Sad News about DisciplesWorld

Last week, DisciplesWorld announced that they would cease publishing the magazine and maintaining the Internet website, with it's daily news updates, at the end of 2009. Given the good variety of the magazine, and its editorial integrity, this is a disappointment in the life of our denomination.

Unfortunately, the news was not entirely unexpected. The magazine has struggled with funding -- it always has been a self-supported, not-for-profit entity -- from its beginning eight years ago. For a time, it looked like subscriptions were increasing, but those numbers have decreased in the past couple of years. Also, the magazine has benefited in recent years by a couple of large charitable grants and individual donations. Depending on such money to meet expenses, rather than advertising and subscriptions, was not a viable long-term financial solution.

I know that I will miss the magazine. While I think it took a couple of years for the editorial staff to find the magazine's voice (which is understandable), I think that DisciplesWorld coalesced around a solid vision. They saw strength in trying to represent the diversity of our denomination; they believed they had a role in pushing the regional and general ministries to be more transparent in their work. They were comfortable raising difficult and sometimes painful issues, confident that readers would appreciate their work.