Singing News
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The Singing News is an American magazine which focuses on the Southern Gospel music industry.
Inspired by the Gospel Music Association’s newsletter (Good News) first published in January 1969, J. G. Whitfield started his own publication called The Singing News just five months later. The print run of the May 1969 issue was 100,000 copies, and it was given away for free. Within a few years, Whitfield was selling subscriptions for the magazine at $3.00 per year, but the vast majority of the 300,000 copies printed each month were mailed free to potential concert goers in exchange for advertising by major concert promoters.
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[edit] Song charts
One of the more significant accomplishments of the Singing News in the early 1970s was the establishment of a monthly chart that ranked the most popular Southern Gospel songs for each month. Although the chart would be criticized in later years for lagging behind actual airplay trends, it was an innovative move for the industry in the 1970s in that it placed a stronger emphasis on the popularity of individual songs. The Singing News chart is still recognized as the Southern Gospel industry standard today.
[edit] Management
Under the guidance of chief editor Jerry Kirksey and publisher Maurice Templeton in later years, the Singing News grew from a basic newsletter format to a full-fledged professional magazine by the 1990s. With colorful ads from all aspects of Southern Gospel music, the content included articles about artists, concert schedules, editorials and opinion columns. By 1998, the Singing News had more than 200,000 subscribers.
Salem Communications took over Singing News in January 2006. The magazine now bears "The Voice Of Southern Gospel Music" as a sub-heading.
[edit] Cross-marketing
Over the years, the magazine has been successfully branded and cross-marketed within the Southern Gospel industry. The Crossroads family of record labels introduced a series of soundtracks during the 1990s bearing the Singing News name and logo, for example. Most major recording artists in Southern Gospel sell subscriptions to the magazine at their concert events.
[edit] The Fan Awards
The most often discussed recurring topic for subscribers is probably the annual Singing News Fan Awards. The magazine compiles three rounds of voting by subscribers each year. One night of the National Quartet Convention is then devoted to the presentation of the awards. In addition to the presentations and acceptance speeches, the nominees for Favorite Song typically perform their nominated songs for the event.
