Ad's in the bulletin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter waxwing
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

waxwing

Guest
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
our church bulletin has always had ads. that is how the bulletin gets paid for.
 
Ours too. As a matter of fact my company also supports the printing of our bulletin by placing an add on the back of the bulletin. Good way to support local businesses who support your parish.
 
like the others have said, placing ads at the back of a church bulletin is how the church pays for the production of the bulletins. Without these ads, then the church would be spending more of the money from the weekly collections to make a bulletin.

It’s just like how newspapers uses advertising to pay for the cost of production and distribution.
 
This is true, the advertizing offsets the costs of printing [paper and copy costs] for the weekly bulletin…

It may be sad that we have to be creative in obtaining funds to provide a basic parish staple - the ‘family’ newsletter and calendar of events.

Do you realize that the attendance of our CEO Brethren [Christmas, Easter & Obituary] and the additional funds dropped into the collection plate at Christmas and Easter are used to offset the ‘red’ in most parish ledger books that are common the rest of the year…???

We, as faithful Christians who attend Mass each Sunday should really be supporting the needs of our parish through regular weekly or monthly donations, ending the ***need ***for extra sources of revenue like Bingo, Spaghetti dinners and advertizers in addition to the contribution of our marginal catholic family …then these sources of income could be used to invigorate the local parish by aiding the poor and homeless, spreading the Gospel and working for Social Justice…

Surprisingly enough this might bring in additional revenue…our CEO’s would want to come every Sunday to be part of a lively invigorating parish that is making a difference in the communities…a parish community alive in Christ and on fire for the Good News…this in turn would mean that more companies would want to reach this target audience - advertizing and being a part of the community life…🙂

Okay, I pinched myself and woke up 😃 , back to the reality of parish life…waiting for the bulletin add space to be sold out and …hey Christmas is just around the corner…I know because the TV blitzkrieg has started with the red and green and candy canes…:confused:
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
I’m sure that the churches you have attended in the past could indeed have been counted even if you have not done so, but I digress. I have also attended numerous churches, and except for parishes that were so small that the entire bulletin was a single sided sheet photocopied or mimeographed at the church, those bulletins have also all run advertisements.
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
Yeah that’s how they pay for the bulletin. We’ve always had ad’s as well. A lot of them parishioner’s businesses.
 
Our previous parish has 5,000+ registered FAMILIES. Printing the bulletin for even a fraction of that many people, when sometimes (for some strange reason) members of the same family will each take a copy, those who are visitors to the Church all take a copy, and some bulletins might be mailed for whatever reason to the homebound, etc. That is an enormous expense that not very many parishes can afford.

I’d much rather that a parish pay for the bulletin through advertising and put other money toward caring for the poor or other needfull parishoners.

~Liza
 
I don’t think I have ever seen a bulletin which did **not **have those ads. It’s very common around here.
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
Goodness. I’ve hardly been to a church where I didn’t see this. Usually it’s the way the parish pays for printing the bulletin…parishoners or local businesses pay for the ads.
 
All the ones I’ve seen have ads on the back page. I think it helps pay for the bulletin.
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
yes this is how parishes pay the expense of printing the bulletin. most of the advertisers are parishioners who own or operate local businesses or professional people, the rest are businesses or professionals who seek the patronage of parishioners. the same advertisers often pay for the annual calendar many parishes distribute
 
waxwing said:
Went to different church today and noticed the back page of the bulletin was filled with advertisements. Is this normal? I have been to countless churches and this was the first time I noticed these ad’s on the bulletin.

Thanks
ww
Click to expand...
Yep. Does that bother you? Never bugs me. 🙂
puzzleannie said:
yes this is how parishes pay the expense of printing the bulletin. most of the advertisers are parishioners who own or operate local businesses or professional people, the rest are businesses or professionals who seek the patronage of parishioners.
Click to expand...
“this is how some parishes pay the expense of printing the bulletin.” My own does not.
 
My home parish doesn’t do this, because they do the bulletins in-house. (They have a state-of-the-art in-house publishing system that would make the publishing house I used to work for in the early '90s green with envy.) The parish where I work actually has more ads than announcements. It depends on the culture of the parish, I think.

The people at my home parish would be embarrassed to do that kind of fundraising, because they like to think of themselves as good stewards - the parish where I work doesn’t think that way at all, though; they see the financial needs of the Church as being “someone else’s problem.” 🤷
 
we also print our bulletin in-house for less than farming it out, but still significant expense in terms of paper, ink, contract on the machines that print and fold it, and of course staff time to prepare it. the ads pay most but not all of this cost and overhead.

in fact we print many things in house that other parishes purchase from publishers, including CCD, sacramental prep and RCIA resources. but they are not free just because we do them here. I have a budget factor for instance on per copy cost depending on what paper is used etc.

I might also suggest that the ads provide an opportunity to support parishioners who uphold CAtholic values in their businesses, such as pro-life doctors for instance. another benefit is that selling the ads provides a vehicle for contacting parishioners and for the volunteers doing the solicitation to contribute to the parish.

most of our parishioners would rather pay the cost in this way rather than diverting donations from more direct support of ministry .

I note also that our parish website is hosted by a Catholic company and that the ads on the main site and links, as well as ads sold locally, pay that cost as well.
 
Yep. Does that bother you? Never bugs me.

Bother me?..Well, it surprised me, I wasn’t jumping for joy, just like I don’t jump for joy when I see the billboards dotting the highway to the mountains or the lake etc. Church is several things to me and one of them is its a refuge from the outside world trying to sell me something. With that said I understand the rational many of you folks expressed - if money has to be saved in the bulletin so it can go towards the poor, spreading the word than so be it.

There’s a larger parish in my city that doesn’t print ad’s. And like I mentioned earlier I’ve been to quite a few churches in the past and never noticed these ad’s.

ww
 
I understand what you mean. I guess it just depends on how any particular parish chooses to handle that expense. 🤷
 
Actually, I rather like having the ads. When I am in need of a particular service, I check to see if any parishioners are offering what I need before I look in the Yellow Pages. I’d rather do business with other parishioners who in turn will hopefully donate more as they make more money.
 
CarrieH said:
Actually, I rather like having the ads. When I am in need of a particular service, I check to see if any parishioners are offering what I need before I look in the Yellow Pages. I’d rather do business with other parishioners who in turn will hopefully donate more as they make more money.
Click to expand...
Likewise, sometimes when I let a vendor know that I was considering his business because their bulletin advertisement, sometimes I have been offered a fellow-parishioner discount.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top