It used to be a big deal when we would mark February as Catholic Press Month. Not so much any more because Catholic Press means so much more to us than just producing a weekly newspaper.
With the advent of the DeSales Media Group in 2010, communication in the diocese changed. No longer would all the information be dispersed from different offices such as The Tablet, Pastoral Communications, the Catholic Television Network in schools and the Public Information Office. Instead, all would now be joined under one roof.
All the various entities of the diocese would still exist, but they all found new life when joined under the DeSales umbrella and the Vicar for Communications. For instance, Tablet reporters might very well find themselves acting as TV reporters for diocesan television. And instead of each agency having its own departments such as finance and IT, there would be only one that served all the outlets. Not to mention that it would be more economically feasible to put everyone under one roof, rather than maintaining different offices.
The venture was challenging and it has forced each of us to expand our energies and output, but the results have been satisfying.
One of the major contributions of DeSales Media has been the work done on diocesan websites. Our IT department has been charged with not only creating top flight sites for our own purposes but also to work with and for other diocesan agencies. So, we have assisted the Catholic Schools Office with producing individual sites for the schools in Brooklyn and Queens. We have worked with the Catholic Migration Office so that it is better able to tell its story.
Upgraded Websites
Recently, we have also upgraded our own sites. Take a peek at the newly revised DeSales site (www.desalesmedia.org), and you will get a better idea of what goes on here. We have improved the sections for NET-TV and Currents, our daily cable television show. Shortly we will be tweaking The Tablet’s website to expand our news coverage and to make it even more user-friendly.
Our Facebook pages also have been given an injection of new life with more photos and constant updates about what’s going on at DeSales.
Soon, we will be offering a daily headline preview from The Tablet with blasts going out each morning to keep you up-to-date on the latest happenings in the Catholic world.
Each month, we produce Nuestra Voz, a news magazine for the Spanish-speaking members of our Church.
Production on new shows for NET (Ch. 97 on Time Warner and Ch. 30 on Cablevision) is ongoing. Each week, we keep you abreast of these offerings with the four-page television guide in the middle of The Tablet. If you get a chance to see the NET’s slick 2014 calendar, you’ll see a different home-produced show highlighted for each month.
The unsung department is our Catholic Telemedia Network, which provides instructional programs for classroom use in the schools in the diocese. We’ve also partnered with several schools to update their Internet connectivity, provide new computer labs and plug them into more modern methods of learning.
There’s a lot going on here at the DeSales Media Group. So forgive us if we don’t take too much time to single out February as Catholic Press Month. For us, every month is a Catholic Media Month with something else to celebrate.