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September 1940 edition, thougb still
eight pages. It stepped up, temporari–
ly, to 12 pages in March-April 1942;
to 16 pages with the first issue in
1947; permanently to 16 in October
1951; to 24 in April 1956; to 32 in
November 1958; to 40 in June 1961
and 48 in February 1962.
By J uly 1967
The Plain Truth
had
become a full-color, worldwide mag–
azine with a circulation of
1,000,000.
Meanwhile, foreign editions had
been created, as the Work and the
Worldwide Church of God began to
spread from the United States into
other na tions around the world.
There are regional editions in the En–
glisb language reaching the British–
European- West African areas,
southern A frica, and the l ndia–
Australasian regions , as well as
Spanish, German, French and Dutch
editions reaching out where those
languages are spoken.
In the late sixties, the editorial pol–
icy of the magazine turned toward
more articles of a secular type. The
reason for this was not to desert the
Word of God. Rather, it was an at–
tempt to attract the favorable atten–
tion of more of those people who had,
or thought they had, no interest in,
nor time nor patience for, "religion."
The Plain Truth
had something to
give- but you might be surprised
how hard it sometimes is to give
something away. Once people's at–
tention had been gotten, their minds
prepared to receive the message, it
could be givcn to them.
Another magazine,
Tomorrow's
World,
was created and published
from 1969 to 1972 for those who
knew they wanted the salid biblical
diet; in 1972 it was again merged
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1979
with its parent publication .
The
Plain Truth,
continuing in the at–
tempt to reach the broader reading
public and stay abreast of late-break–
ing news stories and their relation to
prophecy, became for one year, in
1975, a tabloid newspaper, published
every two weeks. T his was again
changed when experience proved the
present magazine formal to be best.
To Give Away the Truth
The World Tomorrow
broadcast
began just one month earlier than
The Plain Truth.
During the month
of January 1934, the weekly half–
hour broadcasts otfered
The Plain
Truth
on an "already-paid subscrip–
tion" basis. That means that oth–
ers-co-workers with the publishers
of the magazine- freely paid the
price of the subscription. That was
how
The Plain Truth
was, and is,
supported. There has never been a
subscription price; there has never
been an income from the sale of ad–
vertising space.
The most recent great attempt to
give away the truth is by means of
newsstand distribution. That means
that thousands upon thousands of
copies to be taken free of charge by
the public-a present grand total of
one million for this month- are
placed on newsstands with other ma–
jar magazines. Of course, we have to
pay a small fee for their handling,
but
The Plain Truth
is thus assured
an equal opportunity, nestled among
the best-known and most prestigious
magazines of the world, to compete
for potentially interested readers'
attention.
After picking up and reading a
copy of
The Plain Truth
from a
newsstand, a small but predictable
percentage of people write in to have
their names placed on the mai ling list
and to have- free of charge- further
magazines delivered more conve–
niently to their own homes.
lt
hasn't always been easy to get
uninterested businessmen to handle
The Plain Truth.
Many distributors
and news dealers balk, at first, at the
very idea of di stributing a free maga–
zine, especially a "religious" one.
Perhaps not typical, but far from un–
common, was the first and immedi–
ate reply of the representative of a
majar Swedish distributor when ap–
proached by our magazine: "Over
my dead body!" His chain now han–
dles
The Plain Truth.
The maga–
zine's acceptance almost everywhere
speaks well for the quality of maga–
zine it really is.
The Plain Truth and You
How can we, the
Plain Truth
statf,
interpret the trends in international
atfairs? And why do so many of the
ideas we expound in
The Plain Truth
ditfer so widely from so many accept–
ed dogmas?
We have an infallible guide- and
we make no etfort to hide it- the
Holy Bible and its message of God.
There are chapters and chapters in
the Bible on prophecy-history writ–
ten in advance. Bible prophecy may
be compared to "a light that shineth
in a dark place" (11 Peter 1: 19). And
there is an inexhaustible store of
equally valuable guidance in moral,
doctrinal and personal-living mat–
ters. Probably most important of all
is the missing dimension in human
knowledge and motivation, the
unique and awesome potential- and
ultimate destiny- of bumankind .
Look for many more articles on these
subjects, which we expound contin–
ually in
The Plain Truth.
Never forget that our editors and
writers- we, the magazine's statf–
are vitally concerned about
you
as an
individual. We're conce·rned about
your hopes and dreams. We want to
give you hope.
The Plain Truth
exists to help
its readers. It exists to help you. And
so we would like to hear from
you.
What problems do you seek to un–
derstand better? What is your
greatest area of interest? We want to
hear from you about what you most
need to know.
We hope no one will cancel a
subscription simply because they
are not in full agreement with an
article they have read .
lf
you can
only read in
The Plain Truth
what
you already know, believe in and
agree with-why bother reading it?
You can't possibly learn anything
new!
lf
you disagree with what we
teach, why not write and tell us
why?
We' re willing to read and lis–
ten.
Your letters will be most wel–
come.
o
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