appeal particularly to those advertisers who print their publicity exclusively in color, or in magazine mediums. Such advertising is not of a local nature, but is of that type which calls for a different treatment than the advertising space in the news pages will permit. Secondly, the new section widens the Monitor's editorial scope, making possible more effective and attractive articles of the order naturally fitting into an artistic section and more effective printing treatment, which is not restricted to black and white.

Yet another question, "But why is now the time to launch the new section?" This is a critical and important time of world development. Human needs call loudest now. Christian Science with all its facilities must act to the utmost. What did our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, say about the Monitor when she founded it? That it should "bless all mankind" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). Some who may not have thought deeply on these words may conclude that they call only for "sweet commendation" and a "pat on the back." Not so. They call for the most discriminating, incisive, constructive dissemination and analysis of the truth about world affairs and their betterment. More than ever, now is the time.

"Then you think that the new section of the Monitor opens up now a new and necessary channel to our daily newspaper?" may be asked. Those who have studied the question long and faithfully are convinced that it does, and that it will prove its usefulness and fitness. It will be read more leisurely perhaps than the daily sections; it can treat its subjects in a more extensive and comprehensive manner than can the news items, which must be released at a certain hour day after day. By its very nature and facilities it will offer more background and analysis of world events and of major human interests, while at the same time the Monitor's form and style and standards will govern in its new section.

The new section is an evidence of the sturdy, well-founded progress of the Monitor; it is a fitting accomplishment with which to mark this anniversary of the paper which twenty-five years ago the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science launched with much expectation and confidence.

A few weeks ago we printed in this column word that the two churches in Asbury Park, New Jersey, had consolidated. Scarcely was the ink dry on the paper when information came that Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Davenport, Iowa, had consolidated with First Church in that city. The last service in the former Second Church was held on Sunday, November 12, 1933. First Church announced the merger on the same day in its services, and in reporting the consolidation to the Directors of The Mother Church spoke of the larger congregation now attending services in First Church, the "deeper sense of unity," and the gratitude of the united congregation.

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Notes from the Publishing House

January 6, 1934

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