What Does The Future Hold?

[Willoughby]

Perhaps, like me, you have often pondered the above question many times.

A letter dated 2nd April was recently read out to all congregations, stating the following:

The Governing Body has noted the growing tendency for people to obtain reading material from the Internet and has carefully weighed the effect this trend is having on the printing industry and on our ability to obtain paper and equipment for printing. Based on these changing conditions, effective with the issues of January 2013, Awake! and the public edition of The Watchtower will be reduced from 32 pages to 16 pages. These magazines that we distribute to the public will continue to provide a rich supply of enlightening material to attract people to the truth of God’s Word. Since each issue will contain less material, it may be possible for more translation teams to be able to translate every issue of Awake! and the public edition of The Watchtower, thus increasing the number of languages in which they are available. The study edition of The Watchtower will continue to be a 32-page magazine.

When we first heard this letter read out, we may have given it little thought, perhaps only the tiniest of nagging doubts. If the Society is expanding, and we need more spiritual food as we edge deeper into the time of the end, then why are the public Watchtower and Awake! magazines essentially being halved? There must be some good reason.

Well, there is a good reason. It is because the Watch Tower Society is in decline, and has been for several years. This may sound shocking, and I don’t intend to upset anyone – but if you read to the end of this post and examine the facts, you will be left in little doubt.

Before we continue, it’s worth reminding ourselves that the Watch Tower Society is first-and-foremost a publishing company, and has been since the days of Charles Taze Russell. Logically therefore, if something was wrong with the Society(i.e., if it was experiencing serious financial difficulties) a telling sign of these problems would be seen in its printing operations. In particular, you would see a significant drop in its printing commitments over a period of time.

At the start of 2005, the total number of pages in a monthly set of magazines was 128. That’s two 32-page Watchtower magazines, and two 32-page Awake! magazines. Later that year, the Society announced that, starting with the January 2006 articles, there would be only one Awake! published per month. That brought the total pages per set of monthly magazines down to 96 pages.

Now we are told that, beginning with the January 2013 articles to be printed later this year, the number of pages will be reduced still further – bringing the total pages per set of monthly magazines down to just 64! Think about that for a moment. In only 7 years, the Society has halved the amount of magazine pages it is committed to printing each month! This raises serious questions among thinking Witnesses, namely…

If we are truly living in the final part of the last days, why has the Society so drastically reduced the amount of spiritual food it is providing each month? If 64 pages is the correct amount of magazine pages for us to receive from the Faithful Slave, does that mean that for all those decades when we had 128 pages we were receiving too much spiritual food? Can Jehovah truly be blessing this organization if it no longer has the resources to fulfill its regular printing commitments? Each one must reach his or her own conclusions to the above questions, but there can be little doubt that something is going badly wrong for the Watch Tower Society, and the underlying reason can be found right in front of us – in our worldwide report.

Back in the 80s, the Society had a growth rate of between 5 and 7%. This continued until 1996, when the growth rate dipped to 4.4%. The following two years, the growth rate hovered at 3.6% before reaching only 2% in 1999. Since then, the growth has mostly stuttered between 2 and 3%, dipping as low as 1.3% in 2004. You are encouraged to check these figures for yourself in the yearbooks.

When we analyze the latest worldwide report for 2011, we see an interesting picture emerge that explains why the Society is experiencing so many difficulties. Firstly, we see that the Society is especially struggling in lands where people have better access to the internet, whereas in lands with virtually no access to the internet, they are expanding at a greater rate.

Put simply, the Society relies on donations in order to operate, and the main source of donations is inevitably from publishers in wealthier lands. However, not only is the growth slowing down in these countries(thanks in part to the internet), but the ever-dwindling donations received from these regions must also be spent on servicing the expansion in poorer countries of the third world, where the local publishers are unable to finance the printing of their own literature, or the building of their own kingdom halls. This financial model is completely unsustainable. What you have is…

The slow growth in wealthier countries dragging down the worldwide growth rate that is fueled by relative expansion in poorer countries. The poverty of publishers in poorer countries(experiencing growth) draining the dwindling donations from wealthier countries that are experiencing slow growth. Not only is the Society unable to function in the long-term with this state of affairs, they are already experiencing a negative impact as the money starts to dry up. This has resulted in drastic measures being taken to reduce costs, abandon expansion plans, and gather in funds from anywhere they can think of. This is partly why the magazine printing commitments have been slashed in such a relatively short period of time.

