Editors Blog

It’s Your Record

Friday, October 16, 2009

What’s happening with The Record?  We look at some of the developments and changes in The Record.

It’s Your Record

I guess since this is a blog about/from The Record, I should let you know what is happening. 

When I became Editor in 2007, it was, to say the least, a bit of a surprise.  But once I recovered from the shock, we set out to work. Right from the beginning, there were certain aims that we were trying to achieve.

Firstly, we wanted to increase the readership.  Not the number of subscribers or the congregational take-up (though that of course is an aim as well), but rather the number of people who actually read the magazine.  We were aware that there were those who got The Monthly Record who at best just skim-read it.  We wanted to encourage people to take time, sit down and read through at least some of the articles. We have tried to do this by introducing a number of new features - in general, shortening the length of articles and trying to have a variety of topics covered.  Of course, it is very hard to gauge, but, overall, the response has been very good.  In particular, people have appreciated the Introducing feature and The Cultural page on the back.  Our regular columnists – Jenny Wilson, James Eglinton, Barbara Cross and David Meredith - have also proved popular. 

That was stage one.  Now we are on to stage two. What I call ‘the Coffee Table’ stage.  We want to develop the magazine visually and artistically to such a quality that it gets left on coffee tables. This is not as easy as it sounds.  You will notice that a lot of Christian magazines use stock images and go for the “bright” look.  It is the equivalent of texts being put on pictures of lambs playing in fields.  Whilst there is room for that, there also has to be room for more “earthy” realities and artistic images.  Catherine Pearson did a wonderful job in getting us to where we are just now.  Al McInnes is trying to push it on another step.  That is why we did the photo story from Peru with Roddy Mackay.  The images were amazing, if somewhat dark, but each picture really did tell a story.  It’s only a beginning though.  Watch this space!

Hopefully you will see The Record continuing to develop.  We have some plans for new features in the New Year.  However, at this stage, I just want to say that we do get a lot of reaction – for which we are very thankful – and that every comment and suggestion is listened to.  So if you have any ideas, subjects you want covered, news, suggestions or comments concerning design, constructive criticisms, then please write and let us know. It’s your Record.

A few other comments:

1) We have changed the name to The Record – the “monthly” was superfluous.  Other suggestions were either already taken or just did not fit.  It is a record of what God is doing in the Church – not just the Free Church in Scotland – but also other churches and in other lands.
2) We did drop the communion dates and the monthly financial figures.  We felt that both were unnecessary, and could and should be easily obtained elsewhere.  The financial figures are now given on a quarterly basis.
3) It is likely that the free edition of The Record online will soon cease.  Some articles will be free, but those who want to get The Record online will either have to have a paper subscription or take out an online one.
4) We have increased the size of the magazine from 24 to 32 pages.  It looks as though we will have to increase it again – such is the amount of material that we are being given.
5) We are hopeful that The Record will increasingly be read by those outwith the Free Church.  There are only four pages that are Free Church-specific.  We are still unashamedly the denominational magazine, but as we are one of the largest circulation evangelical magazines in Europe, we do feel a wider responsibility.  Besides which, we know that Free Church people are not insular, and delight to hear about and pray for work in other contexts.

So there you have it.  We aim to be a magazine which is biblically faithful, culturally relevant, Christ-centered and a tool that will be used for the advance of Christ’s Kingdom. Although it is your Record and ultimately a product of us all, perhaps we should say that the title of this blog is wrong.  We should say “it’s His Record”.