Church moves to three international magazines starting in 2021
Aug 14, 2020, 11:58 AM
SALT LAKE CITY — Changes are coming to the monthly magazines published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The church’s First Presidency announced on Friday that in beginning in January, it will replace its four current magazines with three international publications.
“Church magazines are a valuable resource for learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ and feeling a sense of belonging in His Church,” the First Presidency said in a letter to its members. “Our desire is that members everywhere will subscribe and welcome this faith-sustaining influence into their hearts and homes.”
Currently, the church publishes three magazines in English: Ensign (for adults), New Era (for youth), Friend (for children) and the Liahona (internationally), which is translated into many languages and contains articles for the whole family.
With this announced change, the church says these resources will be condensed into three global magazines: Friend (for children), For the Strength of Youth (for youth) and the Liahona (for adults). The change, the church says, will simplify their content and help them share a more unified message.
128-year-old Salt Lake Temple time capsule opened
Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, the General President of the church’s Young Women program says the change is something she expects to help youth across the world.
“I love the name of the ‘For the Strength of Youth’ magazine because the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ are strong. The youth around the world are all getting the same magazine, in their own language, with content created under the direction of the First Presidency just for them. They will find answers to their questions. The truth of their divinity as sons and daughters of loving heavenly parents will be renewed.”
The church says that in addition to a change in the names, the magazines will undergo changes in the formatting and printing of the publications.
“For example, print pages for adult English readers will be reduced while members who read languages that currently have translations in only one print magazine per year will now be able to receive a print magazine every other month,” the statement said.
Languages
The church say that factors like the availability of translators and the number of subscribers will affect the frequency of publishing in certain languages.
Beginning in January, the church says that the new global magazines will be available in digital and print formats monthly in 23 languages. They include: Cebuano, Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, and Ukrainian.
The church will also have bi-monthly issues in print and digital available in some additional languages. They are: Albanian, Armenian, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Fijian, Greek, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kiribati, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Marshallese, Mongolian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swahili, Tahitian, and Vietnamese.
In addition to that, the church says they will publish selected content digitally in other languages. Those include: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chuukese, Efik, Fante, Georgian, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hindi (Fiji), Hmong, Igbo, Ilokano, Kinyarwanda, Kosraean, Laotian, Lingala, Malay, Maltese, Nepali, Palauan, Pohnpeian, S. Sotho, Serbian, Shona, Sinhala, Slovak, Tamil, Telugu, Tshiluba, Tswana, Turkish, Twi, Urdu, Xhosa, Yapese, Yoruba, and Zulu.
