2012-09-24
John W John
W's previous articles
Diocesan paper's bold re-structuring plan
(Comments welcome here)
A leading Catholic newspaper is soon to announce a bold re-structuring plan. The bishop of the diocese and the paper's management will soon be holding a joint press conference to announce details of the plan
No longer will the paper be printed in its present form. Instead it will become a one page paid advertisement in the city's main local newspaper, appearing each Friday
In
this way, it will be read by many more Catholics than at present read it.
It will also be an outreach to the wider community
The one page will include internal advertisements which will help pay for the page, although, in fact, production of such a page will be cheaper than production of the present printed edition
No staff at the paper will lose their jobs, because the paper will still produce a digital edition for the internet. This digital edition will be expanded with many extra features
The main new feature is that the digital edition will be updated every day. Instead of being a weekly edition, it will be a daily edition, just like the websites of all major newspapers
The
one page edition will have links to stories and items in the digital edition,
encouraging readers of the local paper to check the internet site.
The one page edition will be like an expanded index page of the digital edition
The
plan includes a comment box on all main stories of the digital edition,
encouraging people to respond and interact. The comment box will be moderated,
but moderated very quickly by full time comment editors
so that readers will see their comments a few minutes after posting them
The paper's website will have links to all diocesan parishes, schools and other works, as well as to national and international sites of interest
The paper's editor is eagerly looking forward to the changes. "Our paper will have a far greater readership, and no longer will we have to run items that are a week or more out of date" she said
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