The Christian Science Monitor to Become a Weekly

The Christian Science Monitor, which turns 100 years old this year, is announced on Tuesday, that it will cease daily publication next April. The newspaper will shift to a weekly print format while increasing its emphasis on its Web site, says its editor, John Yemma.

 

In doing so, the Monitor will become by far the most prominent newspaper to scale back its print edition substantially reports Business Week.

 

The Monitor, an independent publication funded by the Christian Science Church, is currently posting net losses of $18.9 million a year on $12.5 million in revenue, say Monitor executives. Cutting print frequency from its current five times a week to once a week is expected to slice those losses to $10.5 million within five years, said a spokesman. The Monitor’s current circulation is 56,000. The high-water mark for Monitor circulation was 223,000, a figure the paper hit in 1970.

 

Layoffs Loom

The Boston-based Monitor employs 130 staffers, about 100 of whom work on the editorial side. Yemma conceded that the change would result in layoffs, but he said the paper has yet to determine exactly how many positions the revamped Monitor will require. Yemma stated a desire to protect the Monitor’s international coverage—the daily has staffers in nine bureaus outside the U.S. and freelancers covering other major regions—which he described as the paper’s “crown jewels.”

 

“The calculation has been that subscriptions [to the Monitor], which cost about $210 a year,” explains Yemma, “pay for half of the cost of the newspaper, the rest of which is subsidized by the Christian Science Church. That is an untenable situation” and one “that doesn’t foster editorial independence,” he continued. “We want to move to a sustainable model.”

 

The Monitor is an odd duck among the flock of American newspapers. It’s protected from the rigors of the market, thanks to its Christian Science benefactor. Its strong suit is sober analysis, not breaking news. Its circulation revenues of around $11 million a year far outstrip its ad revenue, which is under $1 million. Typically, other major American papers invert that ratio, taking in much more revenue from advertising. (Syndicated sales of the Monitor’s articles bring in another nearly $1 million a year, a spokesman said.)

 

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