Top Consulting Firm Buys Gazette

Jonah Sanders, Senior Business Analyst

After months of negotiations, the Christian Leadership Consortium has purchased The Aldersgate Gazette. The move will give CLC a long-desired publishing arm as well as allowing the Gazette to run exclusive articles featuring CLC products.

The CEO of CLC, Rev. R. L. Steinovich, PhD, MBA, promised to give the online journal the resources it needs to “continue the high level of Christian journalism for which the Gazette has become known. Also, we hope to make lots of money selling mugs with the AG logo.”

CLC has been in business for 23 years in the field of church consulting and marketing. Their on-site assessments have become legendary, leading to such lucrative spin offs as Quest for Mediocrity, Committed to Church Growth and 40 Days of Anxiety. Churches on three different continents have used CLC products to stay busy and create the illusion of progress.

The company hopes to use the Gazette to push its primary message: if your church isn’t growing, you’re just not trying hard enough. Says Marketing Director Tony Snowbie, “Every church has its weaknesses, and our job is to help churches discover them. If the people feel genuine hope for their congregation’s future, then where is the incentive in that? Faithful Christians need a sense of anxiety and desperation in their lives.”

Gazette Publisher Burton Mackerel believes the buyout will improve the quality of the journal. “The CLC transition team has already assured us they will use their consultants to help us seek out our most miserable failures,” said Mackerel. “I think that will give us a much more somber atmosphere in the newsroom. We need that.”

The terms of the purchase were not immediately released, but experts estimate the deal was worth $140-180 million.