FAQ for Three Worldwide Church Magazines
How will the Church magazines change?
For many years, the Church has published three English magazines (“Friend,” “New Era,” and “Ensign”) as well as one magazine translated into other languages (“Liahona”). Beginning in January 2021, these publications will be replaced with three magazines that will serve members worldwide across multiple languages: the “Friend” for children ages 3–11, “For the Strength of Youth” for youth ages 12–18, and the “Liahona” for adults. The length and format of the printed magazines will undergo changes. Readers can expect improved digital magazines available online and in mobile apps. Digital magazine content will continue to be available free of charge.
Why are these changes being made?
These global magazines will help share more unified messages across a wider group of readers. This simplification will also allow the Church to send content to different areas of the world more frequently than ever before. For example, some languages that currently receive only one magazine per year will now receive magazines every other month. Several factors—such as the number of subscribers, availability of translators, and distribution capability—affect the frequency of publication in different languages.
How frequently will I be able to receive a magazine?
Beginning in January 2021, print and digital magazines will be available each month in the following languages: Cebuano, Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, and Ukrainian.
In the following languages, print and digital magazines will be available bimonthly (six times a year). Additionally, selected magazine content will be available digitally in the months a print magazine is not available: Albanian, Armenian, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Fijian, Greek, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kiribati, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Marshallese, Mongolian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swahili, Tahitian, and Vietnamese.
In the following languages, selected magazine content will be available only digitally each month: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chuukese, Efik, Fante, Georgian, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hindi (Fiji), Hmong, Igbo, Ilokano, Kinyarwanda, Kosraean, Laotian, Lingala, Malay, Maltese, Nepali, Palauan, Pohnpeian, S. Sotho, Serbian, Shona, Sinhala, Slovak, Tamil, Telugu, Tshiluba, Tswana, Turkish, Twi, Urdu, Xhosa, Yapese, Yoruba, and Zulu.
Do I need to change my subscription?
If you are an “Ensign,” “New Era,” or “Friend” subscriber at the end of 2020, whatever time remains on your subscription will automatically transfer to the new magazine for the same age-group beginning in 2021. If you are a “Liahona” subscriber at the end of this year, whatever time remains on your subscription will automatically transfer to the new “Liahona” beginning in 2021. However, the new version of the “Liahona” will include material only for adults. If you’d like your family to receive content for children or youth, you will need to subscribe to the “Friend” or “For the Strength of Youth.” You can subscribe beginning September 1, 2020 at store.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, through your local distribution center, or by contacting the Global Services Department.
Where can I find additional information about these changes?
Information about these changes will be shared throughout the year on Church social media pages, on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org home page and in the December 2020 issues of the current magazines.