Christian Science Monitor to exit daily print business

The Christian Science Monitor, which is known for its international and analytical news coverage, said today that it will become the first national newspaper to move its daily coverage completely online.

The century-old Boston-based newspaper said it will stop printing a daily newspaper and instead push content to a revamped website and a new weekly magazine.

yemma1028.jpgMonitor Editor John Yemma (right) said the moves, which will result in a workforce reduction of 10 to 15 percent, are aimed at reducing the company's $25.7 million budget and energizing its Web site.

"By freeing people from the print production ball and chain, we make a much more competitive Web site and we will help the journalists be much more competitive," he said. "Everybody seems to recognize that print is on its way out."

The news comes at a time when major dailies nationwide struggle with sharp drops in circulation and advertising dollars as more readers turn to the Web for their news and other information. Newspapers nationwide suffered an average circulation drop of nearly 5 percent, according to data released yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Monitor's circulation fell from a peak of 230,000 in the early 1970s to about 52,000 today.

In an effort to hold on to readers, many newspapers have been investing more time, money, and staff into their websites, while some smaller publications have shutdown their print operations completely to focus on their online operations.

The Monitor changes, which are expected to be launched in April, will include a jazzed-up Web site and an estimated 44-page weekend magazine dated for Sunday with original content that will go on newsstands for $2 and cost $89 for a yearly subscription.

The Monitor also will produce a daily e-mail that will include a synopsis of the days news and a column written by an editor.

The moves will result in cutbacks to the Monitor's 123-member business and editorial staff of between 10 to 15 percent, Yemma estimated. The company currently has eight foreign bureaus, eight domestic bureaus, including an eight-member Washington bureau.

Yemma said the decisions were made partly to make the Monitor economically independent from the Church of Christ, Scientist, which has been subsidizing the paper since its inception in 1908. The Monitor, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Nov. 25, was launched by church founder Mary Baker Eddy.

The Church of Christ, Scientist declined to comment this afternoon.

Yemma said the church has been trying for years to reduce its $13.3 million subsidy to the news company. The company hopes to drop its budget by some $5 million next year. He said the company has a five-year plan to grow Web revenue.

"There is no magic formula for growing traffic on a Web site,'' he said. "The only formula is to do high quality work and update very frequently.''

Yemma, a former deputy managing editor for multimedia at The Boston Globe, was named editor of the Christian Science Monitor earlier this year. source>>>

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