Another week, another failed magazine. But while the collapse of print media is hardly news, this demise is different.
Today’s Christian Woman was founded in 1978 to reach evangelical Christian women who wanted a publication that reflected their values. They didn’t want the crass sex talk of Cosmopolitan. They didn’t want the mainstream relationship advice of Redbook. They wanted inspirational stories of faith and Bible-based help in managing their children, friendships and marriages. Anita Bryant graced the first issue’s cover. “It was as close to what people were looking for as anything,” remembers its founding editor, Dale Hanson Bourke. Last week, TCW’s parent company, Christianity Today International (CTI), announced that the magazine’s September/October issue would be its last. “I feel like a dinosaur,” Bourke moaned in an e-mail.