A print era, that is.

Print edition will be missed

"I liked the NZ Catholic because I could catch up with current news about Catholic NZ ... seminarians, Vinnies, ordinations, school successes, photos and so on. They aren't in mainstream media" Mary told CathNews.

"I hope the new publication will cover the range of news."

"I loved the letters" said Veronica.

These points are backed up by former editor Pat McCarthy who regrets the loss of NZ Catholic.

NZ Catholic was the only consistent source of national news coverage for Catholics. It recorded events, issues, opinions and the highs and lows of Catholic life.

McCarthy is concerned that a potential news vacuum will encourage further fragmentation of the Church

He said NZ Catholic's quality was recognised by over 100 awards from its peers in the Australasian Catholic and interdenominational press.

Communication builds community

McCarthy told CathNews that his understanding of Catholic media's importance developed while he was managing editor.

He elaborated - "Communities come into existence through communication, and the Catholic Church needs Catholic media to hold it together."

David McLoughlin expressed concern. He is journalist who has worked in media for many years and is also a member of the Australasian Catholic Press Association.

He wrote to CathNews - "I find the diminishing and fragmentation of both Catholic and secular media of great concern.

"In a world of rapid change, I believe it is very important that as many people as possible have access to reliable, professional journalism to give them accurate and timely news and other information about what is happening locally, nationally and internationally.

"Professional, curated news can of course be found online, and there are many very good online news services including Catholic ones."

However, he told CathNews that he is worried that surveys in New Zealand and overseas indicate fewer and fewer people trust mainstream professional news services.

He finds it alarming that many people get their news from social media which he describes as "a fragmented, largely uncurated whirlpool".

"I don't think these are good developments" he said.

To allay this vacuum and social media "whirlpool" McCarthy wants to see an online national news service.

However, as well as a visionary he's also a realist.

"The institutional Church is unlikely to provide this in a time of general retrenchment. So it must be done independently - as with major Catholic media outlets in the United Kingdom, North America and Europe.

"Such a service will never pay its way. News is not a commodity but a public good, something essential for a community's life, and its value is not related to whether or not it makes a profit."

McCarthy says he has circulated a proposal for establishing such a service and that expressions of interest have come from around the country.

He notes however that major financial backing will be necessary.

Bishop Lowe upbeat

However the publisher of NZ Catholic, Bishop Steve Lowe, is upbeat about the possibility of the new digital format.

He says the first edition could be expected before the end of the year.

"We intend developing a new monthly digital publication with enhanced use of video" he says.

"This will allow us to continue to share news, comment and reflections to inform, record and inspire our community in the Diocese of Auckland and beyond.

"This role will focus initially on producing videos that include prayer, homilies, event highlights, appeals, teaching, explaining and helping to encourage a healthy dialogue [that] our world so desperately needs."

Farewell and thank you

"At this time, it is right to give thanks for the work of the NZ Catholic staff, past and present" says Lowe.

"They have been amazing.

"They have told the stories of our Church and society. They have published the joys and the sorrows of people's lives.

"They have sincerely used the written word to point to Jesus Christ the Word.

"Thank you also to the contributors from across the country and the promoters in parishes.

"Your stories of people and communities will remain a treasure of the Church's history in New Zealand."

Possible printed version

NZ Catholic understands that people who cannot access the free digital content will be able to receive a printed version of the new digital NZ Catholic.

There is no mention of the cost.

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Interviews

The Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Steve Lowe, confirmed the 27-year old publication's closure and thanked NZ Catholic readers for their faithful support.

Subscribers are offered refunds for their prepaid subscription.

NZ Catholic's closure will bring to an end a 150-year tradition of hardcopy national Catholic news media publications.

Old stalwarts like the NZ Tablet (published by the Dunedin diocese) and the Auckland diocese's Zealandia have long closed.

New publication

NZ Catholic was launched by the Auckland diocese as a new national Catholic newspaper in 1996, after the Zealandia and NZ Tablet closed.

