Baptist Press

What Baptist Press does

Baptist Press is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, founded in 1946 at the suggestion of editors of the state convention newspapers and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. It operates as a nonprofit religious media organization owned and staffed by the SBC Executive Committee, and is the largest religious news service in the United States by its own claim. Its core product is a centralized news operation covering Southern Baptist churches, ministries, missions, denominational governance, and the annual SBC meeting, with state Baptist papers reprinting its stories and opinion pieces to reach Baptists across the country.

The organization's product portfolio spans multiple distribution formats. The main news service is delivered through baptistpress.com and an official mobile app. Multimedia output includes four podcasts: SBC This Week (the official SBC Executive Committee podcast, hosted on Transistor.fm), Lead On with Jeff Iorg, Good News for Today, and Gridiron & the Gospel. A Spanish-language sub-brand, Baptist Press en Español, serves the Spanish-speaking evangelical community. Email engagement is driven through AxiosHQ-powered weekly newsletters segmented by topic (Discipleship, Leadership, Missions, Politics) and daily newsletters (Morning Briefing, Afternoon Digest). Additional offerings include the BP Toolbox resource library for church leaders, Baptist Press Comics by Joe McKeever, and a Google Translate widget enabling content accessibility in six languages.

Baptist Press operates on a donor-funded model with no pricing for end users, supported entirely by contributions from Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program, the SBC's unified funding mechanism. The organization does not have paying customers in the traditional sense; its primary audiences are Southern Baptist pastors, church leaders, and members, while its core distribution partners are the state Baptist convention newspapers. There are no disclosed revenue figures, no external investors, no venture funding, and no acquisitions or mergers in the record. Technology infrastructure consists of standard publishing tooling (Transistor.fm, Buzzsprout, AxiosHQ, Google Translate) rather than proprietary systems.

Name

Baptist Press

Legal name

Baptist Press

Website

https://baptistpress.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1946

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Baptist Press is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention and the largest religious news service in the United States, founded in 1946 and headquartered in Nashville. It distributes Southern Baptist news, podcasts, newsletters, and Spanish-language content to pastors, church leaders, and the broader evangelical community, funded by the SBC's Cooperative Program.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Religious News Publishing

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (513110), Periodical Publishers (51312)

SIC

Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711)

akta.pro primary industry

Denominational & Community Periodicals (Church Magazines, Diocesan/Temple Newsletters) (MPAJAHAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Religious News, Talk & Commentary Channels (MPABALAL)

Keywords

• Religious news service
• Baptist news
• Denominational journalism
• Evangelical content
• Church news publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Nashville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Cooperative Program Funding: Baptist Press is supported by contributions from Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program, which is the unified funding mechanism for Southern Baptist Convention missions and ministries.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Baptist Press is the official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, providing regular news releases about Southern Baptists, Convention press representation, and coordination of news operations for annual SBC meetings. Founded in 1946, it is the largest religious news service in the United States and distributes content through its website, mobile app, podcasts, email newsletters, Spanish-language edition, and a church leadership resource library (BP Toolbox), with state Baptist papers reprinting its stories.

Product overview

Baptist Press operates as a comprehensive multi-platform news service for the Southern Baptist Convention, offering a single unified news platform that spans multiple content formats and distribution channels. The core offering is the Baptist Press news service (the largest religious news service in the United States), supplemented by language-specific content through Baptist Press en Español, mobile access via the Baptist Press app, and multimedia content through four podcast programs (SBC This Week, Lead On with Jeff Iorg, Good News for Today, and Gridiron & the Gospel). Additional offerings include the BP Toolbox resource library for church leadership, Baptist Press Comics for visual content, and email newsletter subscriptions for targeted news delivery. State papers reprint stories from Baptist Press to inform Baptists across the country.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Baptist Press en Español: Weekly news and opinion in Spanish for the Spanish-speaking community

