January 23, 2009
‘Message Sunday’ kicks off annual subscription drive
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Individuals and families are being invited this week to become new subscribers to the Message; subscribers are being asked to renew their subscriptions to the official newspaper of the Diocese of Evansville.
The Message is published every Friday (with the exception of one week at Christmas). Six issues each year are mailed to every registered household in the diocese — more than 32,400 homes.
Check the address label
This mailing pattern leads to some questions at the circulation desk, staffed by Steve Halbig and Diane Csukas. Since the Message is mailed to subscribers every Friday and to every home six times a year, some parishioners are uncertain about their status: “I get the Message occasionally. Am I a subscriber?” “I sent in my subscription fee last year. When does my subscription expire?”
Many of the answers to questions about subscriptions are now answered regularly as part of the address label.
If your address label includes the request, “Please Subscribe Now,” you are receiving only six issues each year. A full subscription will bring the Message into your home every Friday.
The address label of a faithful subscriber includes an expiration date — for example, after your city, state and ZIP code, it may read, “Expires: 02/28/09.” If your subscription expires in the next month or two, we hope you will take this opportunity to renew now.
How much does it cost?
It is $24 a year. That’s the same as last year (and the year before that and the year before that). We are doing our best to keep the cost of subscribing as low as possible, despite increasing expenses over the years for newsprint and postage.
Who pays for those ‘free’ issues?
They are not free. Contributions to parishes and payments to the Catholic Parishes Campaign pay for the expenses related to sending the six diocesan-wide issues to all individuals and families registered in parishes of the diocese.
Food for thought
and maybe a free dinner
Each issue of the Message includes news and information, opinion and commentary, a variety of items selected to inform, inspire and entertain.
Additionally during each week through February, names will be selected at random from new and renewing subscribers, to receive free dinners at the Cross-Eyed Cricket in Evansville or at the Black Buggy restaurants in Washington or Evansville.
How do I subscribe?
How do I renew my subscription?
Use the envelope in this issue, or the envelope in your parish packet, or any envelope you can mark with the words “the Message.”
Drop the envelope in your parish collection basket. Just make sure it contains your name and address, along with the fee of $24.
Or mail your envelope, along with the fee, to the Message, P.O. Box 4169, Evansville, IN 47724.
But I have another question . . .
Contact Steve or Diane at the Message, (812) 424-5536 or toll-free (800) 637-1731. Email Diane at dcsukas@evansville-diocese.org.
E-mail Steve at shalbig@evansville-diocese.org
Steve and Diane are always happy to help in any way they can.