ABOUT US

WHAT IS 'GOOD NEWS'?

Good News is a great value eight-page monthly evangelistic newspaper used by churches and missions across the country. Full of dynamic testimonies and celebrity interviews, it's an ideal bridge into your community with the Gospel.

You can give the Good News outreach newspaper to people in your area in many ways, for example:

Every issue describes how to become a Christian, and there is a coupon for readers to fill in who would like free information or who would like to speak to our Christian counsellor. Space is provided on the back page to add your local contact details, and we can produce a localised edition for you - see the To order section for further details.


WHAT'S IN IT?

Good News is designed to appeal to those who would normally buy a tabloid newspaper, e.g. Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, The Sun, or read a free paper like The Metro. Every issue contains dynamic testimonies of people who have found that knowing Jesus is a life-changing experience, both celebrities and 'ordinary' Christians, plus other articles that feature the 'good news' of what God is doing in the world today.

To show that Christianity is concerned with the whole of life, not just the spiritual dimension, Good News also contains articles on common interests like health, environment, movies, parenting, and those indispensable parts of every newspaper - a crossword and sudoku!

WHAT'S YOUR THEOLOGY/DENOMINATIONAL INFLUENCE?

Good News is non-denominational and the theological position is that of the Evangelical Alliance.

WHO PUBLISHES GOOD NEWS?

The publisher is the Good News Fellowship UK - a team of Christians from a variety of backgrounds and churches, some in full-time ministry. All share a heart for evangelism and have many years' experience in newspaper outreach, general evangelism or Christian publishing. The members of the Fellowship are:

WHY JUST 8 PAGES?

Most secular newspapers do, of course, have more pages than Good News. But our experience shows that keeping the newspaper to eight pages has several advantages:

  1. It keeps the price down. Few churches have vast budgets. At only 20p per copy, Good News is by far the least expensive evangelistic newspaper on sale in the UK.
  2. It's practical for distributors. If you are doing door-to-door delivery, a large bundle of newspapers can be quite heavy and cumbersome. But an eight-pager is light and therefore more copies can be carried by individuals and more houses covered in a shorter time!
  3. It's enough for the reader. If you haven't caught a reader's attention and interest in eight pages, it's unlikely that more pages will make any difference. Someone who is being given a newspaper like Good News, as opposed to buying a paper for themselves, will quickly decide whether they want to read it or not. Adding extra pages won't affect that decision.
  4. It keeps postage costs down. For those who post the paper to others, weight and size now make a big difference to the price of postage.

WHO IS THE EDITOR?

Andrew Halloway joined the Good News Fellowship as Editor in 2007 and his first issue was the October 2007 edition. He has over 30 years of experience in Christian publishing. He worked for CWR (Crusade for World Revival) as an editor and writer for four years and for CPO (Christian Publishing and Outreach) as editorial manager and then publishing manager for eight years. At New Life Publishing, where he was editorial manager for five years, he was Editor of another evangelistic newspaper, New Life, and Deputy Editor of the official monthly magazines of two national church denominations. He is married, has two grown-up daughters and lives in Nottingham. If you would like to contact Andrew, email the Editorial Department through the form on the Contact section of this website.

 

PRISON OUTREACH

Every month, the Good News Fellowship places Good News, free of charge, into over two-thirds of the prisons in the country - where chaplains request it - and in several Christian rehab centres. This vital and effective ministry is entirely supported by gifts. Donations to this ministry are welcome and, if you are a UK income or capital gains tax payer, you can gift aid your donation at no cost to you. This means that we can recover the tax you have already paid on your gift. Cheques should be made payable to 'Good News Fellowship UK' and sent to: Phill Bounds, Good News Support, 9 Alderfen Close, Shelton Lock, Derby DE24 9QQ.
Please ask for a gift aid declaration form and, if you wish to pay by bank transfer, our bank account details. Tel: 01332 702742 or click here to email. If you would like to support this ministry in prayer, you can receive our bi-monthly newsletter which contains updates on prison outreach - click here to email our office and ask for the newsletter.


OUR STORY
Good News was founded in 2001 by a group of ordinary Christians with a heart for evangelism, and its first editor was former Challenge newspaper editor, Donald Banks.

The founders were all strong supporters of the Challenge evangelistic newspaper ministry, but felt at the time that Challenge had lost its way. Good News was set up to restore the original vision for the Challenge newspaper, which was begun back in the 1960s by CPO in Worthing. It proved such a success that it became an independent organisation in the 1970s – and its ministry spread around the world, with independent Challenge newspapers being set up in many countries, including Australia. Today, that global vision has passed to Challenge Australia – which now produces many different editions in several languages.

