(1874– ; monthly; PPPA ; 1965 circulation, 265,000; file, lacking vol. 17, 1891, in Pacific Press). A journal subtitled “The World’s Prophetic Monthly; a Magazine of Christian Living, Presenting the Bible as the Word of God and Jesus Christ as Man’s Redeemer and Coming King.”
The Signs of the Times ( The was later dropped from the title) was founded as a weekly in 1874 at Oakland, California, by James White, who had twice been president of the General Conference (1865–1867 and 1869–1871). In 1873, during a vacation in the Rockies, White had conceived the idea of issuing a publication on the Pacific Coast similar to the Review and Herald, published at Battle Creek, Michigan, although there were fewer than 500 Seventh-day Adventists in California at that time. Encouraged by his wife, Ellen, he issued the first number of eight pages, 17¼" x 11¾" (44 cm. x 30 cm.) in size, on June 4, 1874, in Oakland.
The purpose of the new journal was indicated in an editorial note in the second issue, where James White stated that Signs of the Times was “to be not only an expositor of the prophecies, a report of the signs of our times, but also a family, religious and general newspaper for the household.” In the July 23, 1874, issue he wrote: “Through The Signs of the Times we wish to erect thousands of pulpits more especially in the Pacific Coast States and Territories, where we can appeal to the people weekly . . . upon the exhaustless themes . . . necessary to a fitness to receive the dear Saviour at His second advent.
“The subscription price was $2.00 a year to those who choose to pay a subscription price and free to all others as far as the paper is sustained by the donations of liberal friends of the cause.”
The first seven issues, between June 4 and Oct. 22, 1874, carried on the masthead the name of James White as editor and proprietor. Then having been reelected president of the General Conference, Aug. 10, 1874, he returned to Battle Creek; but he urged the California members to continue the journal. He proposed that they raise sufficient money to set up a publishing enterprise to print the Signs of the Times “under the supervision of the General Conference Committee.” His message was read to a camp meeting held in Yountville, California, Oct. 1–12, 1874, by G. I. Butler, the outgoing president of the General Conference. On the afternoon of Oct. 11 the camp meeting congregation—between 300 and 400 persons plus many weekend visitors—responded with great liberality. One brother started the list with $1,000, others followed, and gifts ranging from hundreds of dollars down to $10 totaled $19,414.
Alma E. McKibbin wrote of this historic meeting in the Signs of the Times of June 6, 1944, as follows: “When the people were asked to contribute to this contemplated enterprise, my father, looking about over the assembled congregation, said to himself: ‘These people will not give enough to buy the ink for the first edition.’ But the hands that went into the pockets of blue jeans or the folds of print dresses brought out not silver, but gold-gold coins and, more amazing still, unminted gold in bars and wedges. Soon thousands of dollars lay heaped upon the rostrum—the gifts of a humble people moved by a great faith.”
With the money raised, a lot was purchased at Twelfth and Castro streets in the city of Oakland, where a building was erected and named the Pacific Press, the first home of the Signs of the Times. Here the journal was printed until 1904, when the publishing house was moved to Mountain View, California.
In those early days, with the circulation around 3,400, the maximum salary for workers was $12 a week. By 1876 the carpetbag in which the papers originally were carried to the post office was replaced by a “large market basket,” as reported by W. E. Whalin, who worked for the Signs as a boy.
On Aug. 5, 1908, a new volume was begun and the format was changed to 7¼" x 9½" (18 cm. x 24 cm.) with the accompanying announcement: “The first number in each month will contain from 48 to 64 pages, with cover in colors. . . . Each following week in the month it will contain 16 pages.”
After seven issues of this sort, on Sept. 23, 1908, the page size of the regular weekly issues was enlarged to 9¾" x 14½" (14 cm. x 37 cm.), with the following explanation: “The small shape, with only sixteen pages of matter, makes the Signs of the Times look too much like a child’s paper.”
All this experimentation led to the publication of two journals: the original weekly and a Signs of the Times monthly.
Beginning January 1909, the monthly edition (from Apr. 1912 called Signs of the Times Magazine) continued in the smaller size until Jan. 1, 1917, when the size was increased to 83/8" x 113/8" (21 cm. x 29 cm.). It continued in this size until Jan. 1, 1922, when the monthly was merged again with the weekly.
By 1935 the average weekly circulation (including special issues) had reached 60,618. In 1941 it passed 100,000. Two years later it passed 200,000 and in 1946 exceeded 300,000. The highest total for the weekly edition, 340,812, was reached in 1947.
Urgent requests from the field for modernization and color led to the abandonment of the black-and-white 16-page weekly in favor of a 36-page monthly with four-color cover, the change taking place on Jan. 1, 1957.
The average monthly circulation of these color issues from 1957 to 1962 varied between 250,000 and 275,000.
