Just how far can the power of positive thinking take you?
In the case of Guideposts, the spiritual magazine established by “The Power of Positive Thinking” author and motivational speaker Norman Vincent Peale, it”™s 75 ”” or so ”” years and counting.
“This is actually our 76th year,” Guideposts Editor-in-Chief Edward Grinnan told the Business Journal. “But we”™re still having our 75th anniversary celebration, which was postponed last April.”
Positivity has always been the cornerstone of the publication, which Peale and his wife, Ruth Stafford Peale, co-founded in Pawling, New York, in 1945.
“The country was coming out of World War II and a whole new world was emerging,” Grinnan said. “Peale wanted to be a part of the national conversation at a time when society was changing so quickly.”
A minister with the Reformed Church in America, he had branched out into radio in 1935 with “The Art of Living,” which remained on the air for 54 years and published a like-titled book in 1937, followed by “You Can Win” in 1938.
Grinnan said that for his efforts, Peale began receiving letters from followers around the country. “He was fascinated by them and began to think about putting them into magazine form,” Grinnan said.
“It took several years to get it off the ground, but was based on what we still focus on, which is having people tell their own inspirational stories.
“It was really the first user-generated content,” he laughed, “years before anyone ever thought of that term.”
“The Power of Positive Thinking” followed in 1952, by which time Guideposts had moved to a larger space in Carmel to house its growing subscription-based operation and book publishing ministries. Today, its main business offices are at The Summit at Danbury complex, along with an editorial office in New York City.
Grinnan, who joined the publication in the early 1990s, met Peale and was present at a speech he gave in Manhattan.
“There were two Peales,” he recounted. “The Peale at the pulpit and the Peale at the podium. He was so dynamic ”” the greatest public speaker I have ever seen.”
Magazine changes
Though Peale died in 1993 at the age of 95, his most famous book lives on ”” it had sold over 15 million copies at the time of his death ”” as does Guideposts.
But the magazine is undergoing some changes that Grinnan said better reflect the shifting media landscape.
Beginning with its June/July issue, Guideposts is changing its publication schedule from 10 to six times a year, adding 30 pages of editorial content and utilizing higher quality paper to allow for more visual content like photo essays ”” part of an overall redesign.
Such moves had been under consideration for “a long time,” Grinnan said, but do not necessarily reflect a waning interest in traditional publishing.
“We still reach 4.5 million readers and a little over 1 million subscribers, with a very high renewal rate,” he said. “That shows the loyalty that our readers have for us ”” they tend to stick with us for a long time.”
In addition, “we have never been ad-dependent,” Grinnan said, “which indemnifies us to some of the pressures that affect other publications, whether it”™s the Great Recession or the pandemic. We depend mostly on our subscription dollars.”
Covid-19 actually strengthened Guideposts and the community it serves, he added. “It was kind of a call to arms both for our readers and our staff. Our readers found they needed inspiration more than ever, and we ran a lot of pandemic-related content on our website, finding through-lines like the work chaplains were doing at hospitals. It was most heartening.”
The magazine is also changing its tagline from “True Stories of Hope and Inspiration,” which Grinnan said was “more of a description,” to the pithier “Inspiration for Life” to better reflect what its readers say they look for.
While the revamp will include new columns on such subjects as scripture, prayer and spiritual well-being, it will also continue with its first-person stories of faith and hope.
Grinnan estimated that about 80% of Guideposts”™ cover subjects are celebrities ”” it is a magazine, after all ”” but that they too must talk about their spiritual journey, “not about being famous or rich.”
The publication also offers an annual Writers”™ Workshop Contest, which results in “a few thousand submissions” and the selection of a handful of promising authors to learn more about writing. The result is a team that scours their local and regional communities for engaging content.
The company is also expanding its digital offerings with more web content, podcasts and the like, to offer readers additional ways to be inspired.
But the magazine “will certainly be our flagship for the foreseeable future,” Grinnan said, “even at a time when more mass-market magazines are going the way of the dodo.
“And our mission will continue,” he added, “to help people develop spiritual wellness and look at the anxiety and difficulties of life from a spiritual perspective.”
