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Grants, donations and subscriptions were to finance the publication, which would be mailed to 1,000 ministries. Red Viva hoped eventually to make this resource available to every interested church.
“Our strategy changed,” said Alcanzando editor Bill Gibson, “when the editors of Apuntes Pastorales (Pastoral Notes), a magazine for pastors, suggested that we run our publication as a supplement in their magazine.”
With 37,000 subscribers, Apuntes Pastorales is the most widely distributed Christian magazine in Spanish. It is published by Desarrollo Cristiano Internacional (Christian Development International) in San José, Costa Rica.
“At first, Red Viva was skeptical about partnering with another organization with which we had little prior relationship,” said Gibson, a missionary with Latin America Mission. “Perhaps the additional costs would not be a wise investment of our limited funds.” Even so, collaboration plans went forward.
Red Viva and Desarrollo Cristiano Internacional have been working together for more than two years. “The results have been very positive,” Gibson said. “As the purpose of Alcanzando is to help people minister more effectively to children, the added circulation through Apuntes has broadened our journal’s impact significantly.” Circulation grew from 1,000 to 39,000. “It would have taken Red Viva many years to achieve the same result on its own.”
Alcanzando’s format has evolved in the past three years from a two-color, eight-page bulletin to a four-color, 24-page publication. The enhanced format is financially possible only because Alcan-zando goes to press with Apuntes.
Apuntes publisher Randy Wittig speaks warmly of the partnership. “The inclusion of Alcanzando a los Niños en Riesgo in Apuntes Pastorales brings added value to our publication. We hope that many become interested in this important ministry [to children at risk]. Feedback from readers shows that many find the material very helpful and challenging.”
The Apuntes/Alcanzando partnership hasn’t been without cost. The 24-page Alcanzando goes to press with the 100-page Apuntes, so Red Viva benefits from volume printing prices. Still, printing 42,000 magazines costs more than printing 5,000. To help offset costs, Red Viva sells advertising, which covers about 60 percent of Red Viva’s annual publishing budget. Such sales would not be a viable option for Alcanzando without the circulation boost from Apuntes. But ad sales require a big time commitment, forcing Red Viva ministry to postpone other projects. For Apuntes Pastorales, the heavier magazine costs more to ship. But since Alcanzando targets a different audience, Apuntes now better serves companies that wanted to advertise, but whose products were not geared to Apuntes’ primary audience. “Now Apuntes Pastorales attracts a greater number of advertisers with a wide range of interests,” Wittig said. Besides business gains brought about by the Apuntes/Alcanzando partnership, both Wittig and Gibson are excited by the broadened chance to help evangelicals respond to the needs of children at risk. “The Apuntes/Alcanzando partnership encourages pastors to be more aware of the needs of children in their churches,” Wittig said.”We are working together to benefit God’s Kingdom,” Gibson said.
This article distributed by Latin America Mission News Service was first published by InterLit. Reprinted with permission from InterLit, Cook Communications Ministries International.
May 18, 2001