After nearly a century and a half in print, Life and Work, the Church of Scotland’s monthly magazine, will stop publication later this 12 months on account of financial pressures and dwindling readership.
The announcement was made through the Church’s General Assembly in Edinburgh, where delegates were informed that maintaining the 146-year-old publication had turn into financially unsustainable.
Although Life and Work operates with editorial independence, the publication has long served as a staple of the Church’s communication.
Editor Lynne McNeil, who has led the magazine for 23 years, cited industry-wide challenges and a climate of “diminishing returns” for print media to the BBC.
“Life and Work loses sales each time a church closes,” she noted, referencing the present weekly average of 68,160 churchgoers – down significantly from pre-pandemic figures of around 88,000.
Rev Jim Stewart, who chairs the magazine’s advisory committee, told the BBC that Life and Work had played a very important part in “enhancing and strengthening” the Church’s presence in Scottish life.
As the Kirk grapples with wider problems with membership decline and church closures, discussions are already underway for a possible successor to the magazine. It is anticipated that proposals might be considered at the subsequent General Assembly.
The Church of Scotland is just not the one Church to discontinue its magazine after the Free Church of Scotland announced that its bimonthly publication, The Record, will end its run next 12 months. At one time, it had a circulation of 10,000. Today this stands at only one,700.
The end of those publications marks a major shift in how Scotland’s churches will communicate and interact with their congregations moving forward.
 After nearly a century and a half in print, Life and Work, the Church of Scotland’s monthly magazine, will stop publication later...){kind=link}