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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 10, 1985
here, and one in Tonga, as well as on TV in Tonga. We are currently running
a series of advertisements in the NEW ZEALAND LISTENER to direct people's
attention to the broadcast. Responses increased dramatically in March,
which was the biggest month for radio responses since 1978.
From Mr. Carn Catherwood During the month of February, incoming mail to the
Italian Department tapered off somewhat to 7,285, due to the fact that the
response cycle to the previous month's major advertising was drawing to a
close. Nevertheless, this figure represents a 194% increase over the same
month last year! Regular mail, keeping stride with our growing subscriber
list, has also increased a few percentage points over the previous months.
Also in February the first copies of Lesson 3 of the Bible correspondence
course in Italian became available, of which we mailed out 713. Our list of
donors has been growing steadily and had reached 252 by February's end.
Mr. Mike Caputo conducted a visiting tour in February covering Rome and the
northern portion of Italy. He was accompanied by his wife, Leonilda. (Mr.
Caputo, a native Italian more recently from Toronto, is currently a full
time student at Ambassador College.)
He contacted 17 people during the
trip. Of those, about ten showed a genuine interest in being baptized. The
remainder are good potential candidates for baptism at some later date.
Overall, the tour was very successful and encouraging. Most new PMs are the
result of viewing the TV program and consequent reading of the Italian
language magazine and booklets.
Though the incoming mail figure for March was lower than February, the
year-to-date increase as compared to the same three-month period in 1984
was 28%. A total of 1,785 booklets left our mailing room in March. We also
received shipments of the first Italian copies of Lesson 4 of the corres
pondence course and the reprint "Is All Animal Flesh Good for Food?" Due to
renewals, the PURA VERITA subscription list dropped slightly to 75,200 at
month's end.
For the last year and a half we have been on TeleMonteCarlo, broadcasting
the English "WORLD TOMORROW" program with Italian subtitles. TeleMonte
Carlo (TMC) is located in the tiny country of Monaco and reaches Northern
Italy quite well, as well as much of the western coast, including Rome. The
response has been good and very encouraging.
In March another dramatic media breakthrough occurred. The owner of one of
the three largest independent TV stations in Italy, known as Retequattro,
contacted us through the English office, offering us the opportunity to air
on his station! The offer was brought to Mr. Armstrong, who directed that
we should accept. Retequattro has five times the Italian viewing audience
that TMC has and through a network is seen 1n virtually every part of Italy.
(The broadcast will, by the way, continue to air on TMC.) Retequattro will
begin broadcasting "The WORLD TOMORROW" in early May, and we are expecting
a sizeable increase in the number of responses as a result. We will keep
you updated on developments.
A two-page ad in the Italian version of READER'S DIGEST is being run in May.
In addition, an ad will be appearing in the weekly news magazine EUROPEO
about the same time. Also in May, we will be doing another direct mail
shot, this time consisting of 250,000 letters to potential readers through
out Italy.