Reporting at the Speed of Cyberspace

Christianity Today took a major step in truly covering Christianity today as we launched a Web-based version of the magazine at www.ChristianityToday.com a year ago. Since then we have posted more than 1,000 articles, some from the print pages of this magazine and some exclusively available on our site. From the Family Research Council staff’s spurning of Gary Bauer to the anti-Trinitarianism of dieting guru Gwen Shamblin, the site has allowed us to report and break news on issues facing the church and on what we perceive God to be doing in the world.We’ve also added weekly features such as Film Forum (a weekly roundup of what Christian critics are saying about new films, and how they view popular culture) and original columns from two of our closest sister publications, Books & Culture and Christian History. There is also Weblog, a daily roundup of news and opinion pieces from mainstream media sources around the world. More weekly features will be added in the coming months.Many of the articles on our site you’ll never see in print. But even the articles you do read in our print version are worth hopping online for when you finish. Every article is linked to such resources as relevant ministries’ home pages, other resourceful Web sites, similar topics in other publications, and related past articles from Christianity Today. This month we’re adding new features to the site, including message boards and a way to browse the site by topic as well as by date. (Be sure to sign up for the CT Direct e-mail newsletter to keep abreast of all our site’s updates and changes.)Our improvements are part of a massive relaunch of Christianity Today International’s corporate Web site. Many CT readers are unaware that CTI publishes 11 other print publications. All of them are united in a common aim: to inform, engage, connect, and equip Christians. And because we believe the name Christianity Today best signals that mission, we’re moving all of our publications under the ChristianityToday.com URL. You can still find us there, but you’ll also find Leadership, Books & Culture, Christian History, and Christianity Today International’s other magazines. Still, if you’d rather go directly to CT’s daily features, you can do so with only seven more keystrokes: www.christianitytoday.com/ctmag/.One of the reasons we’ve been able to add so many articles to our site recently is the doubling of Christianity Today‘s online editorial staff. (It’s no longer just me, and I am glad to have the company.)You may already be familiar with Jody Veenker. For the last year, she has served as editorial resident for CT’s news department, writing articles on everything from women’s prison ministries to our September 4 special news report on Scientology. In July she joined the company in a permanent position as assistant online editor.”I like giving people information they can’t get anywhere else,” she says, noting that the Internet allows people to have more comprehensive information—and have it faster—than ever before.Having completed her undergraduate work at Sarah Lawrence College, with one year at Oxford University thrown in for good measure, Jody received her master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She just moved from Palatine to Crystal Lake as part of a church plant.