 Join
the deepening conversation
by Tom Roberts, editor of NCR
Welcome to the new edition of NCR Online. NCR has had a presence on the Web
since 1996. This new Web site is our latest attempt to match our mission as an
independent newsweekly with the ever expanding potential of today’s
communications technology.
We hope to use the technology
to give you greater and quicker access to more breaking news and commentary from
our newsroom and our newsgathering efforts around the world.
Like most publications large
and small we have struggled, and continue to wrestle, with how NCR can use new
technology as a tool to advance our journalism mission. The newspaper, from its
beginnings, has been distinctive for high quality journalism reporting on all
the dimensions of the church and the life of faith and how these transform the
Catholic community and the larger world. Our mission remains, but the means
change with the times. We continue, in the words of the founders, “pressing for
as much information as can be had about events and their meaning.”
We perceive our central task to
be reporting and explaining, guided by concerns for peace, justice and the
integrity of creation. Often that task forces us to see history not only through
the lens of those in power, but also from the point of view of those acted upon,
to provide a voice for the voiceless and to hold power accountable, whether in
church or state.
With this new Web site, we aim
to extend our reach. And perhaps our scope. Our founders, a mere 40 years ago,
could not have imagined the possibilities that have evolved for both gathering
and disseminating news.
You will want to visit this
site every day, because some thing will be new here every day. Members of the
NCR staff and publishers’ offices will rotate in bringing readers Today’s Take
in this spot, with a fresh view each day.
Every week, new columns will
appear from regulars John L. Allen Jr., widely recognized as one of the top and
most prolific Vatican observers in the world today, in The Word from Rome
(Friday), and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a refreshing example of independent and
courageous thinking among the hierarchy, in The Peace Pulpit (Thursday).
Commentary from around the
world by a variety of writers will appear each Wednesday in the Global
Perspective spot, and every Tuesday you’ll find a new column by Benedictine Sr.
Joan Chittister, the well-known author and speaker whose views on world and
church will always jolt you to see things and think about things in a new way.
We’ll also be posting more
breaking news in condensed form.
One of our challenges is to
integrate our print edition and this site in a seamless whole. One concrete way
will be with the search engine that is available. It is significant that users
will be able to search the entire body of work, print and electronic, all the
columns and perspectives, from the same spot. That is truly one of the awesome
powers of the Internet.
Stories and editorials from
each week’s print edition will be open to the public. For the first few months
of this new experiment, most of the Web site content will be open to all.
Gradually we will close portions of the site to subscribers only, though the
main components on this portion of the page will remain open. It would be
wonderful if we had the resources to make it all available for free, but that’s
not possible. The investment in newsgathering and editing, in writers and staff
to oversee and manage the Web site is considerable. As a not-for-profit, we are
not driven by the need to have an ever-increasing pot of money at the end of the
day. But we don’t completely escape bottom-line concerns.
We think the Web site in its
latest incarnation -- largely the work of Sr. Rita Larivee, our associate
publisher -- achieves the balance between providing public access to fresh news,
features and points of view with exclusive access reserved for subscribers to
the more in-depth reports, columns and other elements of the print version of
the paper. Overseeing the day-to-day content of the website is Dennis Coday, who
will be assisted in technical matters by Michel Tisdale. Rounding off the support team is Jo Ann Schierhoff who handles customer service.
Again, welcome. Happy
exploring. We know you’ll find reporting that doesn’t appear in many other
sources, points of view that are refreshingly provocative, and questions that
stir thinking and upend presumptions. We hope you’ll stick around to join in and
deepen the conversation. |
