Earlier this week the Australasian Religious Press Association (ARPA) gathered on the Gold Coast to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Sadly, the gathering also marked the end of an era, as the association voted to cease operations due to declining membership.
Formed in 1974, ARPA’s first mission was to bring Christian publications together to lobby against rising postal costs. Over the next half a century, it provided a shining example of ecumenical cooperation and fellowship. The association’s leaders were drawn from a variety of Christian denominations, and through annual conferences they helped foster a sense of common mission that transcended any theological differences between them.
Those at the final gathering remembered coming together following the closure of The Advocate by the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese in 1990. The association drafted a letter of protest, and the editor, Peter Philp, was given the Gutenberg Award* (the association’s highest honour) as a final endorsement of his editorship. Members recalled sending Peter flowers after the news was announced, and being told they were the only ones who had reached out to him in support (a sad indictment, perhaps, of our Catholic community).
While we’re fortunate here at Jesuit Communications to have a number of mastheads operating side-by-side, working in Christian media can generally be a lonely job. Associations such as ARPA and its counterpart the Australasian Catholic Press Association (ACPA) are important for a variety of reasons, including professional development opportunities, recognition of excellence, and creating helpful contacts. They’re also places where friendships can be made with others who understand the challenges and frustrations of working in religious media.
One of the reasons for ARPA’s demise is that religious media, like the religious landscape itself, has changed immensely in 50 years. A ‘press association’ implies a predominance of print-based media, and while a few still struggle on, much of religious media is electronic these days. With that shift to electronic media has also come a shift of purpose.
Breaking news takes resources that few publications outside mainstream media have, and so content tends to be about providing Christian perspectives on current events and issues. Alongside this, Christian leaders are much more conscious of mainstream media narratives, and wary of criticism in their own media, which means editors have far less freedom to seek out and feature controversial opinions.
A couple of decades ago there might have been more of a distinction between ‘Christian journalism’ and ‘Christian PR’, however today those lines are far more muddied. Part of this is also due to funding models – where once publications might have been able to sustain themselves by subscriptions and advertising, providing them some power in their relationship with religious authorities, today they’re often far more dependent on the financial support of those authorities. It’s much harder to run articles critical of a local bishop when it’s the bishop providing the money to keep the operation going.
Smaller budgets and decreased staffing also means increased workloads. The job of religious media professionals will today include some mix of the following: writing and editing articles for print and web, producing print publications, compiling e-newsletters, podcast production, video production, social media management, and a host of admin tasks. These are areas demanding high-level skills (and few of us have all these skills), and most are time-consuming.
It’s perhaps not surprising that ARPA found its membership dwindling, with so many in the religious media community facing such demands. The association’s demise might have been brought about by changing tides, but for those of us left battling those tides it leaves us one less lifebuoy to cling to.
However, something new will surely come together in its place, just as Christian denominations continue to explore new opportunities in the media landscape. One of the speakers at the ARPA farewell conference was John Sandeman, who in 2009 launched a print publication Eternity News. As Sandeman noted, launching a print publication when most others were closing seemed foolish, but sometimes it pays to swim in the other direction – ‘what better time to launch a business than in a recession when there’ll be no other competition’**.
Eternity News battled on for 15 years, but was swallowed up by the tides earlier this year. However, the creative energy (and dare I say Holy Spirit) that drives religious media professionals is still swirling around, and will surely still find ways to bring the Word alive in communities for some time yet.
* Eureka Street was also a previous winner of the Gutenberg Award, as was Jesuit Publications (now Jesuit Communications).
**John Sandeman’s write-up of the final ARPA conference can be found here.
Michael McVeigh is Head of Publishing and Digital Content at Jesuit Communications.