Christian Science Monitor site to be simple

“Web sites need to be straightforward and not have a lot of complexity in them - the differentiator for you is your content,” Yemma told the World Editors Forum in an online seminar.

Nothing fancy

“We aren't using any fancy new applications,” he said. “The best route for financial viability is more or less continuous updating on the Web. It's just continuous content without technological impediment - that's the fastest way to grow. We want our journalists reporting, not learning archaic coding or flash graphics.”

Yemma provided insights into the new, Internet-centric Christian Science Monitor in a webinar organised by the World Editors Forum, the organisation within the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers for senior newsroom personnel.

Because of the interest in the newspaper's new approach - it was the first US paper to announce it would abandon daily print to concentrate on the web - the Monitor and other new business models will be featured at this year's World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum in Hyderabad, India, from 30 November to 3 December 2009.

Free recording

A recording of the webinar is being offered without charge to anyone who registers for Hyderabad: full details of the events are available at www.wanindia2009.com

From today, the publication will convert from a daily to a weekly newspaper but will continue to produce daily journalism for its website, www.csmonitor.com, which attracts 2.5 million visitors a month. It will launch a daily e-mail newsletter in May.

Yemma said the Monitor intends to increase its page view five-fold by 2013, end its reliance on a Christian Science Church subsidy, which now provides 40-50% of its revenues, and achieve financial sustainability by 2015.

Other points that he raised were:
• The Boston-based publication will maintain an assignment desk with 30 writers and 30 editors, eight overseas bureaus, eight domestic bureaus and a Washington bureau. The web site will have a production staff of 8-10. One editorial person will be dedicated to the daily newsletter, and 12 to the weekly newspaper. “Our journalists are going to be very busy. They're going to write a bit shorter and much faster,” he says.
• The Monitor surveyed loyal readers before and during the transition process. “They've been fairly positive in most categories,” Yemma says, though their criticisms have also been taken into account - and changes will continue to be made. “This is not going to be the way it looks for 100 years. This is not going to be the way it looks for 18 months. We're experimenting with price point, we're experimenting with content, and if it doesn't work, we'll change it.”
• Subscription for the weekly print edition will cost US$89 (about R830 at today's exchange rate) per year and 50 000 subscribers are expected, the current circulation of the daily print edition. The daily e-mail service is priced at $59 (about R550 at today's exchange rate) per year. “You don't want these products to cannibalise the other,” says Yemma. There are no plans to charge for Web access.
• The daily e-mail newsletter is designed to bring coherence to the day's events. “In a world of continual news on the Web, it's a stream,” says Yemma. “If you take a snapshot at any time of the day, the most recent thing will be on top. We thought it would be a good idea to impose our editorial judgement on the daily news stream. It will be a standalone product, not a newsletter of links.”

WAN and the World Editors Forum are offering a recording of the webinar, and access to future webinars, without charge to all new registrants for the World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum. Details can be found at www.wanindia2009.com.