NEW YORK As readers praised and criticized yesterday's delivery of New Testaments along with home-delivered copies of The Gazette in Colorado Springs, the International Bible Society confirmed that it wants to do a similar distribution with other newspapers."We have had a very long history of evangelism going back to 1809," the society's public-relations manager, Judy Billings, told E&P today. "We're always looking for innovative channels to get God's word into the hands of people who need it the most."Earlier this year, according to the bible society, it distributed about 430,000 copies of the Gospel of Luke via the Houston Chronicle and another 93,000 via The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.The Colorado Springs Independent reported that the bible society is currently in discussions to include customized New Testaments with The Denver Post -- and that the society also has a wish list of papers in cities such as Seattle, Nashville, and Santa Rosa, Calif. Billings declined to say which papers the IBS has approached or will approach, and a Denver Post spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.All Gazette home subscribers -- more than 90,000 -- received the New Testaments in a pocket of the plastic bag their newspaper came in yesterday. Reaction? The Gazette's vice president of sales and marketing, Susan Kelly-Gilbert, told E&P that the paper has received about two dozen calls and e-mails, with about half pleased to get the Bibles and half not so pleased.
