The Christian Science Monitor announced today that it plans major changes in April 2009 that will make it the first newspaper with a national audience to shift from a daily print format to an online publication that is updated continuously each day.
The Monitor’s web site announcement details changes to include enhancing the content on CSMonitor.com
and starting weekly print and daily e-mail editions.
In an industry riddled with large-scale newsroom layoffs and shrinking revenues, no doubt newspaper executives will be closely watching the Monitor’s new publishing model to see how they manage the transition and loss of print advertising revenue. The Monitor may be able to weather the print ad loss better than most newspapers. Monitor editor John Yemma told The New York Times that subscriptions account for about $9 million of The Monitor’s revenue, while print advertising makes up less than $1 million. Web revenue is at $1.3 million.
