| The Catholic Telegraph launches new website ARCHDIOCESE — If you Twitter, use Facebook to do your social networking, or if you just prefer to get news online rather than in the more traditional newsprint form, then the new website launched in mid-March by The Catholic Telegraph (http://thecatholictelegraph.com) will have a great deal of appeal. The goal of the new, expanded website was to offer readers a way to access the news of their church more immediately, and to give interested readers more resources for learning more about their faith and their church, said Tricia Hempel, editor and general manager of The Catholic Telegraph. “Our news stories will be updated several times a day, so that Catholics who are looking for more thorough and accurate religious reporting than what might be provided in the secular media can now turn to our website for that vital information,” she explained. “The calendar of events will also update each day so that it will be easy to see the incredible variety of educational, spiritual and social programs offered throughout the 19 counties of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.” Click-throughs on many stories will encourage readers to explore topics at greater length. “When Pope Benedict issues an encyclical, or when the U.S. bishops write a pastoral letter, we will be able to provide the entire text to interested readers — that’s a wonderful resource that’s become difficult to do in recent years as postage and paper costs have risen dramatically,” she said. Subscribers to Twitter can be informed when important news events happen. Slide shows will include many more photos than the newspaper can print on a weekly basis, and the website will eventually offer access to photos from many athletic events and theatrical/music events at local Catholic schools. Video clips are also part of the new site, and the CT is interested in hearing from parishes and schools that regularly videotape important events. Subscription questions and concerns and changes of address can be handled through the website, and a popular photo blog of historical church photos created by new media editor Rick Barr is linked to the new site. Barr plans other historical features for the future. “It’s a much more interactive site,” Hempel said. “The newspaper’s mission has always been to educate, inform, evangelize and encourage dialogue. The various features of this website help us with that mission by using more of the current media available. If St. Paul were alive today, would he ‘Tweet’? Would he be on Facebook? We’ve asked ourselves that a great deal in recent months. And the answer is, we think he’d use any tool he had at his disposal to spread the Good News.” The Catholic Telegraph eventually plans to place the contents of the entire newspaper online each week to make it even more accessible to a wider and younger audience. But Hempel reassures readers that printed copies of the 177-year-old newspaper will continue to be mailed to all who prefer to receive their archdiocesan news in that manner. “At this point in our history, the website is a supplementary tool for the newspaper,” she said. “We aren’t able to predict the future of newsprint any more successfully than the secular newspapers can. “But we do know that the need for accurate news about our faith, the teachings of the Catholic Church and the impact that our church has on the world around us has not lessened in nearly 200 years,” Hempel added. “It’s needed just as urgently today as it was in 1831, when Bishop Edward Fenwick decided a paper was needed to stave off anti-Catholic sentiment and support local Catholics in their faith.” The new website was designed by U.S. Digital Partners, LLC, in Cincinnati, the firm which also designed web pages for the archdiocesan Vocations Office, the College of Mount St. Joseph, Our Catholic Store and Standard Publishing’s Full Color Bible site. “We chose U.S. Digital because they understood the concept of mission,” Hempel said. “They didn’t just want us to have flashy graphics and all of the latest gizmos. We talked at length about the goals of the site and how the internet can evangelize and educate. They asked important questions and challenged some of our own assumptions and thoughts.” The new website is available at http://ww.thecatholictelegraph.com. There are opportunities for feedback, and Hempel encourages readers to leave their impressions of the site and suggestions for improvements. |
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