In my last post I reproduced an email from Sandy Grant, in which he asked his youth and Bible study leaders to give some special support to Matthias Media and to buy our resources wherever possible.
A friend wrote me a really nice email in response, which in the most gracious and polite way possible basically said, “Look, I love you guys, but shouldn’t you be innovating and riding the new digital wave rather than asking for ‘support’ as you cling to a dying publishing model?”
This warmed my heart. No, it really did, because my friend was precisely right, and cared enough to write to me about it. We’re very aware that this is the challenge in front of us. If MM is going to have a productive contribution to make to gospel growth in the years to come, we will (like all publishers) have to adapt to a rapidly changing publishing and communications landscape.
The tricky part is that for the time being at least we will need to keep creating and publishing paper-based resources, because they still comprise the vast bulk of reading and publishing worldwide, both Christian and secular. And it’s a tough time do that, for a whole range of reasons (tightening margins, declining volumes, the high Aussie dollar, and so on). At the same time, we also need to invest in the new technologies and digital publishing platforms that promise so much (both in the kinds of ministry resources we might produce and how we might distribute them).
So at the moment, we’re at a kind of crossroads, where threat meets opportunity. At one level, things are tighter and harder than we can ever remember them being (and this is true for all publishers). But at the same time new vistas and opportunities are opening up that have enormous promise for promoting and facilitating gospel ministry through digital publishing.
What I appreciated about Sandy’s original email to his leaders was the sentiment that now would be a good time to be especially mindful of publishing ministries like MM, and to support us and help as you’re able. It’s a difficult transitional moment (and will be for the next couple of years).
All of which means: please pray for us, and support us where you can. And stay tuned for a bunch of new digital resources from us over the next 12 months. First to be released is the Two ways to live app for iphone and ipad, due out in a couple of weeks.
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