[Bell Historians] Circulation history

[Robert Brown]

Thats really interrsting but to look at future trends there a number of key factors, firstly the age profile of ringers and we are heading in my opinion to a critical tipping point, as an example anslyse the average age of peal bands.

The other issue is social media.  I gave up taking the ringing world when the pile of unread copies became an inconvienience, most of what im interrsted in is available on line.  Linking that to the the point above I would thibk that the age range of private subscripes is above 60 or even 70.

Appreciate its a bit depressing but facing reality is the first step in moving forward

Robery

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________________________________
From: Bell-historians <bell-historians-bounces at lists.ringingworld.co.uk> on behalf of John Harrison <john at jaharrison.me.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2025 7:58:59 PM
To: Bell Historians <bell-historians at lists.ringingworld.co.uk>
Subject: [Bell Historians] Circulation history

I'm interested in how the circulation of Ringing World (and Bell News)
varied over the years?

So far I have established the rough post war rise and fall:

1950 -  5k
1960 - 5.5k
1970 - 6k
1980 - 5.5k
...
2000 - 3.8k
...
Today 2.5k (2k paper)

I found some earlier some indirect hints at numbers.  Throughout the
inter-war period Goldsmith appealed for more circulation, and in
particular for individual to have a subscription rather than taking one
copy up the tower.

* In 1921 he said:  'If only every-ringer affiliated to an association
could be induced to take an individual copy, the sale would be increased
more than three-fold'.

Assume that more than three fold means between 3 & 3.5 times, because for
more than 3.5 he would probably have said nearly four fold.

There are currently between 30k and 35k ringers.  In 1914 ODG membership
was 87% of what it is now and (based on my branch of ODG) had a similar
number after the war.  If that's representative of ringers as a whole then
there would have been between 25k and 30k ringers in 1921.

Combining the two figures suggests a circulation of between 7k and 10k
subscribers, well above the 1960 figure.

* There was a lot of discussion in the 1930s about the need to increase
the circulation.  The only figure mentioned was in 1932 he said that: 'the
additional circnlation that would be needed to enlarge  the paper ... was
at least 3,500 per week'.

The paper was 16 pages in 1932 so the minimum increase of 4 pages, would
be 25%.  But there are too many other variables to work back to the actual
circulation.

Any thoughts?

--
John Harrison - Bellringer at All Saints, Wokingham
Tower website: http://allsaintswokinghambells.org.uk

The Europeans invest to provide value.  The Anglo Saxons only invest to reduce costs. (Sir Alister Morton, Chairman of EuroTunnel)

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