Are you willing to pay for Catholic news?

Monday, April 27, 2009

Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

BLOGGER PROFILE

How many of you read the reports the past few weeks that the Vatican had “vetoed” Caroline Kennedy as the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See?

If you read it in a secular newspaper, you probably did not find out about the Vatican denial that any such thing had happened - a denial that was first published by Catholic News Service on April 9. tinyurl.com/bj4ode

And if you only read the secular press, you might not have heard a frightened young woman describe her abortion experience at a Hialeah clinic - an experience that has resulted in a doctor losing his medical license and criminal charges against the clinic’s owner. tinyurl.com/aj2boz

That last story was reported exclusively by your Miami edition of the Florida Catholic, and it has been “Googled” and “Twittered” and “linked” around the globe. It’s a perfect example of how the power of the press can be magnified - many, many times over - by the reach
of the Internet.

Yet all I hear these days is bad news about newspapers, how they are closing due to lack of readership and advertising. Lack of readership? We live in a world of 24/7 news. We get updated headlines and sports scores on our telephones. We get the latest headlines when we sign onto our home page, be it Yahoo, AOL or MSN. My guess is more people are reading The New York Times online than ever subscribed to it in print
(myself among them).

There’s the rub, of course - newspapers have readers, but not subscribers. And with fewer people willing to pay for the final product, more and more professional journalists are losing their jobs.

That’s not a good thing, and it’s not just because I am a professional journalist. People love to accuse us of bias, but generally professional journalists have a common respect for facts - facts they can look into, make sense of, and report on. That is not always true of what gets posted on the Internet, where rumor or opinion is often passed on as fact without anyone bothering to check it out.

So the old adage still applies - just because you read something in print - or via e-mail - does not make it true. It is the source that matters. And for news of the Catholic Church, whether in Rome, in the U.S. or in south Florida, you should be reading the Florida Catholic.

But here’s the rub: Are you willing to pay for it?

Perhaps you are under the impression that the newspaper you receive at home or find in the back of your church on Sunday is provided for free. It’s not. Like everything else, the newspaper is a service of the Archdiocese of Miami - but it is not free. It costs money to produce, especially for printing and mailing. For years now, your pastors have been paying for it on your behalf - although you probably did not know that. (Thank them when you have a chance!)

I keep saying that the problem newspapers are facing today is not with the “news” part but with the “paper” part - ink and presses and postage and dead trees are certainly not in keeping with the eco-friendly future we all envision. The Internet is so much “greener”, faster and cheaper that the days of sitting down at the breakfast table with a coffee mug and a newspaper are definitely numbered.

But news still has to be gathered and reported by skilled professionals who can write, observe and take pictures and communicate clearly with their readers. Somebody will always have to pay for that, no matter how your news is delivered.

So here is what I want to know: Is getting the Catholic angle on news important enough to you that you will support it with your money? I hope to find out by asking you to answer the questions here by  filling out this form.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:

• The Florida Catholic is a cooperative venture of five of the seven dioceses of Florida. Statewide, national and international news, as well as subscriptions and paid advertising, are handled by the central staff based in Orlando. Local news - about 8 pages each week, the first four and the last four of each edition - are handled by an editor based in the local diocese.
• You can read news about the church in south Florida at news tab and www.thefloridacatholic.org (dioceses /Miami). The Florida Catholic Web site is also updated daily with state, national and international news.
• To submit an event for publication in the Miami edition, click here and click on “Announce your Event.”
• To check out the latest national and international news about the Catholic Church, click here Check out especially the CNS Blog, which offers a peek behind the day’s Catholic headlines and links to a host of other Catholic publications.
• To get the latest Vatican documents or press releases, click here
• You can follow the Florida Catholic on Twitter click here

Ana Rodriguez-Soto
Editor, Miami edition, Florida Catholic newspaper