Baptist & Reflector
Change has been a key word for the Baptist and Reflector in 2017. In May, the B&R offices
relocated with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, to our new building just off Interstate
65, south of Franklin. Despite the move, the paper did not miss a publication date.
The Baptist and Reflector also had a major change in staffing. Connie Davis Bushey retired
at the end of May after 32 years on staff. Connie was well known throughout Tennessee
for her writing and photography. She will be missed. In July, David Dawson joined the
Communications Team as communications specialist. He will assume many writing and
editorial functions for the B&R while also being heavily involved in social media and other
communications tasks.
The paper is mailed to nearly 22,500 homes 26 weeks a year, reaching a potential
readership of about 56,000 people.
In addition, the B&R website has grown since it was introduced in late 2015. We have had
more than 191,000 user engagements over the past 12 months in people who have gone to
the website to read articles.
The goal of the paper is to "tell the story of Tennessee Baptists" through news, feature
stories and photographs. As in the past, the paper this year placed a major emphasis on
what Tennessee Baptists are doing to reach the world for Christ by focusing on stories
related to missions and evangelism. This year the paper has focused on timely topics such
as domestic violence that impact Tennessee Baptists and our churches.
The Baptist and Reflector continued to utilize social media tools in 2017 such as Twitter.
Editor Lonnie Wilkey regularly writes a blog that provides information for Tennessee
Baptists between print issues. The paper also has a Facebook page that will have more
prominence with the addition of David Dawson to the Communications Team.
The staff monitors trends that could affect Tennessee Baptists and prints those stories to
keep readers informed. In addition, opinions, both from the editor and others, are printed
and are intended to make readers think, reflect, and act.
The paper continually seeks to enlist new subscribers and will be offering a simplified
subscription plan in the near future. We need more churches to send the paper to their
leadership such as deacons, Sunday School teachers, etc. For more information about
subscription plans, call the Baptist & Reflector office at 1-800-558-2090 or (615) 371-
2003.
Lonnie Wilkey, Editor
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