Branch Letter
Dear Kingdom Publishers:
The other day we heard some older brothers talking about the use that is being made of The Watchtower and Awake! in the field service. Wonderful work is being done with those magazines. During June 6,969,779 copies were placed in the United States and 2,855,377 more were sent out to subscribers. But the brothers wondered whether the arrangement for publishers to obtain their personal copies at the Kingdom Hall had affected the total number actually being distributed.
Could it? Yes. When our personal subscriptions expired, if we simply took our study copies of The Watchtower from our distributors’ supply, without increasing our order, that would mean that about 850,000 magazines a month—over 10,000,000 a year—would be withdrawn from use in the field service; and then, of course, that does not include the number of Awake! copies that we may take for our own use. For each publisher, it is just one magazine at a time, but they add up quickly when many publishers are considered.
Has this really happened? Well, from the factory we learned that during May the drop in subscription copies mailed was 285,000 more than the increase in distributors’ copies sent out. And in June the difference was 620,000 copies. So, perhaps to some extent that is what has taken place.
Could we get more of the magazines out into the field again? It would be a fine thing to do. Soon we will be having in The Watchtower some of the excellent talks that we heard at the recent district assemblies; these put squarely before each person the issue concerning divine rulership. We encourage you to make full use of them. When you put in your order for extra copies of the special issues for October, why not also consider whether you could beneficially increase your regular order for magazines. In the months ahead let’s demonstrate our faith by putting forth every effort to keep this matter of divine rulership before the people everywhere.
Be assured of our love.
Your fellow servants,
BROOKLYN BRANCH OFFICE