Religion Sections Deleted
In the past year, financial challenges have prompted cutbacks in religion coverage in newspapers.
The Dallas Morning News eliminated its religion section in early January. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution folded its Faith and Values section into the Living pages. The Wichita Eagle plans to cut its religion editor position, and other newspapers are removing their religion beats.
"In a time of flat revenues, we simply could not generate the advertising to break even on the section," said Bob Mong, editor of The Dallas Morning News. "I don't think any paper in the country tried harder than we did over the years."
Mong helped develop the religion section in 1994, but sees more potential now for online reporting in blogs and newsletters. The Dallas Morning News website has seen more page hits on its religion blog than it did for its religion section online, he said.
"I like the idea of a section. I obviously believed in the section approach to give the subject more visibility," Mong said. "It had a very strong and loyal readership, but there came a time when we simply had to make some difficult choices."
The media industry posted nearly twice as many job losses in 2006 as in 2005, according to the outplacement company Challenger, Gray, and Christmas.
"Unfortunately, with a lot of the cutbacks in newspapers right now, the religion beat is seen as expendable," said Charles Overby, who heads the Freedom Forum. "Eliminating religion reporters is, at best, an economic advantage that could cause longer term problems."
Overby, a former newspaper editor and part of USA Today's management, said he has seen religion coverage improve over the past five years and hopes the trend will continue.
"The tendency of newspapers is to look at the quirky ...
This article is currently available to CT subscribers only.
To continue reading:
or
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
(on articles open to the public, you must at least register for a free account).
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
Comments
Displaying 1–3 of 11 comments
See all comments
Michael M
The Web is the way to go. SFGAte.com, the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle, includes "Finding My Religion." Read how the writer describes what it's all about. "Each week I'll pick different people from a cross-section of religious and cultural backgrounds to discuss their views on God, prayer, the afterlife and other topics. The conversations will be published in a question-and-answer format. "I realize this is a subject not frequently addressed in the mainstream media. Perhaps the old saying about religion not being fit for polite conversation still holds true in the popular consciousness, even as sex and politics have long ago shaken off their taboo status. "Yet, increasingly, it seems clear that spiritual matters form the subtext for much of what's happening in America today, from your house to the White House. "With that in mind, I will make these conversations as personal and revealing as possible." It's excellent.
Rev. Nelson French
Ten years ago, here in Lexington, KY, our local paper carried a large multi-page religion section weekly, which featured not only national and global stories of importance to the religiously local, ( of which there are a great many), but more importantly to many they carried local religious news, including a feature story each week on a local religious congregation. They also collected revenue from advertising in this section. The section is still there, and the revenue gathering ads too, but the local coverage is gone, and the section reduced to a mere two page foldover remnant of it's former glory. Face it, profitability is more important to today's media than providing service to the local community. And they wonder why their local print circulation continues to diminish!
Jason, VA
I'm not sure that the cutting of religion news coverage is a universally true observation. The Washington Post, if anything, has greatly expanded its religion coverage in both its print and online papers in the last 2 years. Beat coverage of religion at the Post had been confined to a subset of its Metro section, but not so much anymore. The Post has devoted a considerable amount of coverage to the current difficulties in ECUSA as just one example. Granted, some of this is the result of the geographic proximity of the prominent Virginia congregations who have declared 'no mas'. But the Post made an effort to present every side of the issue, including allowing op-ed space to both sides of the fence. (And I say all this as someone who is no friend of the Post). So while I have no doubt that religion coverage is being cut in various places, it's not a phenomenon that's occurring everywhere.