MASSACHUSETTS
Nieman Lab
By LAURA HAZARD OWEN @laurahazardowen March 11, 2016
The Boston Globe’s coverage of the Catholic Church is certainly in the news right now, with Spotlight‘s win for Best Picture at the Oscars. But nonetheless, the Globe is shutting down Crux, the standalone Catholic news site it launched in 2014.
Back at the launch, Globe editor Brian McCrory told Nieman Lab that the Globe “saw an opportunity to fill a need” for coverage of Catholic issues, particularly in the light of the appointment of Pope Francis. “There’s a real hunger. We’re at a unique moment.” Crux appeared to have a built-in local audience in Boston’s heavily Catholic population, but — more importantly — a national and global audience of potential readers.
But the site’s content was generally ahead of its business model, which didn’t stretch far beyond advertising. “We simply haven’t been able to develop the financial model of big-ticket, Catholic-based advertisers that was envisioned,” McCrory and Globe managing editor/VP for digital David Skok wrote in a memo obtained by Dan Kennedy. (This afternoon, the two ads on the Crux homepage were for a master’s degree program in church management and a Christian film about a child’s miracle cure.)
The memo, in part:
We want to bring everyone up to date on a couple of digital fronts.
First, Crux. We’ve made the deeply difficult decision to shut it down as of April 1 — difficult because we’re beyond proud of the journalism and the journalists who have produced it, day after day, month over month, for the past year and a half. At any given moment on the site, you’ll find textured analysis by John Allen, the foremost reporter of Catholicism in the world. You’ll find an entertaining advice column, near Margery Eagan’s provocative insights on spirituality. You’ll find Ines San Martin’s dispatches from the Vatican, alongside Michael O’Loughlin’s sophisticated coverage of theology across America, as well as the intelligent work of ace freelancer Kathleen Hirsch. All of it is overseen, morning to night, by editor Teresa Hanafin, who poured herself into the site, developed and edited consistently fascinating stories, and created a mix of journalism that was at once enlightening and enjoyable. Readers and industry colleagues have certainly taken note with strong traffic and awards.
The problem is the business. We simply haven’t been able to develop the financial model of big-ticket, Catholic-based advertisers that was envisioned when we launched Crux back in September 2014.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.