Catholic press strikes a precarious balance: finances, bishop's watchful eye among the constraints on journalistic impulse

National Catholic Reporter, May 30, 2003 by Dan Morris-Young

Long before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, editors and reporters working for diocesan newspapers knew about being "embedded journalists."

On one hand, it can provide a kind of heady backstage pass to the inner chambers of the church mysterious. On the other, it can be La Brea tarpit journalism--dark, sticky, terminal, and perhaps headed for extinction.

Following a year during which disturbing news about the Catholic church battled terrorism for front-page prominence in the general press, NCR interviewed more than 30 writers, editors and publishers employed in diocesan publishing ventures to find out what the Catholic press thought of itself and its ability to handle tough issues. I knew many of them as colleagues during my more than 35 years in the Catholic press, many of them as an editor of a diocesan paper. In a broad sense the subject--press freedom, the prerogatives of bishops and the limits of journalism at a diocesan paper--were also of familiar. They had often been the topics of conversation in the past.

Diocesan papers, dependent for existence on the very institution they are charged to cover, have always balanced precariously between competing impulses. On the one hand, they want to be legitimate news operations; on the other hand, Catholic editors always know their news gathering instincts can run up against the boundaries of what a bishop considers legitimate.

More and more today, though, questions arise. Has the balance tipped? Are diocesan papers more journalism or public relations? What subjects are they allowed to cover and discuss? What subjects, individuals or groups are taboo?

It is not surprising that, the answers vary from diocese to diocese, bishop to bishop. But some points of consensus arose over the course of the interviews:

* Bishops as publishers remain the fulcrum upon which the viability of a publication often teeters.

* There is concern over a blurring of journalism and public relations. Some advocate a truth-in-packaging move that would jettison the title "newspaper" in favor of "publication" or "periodical" or even "newsletter."

* Many Catholic news people feel increasingly scrutinized. At the same time a few credit the clerical sex abuse scandal for opening doors and making the case for free flow of information and church "transparency."

* Staffs have been raffled by dramatic cutbacks at high-profile newspapers, but heartened at circulation increases elsewhere, even re-establishment of papers in places such as San Francisco.

The most pessimistic wonder if the local Catholic press--there are 167 diocesan publications in the United States--is being methodically diminished, even dismantled. They point quickly to Catholic New York, a much-watched newspaper that fell victim to archdiocesan budget woes almost two years ago. Overnight Catholic New York was slashed from a weekly to a monthly. A staff of 32 now stands at 14. The editorial department had filled a dozen chairs. Now it's three.

Remaining personnel and chancery officials there, however, claim the drastic cutbacks were meant to balance archdiocesan budgets, not quash the newspaper.

"I can honestly say that what the cardinal did here in New York was not an attack on the paper. He cut back across the board," said general manager Art McKenna.

"I would not see it an indicator of what necessarily will come to other dioceses" nor "interpret it as a shot across the bow," added the newspaper's editor-in-chief John Woods. McKenna, on the other hand, has fielded calls from different parts of the country seeking background on the New York monthly model. "My suspicions are that [the callers] are gathering information in anticipation of being asked questions by their boards," he said. "We are the 800-pound gorilla people watched go through this, and we do have some insights into it."

West Coast boom

Diocesan press proponents, however, need only look to the opposite coast for encouragement. It's a different story in California. In Los Angeles circulation of the weekly The Tidings has moved via mandate from 33,000 three years ago to 100,000-plus today. Up the coast, the San Francisco archdiocese launched a "full circulation" (nearly 100,000) weekly in 1999. Total circulation of diocese-based newspapers is a hair under 6 million, according to the Catholic Press Association.

Many papers have agreements with the diocese or parishes for some form of "mandate plan." The plans "force feed" the newspaper to a percentage of--sometimes to all--registered households.

Circulation is one thing; journalistic freedom is another. Most say their freedom to pursue germane topics of the day is no more hampered than at any community newspaper. At the same time, many Catholic journalists raise eyebrows at what they view as significant encroachment in recent years by policies and personnel with a public relations emphasis.

Kay Legreid has concerns about the latter. Associated with The Catholic Northwest Progress in Seattle for more than three decades, Lagreid charges, "One of the worst things that can happen--and I have seen it in many places"--is that "between the bishop and the editor is the PR guy."