In January 1970, the first issue of the Ensign appeared, replacing a previous LDS magazine, the venerable Improvement Era. As just announced, the Ensign is being phased out, more or less replaced by the current international magazine, the Liahona. I think the Ensign goes out with a whimper, not a bang. People don’t read magazines much anymore, much less rather dull church magazines. So they’ll save a few bucks and just print more copies of the Liahona in English. For me, it’s a big meh I guess.
So what do you think? Anything you’re going to miss about the Ensign? Anyone ever served as a Ward Magazine Rep (do they even do this anymore?) with some insider stories to share? What do you make of renaming The New Era to be For the Strength of Youth? Are you surprised they didn’t rename The Friend to be You’re Going to Serve a Mission Someday, Aren’t You?
Wheat & Tares 
I’m glad we’re not using the word Era in the name of any magazines now. It’s an uncommonly used word, and I often forgot what it meant as a teen. The meaning was lost to me, and probably others.
I expect it will be more efficient (i.e. save money) for the Church to merge the Ensign with the Liahona. Personally, I gave up on it years ago as a source of knowledge or inspiration and started perusing the topics as loose indicators of problems the GA’s are dealing with but are unwilling to directly acknowledge as problems. The July 2020 issue of the Ensign may be the best recently example of this.
I haven’t read a church magazine in years and years so this affects me not at all. But I hate the For the Strength of Youth change. It’s not surprising: they’ve been beating kids over the head with that dreadful pamphlet for years. So now they can beat them over the head with an entire magazine.
On my mission I found a treasure trove of old (70s and 80s) Ensigns. I found articles written by High Nibley, an article about the first printed bible, and an 8 article series about the history of the Bible which was fascinating. I’d read the Ensign / Liahona if it had stimulating articles like that.
I let my Church magazine subscriptions lapse years ago. I’ll occasionally browse an online Ensign article from time to time, but I find that the quality and substance of writing is continually in decline, and I don’t regret not getting the magazines in print. When I read the New Era as a teen in the 90s, I quickly picked up on the fact that the general authority “messages” were just recycled and repackaged conference talks, and I found it disingenuous even then.
As a missionary, I came across a cache of church magazines from the 1940s in the University of Michigan LDS Institute library. The mags had ads in them. I remember one for Beneficial Life (keeping it in the family – er, portfolio) – the slogan was “We give thanks for the miracle of life insurance that shares the burdens of the few on the shoulders of the many.”
Like most, I care not a whit about the changes to the church magazines. I am, however, flabbergasted by the fact that this is a topic the church is spending valuable resources on. It appears as though many hours were spent on the PR rollout of these “adjustments” (my heart sinks everytime I hear that word now). This is the most important need in the church currently?
I don’t know, I think renaming the magazine “For the Strength of Youth” makes it sound exactly like that pamphlet! Like the magazine is now going to consist merely of statements of what the youth should and should not do, probably with an emphasis on “modesty.” Ugh.
I haven’t read the church magazines for years now, and I don’t miss them a bit. As others have mentioned, they are so dumbed-down that the articles now seem to consist only of a few statements. I looked at one article online recently and was left thinking, “That’s it? That’s the entire article? It was less than a paragraph long!” And just now, I looked at the July 2020 Ensign. Here’s an article entitled “How is God both just and merciful?” It seems to consist mostly of an image of Christ with a few statements, justice on one side and mercy on the other. One of the statements is “Resurrection is both just and merciful.” Yes, that is true, but the title promised me an explanation of HOW God is both just and merciful. Where’s the detailed exposition of how this all works? Not very satisfactory to me!
“Are you surprised they didn’t rename “The Friend” to be “You’re Going to Serve a Mission Someday, Aren’t You?””
OMG that’s hysterical!!!
I only used The Ensign for the first article that we were supposed to use for doing Home Teaching Lessons.
Right on, Toad, ENSIGN in late 70’s was wonderful. Slowly the authoritarians weaseled their way in, and that was that: unreadable hogwash – to this day. Reflective of so much in our enduringly Bensonian institution.
The way I feel about the Church magazines today represents a perfect storm in which old media combined with new watered-down propaganda equals irrelevance. What I mean my “old media” is that magazines, even good ones, are being replaced by on-line content. Is there anyone here who still reads Time or Newsweek or US News and World Report? And what I mean by watered-down propaganda is that the content of these magazines is horribly unimportant. I wonder if it was always that way or have I grown old and cynical?
As to 1: Terrible idea.
As to 2: Well played, sir, well played. You win the LDS internet today.
All I have to say is that I *only* ever read the Ensign for the articles. I *never* looked at the pictures of the hugely, uh, engorged, um steeples, eagerly thrusting their way up toward heaven!
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Dave F., I’m sure they’ll save a few bucks by merging the Ensign into the Liahona. It might be nice for the American membership to read some articles that relate to England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and English-speaking African saints as well. I can’t say I’ve ever actually read the Liahona, although I did read L’Etoile (the star) as a missionary in France.
Toad, yes, the Ensign’s best years were the 1970s and 1980s. It’s been downhill ever since.
Andy and tubes, thanks. I’m not sure my sense of humor always comes across as intended.
Ziff, this is why we can’t have nice things.
Ziff, if I could like that comment a hundred times, I would