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Homeschooling: one, and only, Catholic homeschool magazine …
mater et magistra magazine
As many of you know, I write the handcrafts column for the quarterly Catholic homeschool magazine, mater et magistra. What many of you may not realize is that I, and all the writers, don’t get paid for our work. We do it because we love it and believe in the magazine. When I talk to folks who subscribe, they tell me what an invaluable magazine it is … how well-worth keeping … how extensive is the coverage of information for Catholics.
Problem is that the economy has hit the magazine hard — rising costs … declining subscriptions … lack of renewals — are impeding the mission of this magazine.
Here is a note I received, as a subscriber, from the publisher of mater et magistra:
Things look bad for us financially right now. I had a few setbacks this fall due to computer and weather issues. In addition, our subscriptions are down by 20%. We had been steadily increasing our subscriber base since taking over the magazine in 2008, but have had a sharp decline in 2011. Perhaps it’s the economy, perhaps it’s the wide availability of resources on the Web that preclude the need for one more periodical, perhaps it’s our inability to reach the thousands of Catholic homeschoolers that we know are out there. Whatever the reason, we did not raise enough money to pay for the summer issue. And, we will also be unable to print the fall issue unless we can raise enough now to pay for both issues. I am resigned to this, realizing that we may have served our purpose and now need to rethink print publishing.
The bottom line is that if we don’t bring in enough money between now and the end of the year, we will have to move to a digital-only magazine. I’m not asking you to send money or do anything except RENEW if you like the magazine and tell your friends about it.I have long believed that the way to get to our market is through homeschool groups. If you belong to a homeschool group, I’d be glad to send samples copies for you to pass out at your meetings.
So, if you can possibly renew … or subscribe … please do so.
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