Bishop George Luxton
We cannot talk about the Anglican Journal and the diocesan newspaper network without a big nod of appreciation to Bishop George Luxton from the diocese of Huron.
In 1957, armed with a communications strategy for the church at national and local levels, he headed to Ottawa to meet with Eric Cairns, the postmaster general. There, he presented his idea for mailing diocesan newspapers together with the national newspaper, then called Canadian Churchman. Cairns agreed to a postal subsidy that mailed the newspapers at a deep discount.
Two years later, in 1959, Canadian Churchman was produced along with six diocesan newspapers, each published by the diocesan bishop. As distribution moved from bulk mailings to individual mailings, circulation jumped from 5,000 to 65,000 readers.
The editor of Canadian Churchman, Gordon Baker, promoted the newspaper network vigorously. More and more dioceses came on board and circulation tripled to 200,000 readers.
Today, the Anglican Journal and the 22 diocesan newspapers it carries reach 170,000 parishioners across Canada for less than 10 cents per copy.