One of the Diocese’ best kept secrets is about to be brought out into the open. Sydney’s monthly newspaper has been utterly transformed in response to its readership’s changing needs. Jeremy Halcrow gives us a sneak peek inside the new look Southern Cross.
More than a year in the planning, the new look Southern Cross (SC) will hit parishes on April 2.
The SC team is bubbling with excitement at the possibilities for outreach, evangelism and for ministry resources, the new format allows.
A key factor in the redesign is the results of a comprehensive survey of over 100 parish rectors and 200 lay leaders.
Overall, the SC team was very encouraged by the results of the survey. More than 90% of lay leaders and 97% of clergy say they read every issue. Absolutely everyone surveyed said they are a "reader' of Southern Cross. In fact, only two of the 306 people surveyed said they read Southern Cross infrequently.
Nevertheless, most respondents identified areas we could improve.
More than a decade since the last overhaul, it was clear to the board and management of Anglican Media, that the newspaper format for Southern Cross was feeling tired and needed a "spring clean'.
1. Our core business " Sydney news
News about Sydney churches and church workers remains our core business. Three quarters of readers pick up SC for this reason. We have not lost sight of this fact in our redesign.
In fact, it is clear we need to enhance Sydney news coverage. As a result we have developed two brand new sections.
A. The cover story
In the redesign, cover stories will be spread over 2-4 pages inside the paper, allowing in-depth coverage of issues. At least one of the cover stories will relate to Sydney news. More space will allow us to look at the issue from multiple directions allowing elements that are more testimony-focused for the new Christians and other elements that are more analytical or provide ministry resourcing for the clergy and other "insiders'.
B. Changes page
The "clergy moves' column will be revamped into a whole "changes' page. This will include "ministry moves' for both lay Christian workers and ordained directed at the "insiders'. A box on this page called "the big change' will highlight a conversion story and will be written to encourage "new' and "nearly new' Christians.
2. Key Diocesan leadership decisions
Nearly half of our Synod readers pick up SC to read about the decisions of the Diocesan leadership.
In fact, nearly a quarter of Synod reps " including clergy - said that this is an area we could improve on. Although we aim to be the premier communications channel for the Diocese, SC has avoided regularly reporting on Standing Committee, for example, because it may seem too in-house for new Christians. This has required some rethinking.
A. The big decisions
Our main innovation is to run a monthly Standing Committee column called "The big decisions' on page 2. It will be a straight, unsensationalised, report, in the style of the Local Council brief paragraph reports in some local papers.
B. More space and colour for Archbishop Writes
Our second strategy is to add more value to the Archbishops Writes column. We will give his column more space and include a human-focused picture story to illustrate the "pointy', ministry end of Dr Jensen's argument. It may be the Archbishop's on-the-ground ministry observation or the SC team's own follow-up report.
3. More in depth world news
More than one half of the clergy and a third of lay readers look to SC to inform them about events in the Christian world. Written comments from a number of clergy, in particular, indicate that we could be doing more to report on and analyse the "crisis in the Anglican Communion'. However, this is an area we have significantly cut back on in the past few years in order not to alienate new Christians.
Our solution suggestion is to regularly run a cover stories which focuses on the big, macro issues in the Christian world. This two to six page spread will allow us the space to do a Time magazine style investigation piece of issues such as the circumstances for Christians in the Middle East, or the "Southern' conservative revolution in the Anglican Communion. Reporting on this material in-depth avoids the trap of sounding "gossipy' but rather retains a mission-focused tone.
4. Redesigning for the Under 40s
The survey reinforced our anecdotal assessment that Southern Cross struggles to reach the under 40s market.
In general, its safe to assume that even younger Synod reps would be more "hooked in' to the Diocese than their peers, and yet only 84% of lay Synod reps aged under 40 are regular readers.
The survey results indicate that insiders will read SC regardless of the cover. As a result the design we have chosen is pitched at under 40s who are less connected to the content. Good content will retain our over 40s readers, while the design needs to sell the content to Generation X and Y.
5. Pop culture analysis
However, here is the rub. The survey strongly indicates the significance of providing cultural apologetics in reaching, informing and educating the under 40s reader.
There is a massive generation gap in people's response to our film and TV reviews. Nearly half of under 40s said they read SC because of the film and TV reviews. This was the second most important reason for reading Southern Cross for this group after news about Sydney churches. In comparison just 18 per cent of over 40s pick up SC for the culture section.
Our second strategy for reaching Under 40s is to retain and enhance the culture section over the back three pages. New features will include:
A. Culture Watch
Each issues will have two culture pieces. They well provide analysis of current TV programs and films or they may provide Christians insight into sport, music or other aspects of popular culture worth Christian reflection. These pieces will be longer than the current reviews.
B. Talking Point
Each of the culture articles will include a new feature called "talking point' which will highlight relevant apologetic issues worth discussing with non-Christian friends. This will foreground the "Christian education' purpose for the running the reviews and provide a valuable resource for readers.
C. Book Watch & recommended resources
Readers have told SC that there its hard to get good advice about Christian books and resources. As a result we have started a new section which will recommend the best new Christian books, Cds, DVDs and other resources.
6. Back to the future?
Prior to 1995, Southern Cross was published in a magazine format. Some people have asked if, "Its all a case of "back to the future?'.
The short answer is "no'. The new Southern Cross is not a magazine. Rather it picks up on the latest thinking in newspaper design which seeks to capture an increasingly fragmented readership. There are people who only want longer, well researched in-depth pieces. There are others who will only read short news briefs.
The new Southern Cross will do both.
There will more pages crammed full of short and pithy copy. These pages will look dynamic, driven by an easy-to-read layout..
And as previously mentioned, there will also be two major cover in-depth stories of between 2 to 6 pages in length.
What the new Southern Cross design seeks to avoid is bland, medium length articles which neither quickly capture the news nor provide the fresh insights possible with deeper and more nuanced reflection.
The SC team is very excited at the possibilities the new design provides for furthering the mission of Sydney Anglican churches. We hope readers will be just as pleased.
