By Barb Arland-Fye
With the kickoff of this year’s Catholic Messenger subscription drive this weekend, I find myself reflecting on our publication’s mission statement:
“The Catholic Messenger is dedicated to informing, educating and inspiring the Catholic faithful in the Diocese of Davenport through its presentation of local, national and world news and commentary.”
Our Board of Directors adopted that mission statement in 2004. While rapid advances in social media have brought about some unsettling changes in the newspaper industry, our mission stands the test of time.
In the last five years we’ve built and rebuilt web pages, created a Facebook page, opened a Twitter account and, just this winter, introduced our E-edition. It’s a replica of our newspaper, but in full color and available for viewing on desktop and laptop computers and electronic tablets. Each of these forms of social media is tailored to meet the information needs of the particular audiences. In the old days, newspaper carriers broadcast scoops on the street corner; today, we send 140-word-maximum “Tweets” to mobile devices via Twitter.
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to The Catholic Messenger’s e-edition.