The continuing trend toward color resulted in full-color pictures on alternate spreads inside beginning December 1972. The paper shortage forced a size reduction to 8½" x 11" (22 cm. x 28 cm.) starting January 1975.
A notable shift in editorial policy in the first half of the 1970s was the inclusion in each issue of three or four articles on a selected theme such as the Second Coming, evolution versus Creation, and righteousness by faith. The layout became “conservative-modern,” and non-Whites were pictured frequently both on the cover and inside.
The subscription list was put onto a computer in 1972. By 1974 most subscriptions generated by the annual subscription crusade began not with the September issue, as in the past, but with June.
For the Signs centennial, the June 1974 issue was oversize, with 52 pages printed in full color throughout; 450,000 copies were distributed. Pacific Press employees and their families returned as a group to the site of the 1874 camp meeting to “recapture the spirit of Yountville.” Circulation reached an all-time high, exceeding 351,000 going to 106 countries.
Circulation remained flat through the rest of the decade, however—because, at least in part, of the rapidly rising cost of the magazine. In 1972, for instance, a 12-month subscription cost $6; this was only 50 cents more than it had been in 1968. By 1977, however, the price had soared to $9.95.
In an attempt to triple circulation to 1 million, the price was reduced in 1978 to less than a third of what it had been—only $2.95. Circulation never rose much above 400,000, however, and the price cut, in addition to costing Pacific Press a great deal of money, severed an understanding that Signs of the Times had long enjoyed with These Times.
Always before, Signs of the Times had acted in concert with These Times to set both the price and the size of their respective journals; this could be done because neither was allowed to compete with the other. West of the Mississippi River, only Signs of the Times could be promoted; east of the Mississippi, only These Times. As long as the two offered roughly the same product at roughly the same price, the arrangement had worked fairly well. But clearly those days were over.
As a result, the General Conference decided to allow a “free market” in missionary journals, beginning with the spring 1979 campaign. Signs of the Times could now advertise itself throughout North America as the church’s affordable missionary journal—a claim made possible by reducing the magazine from 32 pages to 16, beginning with the July 1979 issue. These Times , on the other hand, retained its old format (and price) in an attempt to reach a more “upscale” readership.
But economic recession, along with other factors, limited the appeal of even a low-cost missionary magazine. And Pacific Press, the parent company of Signs of the Times, was in no shape to sustain a financial loss on its “flagship journal.”
As a result, the General Conference decided to merge Signs of the Times with These Times , beginning with the April 1984 issue. Great care was taken to make sure this was a merger and not a takeover; discussions of the considerations involved were complex, difficult, and sometimes even quite painful. (At one point there was serious discussion as to whether the name of the “new” magazine should be Signs of These Times ). At last, however, a compromise was reached: the magazine would adopt the 32-page format (and editor) of These Times , while retaining the name and publisher of Signs of the Times.
The merger proved to be a mixed blessing. Kenneth Holland was a well-respected editor, both within and without the church. During his tenure at Signs of the Times , the magazine won three Awards of Merit for General Excellence—the highest honor given by the Associated Church Press. The magazine also won seven Angel awards for excellence in Christian journalism, and had many articles reprinted in the Reader’s Digest.
But 1984 was also the year that Pacific Press moved from Mountain View, California, to Nampa, Idaho. And the confusion of that move (as well as the difficulties encountered in implementing a new computer billing and listing program) led to a great many delays in the production and mailing of Signs of the Times.
There was also a problem with maintaining the traditional sponsor-based method of funding subscriptions. Many church members who had supported These Times never made the switch to the new magazine. Overwhelmed by the number of other programs they were being asked to promote, many churches deemphasized the Signs of the Times’ spring subscription campaign. And younger church members, by and large, just never formed the habit of sending a subscription to a friend or neighbor. In one survey of sponsors, the median age of those responding was 65!
The result was a troubling drop in subscriptions—from 300,000 in 1985 to 230,000 in 1989.
During the next few years, however, the fortunes of the paper improved, with circulation climbing to 260,000 in 1993. More than 400,000 copies of a special “Portraits of a People” edition were mailed to every house in Indianapolis just in time to greet delegates to the 1990 General Conference session. A newsletter for sponsors— Behind the Scenes at Signs of the Times— was begun in 1991. By 1993 the Signs news box program, begun in 1992, had placed more than 1,000 news boxes in grocery stores, post offices, and bus stations, with the potential to distribute more than 30,000 copies of the magazine every month.
Editors: James White, 1874–1881; J. H. Waggoner, 1881–1886; E. J. Waggoner, 1886–1891; M. C. Wilcox, 1891–1913; A. O. Tait, 1913–1936; A. S. Maxwell, 1937–1970; Lawrence Maxwell, 1970–1984; Kenneth J. Holland, 1984–1991; Greg Brothers, 1991–1994; Marvin Moore, 1994– .