Denver Catholic

A2 I NOVEMBER 6, 2013 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER Good news is a click away BY ROXANNE KING It's here! The latest development in the Archdiocese of Denver's ongoing quest for journalistic excellence. Today we're launching two new dynamic websites—www. DenverCatholicRegister.org and www.ElPuebloCatolico. org—to offer you even more of the great news you've come to expect from us. That said, rest assured the print edition of the Denver Catholic Register will continue to be delivered to your home each week, and our sister publication, El Pueblo Católico,will continue to be delivered to our Spanish-language subscribers monthly. Our new online editions aren't replacing our print products; rather, they're our way of giving you more news, faster, while expanding our reach as we better serve the Gospel on what Pope Benedict XVI dubbed "the digital continent." As we announce this milestone and how it advances the good news of Jesus Christ in the third millennium, we thought we'd also highlight some of the Register's proud 113-year history. The Denver Catholic Register was born as the Denver Catholic on March 17, 1900—St. Patrick's Day—with the cover printed in green ink in honor of the saint. That it has lasted more than a century is largely due to the dedication and vision of one of its early editors, Msgr. Matthew Smith, who led the paper from 1913-1960. Msgr. Smith was a 22-year-old lay journalist when he took over the then-struggling newspaper, which was $4,000 in debt and had a circulation of just 2,800. Deciding on a plan of "work and prayer," the scrappy editor boosted circulation by turning the paper into a lively must-read publication, which under his leadership played a key role in ending the Ku Klux Klan's power in the state in the mid-1920s. Are you ready for more DCR? THE FIRST issue of the Denver Catholic Register and the newspaper today. In 1927, by now an ordained Register are still in existence, priest of four years, Msgr. including the National Catholic Smith, convinced of the need to Register. On the Register's 100th birthgrow the presence of the Catholic press, bought a facility at 938 day, Father Daniel Flaherty, Bannock St. in central Denver who served as an editor and equipped with presses, estab- business manager under Msgr. lished a national edition—the Smith, told the Register he was National Catholic Register— convinced it had played a key and founded the Register Sys- role in the beginning of diocetem of Newspapers, which was san newspapers. Now, with a circulation a huge success. At its peak in the 1950s, the of more than 88,000, the Register System of Newspapers award-winning Denver Cathpublished some 35 diocesan olic Register is the largest subpapers and the national edition, scription weekly in Colorado boasting a combined weekly and has the third largest circulation in the state overall. circulation of some 850,000. The Register's sister publiOn Dec. 6, 1954, Time magazine featured Msgr. Smith in a cation, the award-winning El story headlined: "Catholic Press Pueblo Católico, started as a special section in the Register. It Lord." "As editor and boss of the became a stand-alone paper in Catholic Register, he is not only 1997. El Pueblo boasts a growing the No. 1 press lord of Catholicism," declared Time, "but he circulation of more than 9,000, runs the biggest and most suc- and is one of the largest Spancessful chain of religious news- ish-language newspapers in Colorado that delivers directpapers in the world." ly to homes. In addition, the Register and El Pueblo remain the flagship media tools used When Msgr. Smith died in by Denver Archbishop Samuel 1960, he had headed the Denver Aquila to communicate with Catholic Register for 47 years. his flock. Eventually, changes in techOver the last century, the Regnology made it possible ister, and now El Pueblo, have for dioceses to pub- witnessed numerous changlish their own news- es in the newspaper business papers, which led in our service to the faithful of to the sale of the northern Colorado, but our goal Register System of has stayed constant: we aim to Newspapers and inform, inspire and engage you its building in the with the Gospel and the Catho1970s. The legacy of lic Church. that era in our histoJust as Msgr. Smith saw the ry continues in that need 100 years ago to claim several of the print media to proclaim the papers once good news, so today the Regispublished ter and El Pueblo are claiming by the new media for the new evangelization. The good news has never been needed more. With God's grace and your prayerful support, we plan to boldly serve the Gospel far into the future. You're not losing a daughter; you're gaining a son. This is the typical expression used to comfort the worried mother-of-the-bride who is distraught with the prospect that her daughter's wedding will forever change the unique relationship she had exclusively enjoyed with her little girl. It's also the expression that seemed to keep coming up as the staff of both the Denver Catholic Register and El Pueblo Católico discussed the upcoming launch of our new websites. For 113 years, the Archdiocese of Denver has developed a unique relationship with the faithful of northern Colorado by providing quality, timely and authoritative coverage of the Catholic Church, and for the last 15 years, we have built that same relationship with the Spanish-speaking community through El Pueblo Católico. Thankfully, both of our newspapers have enjoyed tremendous support from the Catholic community of northern Colorado, both spiritually and financially. For that we are incredibly grateful, and eternally indebted. As we began to develop a vision for expanding our online presence so as to appeal to a more tech-savvy audience, we were constantly confronted with the question: What about our current audience? How will these new websites affect our relationship with our print readers? Will we lose them? That's when we realized that expanding our Web presence could only mean one thing—we'll have more opportunities to reach more people with more news through a variety of media platforms. In other words, we won't be losing readers; we'll be gaining entirely new audiences! And for you, our faithful readers, you'll have more options to access the news stories you love from the Catholic newspaper that the faithful of northern Colorado have trusted for generations. Here are just a few of the new features offered by the websites: We no longer have to wait to publish all of our news just once a week, or once a month in the case of El Pueblo Católico. We will post news of events around the archdiocese as they happen. Who has time to go hunting for content these days? The navigation menu on our new site is simple and intuitive, and the main page allows for fast and easy perusal of all our different news categories. Both the Denver Catholic Register and El Pueblo Católico now sport a clean, modern look online that emphasizes photography and allows us to share more images. The new websites are both 100 percent responsive, meaning they are optimized for viewing on a variety of screen sizes (laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.). Our calendar and contact pages allow users to make sure questions and submissions find their way into the right inbox on the first try. Social media integration. Easily share your favorite stories and columns with your friends on Facebook and Twitter or via email. But don't take my word for it, go check it out for yourself (www. DenverCatholicRegister.org and www.ElPuebloCatolico.org), and Roxanne King is editor of the let us know what you think! Denver Catholic Register. ConKarna Swanson is director of communications for the Archdiocese tact her at 303-715-3215; editor@ archden.org; www.twitter.com/ of Denver, and general manager for its newspapers. Contact her at karna.swanson@archden.org; www.twitter.com/karnaswanson. DCRegister.

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