In Britain, the Good News founders printed 13,000 copies of the first edition in May 2001 at their own expense, trusting God that the supporters who said they would buy that amount would do so. The supporters kept their promises, and the circulation began to grow. By 2007 Good News was printing around 40,000 copies. At that time our current editor, Andrew Halloway, came on board, and less than a year later the circulation had risen to over 60,000. In 2012, we incorporated the original Challenge newspaper into Good News, bringing the whole ministry back together.

Up until the Covid pandemic, Good News was printing an average of over 77,000 copies per month – close to a million a year. The pandemic then came along and hit sales, but we are gradually recovering and currently print an average of 55,000. We estimate a readership of three or four times the print run, as copies are passed on to others. That means Good News is probably seen by around 2 million people every year.

Missions like Birmingham City Mission and Outreach UK use the paper, as well as hundreds of churches from a wide range of denominations, and individual Christians. Many evangelists also regularly distribute the paper, and we give away free copies into over half of the prisons in the UK, at the request of prison chaplains.

We are a registered charity and member of the Evangelical Alliance. Our Council of Reference is below.


COUNCIL OF REFERENCE


REV DAVID COLE
Former pastor and missionary; now an itinerant preacher and Good News agent in Exeter

 

He says:

"I have been using the paper and its predecessor for decades and trust that God will enable me to do so for many years to come. It is an excellent publication."

 

Biog:

David became a Christian at the age of 16 and went into Christian service at just 19. He was a staff evangelist at Cliff College for five years and was then engaged in church planting. In 1972 he and wife Kathryn began six years of ministry overseas, followed by a short pastorate in London, during which time they joined Global Outreach Mission and David became the UK Chairman and Secretary. He has had an itinerant ministry since moving to Exeter in 1982 and has distributed hundreds of Good News papers every month for many years.

 

REV DR SAM GORDON

Head of Truth for Today; Bible teacher, preacher and author

 

He says: 

“It’s a great privilege and real joy to be involved on the Council of Reference for Good News. My prayer is that the ministry will go from strength to strength in days to come!”

 

Biog:
Sam Gordon has an international Bible teaching ministry and over the years has travelled extensively around Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. After 20 years in pastoral ministry, Sam spent almost 11 years as an on-air Bible teacher with Trans World Radio before becoming executive director of Messianic Testimony. After over eight years with MT he was led of the Lord in June 2016 to launch Truth for Today (check out his website for more info: www.truthfortoday.co.uk), and he has authored 19 publications.

 

TERRY PUTTICK
Field Director of Ministries with London City Mission

 

He says:

“London City Mission uses thousands of the Good News paper each month in our regular outreach. It is a great conversation starter with some meaty content and I am delighted that so many people receive it gladly.”

 

Biog:
Terry joined the London City Mission 40 years ago and spent 23 years as a missionary working on some of the toughest estates in London. Around 2000 he joined the Head Office Team where he is a Field Director of Ministries, currently looking after teams in Tottenham and Enfield areas, plus ministry to the elderly. His gospel passion has not diminished over the years “Because London Needs Jesus” more than ever. He adds: “The Good News paper is an ideal tool to aid us in our evangelism.”


DATA PROTECTION POLICY

We are committed to protecting your privacy. We will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully (in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998).

We collect information about you for 4 reasons: firstly, to process any orders/enquiries, secondly to provide news if you are a customer or supporter, thirdly to provide you with the best possible service and lastly to contact and pay our suppliers.

We do not carry out fundraising directly or using other parties, so will never contact you by mail, telephone or email seeking donations.  We do receive a small commission from Just Giving where supporters have signed up with them, nominating Good News as their chosen charity and then ordered goods through Just Giving links to major retailers.  This does not give us personal details of any individual.

We may make ministry needs known through our prayer letter or website but do not target any individual or group.

The type of information we will collect about you includes:

•your name

•order home and delivery address

•email address

•phone number

For suppliers, contributors and occasionally customers, we request bank details so we can make payments direct.  This information is entered into our on-line banking with Santander and we destroy any manual record. We will never collect additional information about you without informing you of this beforehand. The data we hold will be accurate and up to date. You can check the information that we hold about you by emailing us. If you find any inaccuracies we will delete or correct it promptly. The personal information that we hold will be held securely in accordance with our internal security policy and the law. We will not share your information with any third party, either in the UK, EEA (European Economic Area) or outside this area unless required to do so by an order of a UK court. We may use technology to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to our site or order processing. This can include using a “cookie” which would be stored on your browser. You can usually modify your browser to prevent this happening, although this may prevent online purchasing from being available to you. The information collected in this way can be used to identify you unless you modify your browser settings.

If you have any questions/comments about privacy, you should contact us at: Good News Fellowship UK, c/o 9 Alderfen Close, Shelton Lock, Derby DE24 9QQ

 Our Registered Charity number is  1167287.


If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to GET IN TOUCH. 
See the Contact section for the relevant department

or write to:
Good News Editor
PO Box 9831
Nottingham
NG2 9JN