It immediately won the Australasian Catholic Press Association's award for the best Catholic newspaper in Australasia. Over the following 10 years, it gained more than 50 awards for excellence in content and design.

Its first website won the Australasian Religious Press Association's top online award for "reinventing the concept of a website for a print publication".

At its peak the paper had a circulation of over 7000, with six full-time staff as well as part-timers and volunteers.

Currently it has fewer than 1000 subscribers and a staff of four, not all full-timers.

Not sustainable

Lowe - the NZ Catholic publisher - says it is no longer sustainable to publish a printed paper.

A new monthly digital publication with "enhanced use of video" would be developed.

In an article for NZ Catholic's 20th anniversary, founding editor Pat McCarthy recalled that some predicted it would be a short-lived publication.

He said gloomy predictions about its future were underscored by the deep south's "Can anything good come out of Auckland?" wariness.

North-South divide

The Dunedin-based Tablet and the Auckland-based Zealandia had been negotiating a possible merger back in the mid-1990s

Talks were underway when the Tablet board decided to cease publication.

Yet the word down south was that the Tablet was forced to fold because the Aucklanders had broken off discussions.

When Auckland closed Zealandia and launched NZ Catholic, McCarthy said many influential Catholics would have agreed with archdiocesan paper Wel-com's assessment - Auckland diocese had "jumped the gun".

The NZ Catholic's first issue stoked the Dunedin-Auckland friction when its lead story reported the decision to move the national seminary, Holy Cross College, from Mosgiel to Auckland.

Dunedin Bishop Len Boyle said that was a blow worse than losing the Ranfurly Shield.

Not surprised

"I believe NZ Catholic has been on borrowed time" McCarthy told CathNews.

"But even with its reduced circulation, it has still been the only regular source of national news coverage within the Church. No one else covers many of its stories.

"The question is: What will replace it — or will Catholics in New Zealand be left without any national source of news about what is happening in their Church?

"To me the solution is to establish a comprehensive online Catholic news service to keep the Catholic community informed."

McCarthy said he could see two possibilities, but both would require a large amount of capital.

Source

• NZ Catholic

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a hotel room in Perth working on my six-weekly (or so) column for NZ Catholic, the newspaper I worked at for five years until 2010. It was not long after my friend James Bergin had given a stellar performance on national television talking about the election of Pope Francis, and I'd also been observing the work of a group of young Catholics in Australia also being asked to comment on the conclave, the papal election, the choice of Pope Francis and so on.

And so I wrote this column:

Did anyone else catch James Bergin on Q&A a few weeks back, talking about the election of Pope Francis?

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, James Bergin is a good friend of mine and someone I work with on a regular basis on Church projects, so I am biased. But I thought he did an outstanding job when being interrogated by a woman who would now be considered one of New Zealand's leading interviewers.

Internationally, this phenomenon of young Catholic professionals speaking about the Church in the media is taking off. My first observation of this effort was during World Youth Day in Sydney, when a small group of young Catholics were part of the Sky News coverage of the event. Rather than having professional reporters trying to explain something they knew nothing about, young Catholics were part of the massive crowds, shared their experiences and, when necessary, explained what was happening during Mass or the Stations of the Cross. Continue reading

Sources

• Gavin Abraham in The Catholic Soapbox
• See also Pat McCarthy in CathNews NZ Pacific
• Image: Planet Blog

Gavin Abraham, a journalist for more than a dozen years, has spent most of the last six years working in Catholic media.

Until the 1990s, access to the general population through the media was controlled by the gatekeepers of newspapers, radio and television. Now this barrier has been bypassed by the new media — Internet-based, available to everyone, faster and cheaper than anything we had before.

Ironically, the Church, whose reason for existence involves communicating, doesn't seem to understand communications very well (at least in New Zealand). Even the annual World Communications Day messages seem to be pretty well ignored.

There is little point in complaining about what the media communicate about the Church when the Church itself is often inept at communicating its own message. This applies to both internal communications (to the Church membership) and external communications (to society as a whole).

As for the Church's relationship with the media, the only policy that works in the long run is one of constructive engagement. In a world in which most people get their information from the mass media, it simply isn't an option to stand aside.

This applies especially now to social media. Engaging in social media requires courage, because these media are uncontrollable and not the place for those stuck in an old-media mindset.

But, as a writer in the United States National Catholic Register pointed out a couple of years ago, "The problem right now is that the Church is largely not part of the conversation — because it chooses not to be. So whatever control it could have, it foregoes."

To quote Angela Salt, director of communications for Britain's Millennium Commission, "If the Church isn't in the media more — in soaps, dramas and documentaries — then, for many people, it doesn't exist. If it's not in your personal experience and not in the TV you watch, on the radio you listen to, or the papers you read, it's as though it's not there. That's why the Church should seek to be in the media — to remind people that it exists and that God is a good option for them."

Having an appealing and credible Christian character on Shortland Street — or a talented and credible Christian band on the pub circuit — might achieve more than an expensive advertising campaign aimed at young Kiwis.

In the field of communication — in this age of multi-media opportunities — the Church in New Zealand seems to have deliberately chosen retrenchment (as indicated by the vacuum left following the dismantling of Catholic Communications).

Perhaps this policy is based on financial considerations. Apart from the efforts of Caritas and the Nathaniel Centre, and the occasional bishops' statements, it is difficult to think of any sector of the institutional Catholic Church that currently brings Catholic teaching and practice into the public square.

As a result, our society misses out on much of the great contribution the Church could make to discussion and debate; and many of the positive contributions our parishes, dioceses and religious orders make to the community are unreported.

What should the Church be doing?

The need for a professional and well-organised communications operation is obvious. Some of the other Christian churches understand this so much better than we do.

I am not suggesting reinventing the old model of Catholic Communications, and certainly not a sort of fire-fighting operation focused mainly on reacting to external events and other people's agendas. What is needed, I believe, is more of a communications ministry that is proactive and has a long-term vision, incorporating evangelisation.

Ideally, it should operate both internally — helping Catholics to better understand what the Church teaches and how its teachings apply to the everyday lives of Kiwi Catholics — and externally — enhancing the knowledge, understanding and acceptance of the Christian message among the general population (it is the message that is important, not the "Church" in the institutional sense).

Such a communications ministry need not have a high public profile; in fact much of its mission could be achieved beneath the public radar.

Websites, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, media relations (including training for Church spokespeople) and collaboration with organisations such as the Catholic Enquiry Centre are just a few of the activities that could be undertaken.

Such a communications operation could succeed only if it were directed by people with hands-on experience in communications — e.g., journalism, information technology, broadcasting, public relations, advertising — who had sufficient freedom to act professionally. I believe it would be possible to find a nucleus of Catholics from these fields who have a vision for evangelisation and are also social media-savvy.

Of course, there are many Catholics — and I would include myself — who should never appear in front of a TV camera as a spokesperson for the Church, at least not without appropriate training. An inexperienced or untrained person can do a lot of harm to the public perception of the Church.

A realistic view

The idea of such a communications ministry being set up and managed under the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference might be too great a stretch. If established on a diocesan basis, its effectiveness would necessarily be restricted.

However I wonder whether a proposal for such a ministry, with a precisely-drafted statement of purpose and a realistic business plan, might obtain private funding and a contractual relationship with the bishops' conference.

Assuming that evangelisation is considered to be a priority — as the Great Commission (Matthew: 28:19) indicates it should be — we should expect the Church in New Zealand to devote more personnel and much greater resources to this purpose than at present.

— Pat McCarthy was founding editor of NZ Catholic and now directs the pilgrimage website www.seetheholyland.net