Publishing powerhouse Christianity Today International, citing hard times in its industry, is shutting down four publications and laying off 31 workers.
According to a plan announced Friday (May 22), two magazines will fold: Today’s Christian Woman and the Campus Life College Guide, which targets Christian undergrads. CTI will also cease to publish Glimpses, a worship bulletin insert with stories from Christian history, and Church Office Today, a bi-monthly newsletter read by church administrators.
The moves, which reduce CTI staff numbers by 22 percent to 108 employees, mark the latest attempt to cut costs at Carol Stream, Ill.-based CTI. In January, the organization shuttered two other magazines””Marriage Partnership and Ignite Your Faith””and sold a third, Today’s Christian.
This is sad, but hardly surprising, given the general downturn in the publishing industry. The combination of how web-based journalism has driven print journalism into a steep and steady decline, and the powerful effect of the massive recession makes for a potent one-two punch.
My wife subscribes to Today’s Christian Woman and enjoys it enough that she usually passes around copies to women friends after reading the issues herself, so she’ll be sorry to see the magazine fold.
As for me, I’m keenly aware that many of CT’s editorial staff are Anglicans, including Mark Galli, the senior managing editor of the flagship publication, CT, and Kevin Miller, who is an executive VP at CTI and used to edit the Leadership Journal that’s popular with many pastors. The proportion of Anglicans on staff at CT is remarkably high.
I’m just glad the cuts weren’t worse. Given what CTI president and publisher Harold Smith calls “the perfect publishing storm” that exists today, it could easily have been worse.
David Handy+
Also in the group of Anglicans are David Neff, Editor-in-Chief of the Christianity Today Media Group, and his wife Lavonne, who blogs at her.meneutics.