Parish Magazine Survey 2022 results

The diocese offers a couple of articles each month to parish/village magazine editors. At the end of 2022, we surveyed those editors to see if they hit the mark.

If you are a parish magazine editor and would like to recieve the articles for possible inclusion in your publication, please contact Simon Jones.

Purpose

Background

In 2019, we began with distributing an article each month provided by Harriet Carty, our partner at Caring for God’s Acre, that focuses on aspects of nature and ecology to be found in churchyards and sending out the monthly bishops’ letters at the same time.

Towards the end of 2020 the bishops were finding the lead time required by magazine production (in the order of five weeks ahead of the named month’s start) inhibiting the timeliness of their reflections and their desire to use the immediacy of online to make their messages more appropriate, especially in the rapidly-changing circumstances of the various lockdowns.

So we began offering articles on a wider spread of subjects written by various diocesan officers, highlighting various opportunities, services and events the diocese provides that are of relevance to all in and around our church communities.

Following the demise of the diocese-wide Spotlight bi-monthly magazine at the start of the first lockdown, this has become the only paper-format route for stories from the diocese to filter out to congregations and people on the fringes of churches and village communities.

Continuing to promote this service to parishes through the autumn of 2022 and reaching the two-year mark of providing these officer-led articles it seemed wise to check whether the offering is hitting the mark – hence a survey of parish magazine editors.

Method

Quite simply, the survey was set up on the diocesan website and the link shared repeatedly with our existing distribution list of editors and all recipients of The Bulletin which we hoped would elicit some further responses.

It was hoped to be able to discern not only the efficacy of our articles, but also the health, size and reach of parish magazines following a period during lockdown where the national church had been hesitant to endorse distribution of paper magazines.

Results & Conclusions

By the end of 2022, our editors distribution list consists of around 90 editors. Their publications vary in distribution to congregations of a single or pair of parishes through whole benefices of up to five or six parishes to village magazines aimed at the whole community, not just worshippers. A rough estimate from information they have already provided suggests that’s a total of 140 parishes in receipt of our articles, or roughly a third of the diocese.

The first nine questions in the survey asked general questions about the publications:

• Thirty six responses were received of which five were from people not currently on the distribution and wanting to be added.
• The vast majority publish monthly: three publish quarterly and a few more fortnightly. We failed to define a difference between a ‘parish magazine’ and ‘newsletter’ – some of the fortnightly editors described their leaflets as a combination of notice sheet and liturgy, lyrics or readings for that week or fortnight rather than a magazine with many articles.
• The vast majority (three-quarters) publish in A5 or similar size
• The average parish mag is of 28 pages, though the range varied from 4 to an impressive 56 pages.
• 80% of magazines take paid adverts: where ads are taken, on average they comprise 9 of the 28 pages.
• Print runs vary from as little as 25 to 900. This reflects the spread of whether a publication is aimed at regular members of the congregation or used for community cohesion and outreach. Kudos to those who sustain a substantial service of 20-30 pages for such small print runs. As with most printed publications, we have no way of knowing how many people read each copy…
• Total print editions of parish/village magazines in our survey reach over 11,000 copies per issue.
• We asked whether the publication is available online. Nearly a third said yes; four said they did move online during covid but have stopped that since physical meeting and publication has resumed.
  • We might ask whether not putting a magazine online is a missed opportunity – some mention adding it to their AChurchNearYou.com page. Alternatively, some or all of the same content may be going online in a different form (as happened with the diocesan Spotlight pre-covid) – Facebook posts, parish website articles or blogs and so still reaching an online audience. Instructions for adding notice sheets and events to AChurchNearYou.
• Without sophisticated analytics it is difficult for parishes to track or assess the online reach, but some of the comments from people who are putting their magazines online include:
  • “Emailed to 25 email addresses and now on our ACNY page”
  • “Also sent by email to 75 addresses and placed on the Team Ministry’s website”
  • “50 sent out as pdf attachments” etc…

The remaining questions focussed specifically on the articles we have been providing:

• 80% always or usually use the churchyard article and accompanying illustration(s).
• 70% of editors deem them the right length: the remainder may sometimes edit for length.
• Uptake of the officers’* articles and the accompanying photos is slightly lower (66%) which might be expected as the one-off variety of topics may have more hit-or-miss appeal to editors – and makes them more optional as space-fillers depending on other material at hand. *Since 2023, we have begun offering occasional articles from linked groups eg Churchyard Awrd Scheme, HCT
• But again, 70% deem them the right length.

