February 25, 2009

In a time of changing media, Register continues to share timeless message of the Gospel

By Jeanette DeMelo

February is Catholic Press Month and this year, on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, the Denver Catholic Register will celebrate its 109th birthday.

Happy birthday! Imagine this year you turn 109 years old. Denver would have looked very different the year you were born. In 1900, the population of the city was five times less than in is today. Then you’d have seen horses, buggies, bikes, trains, streetcars and an occasional brand new automobile rather than sedans, mopeds, SUVs and the light rail. The roads were dirt and gravel.  No highways. The tallest buildings barely rose above the capital dome and the sprawling shops of Cherry Creek South would have been the grassy outskirts of town. Lakewood, Glendale, Englewood and Aurora were farmlands with their own small town squares. 

Communication then was slower and much more local.  When you had news to tell to a distant friend you’d send a letter.  And if the news was really important you’d share an abbreviated message through a telegram. Newspapers and radio broadcasts were your lifeline to information and entertainment.

The Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Evening Post kept you informed about the region, the country and the world’s affairs.  And the Denver Catholic Register connected you to a very local community and perhaps your most cherished one, your Church. This community would be a support as you weathered the years ahead.
Over 109 years, you’d see the hardships of wars and experience the rollercoaster ride of economic gains and losses. You’d witnessed 19 presidents and the monumental election of the first black president.  You’d reflect on a completely changed landscape both of buildings and roads but also of new, powerful and instantaneous communications—the building of a digital highway.

And that brings us to today. This year as the television world goes digital, the Denver Catholic Register celebrates 109 years of printing and circulating the timeless message of Jesus Christ and the activities of the Catholic community in northern Colorado.

In this quickly evolving digital landscape, images, sounds, news and information are endless and easily accessible via the World Wide Web.  Any information you personally want to share can be sent to thousands and more with the click of your mouse. Yet despite this virtual world within your grasp, there is something comforting about physically holding in your hand the Denver Catholic Register.  It’s like driving through the ever-changing panorama of new buildings in our still developing city and being comforted by the consistent backdrop of the enduring Rocky Mountains.  The Denver Catholic Register is familiar and consistent.

Knowing that we compete with many media and messages for your attention, the staff of the Denver Catholic Register is thankful for our readers. Through our pages, we hope to invite our readers to deepen their faith and participate in Catholic life throughout the archdiocese.  That’s our mission. We feel blessed that unlike any other instrument of Catholic communication in the archdiocese, the Denver Catholic Register reaches more than 90,000 people in their homes weekly.

Parishes, who pay reduced subscription rates for their parishioners, and advertisers, who cover over half of our expenses, make the newspaper possible.  We are grateful to those who support their parishes and buy from our advertisers because in reality it’s parishioners and readers who are our daily bread. But we still need help.
This year, in order to cover the growing cost of providing 90,000 registered households a newspaper, we are beginning the JOIN the MISSION subscription campaign. We are asking our readers to contribute to our mission by personally paying for their annual subscription to the Denver Catholic Register. The voluntary annual subscription rate is $25. 

The JOIN the MISSION subscription campaign is only supplementary and voluntary. We aren’t changing the way the newspaper is distributed. Every household that registers at a parish will still receive a newspaper as part of parish membership. We are simply asking for help from those readers who are able and willing to purchase an annual subscription for $25 to do so. Any contribution will help. These contributions will help to offset the rising mailing and printing costs and will help us to keep up the quality of the newspaper while at the same time offering additional dynamic information on the Web.  

Once again, on behalf of the Denver Catholic Register staff, I thank you again for reading our newspaper and staying up to date on the message of Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and always, even when, and especially when, everything around us seems to be changing.

Jeanette DeMelo is communications director for the Denver Archdiocese and general manager of the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the archdiocese.

JOIN THE MISSION

As the Denver Catholic Register begins its 109th year of service to the Gospel, we invite our readers to purchase an annual voluntary subscription to the newspaper for $25 and receive a gift CD of Archbishop’s Lenten Homilies.

For more information, visit archden.org/JOIN, email info@archden.org or call 303.715.3215.

Mail your subscription check, payable to "Archdiocese of Denver"/memo "DCR Campaign" to: Denver Catholic Register Campaign, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver CO 80210