Dear Plain Truth reader,
Ever since we began publishing The Plain Truth in 1934, we’ve had literally thousands of letters from readers like yourself telling us how pleased they are to receive our magazine. To them, it’s a source
of information, news, encouragement and even hope in a very often confused world.
Here at the editorial team, we’re especially delighted that so many of our 20,000 readers write to us and say, ‘The Plain Truth just gets better and better with every issue.’ But publishing a four colour, 32-page, quality magazine doesn’t come without cost. And although The Plain Truth is sent to you completely free of charge, the expenses incurred in producing each issue have risen dramatically.
Would you believe that to fulfil all of our subscription requests for a year costs a staggering £175,000? How have we managed to produce such a publication until now? First, we have received generous sponsorship from the Worldwide Church of God, the publisher. We also raise additional income from advertising. And the rest? Simple. It comes from the generous donations of thousands of ordinary readers – people like you. All this gives us the ability to print and publish each issue of The Plain Truth and send it free to so many people.
Now, sadly, we are faced with a major financial challenge. Our chief sponsor has been forced immediately to considerably reduce its financial support by some 60%. As a result, we’ve had to make some cost saving decisions straight away, including – sadly – cutting the number of issues from six to five a year. I don’t like doing this, but it produces an instant saving of 15%. We have also made significant cost cuts in several other areas, I hope without a loss of quality or service to you, our reader.
Even with these drastic measures, if we are to keep on publishing The Plain Truth we will need additional funds. ‘But why don’t you do the obvious, and put a price on the magazine?’ some might reason.
Believe me, we would only want to do that as a very last resort. You see, many of our readers are elderly, struggling to survive on pensions. They tell us that apart from bills and advertising circulars, The Plain Truth is the only mail they get, and it is a wonderful moment when a new issue drops through their letterbox.
Will you help us to continue providing The Plain Truth free of charge? Many of you already support us with very generous donations, which cover not only your own subscription costs, but provide for
others as well. But we need more of you to do this. I don’t like asking our loyal readers for money, but we are at a point where we need to say, ‘Please – if you continue, this is the time to help us'.
I hope you agree that we need to keep publishing. There are so many spiritually homeless people in our country who are cut off from the knowledge of God. There is so much spiritual junk food out there. We are trying to provide reliable spiritual food, based on the truth of the Bible.
We need to be thinking about doing more, not less. I believe you agree with that, or you would
not have read this far. Please help – if you are able – by sending a contribution today. Simply download the donation appeal form in pdf format, print and complete then mail it back to us at our office address, or use our secure online donation form.
And thank you again for allowing us to send you The Plain Truth.
Sincerely
John Halford
Editor
PS We have many interesting and inspiring articles planned for the next few months, and new writers with some important things to say. We hope you’ll enable us to bring these topics to you.
Don’t let The Plain Truth disappear.
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