After nearly a century and a half in print, Life and Work, the Church of Scotland’s monthly magazine, will cease publication later this year due to financial pressures and dwindling readership.
The announcement was made during the Church’s General Assembly in Edinburgh, where delegates were informed that maintaining the 146-year-old publication had become financially unsustainable.
Although Life and Work operates with editorial independence, the publication has long served as a staple of the Church’s communication.
Editor Lynne McNeil, who has led the magazine for 23 years, cited industry-wide challenges and a climate of “diminishing returns” for print media to the BBC.
“Life and Work loses sales every time a church closes,” she noted, referencing the current weekly average of 68,160 churchgoers - down significantly from pre-pandemic figures of around 88,000.
Rev Jim Stewart, who chairs the magazine’s advisory committee, told the BBC that Life and Work had played an important part in “enhancing and strengthening” the Church's presence in Scottish life.
As the Kirk grapples with wider issues of membership decline and church closures, discussions are already underway for a potential successor to the magazine. It is anticipated that proposals will be considered at the next General Assembly.
The Church of Scotland is not the only Church to discontinue its magazine after the Free Church of Scotland announced that its bimonthly publication, The Record, will end its run next year. At one time, it had a circulation of 10,000. Today this stands at only 1,700.
The end of these publications marks a significant shift in how Scotland’s churches will communicate and engage with their congregations moving forward.
