But that is not news to our readers. The demise of many previously cash-flush dot-coms, both secular and religious, is announced daily on CNN and trumpeted loudly on investment-site “deathwatch” pages. And, as Mark Kellner notes in “Is God.com Dead?” (p. 32), Christian sites aren’t immune to layoffs, shutdowns, and other burn-rate fiascoes.
Kellner, a CT regular whose writings on the tech world also appear in The Washington Times and Los Angeles Times, outlines the financial ebb and flow of the dead (iBelieve.com), the dying (Crosswalk.com), and the contending (Christianity.com) in the world of the for-profit Christian Web.
But who is CT to deliver this kind of Christian dot-com postmortem? You might say we’re one to talk.
Christianity Today International, CT’s nonprofit parent company, first went online in 1994 alongside many other Christian nonprofit and for-profit companies. Originally, AOL paid us to post content from our magazines, but CTI’s eventual strategy was to develop an independent Web presence at a “crawl, walk, run” pace.
“I think we’re walking now,” says John LaRue, CTI’s vice president of Internet research and development. “We began with repurposed magazine articles and free e-mail newsletters. Then CT started delivering original Web stories, and we developed channels for our other magazine content.”
CTI has also worked to create multiple revenue streams instead of relying solely on advertising to support its Web operations. With the company’s launch of PreachingToday.com, paid access and special sales also boosted online operations to draw a positive net after overhead.
“Our policy has been pay as you go,” LaRue says. “You’re going to kill yourself if you overextend.”
LaRue says Christian companies moving online must stay true to their mission if they want to build something that will “last for the long-term.” He believes that the company’s desire “to communicate the depth and transforming power of the Gospel by informing, inspiring, connecting, and equipping Christians around the world” requires an extremely patient and deliberate business plan.
The industry newsletter min’s New Media Report recently commended ChristianityToday.com’s redesigned site, particularly praising its balance of navigation and content lures. “ABCNews.com needs a little pastoral counseling from these guys,” the newsletter joked.
Christianity Today magazine’s site (ChristianityToday.com/ctmag/) has undergone a recent redesign as well. Updated from its 1999 format, our site now features navigation topics so visitors can easily locate the 20 most recent stories about hot issues, faith and thought, churches and ministries, culture and technology—and the work of our columnists. Subcategories allow visitors to search directly for stories about politics, theology, or TV.
At the end of stories, readers now have the option of commenting on our message boards, as well as directly e-mailing the editorial staff. Tried and true features, like our search engine and the “related elsewhere” links at the end of every story, remain.
All told, our site offers more and better articles for Christians than you’re going to find anywhere else online—and we plan on doing it for a long time to come.
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