Commentary: The Christian Index seeing encouraging readership trends

Roger Alford

We understand that stories about Georgia Baptists are our bread and butter. Always have been. Always will be. And, honestly, it’s a privilege to get to tell the stories about how God is working in and through His people.”

The Christian Index has had nearly a quarter of a million people log in to read articles so far this year.

Google analytics track that for us, and I’m encouraged by the trends that suggest the nation’s oldest religious newspaper remains relevant to our Georgia Baptist community.

Newspapers across the country have been in decline for several decades. Subscriptions and advertising have been in free fall, and industry executives have been at a loss as to what do about it.

We’ve taken a number of steps to ensure the Index remains strong. Most importantly, we’ve asked Georgia Baptists to pray. As you can see, the Lord is honoring those prayers.

We’ve drastically increased the number of articles we produce about Georgia Baptists. We understand that stories about Georgia Baptists are our bread and butter. Always have been. Always will be. And, honestly, it’s a privilege to get to tell the stories about how God is working in and through His people.

Our analytics show us that most of you go directly to the Index website to read those articles. Others wait for one of our newsletters to arrive in your email inbox.  We do four of those electronic newsletters.

Some of you receive a weekly newsletter that arrives in inboxes on Thursday afternoons. Others receive a daily newsletter that arrives like clockwork every morning at 4:30. A good many of you receive a jobs newsletter on Mondays that lists open positions in churches throughout Georgia and beyond. Yet another newsletter goes to other Georgia newspapers to alert them to Georgia Baptist news and features available to them through a news service we’ve created.

Creating that news service is another of the steps we’ve taken to increase the Index’s reach into the homes of Georgia Baptists.

Still very much a fledgling, the news service has the potential to exponentially increase the number of people reading Georgia Baptist news and features. I’m excited about the possibilities.

For 200 years, the Index has been a steady, reliable, informative friend to Georgia Baptists. With your prayers and the Lord’s favor, we’ll continue to be.
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Roger Alford is editor of The Christian Index.