Friends,
I’m excited to share that a newly designed Presbyterian Outlook magazine will land in your mailboxes this January! In the publishing business, redesigning your magazine every ten years is considered a best practice. We made some small design changes this past January – including a new font and more pictures of our contributors – but this redesign will refresh the look of the whole magazine along with its content. Our goal is to create a clean, smart, modern-looking magazine with new features and thought-provoking columns.
We invite you to help with this effort! Write us to share your ideas and what you would like to see in the pages of the Outlook. This redesign project includes assessing data on reader engagement — what articles are most commented on, what features and resources get the most digital traffic. So please let us know what you love to read and what new resources would be helpful. You write to us here: pres-outlook.org/contact/.
Even though production costs have skyrocketed, we remain committed to our print magazine. The Presbyterian Outlook magazine will always be a staple product of our ministry and mission. At the same time, we are growing in our digital capabilities. Along with the magazine redesign, we are moving to a monthly print publishing schedule instead of eighteen issues per year. This move will help us be better stewards of our financial resources and honor our commitments to environmental sustainability. Print subscribers have full access to all our digital content and – coinciding with the growth of our new website – this change provides subscribers with as much original content or more.
Finally, the change in print frequency will help us better steward the time and energy of our small staff. We’ve seen unprecedented staff transition and turnover at the Outlook this past year. When I began as editor, it quickly became clear the Outlook needed a sustainable staffing structure that would honor our dedicated employees’ time and energy and not lead them to burnout. We’ve made great strides towards a supportive, healthy staffing model. The change in print frequency is a big step towards that goal. In fact, every summer you will notice the Outlook staff observing a week of sabbath “shut down” time — a necessary addition to our non-stop, fast-paced, deadline-driven work.
As the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s only independent, self-sustaining publisher, reader support makes our work possible. We are incredibly grateful for your support of the Outlook’s mission and ministry and privileged to serve Christ’s church alongside you.