There are other indicators of the apparent decline of the Watch Tower Society, and this may be found in its recent spate of branch closures and property “fire sales”.

I will discuss this in greater detail with you if you want and will hopefully give further evidence of what the future holds for this once proud organization.

ANSWER: Thanks for the inquiry. In the information age that we live in, information is at our finger tips. Technology advances and so does the society. For example, cars used to have carburators back in the day and made of metal, correct? It was efficient at that time. What do we have now? Fuel Injection, better economical cars, fiberglass, plastic and the list goes on. As technology progresses, so does refinements in our day to day activities. In the past, we used to have book shelves of WT publications. Do we really need that today with the WT CD that almost has all the publications at your disposal? Here's another example. If you can find an more inexpensive way of doing things that would make your life easier, would you honestly do it? Why wouldn't the Society do the same thing? They are finding more efficient ways of doing things. Is that a fault? Major companies do research to cut cost and if that means re- distributing it's resources, then so be it. The Society is consolidating, re-distributing it's assets to more efficient means. Is this a fault or your speculation that the Society is heading down hill? Information is being disseminate in more efficient means either through the Internet or other media by the Faithful and Discreet Slave. Don't worry my friend, remember that the Slave is being directed by Jesus Christ and he appointed them over all his belongings. Your use of the terminology in your inquiry suggest losing faith in Jehovah. I'm very well aware of news and going ons with the FDS and I can assure you what you see as a "decline" is what I would suggest an re-organization. Beware of using the terminology, "fire sale". It's not what you think and we must trust in Jehovah my friend. Have you considered the diminishing growth rate as you stated is caused by the good news already reaching the entire habited Earth as Jesus instructed us to do? Let's use the example of a company first starting off in its first year. Economics states that in the second year of a company, it will always have 100% profits from the previous year. As the company expands and grows territorially, profits become less and less. Do you see the similarity between the preaching work when it first began a century ago and now? We're seven million plus almost reaching global proportions. As publishers grow, the rate of expansion will slow down. More people are making an informed decision whether they want to be a sheep or a goat as stated in Jesus' parable. When the GT starts, all will cease my friend. The preaching, the ministry, all will stop. Be prepared for it will be here soon. Very soon. I'm always here if you want to discuss further details in regards to the changes you see in the Society. Thank you for selecting me. Brother David Drake DeLaurentos

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

Maybe the use of the term “fire sale” comes across badly, yet the Society embarked on an unprecedented spate of selling off millions of dollars’ worth of real estate. Assembly halls such as the one in Indianapolis are also being sold off. The bethel complexes in Brooklyn are already being parceled off and sold to the highest bidder, even though this is arguably the WORST possible time to be selling prime real estate(in the midst of an economic downturn). One such property, at 183 Columbia Heights, was recently sold at $6.6 million, or 14% BELOW the asking price! Can you imagine selling your home for millions of dollars less than it is worth? Unless, of course, you were really desperate for cash!

Will this scaling down and switch to the internet work? Can the Society do battle with the internet and win over the hearts and minds of web surfers, despite the swathes of negative material available online? It’s highly unlikely. If anything, I believe this move will prove counter-productive for the Society. By encouraging interested ones to research JW beliefs online, they unwittingly expose such ones to the temptation of doing additional research on other sites which are not appropriate.

[Lauraine]

Im glad that you returned my reply and I'm sure that you are aware of our economy and recognize that we are in the last days or minutes of this system. Being that, the cost of maintenance and paying for taxes on these properties is unfathomable in our perspective. When a company can produce services at a much inexpensive rate over seas, it moves. Right?  The Society is very clear that its not looking for profit when selling the properties, its looking for across the board consolidation globally and re-structuring to best fit the needs of the ministry which is feeding Jehovah's flock. The Society knows that it was paying millions of dollars a year in property taxes. Now if they sold the properties, re-allocate and consolidate the spiritual feeding in a feasible environment where they would be paying at least a third of what they were spending, it would make good business sense. The Society has always trused in Jehovah to the ministry and the costs to run it. I wouldnt worry about being desperate for cash. As for the internet, trust in Jehovah. It doesnt matter what medium he uses, he will find the whole hearted ones for his kingdom even if Satan is waiting like a roaring lion. Jehovah is in control, not the internet, not the WWW, not us. He will find who he needs to find and bring them in. Have faith in Jehovah nameless one and you will see how he will get this work done. Sincerely, David Drake DeLaurentos