Why a Paid Subscription?
by Darwin & Laura Lee (Bismarck, North Dakota)
Hi,
As some of you may already know, starting on June 1, 2007 all renewals for a hard copy of "The Church of God Messenger" will now cost the subscriber money.
As some of you know, postage went up in May 2007. Newsletters sent to people in the United States used to cost $.87 each for postage to mail them, that cost is now $1.14 each for postage. Canada was $1.15 each, it is now $1.31 each, and other countries varied anywhere from $2.40 to $3.80, and now they all seem to cost $2.70 each, which is a reduction for some.
Since we started this newsletter back in 2001, many have contributed to help us with these costs, but it just hasn't been enough to keep this newsletter coming for free. It has taken a toll on our finances having put us over $9000.00 in the red since 2001. There comes a point where we have to say that is enough.
We are charging $2.14 per issue in the United States, $12.84 per year (6 issues), in Canada we are charging $2.31 per issue, $13.86 per year (6 issues), and in all other countries we are charging $3.70 per issue, which comes out to $22.20 per year. This price includes the full charge for postage per issue plus $1.00 per issue to cover the cost of ink, paper, and equipment and equipment repair. This charge does not include any wages or any profit of any kind and if you believe that it does, please try to print your own newsletter sometime and see how much it costs you.
We do understand that some people just cannot afford to pay these costs for various reasons and we really don't want anyone to go with out if it is at all possible. For the month of June 2007 we did take in $20.00 in gift donations and we did have one request for a newsletter subscription from one person who could not afford the subscription price so we paid her subscription price from the amount we received in gift donations. If there had been no money there, then no newsletter would have been sent to her. This leaves us $7.16 in gift donations to put toward another subscription should someone not be able to afford the subscription cost.
Gift donations can still be sent to us at: Darwin & Laura Lee, PO Box 2333, Bismarck, ND 58502. When you subscribe online there is now a button on the subscription form for those who still want a hard copy newsletter and are willing to pay for it. For those who can afford to pay the subscription price but do not want to, the PDF File download on our Web Site is free and you can print that out yourself so you have your own hard copy. If you do not know how to do double sided printing to make this look like the one you always received in the mail from us, please email us and we will try to help you over email or the telephone if necessary.
We are sorry that we can no longer offer the hard copy for free, but we can't. So this now means that if someone cannot afford to pay the subscription price they are now solely dependant on those who do send gift donations. We will allow print space in up coming newsletters to let everyone know how much is sent in gift donations for each month and how many people have requested a free subscription so that we don't end up with a large amount of money and no subscriptions to put it toward. It is our thought to publish only the first and last initials of those who contribute along with the date and amount donated and publish the full name of those on our list who are requesting free subscriptions. If anyone has an objection to this, please email us at:
the-bible-talk-forums@earthlink.netPlease remember there are some people in prison and some people who are disabled who just don't have the money for subscription prices, so if you are able to help when you see there is a need, we hope you will do so. Thank You.
