Christian Science Monitor goes digital
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The mainstream media, print and electronic both, are grimly hanging on to old-age ideas and old-age ways of doing business, hopelessly and helplessly mired in the physical 1990s.
And in this context, ‘media’ includes not only the news and information distributors, but also the corporate entertainment companies who to a large extent, directly or indirectly control them.
But it’s been evident for years the Net will ultimately become the way everyone everywhere talks to each other and at least one major newspaper has accurately read the writing on the wall.
After a century of non-stop physical publication, the Christian Science Monitor is going digital.
Published by the Christian Science Publishing Society (CSPS), a tax-exempt not-for-profit arm of the Christian Science church, one of the newspaper’s strong points, and one of its boasts, says Ketupa.net, is unlike most big US dailies, it doesn’t rely primarily on wire services such as the Associated Press and Reuters for international coverage, instead using its own overseas correspondents and freelances in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
As of 2004 the Monitor had around 70,000 paying subscribers, says Ketupa.net.
But it also has, “perhaps twenty times that many readers of its online edition”.
Fundamental transition in news publishing
Starting in April 2009, the newspaper will become the first with a national audience to shift from a daily print format to an online publication, updated throughout the day, says editor John Yemma (right).
The coming changes, “occur at a time of fundamental transition in news publishing and turn the page on a remarkable chapter in American journalism,” says the newspaper, going on that Judy Wolff, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society, cites three goals for the digital Monitor:
- Producing a website that can be updated 24/7 and delivered instantaneously “better fulfills Mrs. Eddy’s original vision” for the Monitor to be daily than does a five-day-a-week paper delivered by mail with frequent delays.
- Focusing resources on the fast-growing Web audience for news rather than on the economically troubled daily newspaper industry “increases the Monitor’s reach and impact.” The Monitor’s website currently attracts about 1.5 million visitors a month.
- Eliminating the major production and distribution costs of a daily newspaper will allow the Monitor to “make progress toward achieving financial sustainability” while supporting its global news resources.
Attaining these goals over the next five years will provide stability and continuity for Monitor journalism over the long run, says Yemma, who became the Monitor’s editor in July, moving from the Boston Globe.
Monitor website, weekly print edition, and daily email editions will be produced by the same editorial staff who’ll continue to operate at the current level of international and domestic coverage, with bureaus throughout the globe, and a strong presence in Washington, it says.
But a “modest reduction” in the Monitor’s 95-person editorial staff is likely, once the transition to the new product line-up is completed, Yemma admits.
As the first step, in addition to frequent updating with the latest news seven days a week, “the plan is for the site to become a portal where editors will point visitors to other areas on the Web that are attempting journalism in the same spirit as the Monitor,” says Yemma, going on he wants to, “encourage much more two-way conversation between readers and Monitor staffers to “build a community of people who care about the values the Monitor stands for.”
The new weekly print edition will launch in April, 209, at $3.50 per copy or $89 for a year’s subscription. A full-price subscription to the current daily print edition is $219.
“We hope the people who subscribe to the daily will shift to the weekly and that many more who may not have had time to read the daily will find the weekly appeals to them,” Yemma says.
Like the new print weekly, the new daily electronic edition, to be sold by subscription, will be a multipage, emailed PDF file, sent Monday through Friday.
“The cost, delay, and waste generated by daily print are huge hindrances,” said Yemma. “The Monitor can lead the way in providing news primarily online.”
News 1130 – , October , 2008
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October 29th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
The forests of the world say “thank you”