Lake Mary, FL–SpiritLed Woman magazine,which grew out of Charisma Women’s Conferences held in Florida, is shifting from print to the Internet.
At the same time, the publisher–Strang Communications–is also shifting New Man to an Internet version.
Subscriptions to both magazines will be fulfilled by either Charisma or Ministry Today, which will add articles of interest to both men and women each issue for the new readers, also giving advertisers the editorial environment they want in print. The added circulation will boost Charisma’s paid circulation.
But most of the emphasis will shift to the Web for both magazines. In addition to carrying a variety of feature articles, which were the focal point of both print magazines, the online versions of each—found at newmanmag.com and spiritledwoman.com—will also include teaching from a biblical perspective, news, blog posts, podcasts, daily devotionals, and video clips of interviews with influential Christian men and women.
“The market has changed, so we’re changing,” said Stephen Strang, publisher and founder of New Man, and co-owner of Strang Communications with his wife, Joy, who founded SpiritLed Woman 10 years ago.
“We’ve tried to be flexible in responding to opportunities and changes in the market. That’s how we’ve built our company over the years,” he said. “But the men’s movement isn’t what it used to be, and the Internet was hardly around when we started New Man. Now it’s the wave of the future.”
In 1994, Strang Communications agreed with Promise Keepers to have New Man be the organization’s “official magazine” for a three-year period. From the time of the agreement to the publishing of the first issue was only 105 days.
Strang remembers the circulation growing to 400,000 at one point, with eight issues a year. New Man had cut back to six issues a year and printed 100,000 copies, with about 80,000 paid circulation.
SpiritLed Woman grew out of large Charisma Women’s Conferences that were held for 10 consecutive years and reached an attendance of about 9,000. Strang said the Lord directed the company to end the women’s conferences in 2004.
“We think these are important brands and important audiences we intend to serve,” Strang said.
“We just will serve them differently. Plus, we can now focus our company’s resources more on the Internet,” he said, adding there are major Internet opportunities for the company that will be announced shortly.
Since 1981, Strang Communications has become a leading publisher of both books and magazines, with rapid growth recently in its book group that has resulted in eight books being on the New York Times best-sellers list in recent years. Strang publishes under seven imprints–Charisma House, Siloam, Realms, Creation House, Excel Books, FrontLine and CharismaKids.
The company publishes the Spanish-language Vida Cristiana magazine and books under the Casa Creación and CasaKids imprints.
Strang Communications also publishes Christian Retailing, which has responded to a changing market by cutting from 20 to 18 issues, beefing up its Inspirational Gift Trends to four times a year and adding the popular The Church Bookstore eight times a year.
The company has several specialty publications, including Excel, published twice a year for college-bound young people, and Christian Book Reader, published six times a year to promote new books to the general public.
The November/December 2007 issue of New Man will be the final issue in print. The December/January 2008 issue of SpiritLed Woman will be the final one in print. Advertisers in these publications were notified of the shift in emphasis on Oct. 19.
More will be reported on Strang Communications’ plans on the Internet in future issues.
(Source: Strang Communications)
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