Products and services

• Baptist Press Main News Service Official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention providing regular news releases about Southern Baptists, Convention press representation, and coordination of news operations for annual SBC meetings. The largest religious news service in the United States.
• Baptist Press en Español Spanish-language weekly news and opinion content providing the Spanish-speaking community access to Southern Baptist news coverage.
• Baptist Press Mobile App Official Baptist Press mobile application providing news access on-the-go, including podcast feed for SBC This Week.
• SBC This Week Podcast Official podcast of the SBC Executive Committee hosted by Laura Erlanson and Brandon Porter, featuring weekly news roundup and guest interviews from church leaders.
• Lead On with Jeff Iorg Podcast Baptist Press podcast hosted by Jeff Iorg addressing pastoral leadership and church ministry topics.
• Good News for Today Podcast Baptist Press radio podcast providing daily Bible teaching and Christian news content.
• Gridiron & the Gospel Podcast Baptist Press podcast combining sports coverage with Christian perspective and Gospel messaging.
• BP Toolbox Church leadership resource library providing practical articles, devotionals, and ministry tools for pastors and church leaders covering topics including churches & ministry, prayer, evangelism, and discipleship.
• Baptist Press Comics Daily comic series by Joe McKeever providing visual biblical illustrations and ministry encouragement.
• Baptist Press Newsletter Subscriptions Weekly topic-based newsletters (Discipleship, Leadership, Missions, Politics) and daily newsletters (Morning Briefing, Afternoon Digest) delivering curated Southern Baptist news content.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• State Baptist PaperscoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorState convention newspapers reprint stories and opinion pieces from Baptist Press to inform Baptists in their respective states about news those editors deem significant for their readers. This represents a foundational distribution partnership for Baptist Press.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Relevant Magazine: A digital-first Christian media brand targeting millennial and Gen Z evangelical readers. Relevant overlaps with Baptist Press in faith-based news and culture coverage, but is positioned for a younger audience and operates independently rather than denominationally.
• ChurchLeaders.com: A digital resource and news platform for pastors and church leaders. Overlaps with Baptist Press's BP Toolbox and leadership-focused newsletters as a provider of ministry news and resources to Southern Baptist and broader evangelical pastors.
• MinistryWatch: A news and transparency platform covering Christian ministries, nonprofits, and churches. Adjacent to Baptist Press in covering the religious organizational landscape, though its watchdog orientation differs from Baptist Press's official denominational news role.

Direct peers

• Christianity Today: The flagship evangelical Christian news and commentary magazine in the United States. Christianity Today is the most direct peer to Baptist Press, serving a broader evangelical audience with news, theological commentary, and ministry resources across digital, print, and podcast channels.
• Charisma Media: A charismatic and Pentecostal Christian media company publishing Charisma Magazine and digital news. Comparable to Baptist Press as a faith-based news publisher targeting a specific evangelical sub-tradition.
• Sojourners: A progressive evangelical Christian media organization publishing news, opinion, and resources. Comparable to Baptist Press as a faith-rooted news and commentary outlet, though operating from a different ideological pole within evangelicalism.
• The Christian Post: A major evangelical Christian news website with global coverage, founded in 2002. Comparable to Baptist Press in audience (evangelical readers) and format (digital-first news publishing), though it operates independently rather than as a denominational official voice.
• WORLD News Group: A Christian news magazine and digital outlet covering news from a biblical worldview. WORLD overlaps with Baptist Press in news/commentary publishing for evangelical Christians, but takes a broader political and cultural reporting approach.
• Religion News Service: An independent, nonsectarian news wire service covering religion across the U.S. and globally. RNS is structurally comparable to Baptist Press as a news syndication organization, but operates at a broader interfaith scope rather than serving a single denomination.
• National Catholic Reporter: An independent Catholic news organization in the U.S. that operates as an unofficial voice for its denomination. Structurally analogous to Baptist Press as a denomination-aligned religious news outlet with digital publishing, newsletters, and opinion content.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/baptistpress

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Baptist Press