CENTER SECTION: CATHOLICS AND THE NEW MEDIA
Online Editor
Maurice Timothy Reidy  |  Fall 2009

It began with a title.

The job advertised was for a Web editor, a rather clunky term, I thought, which was less than clear about the duties involved. Web editor sounded a little too much like Web master, and I didn’t consider myself qualified to take on the responsibilities that moniker implied. I pictured myself sitting at my computer staring at pages of programming code, a tattered copy of HTML for Dummies by my side. Or worse yet, bent double underneath a colleague’s printer, trying to piece together why the machine wasn’t living up to its own title.

Fortunately, my title was negotiable. After some discussion, my future boss and I settled on “online editor,” a more elegant appellation that was used by other small magazines and seemed more in keeping with a job that was more editorial than technical in nature. Yet in truth, I still didn’t know what my job would entail, and even less about how I would fit into the life of a 100-year-old print magazine. It was an exciting moment, to be sure—a chance to innovate and experiment with new technologies—but also one that was a little terrifying. What did I, a former newspaper reporter, know about running a Web site? Who would help me do the programming? And what exactly was this mysterious language known as ColdFusion?

Three years and two Web redesigns later, I think I know a little more about what it means for a print magazine to navigate the rough-and-tumble world of new media. I have been pleasantly surprised how a journalist with even limited Web training can make use of traditional reportorial skills in a rapidly changing media environment. Don’t ask me what the future of Catholic media will look like—I have no idea—but it’s thrilling to contemplate the adventure to come.

Reporting the Web

A reporter must be a quick study, so my first months on the job began with a crash course in new media. I surfed the Web sites of other magazines and sought the counsel of my fellow online editors. I brainstormed with my colleagues and talked budget with our business manager. I solicited bids from design and programming companies for a redesign of our site.

Though I was hired to bring an editorial eye to the Web site, it quickly became clear that my job would include far more than that. A proposal to hire a “techie” to program the site was quickly shelved because of budget constraints. Instead we would rely on freelancers. But freelancers required managing, and any site work would inevitably lead to negotiations with our subscription vendor. (Though many articles on our site are free, most of it is open only to subscribers, and a fair amount of work is required to keep up that wall.) Before I knew it, I was enmeshed in the nitty-gritty of servers (dedicated or shared?) and programming software (ColdFusion or Java?). What had I gotten myself into? Was I really just a Web master by another name?

Whenever I became frustrated, however, I reminded myself that I worked for a small magazine, and those precious entities have always relied on the flexibility and commitment of a resourceful staff. At America, I noticed, every editor proofread every piece of copy. If my estimable colleagues, including one just shy of 90, were willing to spell-check the week’s classified listings, then surely I could tolerate some menial technical work now and again.

To keep sane, and to expand our online repertoire, I began recording a weekly Podcast with writers and friends of the magazine. The idea came from an online editor at another publication, who recommended audio productions for their efficiency and affordability. Compared to video technology at the time, audio was cheap—I bought a microphone set and mixer for under $400, and the editing software was free. I began interviewing editors of the magazine, guests of America House—the Jesuit residence where the magazine is published—and eventually such writers as Ron Hansen and Kathleen Norris.

Two years later, we’ve recorded 80-plus interviews and are slowly expanding into video production. Photo slideshows have also been added to the mix. And of course we blog, the sine qua non of the new media universe.

To Blog or Not to Blog

America did not have a blog when I was hired, and there was some question as to whether we should dip our toes in those waters. Commonweal had recently launched a blog with great success, yet we did not enjoy the same editorial independence. The Jesuits who publish America were already a target in the mostly conservative Catholic blogosphere; there was little question that an America blog would quickly become a subject of those other bloggers’ scrutiny. The editorial staff always took great care in crafting its positions, yet blogs by their nature do not always allow for such moderation.

We began with a compromise: a blog on Scripture and preaching, which built on our popular “Word” column on the Sunday readings. We recruited a roster of biblical scholars and encouraged them to connect their exegesis to contemporary events. The blog slowly built an audience, but we still felt we needed a forum to weigh in on breaking news.

Eventually we launched “In All Things,” a group blog that includes among its contributors the writers Sidney Callahan and Michael Sean Winters. The blog has proved more controversial than our Scripture blog, and has raised questions for some about where the positions of the editors end and those of our bloggers begin. In an environment often marked by vitriol, we have tried to encourage charity, not always to great success. Yet for better or worse, blogs are often the place where ideas are thrashed out in today’s twenty-four-hour news cycle, and we want to be part of the conversation.

A friend and former colleague once put the dilemma facing our industry in this way: if you were to start a Catholic media company today, would you publish a magazine or start a blog? The costs of producing a print magazine and the ease of Web publishing make the answer a no-brainer. The question facing my colleagues and me is how to run a print magazine and a blog—not to mention a weekly Podcast, an array of video productions, and a growing number of articles that now find their home exclusively on the Web.

Finding Our Way

Slowly, with some missteps along the way, we have reached a working arrangement. Every week, I provide our production editor with a selection of “Web blurbs,” highlighting our Web-only content. These appear in the print magazine, inserted in the article that they relate to in some way. A recent article in our liturgy issue, for instance, featured an advertisement for a video about a jazz Mass in New York City. We’re not sure how many people go from the print magazine to the Web site, or vice versa, but the goal is to present the print and Web editions as a seamless product. Some day, we all know, the print magazine may no longer exist, at least not in its current form, so our readers need to see our Web site as an integral part of our editorial mission.

How exactly that transition will take place is still unclear. We face new questions about the Web every day. How many editors, in addition to the editor in chief, should read a Web article before it is published? How can we convince our authors that publication on the Web is not inferior to an article in the print edition? How do we notify people when new material is on the Web?

The key question, the one that I try to ask as much as possible, is, how can we best use the Web to further our mission? For a long time, print was the only medium at our disposal, and everything we did—interviews, political commentary, spiritual reflections—was massaged to fit into the margins of our pages. Now we no longer have to print an interview: we can record it and post it to iTunes. Why publish weekly reflections for Lent when we can post short videos to our blog instead? It will take some time before the entire editorial staff thinks in these terms, but the day is coming, and soon.

At a recent conference at Fairfield University, panelists painted a grim picture of the future of Catholic media. With postal rates rising, and readers unwilling to pay for Web content, one can understand their pessimism. Yet it would be a shame if at a time when technology offers multiple ways to serve our audience we decided to raise the white flag. I, for one, am staying put—even if I do have to fix my colleague’s printer now and then.

Maurice Timothy Reidy is the online editor of America magazine. Americamagazine.org won top honors from the Catholic Press Association in 2008 and 2009.