Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Sign of the Times: Christian Science Monitor to Eliminate Daily Paper in Favor of Online Production

The Christian Science Monitor, a 100-year-old institution, has announced that next April it will eliminate its print edition in favor of becoming a web-based newspaper that is updated continuously each day.

The changes at the Monitor will include enhancing the content on CSMonitor.com, starting weekly print and daily e-mail editions, and discontinuing the current daily print format.

This new, multiplatform strategy for the Monitor will "secure and enlarge the Monitor's role in its second century," said Mary Trammell, editor in chief of The Christian Science Publishing Society and a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors. Mrs. Trammell said that "journalism that seeks to bless humanity, not injure, and that shines light on the world's challenges in an effort to seek solutions, is at the center of Mary Baker Eddy's vision for the Monitor. The method of delivery and format are secondary" and need to be adjusted, given Mrs. Eddy's call to keep the Monitor "abreast of the times."

While the Monitor's print circulation, which is primarily delivered by US mail, has trended downward for nearly 40 years, "looking forward, the Monitor's Web readership clearly shows promise," said Judy Wolff, chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society. "We plan to take advantage of the Internet in order to deliver the Monitor's journalism more quickly, to improve the Monitor's timeliness and relevance, and to increase revenue and reduce costs. We can do this by changing the way the Monitor reaches its readers."


This is a smart move on their part. The great fear in journalism is that newspapers are going to die to be replaced by TV. But the reality is that news organizations will thrive if they get rid of 20th century technology and reach their audiences in a manner that suits the 21st century reader. Consumers want quality reporting and editing. They don't necessarily want newsprint piling up in their homes. The only newspapers that are going to die are the papers that cling to the past.

No comments: