Several hundred journalists gathered this week in the St. Pius X Auditorium in Rome to discuss challenges and opportunities for Catholic press in the digital age. As salutations and exhortations filled the meeting space, the specter of journalism’s fiscal crisis ranked as a serious consideration for those gathered.
The Pontifical Council for Social Communications organized presentations from numerous news agencies and journalism groups, including the Pew Research Center, L’Obsservatore Romano, London’s Catholic Herald, the Holy See’s press office and the USCCB’s press office, that tackled issues such as the identity and future of the Catholic press.
Yesterday, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, focused his homily on the journalist’s responsibility to the gospel.
He noted that a reporter’s duty is to show "the relationship between faith and reason in a respectful and clear relationship with the various positions present in public debate," Zenit reported.
The cardinal, however, warned reporters against aligning too closely with particular interests, such as political, economic or even certain religious groups. His exhortation: "serve only the truth."
That sounds easy enough.
But between print circulations having fallen a quarter in the past 10 years, declining ad revenue and cost-cutting that is slashing whole sections of papers, journalists are not simple truth seekers insulated from the business realities of the industry, as they once were. Since the beginning of July alone, more than a hundred newspapers stopped delivering news. Serving truth, though still the bedrock of journalism, is no longer the only concern of news agencies today.
Cardinal Bertone addressed this point by noting a certain type of “poverty” to the current atmosphere of printing.
"…precisely these conditions form part of the style with which the Kingdom of God goes forward," he stated.
During Tuesday’s presentations, Amy Mitchell, deputy director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, looked at where the news industry stands today and where it is going. She provided statistics about how people are getting news today, why the industry is in decline and how certain organizations are thriving.
Mitchell did have something to add that could be considered good news. More than a third of people have a favorite news source. This is important because it means that people are not just aimlessly wandering the Web and that it's also possible to maintain a regular audience.
She also explained that ad revenues took a 41 percent nose-dive in a short 24 months, and that the largest revenue source that is quickly disappearing is not the page or quarter-page ads. Rather, newspapers are losing the most ad revenue from a loss in classified advertising--which averages a 90 percent profit margin.
Ending her presentation on a more positive note, Mitchell outlined some innovation that is proving to be sustaining if not profitable, such as newspaper partnerships, freelance reporters and amateur reporters teaming with professionals.
In addition, she noted that news organizations are “awaiting to be saved by the tablet. Not only for the potential of new ads, but the tablet, unlike the Web, is beginning as a closed system. News owners say one of their biggest mistakes was not charging for online content to begin with. People got used to getting it for free.”
At the opening of the congress, Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, remarked that the news industry is in effect soul-searching, “interrogating itself on its own future.” This “historic moment,” where media are searching for an audience, revenue and, frankly, innovation that will sustain the industry, is also a moment for news operations to consider their mission and identity, said the archbishop.
Regardless of what’s decided during the news industry’s midlife crisis, it will definitely include more of an emphasis on revenue creation along with, if Cardinal Bertone and Archbishop Celli’s remarks are heeded, a respect for truth.
- Brian Dowling
Comments