ELCA NEWS SERVICE
May 1, 2007
Significant News from the ELCA News Service
This week the ELCA News Service will head in a new direction.
Much of what we'll be doing is the result of a recent research
study of our work, in which key church leaders and
representatives from selected secular news organizations
responded with some important suggestions. As a result of their
comments, we've made some changes to better serve the interests
of the ELCA:
+ Story length: Most routine news stories will now be
considerably shorter. We will also be writing some feature-
length stories for specific audiences and publications. Most
feature-length stories will be posted and distributed through the
ELCA News Service.
+ Story emphasis: Our research has told us that readers want to
know much more about the mission and ministry of the ELCA and
less about its conferences and meetings! So we're not going to
report much about these kinds of meetings anymore. Instead, we
will focus our reporting on how the people of this church are
living out the mission and ministry of the ELCA in their daily
lives. We will continue to report on this church's key
legislative meetings, such as the Church Council and Churchwide
Assembly.
+ Storytelling: We expect to tell more of this church's stories
in a variety of forms other than print. This includes more use
of audio, video and photography.
+ Serving congregations and other ministries: Our research shows
that we must invest more time assisting congregations and local
ministries with media relations. That includes providing specific
assistance to help write and place news releases in local media.
We will also invest more of our time in media relations for the
churchwide organization.
+ Improved Web navigation: Look for some changes in the ELCA News
Service Web pages, as we work to improve navigation.
As always, I invite your comments and suggestions. We're eager
to assist you in your ministry, and we thank you for your
partnership.
John R. Brooks
Director, ELCA News Service
ELCA Communication Services
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