We’re nearly at the end of another “year” for Anglican Life—only one more paper before the summer break. So here is an update for all of you on how things are going.
We continue to increase our readership after the big “subscription reboot” organized by General Synod in 2019. As of writing this article (in March), we currently have a just a little shy of 3500 subscribers to the print paper, which is still the largest diocesan newspaper outside of Toronto. Whenever we send around a notice about getting a subscription to Anglican Life, we get responses, so if you know someone who still wants to get the paper, please let them know that they can. We know they’re still out there!
In the most recent month’s statistics, there were 785 visits to our website. That’s a lot of people reading Anglican Life online! 119 of those visits were from Newfoundland and Labrador, but with the website, we are able to reach a much wider audience, with 60% of the visits from within Canada, almost 30% of the visits from the USA, 3% from the UK, and the rest from the wider world. We were also able to get a Canada Helps donation tab on the website, and have already received money that way, so not only are people reading the paper online, they’re supporting it too.
But there is so much more that we can do. Anglican Life is free “ink” (whether digital or physical) for the Anglican churches in NL. It makes me frustrated to hear that so many parishes, and even the dioceses, are launching programs, holding anniversary celebrations, and reaching out into their communities, and only a few get sent in for publication. I know that there are lots of Anglicans out there, even members of the clergy, who say, “Nobody reads that anymore!” They dismiss Anglican Life and its place within the Church, but what could be more important than communications? Our dioceses and parishes cannot afford to have communications departments, but they do have Anglican Life. It is a shame that they don’t make better use of it.
All of that said, things are going very well, and Anglican Life continues to grow, both with print subscribers and with online readers too. To those of you who support Anglican Life, I offer a very heartfelt thank you—we depend on your support, and love hearing your stories.
