BellBoard

Ringing World Survey - Thank You

Last March, following several years of financial losses and declining circulation, the Board laid its problems out for you and started a discussion about the future of The Ringing World. We proposed to charge for printing performances but the ensuing discussion led to our changing this to asking for a 50p per ringer donation with peals and quarters. You have responded magnificently; donations are up 83% on the previous year and we have turned losses into a substantial surplus for 2015.

We opened a survey, now closed, in December and have received just under 3,500 responses split 50/50 between subscribers and non-subscribers. This is a quite remarkable number of responses and, together with many very supportive remarks in the responses, indicates a strong interest in the future of the publication.

The surplus allows us to take immediate steps to provide editorial support, starts to rebuild our reserves and takes the pressure off the board for immediate drastic action. On our initial budget projections for 2015 and 2016, we would have run out of reserves by the middle of this year and would have had to start an orderly closedown. Cutting the budgets and revising the minimum reserve requirements were part of the solution but your donations have been the main factor.

The surplus also proves a possible business model but, as many of you have pointed out, it is not necessarily a reliable or sustainable model and coupled with our declining circulation (the 2015 decline was about twice the long-term rate) and the age profile of our subscribers (about which there is more in our survey analysis which starts this week in the paper*) needs careful thought. Some strong opinions have been voiced against donations for performances and there is a clear rift in the exercise about this. The board meets on 20th of this month to consider the future of the business and will be basing its deliberations on what you have told us in our survey that you want us to do.

Please do continue the donations and, on behalf of the board, accept my heartfelt thanks for your financial support and encouragement. We shall face our challenges with renewed vigour!

Nigel Orchard, Chairman of the RW Board

(*The survey analysis will also be published on the RW websites)