Two respondents stated that they hadn’t been aware of the articles’ provision before seeing notice of the survey, and five provided emails to be added to the distribution list – so 14% of ‘never use’ respondents may have not had access to the articles before. Another apologised that their publication may not be relevant as a single-sheet, local only newsletter (nonetheless distributed to most houses in the parish). A fourth described their weekly booklet that includes the weekly liturgy, readings and hymns and in rotation other material – life events, articles, puzzles and cartoons. So the ‘never use’ respondents may nearly all be ‘couldn’t use’ respondents, making take-up of the articles higher than the flat statistics suggest.

The non-statistical feedback from editors is helpful and encouraging:

On the churchyard articles, editors said

• “Could you combine them with some of the Celtic-type nature-prayers?”
• “Although our five churches have inner city locations; our congregations are scattered across the area and most; I would say;  take a general interest in  these articles;  whether or not the articles connect with the environment of our churchyards. It is also my aim as editor to engender interest in the magazine across a wider section of the community than our immediate congregations.”
• “Please keep them coming. We have people talking about the churchyard now.”
• “Really appreciate the articles”
• “We have an active churchyard tidy group who meet regularly so some of Harriet's articles tie in nicely with their work.”
• “It would be nice to have the illustrations in colour for our website edition.
• “Pleasant but relevant change to more typical 'church magazine' items. During our Vacancy we are relying on you quite heavily but would hope to continue depending on new Rector; if that ever happens.”
• “Generally more useful than other articles. But have only used once when we had space to fill.”
• “This has proved to be a very popular article and always has good comments from it. ; We are trying to be more Eco friendly so fits in well thank you.”
• “Always helpful when the articles have links to our Christian faith.”
• “They are interesting”
• “The topics are excellent and give a focus for seasonal wildlife and churchyard items”
• “I love the format of this and they are always interesting and informative.”
• “We have awards for the diversity and variety of flora & fauna in our beautiful
• “I am quite satisfied with them.”
• “We find the articles useful as we have a large churchyard and a generally environmentally positive readership and community. It helps us to have items like this which have a gently Christian content without being 'in your face'. Many of our readers are not necessarily churchgoers.”

And on the varied officers’ articles:

• “Truthfully; they are always interesting; often thought-provoking; on a wide variety of topics and I am very grateful for the service provided. It is good to have the diocesan officers more widely known. Steve Hollinghurst's piece for December on the date of Christmas is educational. There is a similar item in the resources from 'Parish Pump'; I was wondering whether I should be including something in a parish magazine that informs that Jesus was not born on 25 December (copies go into primary schools). Steve's article describes the background so well; I am plumping for his and do not anticipate any objections. Mind you; feedback of any sort would be welcome; I would love to have a 'Letters' page.”
• “Maybe they could vary in length; as I sometimes need to fill a particular space. I always hesitate shortening articles as I feel this is disrespectful in so many ways and so do refrain from doing so.”
• “Really appreciate the articles”
• “We like the Diocesan articles because it is a reminder that the parish is part of a wider band of Christians all trying to worship God and serve our own communities. It would be good to have more articles from the Bishops and Archdeacons.”
• “Good variety”
• “This offers a different article and has interest from what happening around diocese.”
• “There have been some excellent articles that are of course very relevant to our readers. All the articles are very much appreciated and enrich our magazine.; All your efforts are not taken for granted!”
• “It’s good to see a broad range of articles and content. I have found that they bring the human element in showing clergy etc as ordinary people with their own lives-which is something that is usually missed by parishioners”
• “Diocesan articles are a welcome source of information on matters of importance in keeping readers informed on wider matters affecting the Church both local, national & international.”
• “Diocesan Articles would be better if they were shorter they are usually too long to include. Font needs be larger as it has to be reduced to A5.
• “Anything on the environment, personal health and fitness in the context of community”

There were a couple of comments that reflect the volunteer and amateur experience of most editors – a couple asked for particular font sizes, others demonstrated hesitancy to edit for length – both issues that might be overcome with more editorial and technical training.

Next steps

Given the frequent appreciation for the articles given by editors, we will continue this service.

Reflecting on the feedback, we are minded to organise a session for editors to meet, share and discuss their editions and also offers some training on the fundamentals of editing and design. The idea will be raised with editors before planning a date, together with discerning whether an online or in-person session is preferable.

Appendix One – Survey Questions

As presented at https://lichfield.anglican.org/communications/parish-magazines

We'd like to know more about the publications we're offering articles for to see if we can improve them for you. This short survey needn't take more than five minutes to fill:

Appendix two – summary data

General:

Wildlife articles

Officers’ articles