Joel Belz, Founder and Chairman, World Magazine
World Magazine, launched in March 1986, has a weekly paid circulation of 140,000, according to Joel Belz, Founding Chairman of the newsweekly magazine and CEO of God’s World Publications Inc., in Asheville, N.C. World’s is a weekly publication whose mix of news and commentary targets what Belz calls “thinking evangelical Christians.” It was preceded in 1981 by publications aimed at school children, and modeled after the old Weekly Reader and Scholastic magazines. These titles now have a combined circulation of 200,000. Early Edition and Top Story are included under the “For Kids” section of World’s web site, www.worldmag.com.Q. Hollywood seems to have found religion -- ranging from the Joan of Arcadia, Touched By an Angel and Revelations TV series to the Left Behind novels to Passion of the Christ and The Da Vinci Code. Why the upsurge in interest in Christian-themed subject matter? At the same time, some in Hollywood and entertainment seem to denigrate Christianity.A. The major media are finally, finally catching up, waking up to where their audience is. But they also have to be careful about making Christianity a whipping boy. They came close with Mel Gibson and his film Passion of the Christ.
Q. Lots of magazine titles have spawned TV or cable programs. Do you have any interest in going the spin-off route?A. We talk about it from time to time. We'd like to do news or documentaries. I'm frankly embarrassed about most Christian television. Q. There's been a lot of talk lately about the era of evening network TV news being passé in today's 24-hour cable news world. What about the print side? Do you see any major changes or trends for the newsweekly magazine genre in the near future? A. Not in the immediate future. I read about eight daily newspapers - I'm partial to the printed page. But I don't expect my children or my grandchildren to get their news that way. And even I don't always get my news that way either. Print media don't have a great opportunity to break news anymore, but they do have a great opportunity to explain what the news means.Q. The plan to expand daylight savings time, as of 2007, seems to have stirred a lot of debate. How do you feel about the plan? A. I worry there'll be less time to read. I never thought about campaigning against it, but we do sacrifice a good bit of those studious hours when people used to buckle down to improve themselves.
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