Boston Globe Plans Website about Pope Francis, Catholic Church

By John Blosser
The Newsmax
July 10, 2014

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Globe-Pope-new-website/2014/07/09/id/581625/


The "Francis Effect" is being felt strongly in Boston, where the Boston Globe is planning the August launch of a new website aimed at followers of Pope Francis and the Catholic Church, according to the JimRomenesko.com journalism blog.

"Don't think of this as the place you go to buy statues you bury in the backyard," the new CEO of the Globe, Mike Sheehan, said, according to the blog. "It's going to be news and analysis of all things Catholic."

In an interview with Commonwealth magazine, Sheehan, who became CEO of the Globe in January, said, "It will have a global audience. There's a natural audience for it."

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Prompting the initiative is response to the reporting of John L. Allen Jr., hired by the Globe this year from the National Catholic Reporter, who has broadened the Globe's appeal with his coverage of the church.

"I look every day at what is being read digitally, and whatever John Allen writes is always in the top five, which means it's relevant to people here, but also people from around the country are coming in to read it, too," Sheehan told Commonwealth.

"You have a Pope who is all about social inequality, social justice, feeding the poor. Attendance is 14 percent in the Archdiocese of Boston, but there is a renewed interest in what's going on in the Catholic Church. So there's a real opportunity for us to do well with this."

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