The Significant Impact of Publicity Director Leslie Stubbings on the

CMS Outlook and Publicity of the Church Missionary Society: 1945-1960

Lane Sunwall, University of Wisconsin-Madison

CMS Outlook and Church Mission Society publicity more broadly underwent frequent and significant changes in the mid-twentieth century.  The driving force behind this evolution was Leslie Stubbings.  Following a professional career as an advertising agent in London, Leslie Stubbings began his tenure as CMS publicity director in 1945.  Soon upon arriving at CMS, Stubbings published a series of marketing plans and reviews in which he expressed profound misgivings with the quality and direction of existent CMS publications and marketing, work he found to be inward-focused and disconnected from the interests of contemporary British people.  Stubbings believed that the poor state of CMS publicity and its lackluster publications was depressing donations to CMS, and giving rise to the popular perception of the society as an elitist relic of a bygone era.

With the support of CMS general secretary Max Warren and CMS home secretary Leslie Fischer, Stubbings set out to right the proverbial ship. Through reforms to CMS advertising and publications, such as CMS Outlook, Stubbings believed he could improve popular interest in CMS work, broaden CMS’ support base, and alter the popular perception of the society.  Stubbings hoped that these reforms would result in a CMS that was less inward looking, more attractive to the working classes and youth, and more relevant to the interests of contemporary British society. Stubbings’ reforms cannot be said to have “saved” CMS. Indeed, some within CMS’ traditional cadre of supporters bristled at the nature and cost of Stubbings’ efforts.  Nevertheless, at the end of his tenure as publicity director in 1960, CMS outreach had done much to alter CMS public image and succeeded in drawing in new supporters from a greater variety of demographics.