Are commercial reasons really justifiable reasons for failing to give ordinary Catholics a voice on the extraordinary upheavals going on in the Catholic Church today? Are they even the reasons?
I would have thought that, in fact, the 'comments on' policy that had until relatively recently been for almost all articles at the Catholic Herald, but which then became a 'blogs only' policy, in fact brought the Catholic Herald a great deal of online traffic, which in turn brought more of an audience to advertisers and potential advertisers.
Comments are still on here - and on blogs in general as far as I can see,
Keep fighting, keep praying and keep blogging until the end.
We bloggers do this service for the Church for free. We're not looking at this from a business model angle.
The Catholic Herald apparently can't afford to pay someone to 'moderate' comments, so its better to deprive Catholics of a voice in the mainstream Catholic press altogether.
Thankfully, bloggers don't follow such a line of thinking. Most of us aren't successful in worldly terms but we think Faith matters and giving Catholics a voice matters. For us it is a priority.
Shame. The Catholic Herald had done so well for so long. It is so sad that it has finally capitulated to various pressures at such a crucial time in the Church's life.
Whatever financial rewards come their way, I'm sure it won't be through their print edition since whenever I go into a Church there are always a good few copies to spare.
Certain people, however, will be happy about this decision. This decision is a slap in the face to their readership. I won't be reading it anymore. What a self-defeating decision. Their writers - talented as some of them are - are not the main attraction of blogs. The main attraction of blogs is that others can contribute to the issue being dealt with. I would have thought that to those interested in gaining an audience in the Catholic world today that this was self-evident.
But you know, what do I know?
Pray for blogs, pray for bloggers and pray for journalists and the Catholic Press. I guess you could say we're all up against it in one way or another.
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