'Christian Science Monitor' to Drop Daily Publication

By: Joe Strupp After 100 years as a daily newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor will report nearly all of its news online beginning next year. As of April 2009, the Monitor's only print presence will be in a weekly magazine-style publication delivered each weekend, the Monitor revealed today.

"The main thing is financial," said John Yemma, the former Boston Globe deputy managing editor who took over the Monitor in July. "It is costly in terms of production and delivery and we recognize that print is not the issue, it is keeping the journalism alive."

Still, the move is major for the 50,000 daily circulation paper, which is delivered Monday through Friday by mail. It becomes the largest major daily to make the Web switch. Earlier this year, the 17,000 daily circulation Capital Times in Madison, Wis., dropped its daily paper, offering two weekly publications and increased Web site reporting.

Since its launch in 1908, the Monitor has grown into one of the most respected and well-written papers in the country, still boasting nine foreign bureaus and nine domestic bureaus, as well as a news staff of 100.

But in recent years, it has been hit by the same financial troubles as other dailies, losing about $10 million per year, Yemma admits. With less advertising than most papers, the Monitor relies on subscriptions for much of its $15 million in annual revenue. Losses are subsidized by the First Church of Christ, Scientist, which owns the Boston-based paper.

"They want to get out of that and make the Monitor independent," Yemma says of the church. "We want to move to a sustainable model."

As a former top editor on the Globe's Web site, Yemma says the time is right to jump to the Web, noting the Monitor spent some two years researching focus groups and market research. He believes the Web site will likely retain at least 85% of current readers, with room to grow.

"The story is that we are taking the editorial resources and orienting them toward the Web," he added. "We are taking the leap everyone is talking about, making the Web our daily newspaper."

Currently, the Monitor prints a 20-page tabloid-size paper five days per week. Subscriptions run $210 per year and each single copy is $1.
In April, a weekly, 44-page magazine/newspaper "hybrid" will be published each Sunday, but delivered on Fridays or Saturdays. Yemma had no exact date yet for the switch.

"By orienting toward the Web and updating continuously, we think we can move our traffic," Yemma said. "That should grow our Web revenue considerably."

Right now, the Monitor Web site gets about 5 million to 7 million page views per month, with about 1.5 million unique users.

Yemma estimates the first year will save about $4 million in costs, but likely lose $5 million in revenue. He said the paper has a five-year plan to break even. "If we could eventually make a profit, that would be good," he says, "But the church has always said breaking even is good enough."

The editor estimates few if any job cuts or other reductions, although he said: "we are probably going to have to do some modest downsizing, some modest cost-cutting."