Comments on: The War Cry

By: HilaryCW

HilaryCW — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 01:58:00 +0000

The War Cry seems to appeal to a pretty limited audience. I did not notice anyone at the corps take a War Cry. Most took the Priorty and the Good News and YS, but not the War Cry. It seems antiquated. When I was doing social work at the corps I always put one in the bags of the clients, but they never took that particular magazine on their own.
I also look at it from a finacial standpoint (Being in accounting) - and its disappointing that a case of 100 War Cry mags come to the corps and sit on the shelf. There's no outlet for them right now. I'm sure there are some corps that still use them in some way, but it doesn't seem cost effective when we have other mags that appeal to a specific audience.

HOWEVER, in saying all of that, I've enjoyed many an article in the War Cry and I'm not suggesting that the whole thing be scrapped. I'm putting my weight behind the comments made to reevaluate the audience, modernize the graphics and tweek the content a bit to fit a more general audience (which I think is what the WC is going for to begin with).

Just a thought or two.

And as a side note: we will miss you terribly when you leave. USA East is synonymous with "the Knaggs"

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 15:07:00 +0000

I’d love to see some really neat graphic changes happend with the Young Salvationist as well. I love the Editor personally, but that magazine seems to have just taken the format of the War Cry, made the font larger and dumbed down the content.

By: Jim Knaggs

Jim Knaggs — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 23:11:00 +0000

These are valid and valuable comments. Thank you for your appropriate approaches. The editorial team at the WC want the same thing that is being mentioned here. Let’s see what happens.

By: Neatr_natr

Neatr_natr — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 19:20:00 +0000

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this question. As a person trained in graphic design I have to be honest, I have no desire to read the War Cry. This comes from a magazine junky, I eat up free subscriptions on the internet. I do think the people who put it out are hardworking and I have seen some great covers, but there is something about the visual makeup of it that just doesn’t ring out for me to read it. Now the other publications, Good News and Priority I do want to read, the one section which is open to lay people is something I look forward to and one article that I still think about asked “what ever happened to church growth”.

We are on the cusp of a change in publications, the internet may phase out the magazine and newspaper. I think the audience definitely needs defined, there is a point when too general is counterproductive. There are some great conversations going on on the Blogs, Yours, Larry Ashcrafts, Tim’s, why don’t we find a way to incorporate these and items that have mass appeal.

By: Dave Anderson

Dave Anderson — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 13:05:00 +0000

I agree with susan defining your audience and having the War Cry reflect that is a great discussion to have. If the that conversation leads to a more evangelical focus I think the next issue to address is distrabution. The magazine needs to be more outside the corps walls and in to place where people are.

By: Larry

Larry — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:13:00 +0000

I have seen some good articles in the War Cry. I have seen it less as an inspirational or evangelical (whatever your definition of those two words are), but have seen it as a pretty effective way of telling the story of the Army.

I do like Susan’s ideas. I think they have great merit. I would also think the War Cry should have some interviews with some of the leaders of our time. I would love to see people like Jim Wallis, Bill Hybels, Bono, or authors like Donald Miller either interviewed or writing a series of articles.