Good News & A New Policy

The recent across-the-board U.S. postal rate increases have been a huge financial strain for virtually all small Catholic publications, particularly for those, like the NOR, that rely solely on the support of readers, and not on foundation money. As you know, we have been trying to raise funds in order to withstand the postal rate hikes that have crippled, and even killed, some members of the Catholic publishing fraternity. (For details see our October 2007 editorial, “Opportunity & Crisis.”)

We are pleased to report that we have reached our fundraising goal, and even slightly exceeded it. The response from you, our readers, has been overwhelming, as seen in the exceptionally long list of New Oxford Review Associates published in this year’s March issue. The response was so great that we took the extra, unique measure of listing all those who’ve donated in response to our fundraising appeal — including, in our April issue, the list of those who gave donations that didn’t meet the criteria for membership in the NOR Associates, and whom we’ve dubbed Friends of the New Oxford Review.

Our most heartfelt thanks go out to you, our readers, for your immense outpouring of generous support, which in some cases was offered with great sacrifice. Without your benevolence, our apostolate would long ago have been buried six feet under.

As a result, we can now happily say that for the time being we will not have to resort to increasing our subscription rates. By keeping our rates low, compared to other monthly publications, readers will continue to receive the most “bang for their buck,” and those with low and fixed incomes will continue to be able to receive the NOR. As we stated in our October 2007 editorial, we do not want to abandon any portion of our readership, as long as we can help it.