Simple plan
Change is inevitable
I’ve made a living as a journalist for the past decade. In
the last 12 months I’ve seen the world of journalism turned on its head.
Circulations and revenues of many magazines have plummeted — Newsweek’s
sales fell 13 percent in the second half of 2008, while U.S. News & World
Report’s plunged more than 22 percent.
Advertising revenues are down too. No surprise there, as
they usually go hand in hand with circulations. The consequences of falling
circulations and shrinking revenues are disheartening — layoffs,
scaled-back or eliminated print editions, and some periodicals shuttered for
good.
Evangelical magazines are not immune to market trends.
Marriage Partnership, Today’s Christian, Plugged In, Breakaway, Brio, Brio
& Beyond, Christian History & Biography, Ignite Your Faith (formerly
Campus Life) and Your Church are all casualties of the changes taking place in
the world of journalism.
Like a storm in the night, change caught most every
publisher, editor, journalist and advertising executive flatfooted. Don’t let
that be the case with you as you navigate the tricky waters that come with
parenting teens.
To help you along your way, we asked some bona fide teen
experts for helpful tools. Jay Mooney, national youth director for the
Assemblies of God; Michelle LaRowe Conover, a parenting-book author; and Scott
Bruegman, a former youth pastor turned church planter who has spent years
counseling teens, delivered goods that will help your family not only survive
the teen years, but capitalize on them.
Indeed, change is inevitable.
But the Bible implores us to pray and not be anxious about
anything because the “peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will
guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, NIV).
Kirk Noonan
E-mail your comments to tpe@ag.org.
